Connecting PC to TV

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Connecting PC to TV

bbunnys

321 posts

Ultimate Geek

#72170 22-Nov-2010 08:00

After some advise on connecting PC to TV.

Ive just connected my PC to my LCD TV but noticed the picture very washed out and colours during video playback are bad compared to my 360 or other devices on the TV. They just dont have the same richness.
Im running Windows 7 and my TV has a VGA plug in the back (6 month old Samsung series 6) of it so just connected it that way.

My question is if I used the DVI output on my PC and got a DVI to HDMI converter so I could connect to TV via the HDMI would that make picture look better?

I dont have an HDMI port on my PC so DVI is best I can do.

Or are there any other ways of making it look better?

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#407509 22-Nov-2010 08:34

The DVI to HDMI is a worth a crack...
But the issue may be the quality of the source material. Are you playing downloaded MP4's etc? Or are you playing directly off the PC's DVD or BluRay drive?
Have you got the ability to tweak the picture settings at the TV or PC end (via the menu system)?

Psilan

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#407511 22-Nov-2010 08:37

My TV does the same thing.
Change the resolution to "720p" or "1080p" and watch the colours pop. But you lose the nice 1:1...

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bbunnys

321 posts

Ultimate Geek

#407553 22-Nov-2010 10:12

The TV is already running my PC at 1980x1080 so its not an issue with that.

Mainly playing MKV files straight from PC hard drive.

When I stream them from PC to 360 via a media streamer it looks real nice.
But if I play from PC on TV direct using VCL Player picture just doesnt have the same pop and colour richness.

But the issue is not just in VCL player. even just windows itself doesnt look great. Ive tried changing picture on TV to dynamic etc. improves it a bit but still not on par with 360 picture quality.

merve0o0

492 posts

Ultimate Geek

#407562 22-Nov-2010 10:19

Dvi to hdmi will be the best signal you can get. Dvi and hdmi pass the same signal. Set the resolution to 1080 as well. Should look perfect. Your graphics card software way has some settings to change.

But VGA will look bad on a large tv

timmmay

20506 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#407656 22-Nov-2010 13:47

With my old 40" 720p LCD I tried a DVI to HDMI cable, but it never looked very good. I found the VGA port worked perfectly and looked great, so I just kept using it.

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#407670 22-Nov-2010 14:01

bbunnys: The TV is already running my PC at 1980x1080 so its not an issue with that.

Mainly playing MKV files straight from PC hard drive.

When I stream them from PC to 360 via a media streamer it looks real nice.
But if I play from PC on TV direct using VCL Player picture just doesnt have the same pop and colour richness.

But the issue is not just in VCL player. even just windows itself doesnt look great. Ive tried changing picture on TV to dynamic etc. improves it a bit but still not on par with 360 picture quality.

Often a lot of the processing options in the panel are disabled for VGA. I would give DVI to HDMI a try. I cable is only around $10 though trademe. I found HDMI to be noticeably better then VGA on our old TV. Have only ever used HDMI on the new TV.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

fahrenheit

757 posts

Ultimate Geek

#407714 22-Nov-2010 14:53

Its a colour-space issue.

Your PC is sending out PC colourspace (full RGB 0-255) via the VGA port because it is expecting that the monitor on the other end is a PC monitor. The TV however is expecting video colourspace and so you have a mismatch.

You need to instruct the PC to send out video colourspace and this will be in the graphics card drivers settings and probably called 'Limited' as opposed to 'Full'.

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elldizzle

91 posts

Master Geek

#407894 22-Nov-2010 22:02

Must be an old VGA card for that to be a problem....Haven't had that issue for a loooong time.. But the again I haven't used VGA in a looooong time..lol

bbunnys

321 posts

Ultimate Geek

#407898 22-Nov-2010 22:12

All working good now.

Put a DVI to HDMI cable on and has made a huge differance.

elldizzle

91 posts

Master Geek

#407901 22-Nov-2010 22:15

Good on ya mate glad its all sorted!..

nickrout

219 posts

Master Geek

#409023 24-Nov-2010 17:06

DVI and HDMI are electrically equivalent, so there is no 'conversion" going on, just a different plug at each end.