# Connecting VGA to HDMI bad idea?



## dandxg (Feb 22, 2007)

A few months back this very nice forum told me I can connect HDMI to HDMI computer to big screen. The HDMI computer is gone and I would like to connect my VGA connect to HDMI. Is this a bad idea? Will picture be horrible before I spend 40 bucks on cable? It would go from a 3 year old dell dual core 2 gigs of ram to a 6 year old 52 inch Panasonic ? I would like to try it if the picture will look reasonably good. Thanks much

Dan


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

dandxg said:


> ... connect my VGA connect to HDMI. Is this a bad idea? Will picture be horrible before I spend 40 bucks on cable?


You would need more than a $40 cable to take a VGA output from a computer and feed it into an HDMI input of a monitor. VGA uses analog video only and HDMI is uses digitally encoded video. You would need some type of video converter box

If the TV has a VGA input then a VGA to VGA cable would work for you. If the computer is a desktop model, you might want to consider putting in a graphics card with an HDMI output.


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## dandxg (Feb 22, 2007)

What about DVI to HDMI I have a DVI graphics card that I could use. I am not even sure if the big screen is DVI or HDMI. I wonder only because its 6 years old tv.


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

DVI and the video portion of HDMI use the same digital signals. You would need a DVI to HDMI cable or an HDMI cable with a suitable HDMI to DVI adapter added on one end.

The HDMI standard supports digital audio while DVI does not. You would need to see if and how the TV can handle inputting audio while using the HDMI connection only for video.


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## dandxg (Feb 22, 2007)

Thanks much .


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

You're welcome.

Please let us know how this turns out.


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## dandxg (Feb 22, 2007)

Hi just a couple of follow up questions please. I realized I have been wrong the plug on the tv is not HDMI, but DVI. So I found this DVI M to F but should I get single link or dual? The DVI card is 4 years old Nvidia and the big screen is 6 years Panasonic, don't know if that helps? Reading up DVI, doesn't transmit sound so I need a audio plug in correct? Will the resolution/aspect look ok do you think. The DVI card support up to a 22" inch monitors and big screen is 53" ? Thanks again for the help.


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## dandxg (Feb 22, 2007)

As I was reading up more on extended DVI cables seems to get fuzzy picture wise the farther you go out. Does anyone have practical experience with that. I just measured and its 30-35 feet closer to 30 I need to get.


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

Please take a look at the attached DVI connector configuration chart. It is for the male plugs found on a DVI cable.Tell us which connectors on the chart match the female DVI connectors on the TV and card.

The DVI standard supports both analog and digital video signals. Too long of a cable length could make for fuzzy analog signals but would cause a total loss or drop outs of video for digital signals. if the video resolution is low enough and the cable quality is high enough you might be able to run a 50 foot cable without problems.

Please let us know the native resolution of the TV. This would be the number of horizontal and vertical pixels that the TV can display without any kind of internal resolution conversion. Then find out if your video card supports that resolution. Matching the card to the TV is not a matter of the physical size of the display but on the number of horizontal and vertical pixels and the refresh rate.

Yes, when using DVI, you will need separate cables for the audio.


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## dandxg (Feb 22, 2007)

Thanks awesome support. The desktop graphics card is GF 6600 256 MB DDR Dual DVI TV PCI-E. It has 2 dual dvi and 1 s video. So once again the PCI E card is DVI-I and the plug on big screen is DVI-D, and both are dual link. The native resolution on the big screen is 1080i and after reading on a Nvidia forum the resolution for a 22 inch monitor, which I have used before, is 1680 x 1050 so it should work no as its higher resolution than big screen. Now that I have these facts do you think this could work and should I purchase or be required to purchase dual link cable? Thanks much again.


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

dandxg said:


> The native resolution on the big screen is 1080i


The 1080i number is the vertical resolution and the matching horizontal resolution would be 1920 pixels.



dandxg said:


> ... the resolution for a 22 inch monitor, which I have used before, is 1680 x 1050 so it should work no as its higher resolution than big screen.


The 1680 x 1050 resolution of the 22 inch monitor is LOWER than the 1920 x 1080i resolution of your big screen.

You would need to find out if your graphics card supports 1920 x 1080i operation. I believe that your "GF 6600" reference is for the graphics controller IC on the card itself, not the brand or model number of the card itself.



dandxg said:


> So once again the PCI E card is DVI-I and the plug on big screen is DVI-D, and both are dual link. ... Now that I have these facts do you think this could work and should I purchase or be required to purchase dual link cable? Thanks much again.


A Dual Link DVI-D cable would be used to connect the card to the TV. Somebody else here familiar with real world usage of DVI cables would need to tell you if your 30 to 35 foot cable run can be done.


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