hello all, i am looking for some suggestions on "what is the best way to connect my computer to my home theater system and to my LCD TV, so i can watch movies in HD format directly from my computer. What i am trying to do is have my computer, which has VGA and DVI outputs, send video-signal to my LCD TV which is Samsung 37", which has HDMI inputs and VGA input, and send audio signal to my 5.1ch hometheater system. My Hometheater system, which is Samsung HT-x70, has HDMI input and HDMI output. it also has Digital Audio input. what i would like to do is: whenever i want to play a DVD on the player, i would switch my hardware player to DVD mode, ... whenever i wish to play something from my computer, i would just switch the DVD to Digital audio in, and just bypass the video signal through the HDMI input and output... can i do that? what is this digital audio and does it support 5.1 channels, can i output this kind of signal from my 5.1channel computer sound card? P.S. a little add-on. the distance between my comp and TV-DVD setup is about 45 feet (15 meters). the distance between my TV and DVD is less then 4 feet (~1 meter). There are two ways i was thinking about: 1. by a long 45feet VGA cable and 45feet digital audio cable... (assuming it supports 5.1ch) and connect the TV end of the VGA cable directly to the VGA input on the TV, and the DigitAudio cable into the Digit input on the DVD player, and every time i want to use the computer as the source, switch TV to PC mode, and switch DVD to Digit audio mode 2. (more convenient, more expensive, probably less quality-loss) use a 45feet DVI-to-HDMI cable, or a 45 feet DVI cable and a DVI-HDMI converter, to make the signal go through the HDMI passby on the DVD player into the TV's HDMI input, and use the same digital audio cable to transmit the audio to the player. this way i won't have to switch both TV and DVD every time i choose to watch a movie either on the DVD player, or from the computer... what would you suggest... 10x10x10x
Hello roise_r... I just looked up the specifications of your equipment to get a clearer understanding. For your video the best option is definitely to use your DVI out from your PC to HDMI in on your Samsung Home Theater system. DVI is a digital connection. VGA is analog, which is about the same quality as a set of component cables. In regards to your audio, that will be the tricky part. As you are converting your DVI out to HDMI, you are not carrying a digital audio signal on your DVI/HDMI cable. A question I have for you is what output does your sound card support? Does it have a digital optical out? If it doesn't have either of the aforementioned, then I am sorry to say that you wont get true 5.1 sound from your PC without a sound card upgrade. If you have any questions, post away...
well my sound card is integrated into my mother board and it is an ASUS K8V Deluxe... which by what i see in the manual supports some kind of S/PDIF out, and it says it's digital sound or something... is this it?!, and if yes, would it be cheaper to integrate both video and sound into one HDMI cable somehow with some kind of merger and stretch one HDMI cable only between the PC and DVD ... or just stretch an optical digital audio separately from the DVI cable?
It is not possible to integrate DVI and SPDIF into a HDMI connection. Can you tell me if it's a coaxial or optical (toslink) digital audio out? From the specifications I found on your system, it says you only have optical in, not coaxial.
well , the out-port, certainly doesn't look like a coaxial one, but surely i could be wrong, that's why i am uploading a picture to what the port on the back on my computer looks like... if this is the case... what would u suggest as an end point... just go with one DVI and one optical digital audio cable separately?
i am still here. i was doing some research these two days, and came up with this question: what about these "SLICK" boxes... like the Dlink DSM-520. the wireless entertainment extensions... what are these stuff all about... would it work for me... i mean just the DVI cable alone 45 feet is around $160, and this slick box think... referring to this particular model, Dlink DSM-520, is $170 ... and it's wireless , and it has its own remote control ...
Don't pay for over priced cables, ever! Go to MonoPrice, they will have everything you need for less then what you would pay at those big department stores.
I don't know if this would help or not. http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonder650/usb/index.html You could check it out and see.
