wrote:
Paul wrote:

If you really wanted an answer, you'd state:

1) Make and model of TV. If there is an actual web product
page for the TV, then post a link. That saves time.

A brand new Vizio 26" HDTV

http://www.vizio.com/flat-panel-hdtvs/m260mv.html


2) Make and model of computer.

I don't have the computer yet. I may buy a Dell
Optiplex as a "base" and add video card with HDMI
output.... or just build myself

3) OK, you want to hook up the desktop to it. Will you be
playing 3D games, like Crysis ? Will you be playing a DVD
on the computer, and displaying a movie on the screen ?

No games at all....I'm not a gamer. Just movies and off
the air broadcast



I checked the manual, and you have *plenty* of input options.

One of the HDMI connectors, has a left and right audio next to it
(white and red, RCA connectors). You could take a DVI video card,
connect a passive DVI to HDMI dongle to it, run an HDMI cable
over to the TV set, and that would give video. You could use a
1/8" stereo to dual RCA adapter, to drive audio to the TV speakers
(if that is the way you wanted to use it). Radio Shack carries
1/8" audio to RCA connectors in the form of an adapter.

There is a 15 pin VGA connector, with a 1/8" stereo audio input
next to it.

There is component video on the bottom row. YPbPr and two
RCA audio jacks. The problem there is, the most recent video
cards don't tend to have a mini-DIN on the faceplate, for
the component video cable. The last video card I bought
(an older design which was still in production), had the
ideal I/O types of two DVI-I and a mini-DIN, so my video
card can do component. But on the downside, I can't do
GPGPU stuff with my video card, I don't have video acceleration,
so all I really got out of the deal, was some nice I/O options.
Even nicer, would have been VIVO, but they stopped doing
VIVO cards a while ago too (that adds video input as an option).

So you aren't likely to find component. But if you happened
to have an older computer, component video is of higher
quality than S-Video or Composite. Component video used to be
popular for projector systems.

To get audio over HDMI, for your TV, the options a

1) ATI cards now, usually have an audio solution right on the card.

2) Some Nvidia cards, had a passthru solution. You ran an S/PDIF
cable from the motherboard sound, to a two pin connector on
the edge of the video card. The digital audio on that cable,
would then be placed on the HDMI cable and sent across. That
also meant there was no audio driver to install, to make sound
work on the TV. You just enabled S/PDIF digital output on the
motherboard sound, and then the TV sound would work.

3) It's possible there are Nvidia cards with integrated sound
now - I haven't been keeping track.

You don't need to be in a rush at this point. Your new computer
is likely to have *some* connector you can use. Now, if the
analog audio on your new computer, happened to have "clone mode",
then you'd be all set. Some motherboard audio solutions, have
a software option (tick box), where they take a copy of Line_Out
and put it on a second connector. That allows a user to drive
two audio devices, with the same audio content. It saves
having to buy a "Y" cable for 1/8" audio, then connecting
that to a 1/8" to dual RCA adapter and so on.

So I don't think this is going to be much of a challenge for you.
It should be pretty easy to set up. The hardest part of the
adventure, will be finding the button + menu on the TV, that
allows you to select "computer input" :-) At least one poster
here recently, was helping a friend, and they couldn't seem
to find the option to enable computer input, and the thing
was "stuck on TV".

This is a video card picked at random. I didn't pick the cheapest one.
It has a PCI Express connector on it (because that is what your
new computer video slot will have). As long as your new computer isn't
something obscure (like uses a mini-ITX motherboard with a PCI
connector or something), it is likely to use PCI Express x16.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131331

That card has one HDMI, a DVI, a VGA on it. A little of everything.
The DVI is dual link (can drive a 2560x1600 30" Apple monitor).
UVD 2 dedicated video playback accelerator (less processor loading,
for a limited set of movie standards). HDMI 1.3 version on the
HDMI connector (I don't know if you can get HDMI 1.4 on video
cards yet). Integrated HD audio controller (that means the
video card comes with an audio driver on the CD, and your
Sound control panel, ends up with an additional audio device
added to it. You select that audio device, to get sound on
the TV via the HDMI cable.).

http://www.powercolor.com/us/product...res.asp?id=213

I picked a card that expensive, because if I'd selected a
$40 video card, it would likely be as powerful and capable
as the video that comes with the computer already.

The ATI 5000 series video cards are pretty good on idle
power, so the fan shouldn't need to spool up when you're
doing email or web surfing.

You can see a listing of video cards here.

http://www.gpureview.com/videocards.php

and benchmarks for some of the cards are here. You can
see the card I picked, only gives 33% of the performance
of the card at the top of the chart, so it isn't much
of a gamer card.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2...ny-2,2237.html

Paul