I've just got a new HD TV with an amp and surround sound system and want to take full advantage of it. I had planned on setting up a NAS Drive with DLNA streaming to my TV but after some pretty fruitless searches on how to do it or how effective it was i have decided to go down a different route. I have a spare PC which I plan to link to my TV as a display and use as an HTPC. Fairly straightforward so far. In the past (years ago) i used a TV out cable provided with my gfx card (must have been an x800XT) back then and used some shoddy PC speakers to hook up to my PC to play audio. Fast Forward to now and we have HDMI etc. So, basically i'm under the impression that VGA cables arent as good quality as DVI and DVI ~ HDMI. My TV has a VGA PC connection and HDMI connections. Firstly, I want to get the best resolution/quality possible so am I able to use a DVI to HDMI cable or do I have to use a DVI/VGA to VGA cable for the picture side of things. Now for the sound side of things. Is my only option an aux cable from the headphone socket to the audio in on my amp or can i use other sound options. Bare in mind its onboard sound from my PC not an independant sound card. It's a little convoluted but if anyone can shed some light and show me my options then i'd be much appreciated.
DVI - HDMI will work fine but make sure the GPU is HDCP enabled for protected content. well with onboard sound im guesing its just the standard 3.5mm jacks if so you can hook that straight upto the amp for stereo. ideally a soundcard or mobo with SPDIF (coax or optical) so you can carry surround sound but bear in mind for dolby digital and THX etc you will most likely need a seperate good quality soundcard that will support these
the GPU will be an old 7900 GT wrt the HDCP. I was a little worried that the TV wouldn't be able to use the video from the DVI/HDMI and the audio signal from teh AUX cable.
I planned and on plugging the hdmi video into the tv and the audio into the amp. Am I doing it wrong?
What kind of amp are you using? If it supports HDMI switching I would go that route first. By running all your video to the amp initially, and only having one video cable running to the tv, you will save yourself the trouble of switching inputs on both the tv and the amp every time you try to switch between devices. Also makes running cable easier. If the amp does not support HDMI switching, I would just suggest dvi-hdmi to your TV, with either an optical or digital coax to your amp.
nope thats right video: PC - TV via DV-HDMI cable. audio: PC - AMP - SPEAKERS via SPDIF/3.5mm jack to AMP then whatver your speaker connections are.
If you could tell us what model amp, tv, etc you have, plus everything you're setting up the the system, we can give you a better idea how to wire everything.
TV is a Panasonic TX-P42G20 (http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/panasonic-txp42g20-txp42g20b-20100308169.htm) and the amp and speakers are Onkyo HTS3305 (http://www.eu.onkyo.com/products/HT-S3305.html).
