What do I need for HD?

[dakyras]

I have a XFX 6800 XT 512MB lying around, as I have just upgraded to an 8800 GTS.

I would like to build a PC that I can hook upto my Panasonic Plasma (TH42PX60B) so I can actually watch some HD content. Obviously I have no problems throwing a basic PC together, no worries there, but I am a bit confused as to how I will hook it upto my TV. The TV has a VGA socket, but I also have a spare HDMI port. Which would I be better to hook the PC up to?

Also, I have a combined DVD recorder / surround sound amp hooked upto the TV at the moment, if I have the VGA or HDMI ports hooked up directly to the TV, will there be any problems hooking the sound up to the DVD recorder? I may need an audio splitter I think, anyone have any experience with how well these work?

I can just imagine them finding my corpse tangled in a mess of wires and cables in a few months time.....

Cheers

Ian

 

[spb251272]

I have my 8800GTX hooked up with a VGA cable to my 46" Samsung LCD TV. I just use the secondary DVI connector with one of the DVI to VGA adapters. For sound, I use a splitter, and run a cable to my home cinema receiver

 

[james.miller]

i dont think the situation has changed much since the last time i looked at it, and it goes something like this:

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RE: Hd-dvd

if you dont have a hdcp compliant card, use powerdvd 6.5 as 7.x requires the card to be compliant. Use vga to connect to the pc as there are no restrictions on the output when using vga, on dvi/hdmi.

if you have a compliant card, use the latest version of pdvd. 7.2 i think it is. Here's the funny bit, if you use dvi/hdmi make sure the tv is compliant otherwise it wont work. they all should be. Anyway the funny part....the card HAS to be compliant, but if your using vga, the display doesnt pretty silly to require a compliant card but not a display, they should have just let you use any card.

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The above is regarding hd-dvd of course. if you're not looking for hd-dvd playback then either vga or dvi/hdmi would do fine. Id go for vga as the cables are cheaper

but it really comes down to how well your tv works with a vga connection. hdmi is the more compatible of the two - a lot of screens overscan and wont do 1:1 with vga. i dont know about yours

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RE: sound.

connection preference should be as follows:

* 6 channal (or better) analogue rca's. if your amp has them
* co-ax or optical spdif. use either depending on what your pc and amp both support
* stereo rca to the amp. least preferable because its only 2 channel of course.

another thing to not is that spdif doesnt have the bandwidth to carry the new hd audio formats on bluray and hddvd. if you are interested in the formats at all then that 6 channel analogue output would be put to good use as its the only thing other than hdmi that has the required bandwidth to carry the signals



hope that helps