Connecting up my monitor/pc

Stryker1989 · 5 Feb 2010 at 22:27

Hi guys, I have two questions here and any help with these would be great.

I have just purchased the Saphire Radeon HD 5770 Vapor X and would reccomend it to anyone as it is fantastic. I have a TWF (fairly unkown brand) TV that I use as my monitor and TV in my room. Now this TV has a HDMI input and my card, if anyone doens not know, has 2 hdmi outputs. Currently I have the TV connected via the DVI port into the VGA input on the TV at a maximum resolution of 1280 x 720.

My first question is: would it be advantageous for me to connect the card via the HDMI input on my TV (would I get better quality, resolution etc.) unfortunately I don't have an HDMI cable to test this so just wanted to know.

My other option is to change my TV for a monitor but i would still need to be able to connect my satelite receiver to it. The satelite box has the following connections: RS232, 2 x Scarts and an RCA.

Second question therefore is: Could I send the signal from my Satelite Receiver to my computer and watch it on the monitor at the same quality I am now (via the scart connection). Is there a TV card that i could purchase that would do this?

Thanks guys. All input is appreciated.

paradisiac · 5 Feb 2010 at 23:00

well the answer to all your questions is yes, probably.
1. will you get higher res going hdmi, if its a HD tv then yeah you will, but how much better will depend on max res of the tv.
2. you can get a monitor that will go even higher res, but its probably not worth it if your tv will support 1920x1080 (1080p).
3. you can get tv capture cards, or freesat tv cards which will let you watch non sky stuff, the capture card would be if you have a sky subscription as it will let you connect any analogue device to the pc.

Stryker1989 · 6 Feb 2010 at 00:10

Cheers for the reply, have ordered a HDMI cable to test it. I have a subscription to Virgin so would just want to connect the virgin box straight to the computer and watch it.

Something I didnt ask before was could I then record from my receiver (effectively would receiver + pc = virgin+)

Cheers again paradisiac

paradisiac · 6 Feb 2010 at 07:04

Stryker1989 said:
Cheers for the reply, have ordered a HDMI cable to test it. I have a subscription to Virgin so would just want to connect the virgin box straight to the computer and watch it.

Something I didnt ask before was could I then record from my receiver (effectively would receiver + pc = virgin+)

Cheers again paradisiac

yup shouldnt be an issue recording from the virgin box to the pc.