How to hook up to HDTV?

[LegendofJubei]

Hi all,

I am building a new computer and would like to use my existing HDTV as a monitor for it. I'm just wondering how I go about doing this as I've never done it before.

The computer will have an 8800 Ultra card, I'm not sure what resolution that allows up to.

The TV is a 60" Sony KDS-R60XBR1 SXRD style tv. The native resolution is 1920 x 1080. I am planning on using an HDMI cable to connect the PC. Do I need to purchase an DVI-HDMI adapater, and if so could you recommend a good one?

My only concern is how do I go about getting audio from the pc onto the TV?

Thanks for any help :)

[Prof. Dr. Silver]

You can actually buy a DVI - HDMI cable....by Monster Cable for example.

Sound wise....that all depends....do you want the sound to go to your TV or to your stereo/audio amplifier? You would have to lead the sound from your PC soundcard to your TV directly via an audio cable. But the sound quality won't be very good since built in speakers on a TV are usually not very good! Better lead it to your amplifier directly! Do you have a soundcard?

[Squeetard]

Dude, your tv has a pc input. Use a normal 15 pin vga cable. Go DVI to hdmi if you like, I can't notice the quality difference myself.

[LegendofJubei]

So far I've been very impressed with HDMI quality so I think I'll get that cable from monster cable...the Monster 400 for HDMI to DVI High-Def Digital Video Cable...I think that should allow me to connect the video card to the tv without any resolution problems or distortion...

I don't have an amp/receiver...well I do, but it's junky...and the sound quality from the TV speakers are in this case actually better. The motherboard is an Asus Maximus Extreme that comes with a sound card installed onto it. So I'm just trying to figure out now how I will get sound to the TV?

I mean normally it's divided into TV/VIDEO 1 through 8, so if the DVI to HDMI cable is occupying video 7 or something say, how can I also get audio to this channel (?). Normally the HDMI cable would take care of both from the source but in this case I need a separate cable for the audio running from the sound card to the TV but there's nowhere to put it for that video...unless I'm just confusing myself.

Would I need to buy a separate amp/receiver and plug it into that?

Thanks for all your help so far

[JD]

HDMI is digital. Why spend so much on a dinky cable? No sense in wasting money on "Monster Cables". Your cheapo $20 DVI-HDMI cable or whatever you need will look the same. Unless your doing some uber long cable run, you won't really notice the difference. There was a comparison as well somewhere about this.

I have this one myself, Cables Unlimited 6-Foot Digital AudioVisual HDMI-to-DVI-D Single Link Cable PCM-2296-06 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca
And it works perfect. Picture is clean and crisp.

[Prof. Dr. Silver]

Originally Posted by Squeetard

Dude, your tv has a pc input. Use a normal 15 pin vga cable. Go DVI to hdmi if you like, I can't notice the quality difference myself.

Maybe it's time for glasses? LOL

[LegendofJubei]

Well either way, $100 cable or $20 cable, I don't think I'll have trouble getting a decent visual quality up on the TV but I'm still confused about audio? The video card on the computer has nothing to do with the audio so how do I connect the sound card to the TV under the same input? Is there a way to bridge the sound card to the video card or am I missing something?

[JD]

Only ATI cards support HDMI with audio.

You'll have to figure out some other way to hookup your soundcard to your TV. If you have a home theatre, you can do this digitally most likely with coax or optical. Otherwise you can use a 3.5mm mini-jack to stereo RCA plugs which you can then plug into your TV.

[Jmac]

or you could get a set of computer speakers and hook them up to your PC ...

Anyways, I definitely wouldn't spend that much on an HDMI cable. If you know someone who works at Futureshop or Best Buy, they can usually get that Monster Cable for like $20. The markup on those things is ludicrous.

[LegendofJubei]

Just wanted to send a quick thank you for all your help.

Everything is up and running now and I got to say...glad I made the switch. I honestly will never go back to a monitor again. I had a 22" LG, 3000:1, and I thought it was a very good/crisp monitor.

If anybody is considering a new TV I highly recommend the SXRD line from Sony. I'm sitting 8.5' away from the TV and I can read text in a size 8 font from that distance without straining my eyes whatsoever. Don't know why I didn't do this sooner. The sharpness, vividness etc. in all of my games has improved drastically as I am using the native resolution of the tv which is quite a bit higher than the LG monitor I had before. Using a DVI-HDMI cable that I picked up at future shop for $125.

Thanks again