I have an 8800 GTX with two DVI ports on the back of it. I'm trying to plug in an Element 32" 720p LCD HDTV. I'm currently using a DVI to VGA connector off the back of the graphics card into the VGA on the back of the LCD screen.

It seems either my DVI connector has too few pins (something to do with DVI-D/I?) because it still says "no signal." The NVidia Control Panel lists the second screen (I've got the first slot on the new TV, the second DVI slot is my old monitor) but all of the standard available video settings don't seem to work (unless I have to reset the TV every time I try a different resolution?)

Do I need a different cable, or is there a particular custom setting that will get the graphics card and the TV talking?

Yes. Get a DVI to HDMI cable/connecter. It should work perfectly.

yeah, i'm pretty sure i said in the other thread hdmi to dvi will work

newegg has those cables for ~$3

Yeah, seriously, DVI to HDMI. If you don't wanna do amazon hit up a best buy or apple store--you can find them for 10-20 bucks, which still isn't bad.

I don't see any reason why your current setup shouldn't function, but HDMI would be better... Have you tried rebooting the system with the TV plugged in and powered up, then enable the secondary desktop as you would with a regular monitor?

How would HDMI be better than DVI? They're virtually the same. Unless you meant DVI-D.

I'm assuming you are using the DVI/VGA adapter that came with the card?

Heh. I was going to post that he almost certainly isn't.

No one's saying it is. We're saying HDMI is better than VGA.

Yeah, I already looked to see if there was a connector in the box I put all of this computer's crap into. There's nothing but booklets

Should I be buying a particular type of DMI plug? The different standards are confusing, and I'm still not entirely clear on which one the card is outputting.

Oops. :downs:

Get this. 15 feet for $6.26. It'll work just as well as anything you buy in the store.

FWIW, I tried connecting my PC to my buddy's 720P LCD via HDMI - I couldn't get a good clean native res picture. Plugged in via VGA (with a VGA/DVI adapter) and it worked great...

VGA is pretty underrated. If you have a half decent VGA cable, it can easily handle 1080p. The only difference I can see on my TV between VGA and HDMI is that the VGA picture has a bit of noise if the screen is pure white and you walk up to the display.

If you boost the voltage enough you can put basically any resolution you want across VGA.

Technically DVI is a superset of the VGA specification. It's possible to carry a VGA signal across a DVI cable - it's called DVI-A, and nothing supports it.

That's the point. DVI-D is a digital signal. It either works perfectly with no interference or it doesn't work at all.

I bought that cable and a TV stand so I can mount it up higher, and swivel it out to the rest of the room for easy viewing anywhere.

I'll take pictures once it's all set up.

Well, that's just the nature of analog signaling. With VGA the limitation would be in your video card's DAC, and most don't support higher than 2048 x 1536@85Hz.