[mythtv-users] Which TV connector type?

[Jon Whitear]

Phill Edwards wrote:
> If someone could share a few brief pros & cons on the different
> options that would be great.
Phill,

I recently bought an Sony LCD TV. I came across a couple of things I 
wished I'd known before I got it.

1) It has a VGA connector that will drive the screen at its native 
resolution (1366x768 or something like that) allowing Mythtv to do the 
scaling. That gives a really sharp picture, but the VGA port only does 
60Hz refresh, and I live in 50Hz PAL TV Australia. Using the VGA port 
gives noticeably jerkier motion that the (50Hz) HDMI port, to my eyes. 
Having said that, I know of other people using the VGA port quite happily.

2) HDMI is backwards compatible with DVI, but only to a certain extent. 
You can buy a DVI-HDMI cable for your DVI-out video card, and it should 
work OK. However, I had assumed that I would be able to drive the TV at 
its native resolution using DVI, even though Sony says something along 
the lines of "the HDMI port's not PC compatible." I discovered that my 
TV only supports standard digital TV modes via HDMI, e.g. 720p, 1080i. 
I'm running mine at 720p and it looks great, but it took me ages of 
faffing around to fine a modeline that worked.

Cheers,

Jon