HDMI for PC to monitor?

[VidmanII]

Bear with me here, I haven't built a PC for 6 years but just put together a Win7 x64 box. Specs below.

I have HDMI on my I/O panel of my mobo. If I get a LCD monitor with an HDMI connnector, would I be able to use that instead of DVI/VGA outputs for daily use? It's basically a media center PC in the sense that I just want to watch HD movies on my PC monitor.

thanks in advance for tips/advice,
Todd

[JackVancouverBC]

I'll talk from experience using the Samsung T240HD and the GTX 470. Don't do this if you've disabled HDMI audio on the card/IGP and don't do this if you want accurate colors and color temperature.

DVI is much closer (settings-wise) to how an actual monitor is supposed to perform at. For instance, in HDMI, you're not allowed to set the color temperature any warmer beyond "Normal" while you're not in "Movie" mode. This might make the screen more blue than normal. Also, with the extra controls in HDMI inputs, you're more likely to screw up the calibration. DVI only allows Contrast, Brightness, and Sharpness. It also has optimized profiles for PC use in terms of color temperature. These are the only controls you should need for a computer monitor.

If you're looking at other brands, maybe they do it differently, but on Samsung 24'' HDTV monitors, avoid HDMI and use DVI for display.

[John C]

I'll talk from experience using the Samsung T240HD and the GTX 470. Don't do this if you've disabled HDMI audio on the card/IGP and don't do this if you want accurate colors and color temperature.

DVI is much closer (settings-wise) to how an actual monitor is supposed to perform at. For instance, in HDMI, you're not allowed to set the color temperature any warmer beyond "Normal" while you're not in "Movie" mode. This might make the screen more blue than normal. Also, with the extra controls in HDMI inputs, you're more likely to screw up the calibration. DVI only allows Contrast, Brightness, and Sharpness. It also has optimized profiles for PC use in terms of color temperature. These are the only controls you should need for a computer monitor.

If you're looking at other brands, maybe they do it differently, but on Samsung 24'' HDTV monitors, avoid HDMI and use DVI for display.

That has to be a monitor limitation, since DVI and HDMI are identical signals, with the exception of HDMI carrying audio also.

[JackVancouverBC]

Yes, if you're connecting to an actual HDTV, it doesn't matter between DVI and HDMI since they're the same. But, certainly what's in an HDTV LCD Monitor (a 24'' computer monitor with HDMI and ATSC tuner) is more limiting than a dedicated 32''+ HDTV.

Protip (used in broadcast): For calibration, make sure you have a "blue only" mode in the monitor and then feed color bars to it to set your saturation/color level.