LCD TV's & Media Centre PC

I'm looking into getting a Media Centre PC and I have the Dell 32'' W3201CD LCD TV and I was wondering what type of input I should use to hook it up? Below is a link to the technical specs of the TV for reference

http//www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/lcd_w3201c?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

Also, when I do hook this up to a computer what would the display look like quality-wise? I've hooked up a laptop to a standard CRT TV in the past (just a basic flat screen CRT) and the quality was quite poor, that's not the same on an LCD TV - but will it be crisp and clear given the resolutions it can produce?

Any kind of help would be appreciated.

dmorris - where are you? (

This question has been answered a thousand times. Your PC needs output in DVI and then you need to buy a DVI-to-HDMI adapter to get the best picture quality. Almost any DVI capable video card likely also outputs in S-Video which you could use as well. Last but not least you could use VGA, and it will look fine, but not as sharp as DVI or S-Video.

Actually doylnea, Svideo should be your next to last resort before composite video. VGA will look about a thousand times better than Svideo, especially on a decent TV. ;)

Here's the order of preference for PC to TV connections

DVI/HDMI
VGA
Component
Svideo
Composite

pooop. Thanks for catching my error (and educating me). ;0

Thanks dmorris. )

Um.. another question, I'm looking at the components I'm about to order for my PC now and my ATI x1600 has VGA-out so I was wondering do I just need to get a VGA male-to-female cable to get it setup with my LCD TV?

[quote795cca5156="Akademikz"]Um.. another question, I'm looking at the components I'm about to order for my PC now and my ATI x1600 has VGA-out so I was wondering do I just need to get a VGA male-to-female cable to get it setup with my LCD TV?[/quote795cca5156]

The x1600 has DVI, so why not go with DVI to HDMI? You'll get better quality.

Do you mind finding a product on www.tigerdirect.ca or a few that would allow me to convert from DVI to HDMI so that it can plug into my W3201C LCD TV? I'd appreciate that a lot.. haha.

By the way, for the price range - is that the best video card I'm going to find; after looking around on www.TigerDirect.ca it looked like it would pair well with the Intel D 930 processor and mobo with PCI-express.

Typed in "DVI to HDMI"

http//www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1214062&CatId=1163

[quoteabff085c59="Akademikz"]By the way, for the price range - is that the best video card I'm going to find; after looking around on www.TigerDirect.ca it looked like it would pair well with the Intel D 930 processor and mobo with PCI-express.[/quoteabff085c59]

I used to have that card before I went SLI, and it was a great card. I don't do tons of heavy gaming, I play stuff like Civilization 4 and Pirates, but it could handle those easily. Unless you love to play Call of Duty maxed out and are a real videophile, you'll be happy.

[quote610edb7c07="burritopunk"]Typed in "DVI to HDMI"

http//www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1214062&CatId=1163[/quote610edb7c07]

Ok.. so 2 questions. That cable will go OUT from my video card and IN to my HDMI slot in my TV, correct?

Also, the video card.. here's the link to the video cards, is there any other in the $180-230 price range that perform better? I appreciate your help, by the way.

[quote23f9ac31e6="Akademikz"][quote23f9ac31e6="burritopunk"]Typed in "DVI to HDMI"

http//www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1214062&CatId=1163[/quote23f9ac31e6]

Ok.. so 2 questions. That cable will go OUT from my video card and IN to my HDMI slot in my TV, correct?

Also, the video card.. here's the link to the video cards, is there any other in the $180-230 price range that perform better? I appreciate your help, by the way.[/quote23f9ac31e6]

1) That's correct.

2) I'd say you're good with that x1600. I don't know a ton about what's on the market right now, I haven't been catching up with it, but I used that card a few months ago and it was great.

Also, you might want to check if your LCD TV has a DVI input on it. If that's the case, you could just get a DVI to DVI cable, and

Monoprice.com is your best place for cables. A High-Quality 24AWG HDMI to DVI cable from Monoprice is much better quality than that TigerDirect cable, at a better price. BTW don't buy a 15 foot cable if you don't need it. You can suffer signal dropouts with such a long run if you aren't very careful about how you go about it. Try to stay 6' or less if possible. That'll run you about $16 from Monoprice, plus shipping.

http//www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023102&p_id=2218&seq=1&format=2&style=

And to get optimal resolution, timings, and possibly overscan settings, you may need a tool like PowerStrip.

[quote59f74dc0b0="dmorris68"]Monoprice.com is your best place for cables. A High-Quality 24AWG HDMI to DVI cable from Monoprice is much better quality than that TigerDirect cable, at a better price. BTW don't buy a 15 foot cable if you don't need it. You can suffer signal dropouts with such a long run if you aren't very careful about how you go about it. Try to stay 6' or less if possible. That'll run you about $16 from Monoprice, plus shipping.

http//www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023102&p_id=2218&seq=1&format=2&style=

And to get optimal resolution, timings, and possibly overscan settings, you may need a tool like PowerStrip.[/quote59f74dc0b0]

I'm in Canada, duties and stuff would be emposed. And too bad I didn't see this thread before hand because I already placed my order with Tigerdirect.ca

Order Total $1485 CAD

Holy crap.. oops