[XA04]

I bought a DVI to HDMI cable for my tv and when I put it in 1080p (1920x1080) the image quality isn't great? Maybe too sharp? When I use a standard VGA cable it looks amazing. Even lower resolutions look better than 1080p!

Any ideas? Could it be the cable I purchased? It was only £2 off ebay.. but I don't see why/how it could cause this problem.

Edit:

VGA:

DVI:

OK OK the pictures don't make it look too bad but when you see it in person it is worse

[Chris Muriel]

How long is that HDMI cable ?

[XA04]

2 meters.

[Chris Muriel]

In most cases with that length, any HDMI cable should work; however, in my opinion, the striation type artifacts on the HDMI picture could be caused by either poor termination or interference pickup.
The best way to test this would be to try to borrow a quality cable (which should then guarantee good shielding and connections) and see if that makes any difference. But....
it could also be interference picked up by the PC's graphics card or even a faulty card; the best way to test that is to try the same tests with the same cables but on another TV (maybe borrow a neighbour's or take your PC round to a neighbour's house and try it).
You could also do further detective work by trying another PC (maybe a friend's PC) that has HDMI or DVI output , connecting it with the same cables to your TV and seeing if that exhibits the same symptoms.
The object is to see whether the problem lies with the PC, the TV or the interconnect.

[Joe Fernand]

Hello XA04

HDMI is a video input and many HDMI equipped devices don't properly support PC signal resolution/refresh rates via HDMI.

Where you do have support for PC type signals via an HDMI Input socket keep in mind that the reference levels for Black/White are different between the PC world and the Video world.

What resolution is your Display, what signals does it support via HDMI (look in the user manual for that info) and what output options do you have on the PC when its connected to the display via DVI>HDMI?

Joe

[KelvinS1965]

I'd look in the settings menu for the HDMI input to check if the overscan is enabled (or perhaps it is called pixel mapping or something similar). If the image isn't pixel mapped, then the panel will be rescaling it and that can look quite nasty, so it's worth a check. Many TVs have per input settings, so don't assume that because the VGA one works ok the HDMI one will too. You should also turn down (or off) the sharpness control as it will create 'ringing' making the text look blury close up to the screen. I use a HTPC into my TV and PJ and the text is pin sharp at 1920 x 1080.

Hope that helps.