video card

[zinc]

I am looking to buy a new video card for my pc, what is better to connect it to my hdtv a video card with a dvi input or an hdmi. i currenty use a dvi to hdmi cable to connect my pc and hdtv together woudl it be better if i have hdmi to hdmi. my tv does not have vga.

thanks for any help.

edit what are key features to look for in a graphics card, i don't need it for playing games simply to lighten the load for the motherboard and for watching movies on my pc.
if i have pci e on my motherboard can it support pci e 2?

thanks.

[jman98]

If you have any interest in playing BluRay from disc via this type of setup, you will have to get a video card that supports HDMI. All of the currently available commercial BluRay software players enforce HDMI for full resolution playback. In fact, I've even seen a report from a few people who claim that playback isn't working at all over anything but HDMI, but in theory non-HDMI playback should work, just not at HD resolutions. HDMI support is the number 1 feature you need.

One source I consulted stated that while PCI E 2.0 is supposed to be backwards compatible with PCI E that in reality it may not work. Because of this I can't personally recommend that you try to run a PCI E 2.0 card in a PCI E slot unless you can find solid information that a particular card will work like this.

[jagabo]

HDCP runs on DVI as well as HDMI.

[rallynavvie]

The only reason to use HDMI on the video card over simply DVI like you're using already is to use HD audio. Of course your receiver would need to support these formats as well. I've not really looked into how video cards support audio output but I'm guessing there are some out there.

Personally I'd get another with DVI out since you already have the cable.

[jman98]

I was really hoping to avoid getting bogged down into this and just simply recommend you use HDMI. However, your "friends" jagabo and rallynavvie are correct, but they are also neglecting to tell you some very important things you need to know before you go DVI.

The truth is that Hollyweird did not want to allow DVI to work at high def resolutions because it doesn't encode audio, but because many of the early model HDTVs only had DVI connectors, they very reluctantly agreed to allow full high def video over DVI. However they also have hinted that they may revoke this in the near future, perhaps as soon as 2 or 3 years from now. So yes, you can go the DVI route and it will probably (more about this later) work today, but will it still work 2 or 3 years from now? Do you trust Hollyweird on this? I don't. They do not have long term plans to support full high def video over DVI so you have to be willing to run the risk that they may turn that off one day.

Also, I am seeing reports on other forums that full high def video over DVI may not be supported in newer releases of PowerDVD and WinDVD for BluRay playback. I have no way to test this and it could be that the people who are reporting this just don't know what they are doing. However it is disturbing that there are some reports out there of problems.

If you want to use DVI and you are willing to take the risks involved, then go ahead, but you are being done no favors by people who don't mention the potential downside of this type of connection.

[rallynavvie]

If what you are saying is true then HTPCs that are sold with widescreen monitors meant to view television programming on the monitor would no longer work since computer monitors almost never have HDMI inputs. You should go warn those people away from their purchases too.

This, combined with the fact that DVI does support HDCP, makes me think that they're going to keep the status quo. Even if they do go away from DVI in a few years that's quite a long life cycle for a current, middle-end consumer graphics card. What's to say the HDMI spec doesn't go up, which it most certainly will, in those few years rendering the current HDMI spec useless? Video card drivers may overcome this but a current gen cable may not.