PC gaming on a HDTV

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kevdaman

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Jul 21, 2004
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I recently bought a sony 51 inch hdtv for a good price of 1499.99 and I would love to play some pc games in all there glory on a big screen. I'm a little nervous because I'm not sure how to go about connecting a pc to the TV and maintaining a good resolution that my tv will work with. my tv does 108i and 720p. I'm not worried about a HDCP compliant video card with all the copyright protection ect. I know S-video and RCA or composite wont be good quality wise so I guess I need to use component video Red, Gree, Blue jacks to get a good image. I'm looking for any imput on how they set the resolution and refresh rate and how you would go about getting a nice picture from say a 7900gt or some video card like that on a big screen. arer there issues with overscan? flickering ect. I'm not looking to play a 800x600 or anything I want to play at 720P or 1080i how would you accomplish this resolution on a video card. Thanks guys!

My tv has HDMI but no DVI
 
Is there any difference between ATI and Nviida video cards on HDTV's. If anyone has any experince with PC gaming on a HDTV plesae let me know of any major issues that have come up with getting it all to work together. Thanks
 
i play trackmania, virtual pool, black hawk down and a few other games on a 56" dlp in 1280 x 720 via DVI connection.

you prolly want to go with a HD15, DVI, or HDMI connection rather than component but with the right adapters, you can use component.

i'm sure your Sony has a PC input or other digital input.
 
Get a DVI to HDMI adapter for best image quality. Nvidia has really good tv out support in their drivers. You can read more in the HTPC forum. You should set your resolution and refresh rate to the native res of your tv. 7900 should be able to handle like 1920 x 1080
 
btw - if it's a sony LCD rear projection unit, i think they use 1366x768 and scale for 720p.

your vid card should pick that up once connected.

one bonus about using 1366x768 as opposed to 1280x720 is that you can run 4:3 aspect ratio games in 1024x768 pixel-to-pixel.

edit: do you have a model number to your TV?
 
As for connecting to TV, Nvidia has better built in support from my experience. ATI isn't too bad, but nvidia has custom resolution capabilities built into the drivers themselves.

I have a 6600gt in my main htpc, a 9600xt in the kid's htpc, and an x1800xt in my machine. Between those three...the 6600gt was magnitudes easier to setup to output at 1920x1080p via DVI>HDMI to my Mits 1080p DLP.

Can't comment much on the gaming aspect, as all I use it for is movies/tv stuff. Performance wise I'd have to drop the res to 1280x720 to have anything playable I guess....I don't think the 6600gt would cut many games at 1920x1080. 7600gt maybe.
 
Let say you have 1080i TV... Can you use 1080 mode even if it's interlaced?
 
Sony KP-51WS520 51 is the model of my tv, in the manual it says 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i, it's a rear projection tv, how do I know my native resolution for this TV and also if I set a resolution on my tv will it look streched on my widescreen tv.

The TV has 1 HDMI input, would it be better to use the Component video cables or use something like a DVI to HDMI adapter. Thanks guys :)

Oh what's gaming like on a HDTV vs small monitor? do you guys find it confterible to sit on the couch?
 
kevdaman said:
Sony KP-51WS520 51 is the model of my tv, in the manual it says 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i, it's a rear projection tv, how do I know my native resolution for this TV and also if I set a resolution on my tv will it look streched on my widescreen tv.

The TV has 1 HDMI input, would it be better to use the Component video cables or use something like a DVI to HDMI adapter. Thanks guys :)

Oh what's gaming like on a HDTV vs small monitor? do you guys find it confterible to sit on the couch?
Click to expand...

I think HDMI cables would be better... Get an adapter...

You can always get one of those trays on a recliner... Hook up a wireless keyboard and mouse..
 
When connecting the PC to the HDTV is it possible to damage my tv if the Resolution I choose is wrong? I think my tv is native 1080i but I dont know for sure.
 
kevdaman said:
When connecting the PC to the HDTV is it possible to damage my tv if the Resolution I choose is wrong? I think my tv is native 1080i but I dont know for sure.
Click to expand...

I doubt it... It might say out of sync or something...

On our Samsung when hooked upto the VGA connection it says interlaced mode is not supported... I do not know about HDMI... Who knows...
:confused:
 
BlueFridays said:
how can you run 640x480 in a 720p or 1080p hdtv?
Click to expand...

I don't know our TV can even do 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480 using the VGA connection...
 
www.monoprice.com
great site for reasonably priced yet high quality cables. I got my DVI>HDMI cable from there for less than $30 shipped. It's a 26g cable, dual ferrite cores, gold plated connectors and copper wire inside with a "net jacket" over it all. Every bit as good as the Monster cable you can get at any BB or CC for 4 times the price.

As for my experience with the unsupported resolutions, my TV just says out of sync (although it says that with a 1080p signal over HDMI...yet displays it perfectly anyway :confused: ). I had an older Sony HDTV and it would just display garbage, much like a PC monitor would do with an unsupported resolution. So it really depends on the TV.

A short while of googling on your TV didn't show me what native res your TV is, but if it's anything like the 53" hi-scan I used to have, the native res is 1920x1080i, but you'd have to adjust the PC resolution for overscan.
 
Marvelous said:
I don't know our TV can even do 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480 using the VGA connection...
Click to expand...

it's possible, my 720p dlp hdtv were once hooked to my computer on boot up with VGA to VGA, I can see the bios on the tv and I'm sure the bios is 640x480 @ 60 hz.
 
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