My Semi Epic Fail attempt at HTPC

[dadzilla]

So I bolted together a bunch of nice old parts and the Pc booted right up with a fresh install of XP. Installed my win TV and bunch of other drivers, dug out a dvi to hdmi adapter, and thought "good to go!" Hooked it up to an hdmi port on my TV and.....nothing. Signal not found. Selected that same port in my input menu on the TV and....nothing, signal not found. Went to get a an old VGA cord, but recalled that the video card has only two dvi ports. Hmmm. It does have S video, but I have not had an S video cord for some time.

So my fellow HWcanuckers, any bright ideas for the ole dadzilla? I won't be at all surprised, and you shouldn't be either, if I missed the blindingly obvious. So don't be afraid to insult me with your suggestions, it's all good.
Thanks for your time
zilla

[slntdth93]

well a dvi to vga adapter can be used with the VGA cable

Im not sure but the dvi - hdmi adapter/cable is specialized to one series of cards or sumthin

[jcmaz]

That happened to me too. Some tv's require you to use specific ports. And i think HDMI would be the easiest to connect than VGA.

[JD]

What sort of DVI-to-HDMI adapter are you using? If it's off an ATI card (and you aren't using a HD3xxx or HD4xxx), then that's probably why it didn't work.

I'd suggest picking up a 6ft (or however long you need) DVI-to-HDMI cable. I have some cheap one from TigerDirect from quite some time ago and it's worked great.

[dadzilla]

That could indeed be it jdrom17 - my card is an old GTX 7950, which sticks out of the top of the case, and needs to be replaced. The cord came from a ATI 4870, as part of its bundle. Could it be that it isn't compatible with the card?

[JD]

Yup I'd say so.

I know my HD4850 HDMI adapter wouldn't work on a 8800GTS, so I'm guessing the same goes for you. It's because ATI uses a special pin-out on them to allow for the audio as well which typical generic ones don't.

Something like this should work: NCIX.com - Buy nGear HDMI-DVI/D M/M HDMI to DVI-D (Dual Link) 6FT Cable - M/M (19 Pins) / (24 PINS+1) - HDMI-DVI/D M/M-6 In Canada..

[dadzilla]

That's a good idea, but I am going to have to replace my present card anyway as the passive rad on it sticks out of the top of the case like a hemi with a blower on it. I am thinking about getting the 4350 that I started another separate thread about, and it is generally seen to be good. One thing, it will be cheap. So might as well do that and then use my present cord. Maybe I will see the desktop! But also I crusied a bunch of threads on how people were having trouble getting their LG TVs to connect to hdmi devices. So I hope it isn't that. I have a DVD player that I just assumed couldn't connect even though it has an hdmi port. I thought maybe it was too cheap or something. Now I'm not so sure. So I have a few things to rule out it seems. Sigh. Never simple is it?

[gingerbee]

res set to high for tv to handle

[dadzilla]

Yes, that is another thought. What is a decent res for this then? 800 X 600 maybe?

[JD]

Originally Posted by dadzilla

Yes, that is another thought. What is a decent res for this then? 800 X 600 maybe?

I'd suggest getting a monitor hooked up in close proximity to your TV. Then you can see your desktop and change settings until you get something on your TV.