I have some DVI cable questions!

First off, let me say I'm not much up on DVI cables so if I say the wrong thing please forgive me. Here's the deal:

When I installed my projector I went ahead and ran a DVI cable. However I used whichever DVI cable the 990's connector does NOT have...I have the DVI with all the pins and the 4 little extra pins (I think my cable is DVI and Analog) and of course the Outlaw does not have the 4 extra pins and my cable does not plug into it.

I guess the question is...do I need these 4 pins for anything? Can I just break them off so I can use the DVI cable with the 990? I hesitate to break them in case they need to be there in the future for something. If I were to plug a laptop with DVI output into it would I then need the 4 pins?

Here's what I'm trying to do in case you're curious...now that the Xbox 360 has the killer HD-DVD drive I'm wanting to get the VGA adapter for it and plug it into the DVI input using a VGA-DVI adapter...is there any reason why this shouldn't work? Thanks!

Those four pins above and below the blade are associated solely with the analog side of DVI - something that your projector probably can't accept anyway and that consumer electronics sources don't normally support anyway (I've heard of exactly one DVD player that did).

If you use a VGA-DVI adapter, however, you are using the analog section of DVI. You need to confirm that your projector will even accept an analog DVI signal. If it will, keep those four pins. If it won't, ditch the pins and don't waste money on VGA-DVI adapters that it won't work with.

Thanks Gonk.

My projector is an Optoma H31, I'll see if I can find the info about it. I know that the DVI plug on the projector does have the 4 pins on it.

And just let me make sure I'm hearing you right..even if I get the DVI cable to plug into the 990 via a convertor or by removing those 4 pins, using a VGA adapter wouldn't work anyway? So in this case I'd just have to bypass the 990 and run straight to the DVI cable?

Using a VGA adapter will work only if the display supports DVI-I input. DVI was developed as an interface for LCD computer monitors (which are digital display devices) and as such was a digital interface, but the developers were unwilling to abandon trusty analog video and allowed for three forms of DVI: DVI-D (digital only, single link or double link), DVI-A (analog only, for the familiar old analog video signals), and DVI-I (a connector that carries both digital and analog, so the device can input - or output, if it's a video card - either analog or digital based on your need).

Most of today's HDTV's either have HDMI (which borrows DVI's digital video side but left the analog video behind) or DVI-D. There are a few devices around that offer DVI-I (mostly front projectors, since many trace their lineage back to the business projector market). Only a DVI-I device will be able to work with DVI-VGA adapters, and then only if those four pins are in place throughout the entire signal path. According to Projector Central , the Optima H31's DVI input is a DVI-I input, so it would work with a VGA adapter, but if you can't plug a DVI-I cable into the 990's DVI ports without removing those four pins then you wouldn't be able to use the 990's switching with a VGA adapter in there somewhere.

Only loosely related question... When is Microsoft going to go ahead and find a way to put HDMI into the 360? For that matter (and get even more loosely related), I wonder if an inexpensive component to VGA adapter and a VGA to DVI adapter would be used to let you use that DVI-I cable to your Optima with all of your analog sources? (Component monitor output from 990 to the converter, converter VGA output to the VGA/DVI adapter, DVI-I cable from there to the projector...) It's late and my mind is wandering in potentially crazy directions.

Hey, sometimes good things happen when the mind wanders to uncharted territory

I never really considered the VGA-Component adapter only because I figured it wouldn't really give any advantage over just straight component. I'd like to try the VGA to see if it gives any advantage over component but it's looking like it's going to go through about 16 adapters in order to do that. Maybe I'll just stick with component What got this all started was the HD-DVD drive for the 360, and the HD movies and TV show downloads coming for the 360. That will be nice.

I don't know why Microsoft didn't include HDMI, same reason Outlaw didn't maybe. I don't know. But it's no concern to me at this point, nothing I own has HDMI

If you don't have any sources that have digital video (and based on your sig, you don't have any), you are probably best off staying with component. The only reason you might want to mess with the component-to-VGA-to-DVI would be if you only had (or wanted to only have) a DVI-I cable running to your projector. Since you clearly already have component cable run, it would just be an exercise in adapter chaining.

And for what it's worth, since the 360's HD-DVD drive is limited to component video output anyway, the best output you will be able to get would still be 1080i since the VGA and component outputs are using the same AV connection. I'm guessing that the highest output resolution offered is 1080i, which component can do just as well as VGA.

Actually the 360 outputs 1080p through the component, and I'm pretty sure through VGA also. It looks fantastic!

Yeah, VGA also does 1080p.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/746/746074p1.html

You may want to check on this but as far as I know the 360 will output max 1080i over component for Movies and 1080p over VGA. Has somethign to do with the DRM bullshit limiting the output resolution over component connections. The downrez mandate does not apply to VGA connections however.

Tons of talk of this on AVS so you may want to double check there.