The DVI input on the SP 4805...i'm very confused. (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

Alright, for a year now i've been reading up on the Infocus 4805 and now I finally have one, today I went out and bought an upconverting dvd player with an HDMI output and I also bought an HDMI to DVI adapter cable to use with the 4805.

Well, low and behold that the cable I bought does not fit the 4805! I am POSITIVE that the specs said that the 4805 had a DVI input on it, but the DVI end of the cable is too small and the pins are different.

I don't get it.

What kind of cable do I need to make this work? Thanks.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Nevermind, guys, after doing some investigating I found out that all I need is what's called an 'M1 Adapter' to connect to a standard HDMI cable, I can order the adapter right from Infocus.

Still, why on Earth couldn't IF just provide a traditional DVI iput on their projectors? Doing it this way is very inconveniant.

 

[Steve Berger]

It probably has to do with pin count. The M1 (Plug and Display Analog/Digital P&D-A/D) can handle a variety of possible inputs in one connector. DVI, VGA, RGBHV, YPbPr, USB, Firewire can all be sent with the appropriate cable. It would be difficult to put that many seperate connectors on a small panel. (HDMI being basically DVI+ audio)

I think the newer InFocus PJs have added another connector for HDMI but dropped the Faroudja chip for Pixelworks. (I'd rather have the Faroudja than another connector myself)

 

[Citizen87645]

Didn't I warn you about this in one of the other threads? If not, my bad.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I can't remember if you did or not, Cameron, if you did I guess I didn't comprehend what you said until I encountered the problem myself.

Here's what irks me, in every spec i've ever read about the 4805, it clearly lists having a DVI input without specifying that you'll need this adapter. Would it have been so hard to list it like this...

DVI Input Yes (requires an M1 adapter to accept HDMI)

?

 

[Citizen87645]

So which upconverting player did you buy? I'm assuming not the Oppo since it has a DVI jack.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Well, this is just a temp player until I can get the Oppo, I bought the Samsung DVD-HD860. I read a couple of reviews and it's said to be a decent player for the price.

It's killing me that now I have to wait to get the part I need, i've never seen an upconverting player in action and i'm dying of curiosity to see what the image will look like.

I'll find out Thursday when I get the adapter.

 

[Adam Bluhm]

Honest question.. simply because I just don't know.

Why get an upconverting player when the 4805 is only capable of displaying a progressive, 480p picture? Is it to be future-proof for a future HD projector or is the image quality supposedly better? I've never dealt with an upconverting player/HD display so I'm out of the loop regarding that.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Well, I just decided to take a chance.

I know that the 4805 is 480p, however I have seen the way other 480p projectors, the X1 namely, have handled higher resolutions being fed to them and they still delivered an incredible image despite the scaling back down to 480p, I took the chance that this would be the case with mine...and it was overall.

I just picked up the M1 adapter today (50 bucks for a unit no bigger than my thumb :frowning and quickly performed a temp hook up just to play around, when I popped in some of the resolution test patterens on AVIA, I saw much sharper detail in areas that were not as sharp before. This is no doubt credited to the pure digital delivery that the player is feeding to the projector, there's no loss of detail caused by in-player digital to analog conversion like in conventional players.

I just may stick with running 480p with the new player, as I said I can still see a sharper image than componant 480p.

 

[Kyle_D]

Well, you could have just ordered from Monoprice and paid less than $10

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Great. :frowning: Well, I was desperate and needed it ASAP.

I took that piece of crap Samsung (don't get me started on that...UGH) back to Best Buy and exchanged it for the Sony DVP-NS75H and I LOVE this player!! Even though my projector is naitive 480p and it re-scales everything down to that regardless of which I choose, the image coming out of this player is incredible, I have never seen standard def dvd look this clean and smooth before.

I didn't really know what to expect when I decided to venture into the realm of upscaling dvd players because I had heard conflicting things all over about how some see an improvment while others don't, but, based on my experience with the Sony, I instantly became an advocate for these players.

It may not be HD, but it still looks damn good, the image quality of the Star Wars Ep III dvd nearly knocked me on my ass LOL!

 

[GregoryP]

I just encountered this exact same issue. I had no idea that DVI and mi(or m1) were different connectors. I just tried to hook up the HDMI-DVI cable from monoprice and achieved total failure.

So I'm pretty annoyed and somewhat confused about what I should do. At some point in the future, I plan to upgrade my 4805 to a 720p or higher High Def projector.

1) Should I keep the HDMI-DVI cable and buy a DVI-M1 adaptor, or
2) Should I send this cable back and get a pure HDMI cable and an HDMI-M1 adaptor?

It seems to me that in the long run, everything is going HDMI so I could probably use the pure HDMI cable for my next projector...

Any help would be appreciated. I'm kicking myself because I like to consider myself fairly well educated in the Home Theater area, yet I completely bungled this DVI M1 situation... *sigh*

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Gregory, I know exactly what your going through, but there is light at the end of that seemingly dark tunnel.

What I did was return my HDMI-DVI cable (because, like you, I found out it didn't fit) and get a traditional HDMI-HDMI cable (which is what you'll need to do to if you decide to pursue this), ordered an M1 adapter from a local HT store and I was good to go. Of course, at first I had that crappy Samsung player, but once I returned that and got the Sony, I was amazed at the results.

It's a headache, I know, but speaking as a fellow owner of a 4805, the trouble is well worth it once you get it all sorted out and get the M1 and proper cable. My dvd's have never looked so good and I now don't regret a second of the disastrous events of a couple of weeks ago, the learning experience and effort payed off and i'm wiser for it, before all this, I didn't even know what an M1 adapter was.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

 

[GregoryP]

Thanks, John. I think I'm going to return my current cable and get new ones.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Cool, hope it all works out for you.

 

[GregoryP]

ARG! Monoprice is out of stock on the HDMI-M1 adaptor. Does anybody know another place that sells them at a reasonable price?

 

[Todd Hostettler]

Where are you located? I've actually found these adaptors on the shelf at my local Micro Center.

 

[GregoryP]

I'm in Charlotte, NC and unfortunately we don't have any Micro Centers around here. I'll look around, though. Worse comes to worse, I'll hit the Micro Center in Atlanta next time I visit my parents.

Thanks!