[moonmonkey]

I just bought a Phillips 42PF7421 42" TV

http://www.consumer.philips.com/cons...veTab=features

How can I connect this to my 1st Gen MacMini?
Mac mini has DVI and VGA output (with the provided adaptor)

What adaptor should I use it to connect it to my new TV which has these ports

i'm baffled.

[Simon]

If you have a VGA cable, you could connect the VGA dongle to the mini's DVI port and to the VGA input of your TV (marked as CVI-2). Or you could get a DVI-HDMI cable and hook the mini up to one of the HMDI ports of your TV.


The Apple Store (U.S.) - XtremeMac XtremeHD HDMI to HDMI Cable

[torifile]

Originally Posted by Simon 

If you have a VGA cable, you could connect the VGA dongle to the mini's DVI port and to the VGA input of your TV (marked as CVI-2). Or you could get a DVI-HDMI cable and hook the mini up to one of the HMDI ports of your TV.


The Apple Store (U.S.) - XtremeMac XtremeHD HDMI to HDMI Cable

That's what I've done with my mini. I use an HDMI cable with a DVI-HDMI converter on the end. It works perfectly. The mini detected the correct resolution and it looks fantastic.

[moonmonkey]

Is it better to use the HDMI or VGA option, what would be the quality difference?

[torifile]

Originally Posted by moonmonkey 

Is it better to use the HDMI or VGA option, what would be the quality difference?

I prefer HDMI just because it's easier to plug in but I don't know about the difference in quality. They're both digital so I can't imagine one would be markedly better than the other.

[iRye]

DVI would be better quality. VGA is older than DVI. DVI is HD, where VGA isn't.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by iRye 

DVI would be better quality. VGA is older than DVI. DVI is HD, where VGA isn't.

I read "VGA" and thought he wrote it meaning DVI. If your TV doesn't have a DVI port, you should use HDMI for sure.

[Simon]

I would expect HDMI to be better than VGA just like DVI is better than VGA.

From an image quality POV there's no difference between using DVI or HDMI. Attaching an HDMI TV to a Mac's DVI interface should not reduce image quality at all.

[moonmonkey]

HDMI gets higher resolution from the computer too, so I will go with this.

Thanks!

[P]

DVI-I contains both the digital and the analog signal side by side. DVI-D and HDMI is just digital and DVI-A and VGA just analog. The difference is between analog and digital. The difference between HDMI and DVI using the digital signal is precisely zero, as is the difference between VGA and DVI using the analog signal. Digital is slightly better than analog - for TV images, the difference is very small unless the cable is long. For a computer image, digital has slightly more of an edge, but it's still quite minor.

[ibook_steve]

And the only difference between HDMI and DVI is that HDMI carries the audio along with it. Other than that, HDMI uses all the same digital signaling as DVI.

Steve

[moonmonkey]

Great answers, thanks.