help with HDMI

I currently own a dell 1520 and it does not have an hdmi slot in it. is there a way, no matter how round about that i can get an hdmi slot in it, perhaps there is an express card that allows hdmi? anything would be very helpful!

 

Nope

Are you trying to connect it to your tv?

 

Best you can do is VGA>DVI adapter, then DVI>HDMI adapter (or plug in to a DVI port on your TV). Picture quality won't be as good as pure HDMI/DVI, but the signal will get there and probably look better than any other input.

 

what i am trying to do is connect it to an hdmi monitor that i own. i just did some quick research but it seems it would be possible to add a dvi port via usb then use a dvi to hdmi adaptor to gain my hdmi port. does this sound feasible or was what i found a bunch of bs?

 

or i can do what sirmetman said... thanks! so basically it wont be as good as real hdmi, but definitely better than plain old vga

 

That's not a promise, but it is likely. Basically, if you have a pixel rather than scan line (LCD rather than CRT, etc) display, the VGA signal will have to be converted at some point, especially if your display's native res doesn't match your VGA res. Generally speaking, TVs have better digital scalars than analog to digital converters. But yeah, some sort of frankenstein cable setup should get your signal to your display.

 

Wouldnt that be the same as d-sub to d-sub?

^^I dont think it works like that, rather the quality would simply be vga through an hdmi cable.

 

lol, ok here is my final question, and this may even allow me to forgo the whole thing. do i even need to connect my hdmi monitor to my laptop via hdmi/dvi in order to receive an hd picture when i use my high definition tv tuner? or does it not really matter

EDIT:
and if it did matter, if i found a device that i could connect the monitor to my computer through a usb to hdmi/dvi adaptor would that work since im skipping the vga signal all together

 

Depends on the output from your tuner and the res supported out of your VGA port. Keep in mind that VGA can go pretty high res, it's just an analog signal, so it has to be converted to digital before being displayed on most modern equipment.

A quote I found about your integrated graphics: "The Intel GMA X3100 has a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 at a refresh rate of 75 Hz." HD is 1920X1080, so you could spit HD res out across the VGA cable, the only question is if your display device can handle it. I'm not sure on the exact mechanics of how the in-line VGA>DVI converters work, but since most TVs don't tend to support such high res from a VGA port, I'd bet you'd get better image quality out of an in-line converter with the cable plugged in to your DVI/HDMI input.

 

ah, well i am running an nvidia 8600M GT so i know that it can handle whatever the intel can, and since im connecting to an HDMI monitor, NOT a tv, the monitor will be able to run at that resolution through a vga port. so you would say that i can get hi def without going through all the twisted mechanics of conversions?

 

It depends on your specific hardware whether you will get better results with VGA or with the HDMI conversion. But VGA should be ok.

 

ok thanks, ill just do vga for a while and if i see the need to upgrade then i will do so. thanks a bunch!