Another dumb cable question: Video protocols/connectors…

[Sundown]

Hi Guys,

 

I understand audio cables pretty well (and I’ll be understanding them a lot better when I start soldering my own here shortly), but I don’t know much about video cables.

 

I want to swap-out the somewhat noisy video card in my DAW tower with a fanless unit and the one I’m looking at has four HDMI outputs. I’m driving three 23” LCD displays that are 10 years old, and those displays have DVI-D and DisplayPort inputs. I use those displays for my day job as well (which occupy the DisplayPort connectors), so I’m looking at using HDMI to DVI-D cables for my DAW. I know HDMI can carry audio which is of no use to me, so I’m not concerned about losing that part of the signal.

 

But I do want a crisp image and user interface when I do studio work. I don’t do video streaming or audio for picture, but I do want to make sure the HDMI to DVI-D conversion is lossless and true.

 

Is flipping connector formats like this no big deal, or are there trade offs? I’m hoping it’s a non-event.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Todd

 

 

 

 

[Anderton]

11 hours ago, Sundown said:

Hi Guys,

 

I understand audio cables pretty well (and I’ll be understanding them a lot better when I start soldering my own here shortly), but I don’t know much about video cables.

 

I want to swap-out the somewhat noisy video card in my DAW tower with a fanless unit and the one I’m looking at has four HDMI outputs. I’m driving three 23” LCD displays that are 10 years old, and those displays have DVI-D and DisplayPort inputs. I use those displays for my day job as well (which occupy the DisplayPort connectors), so I’m looking at using HDMI to DVI-D cables for my DAW. I know HDMI can carry audio which is of no use to me, so I’m not concerned about losing that part of the signal.

 

But I do want a crisp image and user interface when I do studio work. I don’t do video streaming or audio for picture, but I do want to make sure the HDMI to DVI-D conversion is lossless and true.

 

Is flipping connector formats like this no big deal, or are there trade offs? I’m hoping it’s a non-event.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Todd

 

HDMI was designed to be backward compatible with DVI, so they have more similarities than differences. Going from HDMI to DisplayPort is more problematic. You should be able to use a simple passive adapter to do HDMI-to-DVI conversion for resolutions up to 2048 x 1200 (single link DVI). But if you want resolutions that go higher than HD, it gets more complicated and my understanding is that then, you would need some kind of active adapter.

 

Bottom line: get an HDMI-to-DVI adapter and see if it does the job. Odds are it will. If not, things get more complicated.

[Sundown]

Thanks Craig - Huge help.

 

Todd

[Greg Mein]

I recently had some experience with this when I bought a new monitor for an older Dell desktop. The Dell had DVI-D single link and HDMI outputs. I ordered a cable that was DVI-D to Display Port but after it arrived I learned that it's a one way connection, the opposite way, so I returned it and got a DVI-D to HDMI which works great and is supposedly capable of working either way.

I needed to use the DVI-D output because I have a dual monitor setup and needed the HDMI output for that.

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, Greg Mein said:

...so I returned it and got a DVI-D to HDMI which works great and is supposedly capable of working either way.

 

Yes, it should indeed work either way. DisplayPort is where things start to get iffy.