Spot the (nearly) hidden flaw - HDMI <-> DVI cable

How about this one?

Don't know about cables, but I have both DVI-D and DVI-I to HDMI adapters. But I was led to believe all of these adapters are for going in the HDMI direction only and you can't go from HDMIr to anything. Was I wrongly informed?

bill

Depends on the content - DVI-D is a subset of the HDMI protocol with different connectors, so adapters don't change the signal and they can work in both directions. As long as an HDMI source is only presenting content that is part of the DVI-D spec it can work with a DVI-D display device. Other stuff can be ignored (e.g. audio, but there's usually an analogue connection available) or break the connection (e.g. content protection).

So I would not recommend mine, from ebay. It took almost 4 weeks delivery from Hong Kong to Europe, and the quality is Chinese: iron wires instead of copper. But it does work and was cheap: AU $2,19

- Martin

I'm not aware of any signal conversion between DVI-D and HDMI. So the adapter should work in both directions.

However, DVI-I would integrate the analog signals. Your options are:

A) the cable is HDMI to DVI-D and really does use active electronics to convert digital HDMI signals to analog output signals on the DVI-I plug

B) the cable actually does accept analog input signals on the DVI-I plug and does convert those actively to digital signals for the HDMI side. But I doubt that - where would the power for the electronics come from?

C) the DVI-I plug does ignore the analog signals and does use digital DVI-D to HDMI only

So C) is the typical rip-off. There's no need, there's no choice for analog signals. The only thing that does make it DVI-I is the plug which has all pins visible - although most of them are not connected to anything. C) in fact is just DVI-D to HDMI, bidirectional.

Interesting. I just got these adapters (not for use on the Pi, really) and haven't tried them yet. Now I am curious, so it looks like another side trip this weekend to see what they do. I am leaning towards "C" myself now, which will still do just fine for what I bought them for.

bill

Thanks - bought one and it work well.

Works far better than HDMI to a TV, so far.

One TV has resolution problems. The other displays but scales down so it isn't using the whole screen - which for a 1080p TV is wierd.

Also the plasma TV seems to interfere with the wireless mouse/keyboard.

Cheers

Dave R