Requesting aid with my HD monitor setup

[Zhou Yu]

Ok, so basically here is my complete setup atm:



On the left we have my old much-beloved tv and above it is the new Virgin+ box (more on that later) then an unused CRT with my dell laptop in front. Then things begin to get interesting, my Dell 24" monitor takes up a commanding position in the middle of the desktop with the viewsonic 19" wide to its right and finally my gaming computer (e6600/8800gtx/4g ram/creative XFI soundcard) with my external 500gig hdd on top.

Now, as much as I love my old tv it isn't going to win any beauty competitions and neither is it going to run full hd ^^. So I want to connect the new V+ box to my dell monitor, however I am unsure as to the best way to go about this so I want your help in reccomending how to wire it all up.

Here are the back connections of the V+ box:



And here are the bottom connections of the monitor:



So, in a perfect world I would be able to connect my V+ box to my monitor for full 1080p HD. Both monitor and box are certainly capable of HD but its connecting the two that is giving me problems.

The way I see it my choices are:

A) Connect V+ box to monitor using a HDMI - DVI cable and plug into my computer using VGA. However I don't know whether VGA would loose quality or stop me getting to the higher resses I am used to playing games at (1920x1200 normally). Clarification on the limits of VGA would be much appreciated.

B) Connect V+ box to monitor using the corresponding RBG connections. However, I know nothing about these connections and whether or not they would support full HD or not.

The next issue would then be how I get sound from the V+ box into my computer so it comes out of my headset.

The PCI slots on the back of my computer look like this:


(sorry for the crap quality)

Obviously my graphics card DVI outputs are at the top, with my creative XFI gamer soundcard at the bottom, idk whether it would be possible to connect the V+ box into my soundcard or not, but would be nice to be able to listen to HD stuff on my monitor using my sennheiser headset without having to unplug from the back of the computer then replug into the V+ box.

In a perfect world I would have a setup where I would be able to watch normal tv on my old tv, then switch to HD on my monitor using my headset to listen to the content. I have no clue whether this would be possible using just the V+ box and a few cables or whether I would have to buy a purpose built switcher for the task. The first (and likely cheaper) solution would seem to be best as long as it does what I want it to with the minimum of fuss and effort.

Your help and suggestions would be much appreciated

[Lowe]

Sorry - no help whatsoever, but I had to do a double take at that TV on the left lol!

[McMav]

Nice finger????

[Steve B]

maybe its reflectopron?

[Zhou Yu]

Haha yeah, was watching Top Gear when taking the photo and I seemed to manage to perfectly capture the exact moment when the most phallic object possible was on the screen

[menthel]

You could connect to the monitor using the component outputs. That should give you an HD picture. Not sure on the sound though.

[Sinizter]

Component from Vbox to Dell.

Sound to be routed to mic or audio in port of PC or direct to speakers. Seem to be covered for options - stereo, optical out all there.

[Zhou Yu]

Ok, will likely go with a component cable then from the box to the monitor. Anyone got reccomendations cable-wise? The little perusing I have done would seem to show that cables make a difference to quality and I don't really know the first thing about them.

Otherwise if anyone has any ideas about the audio connection from V+ box to computer I would love to hear them. I appear to have two ports free on my soundcard, but whether those would correspond to the L and R ports on my V+ box I have no idea.
Thank you to everyone who has responded with help so far.

[Sinizter]

Buy some decent looking cables (not from PCWorld). Maybe from RicherSounds or something.

Unless you get crap cable, it wont make that much of a difference at this size. Shorter runs are obviously better than longer, so get the correct length.

[Zhou Yu]

Looking at: Amazon.co.uk: Belkin Blue Series PureAV Composite & Audio Cable Kit 1.8m: Electronics & Photo: Belkin component-wise atm. If anyone has audio ideas I would love to hear them

[dave87]

You could connect to the monitor using the component outputs. That should give you an HD picture. Not sure on the sound though.

What he said, plus a phono-3.5mm jack to the line in on your PC. Not perfect, but will allow you to use your PC speakers to get sound from cable.

[Sinizter]

Your vbox seems to have optical out - you can connect that to optical in on your pc which outputs to your speakers.

Or get speakers with optical in and connect it there.

Or get separate speakers for the vbox - again with optical input.