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Ok, so I'm a lil' out of touch on the monitor side of things, what is the difference between the various monitor input types and is there any real difference?
For example, my front room TV has 2 x HDMI, 1 x VGA, 5 x Scart is there any real difference in them when it comes to hooking up a PC to it?
HDMI is a high-definition digital video/audio link.
VGA is a low/high definition analogue video link.
SCART, as far as I'm aware, is just low definition analogue video/audio link.
fraz is correct
if you want to play HD content, i think you need HDMI, Scart can't do it, I am not sure about VGA though...although the quality will be bad if you link it to a big HDTV...
If you want to play HD content then HDMI is def the way to go. VGA will output at HD resolutions, but the quality wont be as good as HDMI (although you prob wouldnt notice) and VGA doesnt have HDCP.Quote:
Originally Posted by usxhe190
As for scart, forget about it.
I've got my HTPC hooked up to my LCD via VGA and it looks great. I havent bother with HDMI as yet because theres hardly any HD content available without paying and I have no need for HDCP at the moment.
Ok, so what about DVI? Where does that stand in the scheme of things?
DVI is effectively the same as HDMI, but without the audio. It can also carry analogue (VGA) signals.
SCARTs can carry analogue RGB signals, which are better than composite/s-video for standard PAL video.
DVI is basically HDMI without the audio. You can put a cheap £1 HDMI > DVI converter on a cable to switch between them (all it does it route the video signal to the appropriate pins)....The HDMI signal is DVI-D though, so not compatible with DVI-A cables and connections.
As for the comments above......they are mostly correct, there are however certain circumstances when VGA can be preferable over HDMI/DVI for HD video playback......It all depends on whether you are playing protected content and if your entire setup is HDCP compliant or not.