Just ordered a Hyundai A321 - quick question about PC -> lcd cables

Trick · 9 Jul 2006 at 17:59

Hi all, I've just ordered a Hyundai A321 for the bargain price of £600 - dead chuffed, can't wait for it to arrive!

Other than normal tv/freeview/dvd viewing, I'm interested in connecting the lcd to the pc via the pc's graphics card's s-video out. At the moment, the 6800 ultra is connected to an 18" lg L1811s monitor via the vga out and a 19" Viewsonic via the dvi port. I assume I can connect the new 32" lcd via the graphics card's s-video out? Is the quality decent enough via s-video, as I intend to play dvds and video content off the pc.

What type of cable will I need? I've found a kit (on a competitors site) which includes a 5m S-Video/SVHS cable, a 5m 2 x phono to 3.5mm stereo audio cable and a Scart adapter with s-video and left & right audio inputs. Will this do the trick?

Trick · 9 Jul 2006 at 19:04

Barely Legal said:
for the best quality you would be wanting VGA or DVI, s-video would be a crime to use on a screen like that!!

I know, but I'm loath to disconnect either the 18" or 19" as I'm so used now to running a two monitor desktop. Is a dvi/vga splitter a viable option? Do they exist? I wouldn't mind sending either monitor 1 or monitor 2's signal to the lcd tv even though the resolution (1280x1024) could possibly cause issues... [just seen on avforums that the tv will support 1280x1024 from the pc as well as 1360x768]

I plan to buy a seperate dvd player and connect it to the Hyundai via HDMI, so no worries on quality there. Audio will go via my amp/floorstanders. I'm not after HD quality from the pc, just good enough for general use.

Trick · 9 Jul 2006 at 21:08

oops, just seen this thread - seems an s-video to scart cable is the answer. Gold plated one off the bay for a sky diver.

Trick · 9 Jul 2006 at 21:54

Just had a thought - would I be better off buying a cheapo pci graphics card with either dvi/vga to run the HDTV off? Then I can keep the 2 lcd desktop and get the best quality out of the HDTV?

Trick · 11 Jul 2006 at 21:34

Well, the lcd arrived today - looks great, a doddle to setup as well. I went down the the local supermarket to get on of the recommended £30 freeview boxes too.

Here's the setup:

Sorry about the dodgy image, I didn't want to use the flash and I can't find the tripod, and as you can see, i need to get a stand for the tv asap.

The Sony dvp-ns76h dvd player should arrive tomorrow so I'll be able to see whta it's like in Hi-Definition!

As far as SD goes, it seems fine. I sit a good 8-9ft away so it's not really a problem. It's also nice to see that the freeview box has a 16:9 mode and seems to search for wide-screen versions of most of the popular channels, so the entire screen is getting used!

Trick · 12 Jul 2006 at 07:52

willd58 said:
Whats it like when connected to a PC?

I haven't had chance to connect it to the pc yet - still have to order an ati 9250 pci card for this and a long enough vga-vga cable. I plan to use the available dvmi interface to connect the dvd player.

Trick · 12 Jul 2006 at 19:43

Jez said:
Thats a quality ash tray, where did you get it?

the black bowl thing on the table? Somewhere in Greece I think but i'm sure you can get the same one from Habitat.

Trick · 13 Jul 2006 at 12:26

I got an HDMI cable for the tv and the sony dvd player arrived as well. DVDs at 1080i look absolutely stunning! The clarity is gobsmacking and far better than I expected from such a budget screen. Well chuffed!

I also ordered a pci Radeon 9250 yesterday evening to act as the interface for the tele and the pc. Just as a test, I linked the Hyundai up to the vga out on the 6800 - it worked first time and automatically adjusted to 1280x1024 and looked fine. Once the Radeon arrives I'll have to use Powerstrip to set the res to 1360 (possibly 1366 if it works) x 768. I'll post some more pics when I get it running

Trick · 13 Jul 2006 at 17:20

I had a go with Powerstrip to see if I could get it to run at 1366x768. It only seems to go for 1360x768 but this still looks brilliant. Faffing with Powerstrip, I settled for the following settings which seemed to give a crystal sharp picture:

I then had a go to see if I could get some games running correctly on it. Oblivion had an option for 1360x768 - I selected it and heres the result:

Again, sorry about the dodgy pic quality, but take my word for it, it looks absolutely stunning! Easily as good as anything I've seen from an xbox 360.

Ideally now I'd like to run the 19" monitor and the 32" tele from the 6800 and the 18" lcd from the Radeon 9250 when it arrives. Is there a way to do multi-desktop (ie. be able to drag windows between desktops) between 2 different graphics cards? Does UltraMon allow this?

Trick · 17 Jul 2006 at 16:52

tsinc80697 said:
sorry to butt in the thread! just curious as ive been after a TV myself but i dont want to lose the quality of my 2 PC monitors.

It certainly can be done - checkout the Ultramon forums for stacks of info on doing just this. I've tried unsuccessfully to get an ATI 9250 to work in tandem with a 6800Ultra. The 9250 now seems to be dead (!) so I can't run 2 lcds and the hdtv at the same time at the moment... Thread here on it covering the problems with 2d performance

Trick · 17 Jul 2006 at 22:35

tsinc80697 said:
btw, hows the picture on the LCD for all different uses ?
ie PC, xbox 360, normal tv and HD tv if you have a box.

The quality over Scart for Freeview seems to be as good as any other lcd out there - ie. not great compared to a decent crt but certainly good enough. Using a pc over a vga cable, again the quality is excellent. Oblivion run off the 6800Ultra in widescreen mode looks gob-smacking. I havevnt had the chance to see HD tv on it, but I have an upscaling dvd player and SD dvd's look excellent.

tsinc80697 said:
oh and if graphics card 1 had TFT + TV on it, and graphics card 2 had TFT on it, can you set ultramon to use just the TFTs for general use(ie not cloning but windows spread across both monitors which are infront of you), and the TV to play movies / freeview. ( i know you can make videos fullscreen on monitor 2 when you play them in monitor 1, but can you do it with the TV) ?

I haven't tried this but judging by the results on the A321 thread on avforums, yes.

Noxis said:
Could you give me your opinion on the view angles? Do you have to be right in front of it to get a good quality picture or can you see it just fine from the sides?

Viewing angles are superb - clear picture from all around regardless of you being in front of the set or off to one side.