DVI to DVI+HDMI splitter - quick question

alx

alx

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If I was to get a DVI to DVI+HDMI splitter cable, and my graphics card was outputting 1920x1080 (to my monitor) and my 720p plasma tv was connected via the hdmi port, would the TV scale down the 1080p input to 720p and therefore display the image?

I'm guess it would because HDTVs can normally scale down 1080p inputs, but just wanted to double check. The TV is a Panasonic 42PX80 incase it helps.

Sorry if this post is in the wrong place!

Thanks :)
 
Yeah problem is my card only has 1 vga and 1 dvi - so I was looking at a splitter as a cheaper alternative to buying a new card with 2 dvi ports or 1 dvi and 1 hdmi. Whilst having the option of having dual screens would be cool, I honestly think I'd never use it or have any use for it considering the placement of the monitor and TV.

I guess I could see what my monitor looks like on vga and then decide whether to use the dvi for the TV.
 
If i'm not mistaken, that TV has a PC VGA input. You could just connect the graphics card to the TV via VGA - the quality @ native resolution should be very close to as good as a digital signal and usually getting scaling to work is easier with VGA.

This leaves the DVI connection for your monitor.

Yeah it does, I may try that and see what the quality is like.

If not I'll get a cheap gfx card with dvi & hdmi as I don't really use it for gaming atm and I'm planning to get a new pc fairly soon anyway.
 
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That TV is fine with VGA. It's the only way you can run it at native res, as well. (1024x768).

Of course it'll take 1080P/i, 720P as well if your media player doesn't support rectangular pixels.

Just to double check, using a vga cable over dvi/hdmi wouldn't make much difference quality wise at that resolution, when watching HD video for instance??

Just because if so I can buy a new graphics card that has 2 dvi/hdmi ports as I don't really game much on my pc anymore and the fans on the card are a little noisey!!
 
Aye, the quality difference is tiny to be honest. If you had two of the same TV sitting side-by-side, one hooked up by DVI/HDMI and VGA - it would be very tough to tell one from the other.

My parents have a similar 1024x768 resolution TV, and I have their HTPC hooked up via VGA and it looks great - especially with HD video.

Cool, well I can get a decent quality vga cable for £8-10 so it's worth trying I guess - I'll compare it against streaming HD video via my PS3 and see how it goes.
 
I guess the other question is, what AGP graphics cards with an HDMI port (yes I know I need to upgrade haha!!) can stream video AND audio over HDMI?

But that may be a question for the gfx card forum.
 
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