# DVI and HDMI, Big difference?



## Guest (Aug 25, 2008)

Alright so here's the deal. I bought a new 22 inch LCD monitor, with 2 ms response time, 1080p, high resolution etc. It supports DVI, HDMI, and VGA input. The best output I have on my computer currently is DVI. So right now the monitor is hooked up through the DVI, on a non HD video card, of 124mb.

Would switching the video card to a 1024mb card (with HDMI output), as well as purchasing a HDMI cable, and using HDMI rather than DVI, produce a large change of quality?

Im assuming the change of the graphics card would produce a large change, but if the HDMI over DVI would help also, please let me know.


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## fibreKid (Apr 20, 2006)

No. If you are using your PC the big difference is the software to drive the monitor -OR- the HW assist that might be in the video card. What I mean is the DVD player software. Are you playing BluRay or Std Def movies? If it's std def, you will need something to scale the movie up. The monitor won't do it. If it's BlueRay it's a different story. You might need to scale down. I'm assuming that the 22" monitor is not 1920x1200. (1650x1050?)

Good luck
-john


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

HDMI and DVI are, for all practical purposes, the same thing when it comes to video. HDMI does carry audio, where supported, along with video which DVI cannot.


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2008)

Im using WinDVD right now to play the movies. Ive only tried standard definition movies, but im downloading an HD DVD movie now, and so ill try playing it with WinDVD. So are you basically saying John, that a HD DVD/BluRay drive will help out in more situations than a new video card/HDMI connection would?


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2008)

Also, here is the video card I am looking at, http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10101194&catid=

Right now, my video card is 128mb, this one is 1024mb.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

fibreKid said:


> No. If you are using your PC the big difference is the software to drive the monitor -OR- the HW assist that might be in the video card. What I mean is the DVD player software. Are you playing BluRay or Std Def movies? If it's std def, you will need something to scale the movie up. *The monitor won't do it.* If it's BlueRay it's a different story. You might need to scale down. I'm assuming that the 22" monitor is not 1920x1200. (1650x1050?)
> 
> Good luck
> -john



*The monitor won't do it.* That is incorrect. All LCD monitors scale up and down to match its native resolution.


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## fibreKid (Apr 20, 2006)

Mike, the point is the scaler in the LCD monitor isn't going to do a great job. Sure the LCD scales but it looks like junk. If you want a great picture, you need to feed the monitor it's native res. :bigsmile:


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## fibreKid (Apr 20, 2006)

Hi Fork485;
The video card looks quite nice but I would find out just was that DVD Acceleration is really going to do for you. You are going to want to try and get something that will do a good job of scaling from DVD wide screen aspect ratio to the native res of your monitor. Now the monitor may have a sweet spot that isn't the native res also. You will need to play around with it to see if it has one.
I've heard of a SW product called powerstrip that was popular with the htpc folks.

Good luck
-john


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## thxgoon (Feb 23, 2007)

You won't notice a difference because of the switch from DVI to HDMI but you may notice a difference due to the extra RAM and processing available on the new card.


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