Subscribe"I have an Dell Inspiron 530s. I want to hook it up to my HDTV, and keep it hooked to my PC all the time, but it only has one VGA port. Is it worth it to buy a video card with DVI port, when I am not planning to watch movies from my PC. How big is the difference on video quality on HDTV with the VGA port only?"
There is no right answer to this question. In some instances, you will absolutely want to upgrade your computer's video card before connecting to your HDTV. In some cases, it won't matter. There are a few things to consider to help identify which option is right for you.
"I have a computer with an Nvidia GeForce 7600GT video card. It has two DVI connections. I have a Maxent HDTV that also has a DVI in connection. To use the Maxent as my monitor I plugged the DVI cable into my video card and then into the back of the TV. I change the input to DVI and all I get is a blue screen that says "no signal input". What could I be missing?"
When you connect your PC to your HDTV, there may be configuration changes required in the settings for your video card. Typically the "no signal input" message means one of three common things.
"My computer only has a VGA connection for video, is there anything I can use to go from VGA to HDMI for my HDTV?"
I'd typically suggesting purchasing a video card with DVI-out, rather than using your current VGA card, in part because the new video card will very likely also have additional video RAM, as well as being able to support native HD resolutions, but if you really need a VGA to HDMI adapter, such components do exist. My favorite source for HDMI cables and other cabling needs, Monoprice, is a good place to get what you are looking for.
"I have read your guide on how to use an HDTV as a computer monitor and found it to be very informative. There is however one detail I am unsure of. This is Sound. If I were to plug my PC video card to my HDTV via a DVI/HDMI cable I would get pure digital visual but no audio correct? But if I were to plug it in via HDMI/HDMI from video card to HDTV would I get audio? Or do i have to buy a sound card with HDMI out to get surround sound?"
There are a several different ways to get audio passed from your PC to your HDTV. Depending on what hardware you have available, you may be limited to stereo audio, with a few cases where you can also get surround sound.
Both Nvidia and ATI have enabled hardware acceleration in their dedicated video cards to help deliver a better high definition viewing experience for both video files and playback of Blu-ray disks. At one point, Cyberlink PowerDVD was the only video player that fully supported hardware acceleration in their software. Nero was showing off a working demo of an upate to Nero 8 Ultra Edition taking full advantage of hardware acceleration while playing back both Blu-ray disks and HD files. You'll have to click through on the image above and view the large sized image on Flickr to actually see the stats, but this brings CPU usage for HD playback under 20%, which is a dramatic performance boost over what often spiked in the range of 80% during some high definition video. Of course you need a dedicated Nvidia or ATI card to take advantage of this new feature when it becomes available, but you really can't play HD without one, unless you buy a new computer using the AMD 7 Series chipset.
If you don't currently have Nero 8, you can qualify for upgrade pricing from previous versions.
The home theater PC market has been rather dull for several years. Sure you can get a sound card with 7.1 surround sound, but they've generally been noisier than I'd want in my own home theater. You can purchase video cards that output to an HDTV and support HDCP, but the experience hasn't been on par with using home theater components. At Computex 2008, AMD is showing off a couple of new boards from MSI that change the game in important fundamental ways.
"When you copy HD video from a camcorder to a DVD, do you have to playback on a HD-DVD player or will it play back on a standard DVD player?"
It really depends on the format you choose for your DVD whether the DVD you burn will play in a standard DVD player, or whether you need an HD-DVD player in order to watch your DVD creation. If you have an HD-DVD player, the method I describe for burning HD-DVDs on standard DVD media will result in DVDs that only play in HD-DVD drives. Your other option is to output your HD content as a standard definition video during the authoring process. Here's how this works:
No Signal Input Connecting HDTV to PC
Nero 8 Gets Hardware Acceleration for HD Video
Making DVDs From HD movies
Improved Blu-ray and DVD Playback with PowerDVD 9
How to Play Blu-ray DVDs with Windows
How far do I sit from my HDTV screen?
High Definition DVD Failures
HDTVtoMPEG2
HDTV as PC Monitor
HDTV Contrast Ratio
HD-DVD Authoring for Home Movies
Free HDTV Calibration Slides
Creating The Perfect Surround Sound
Convert HDMI to VGA with HDCP
Connect an HDTV to a PC in Another Room
Connect a PC to an HDTV
Connect a Mac to an HDTV
Computer to HDTV Sound Options
Can I Play a Blu-ray Disc in My DVD Player?
CALIBUG HDTV
AMD Live! Home Cinema Changes Home Theather PC Market
5 HDTV Shopping Tips
