How do I improve TV picture quality playback with my setup?

[garetmax]

I just placed an order with monoprice.com for a 50ft hdmi cable and adapter.

I did put my computer next to the tv and hooked up a standard vga cable and the picture was awesome so I'm hoping the hdmi cable will be that good or better or at least better than the s-video cable that I've been using.


I'll post back on the results.

Thanks,
GaretMax

[blizard]

It might be a stupid question, but why don't you upgrade your video card to any of ATI X1950 Pro on AGP? That would improve your High Definition TV and probably give a better signal to begin with. (X1950 Pro should be out soon as AGP card, but I couldn't find it on komplett.co.uk or newegg.com ATM.)

There is X1650 pro that have HDMI (the new digital interface to connect both audio and video - should be a thinner cable to connect then DVI) on komplett.co.uk and would not be that much moeny for it. All ATI X1xxx video card seem to be very good in hardware to deinterlace picture and to handle AVIVO features. It might be worth to consider X1950 Pro for its HDCP ability (content protection which will be of future value with Vista and other hardware that will demand it show HD-DVD).

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=324317 .

[garetmax]

I just got my new cable hooked up and the picture quality is AWESOME! This 50' HDMI cable video quality is far superior to the 50' s-video cable I was using. I don't see any sparkles or glitches or any problems using this long length cable. Now I can use the whole screen width of my TV because of the HDMI.

Here's the cable I got. I went with the 22 gauge which is a pretty thick cable. My video card has the dvi output so I got the adapter also. My TV has the HDMI input.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/produc...t=2&style=

After reading quite a few sites before purchasing this cable and now seeing this $66 cable in action, I'm never going to buy a Monster Cable or go to Best Buy for cables again and pay their ridiculously high prices for them.:eek: Thanks Oz for pointing Monoprice.com out.

I had to do a little tweaking of my video card by downloading the latest ATI Catalyst software and changing a few of the options for my dualscreen setup which didn't take too long.

I'll probably just stay with the video card I've got right now. I don't do much computer gaming anymore and now with my recorded shows playing back with incredible quality there's no need to upgrade.

Thanks for all the help.
GaretMax

[taz]

Just curious if the HDMI picture was better than just using the vga cable. I now have a TV with HDMI and VGA input and need to get a new cable (currently using my old svideo cable).

[garetmax]

It's been awhile since I did that but I think the HDMI is better than the VGA and VGA is definitely better than the s-video.