HDMI to DVI cable?

Question

i have digital cable.... i have a samsung DLP TV. on back of the TV it has a DVI port , BUT on my digital cable reciever i have a HDMI port.


can i buy a cable that will plug into my HDMI port from my reciever to my DVI port in back of my TV?

if so , what are the draw backs? will i have sound?

Answer 1

You CAN buy cables that go from one type of connection to another. The only issue is HDMI carries digital sound and video signals while DVI does video only. So you are right, no sound if that is all you hook up.

Look for other sound connections from the cable receiver like digital coax or optical (if you can hook up to a receiver for surround sound. Or just RCA type connections (white/red, don't need yellow as it is for video) to the tv if you don't have a receiver.

Also, if you have a cable already, you can get just a smaller adapter to whatever it is you need, but it is nice to use the least amount of connections you can get away with.

Here are some cables you can buy (there are A LOT out there, use keywords 'HDMI to DVI' to get lots of hits and pay attention to 'Male/Female' connections...):
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=Model%3A+AP089&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2255658&cp
http://monstercable.com/productPage.asp?pin=1868

Good luck! I bet it looks awesome when all hooked up!

Answer 2

you need to buy a dvi cable and get a dvi to hdmi adapter. You will not get sound and there will be a un-noticable amount of picture quality loss.