Sapphire Radeon X1600 Pro provides HDMI
by Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Mar 7th 2006 at 7:35AM
We theorized about it when ATI licensed HDMI technology and today
Sapphire has announced the first of many expected video cards that will feature HDMI ports. The Sapphire Radeon X1600
Pro low profile PCI Express card is scheduled for an April release and will simplify both the Video and Audio
connections from your HTPC to your HDTV or monitor. Although HDMI doesn't offer any advantage over DVI in PQ, it is nice to have audio and video in one cable. Also, considering so many of today's TVs include HDMI rather than DVI, it simplifies the cable requirements. Some controls via HDMI would be nice, but I supposed that's asking for too much. The other mentionable feature is HDCP support which we will believe it when we see it.
[via Hexus]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dillon Bussert @ Mar 7th 2006 9:11AM
A DVI->HDMI cable only costs $8, and HTPC's don't get the benefit from using 1 HDMI cable for video and sound because those are done by 2 different cards on the PC. The 2 cable solution I have now, 1 optical and 1 HDMI/DVI, is good enough for me.
Ben Drawbaugh @ Mar 7th 2006 9:13AM
Dillon,
This card can take the sound from the sound card and tunnel it though the HDMI cable.
I agree no reason to upgrade, but it may be something to look for if you are already looking to buy a new card.
Jim @ Mar 8th 2006 12:22PM
I read this a while ago at www.hometheaterhifi.com (a great source for technical info) and found this in the article "DVI and HDMI Connections and HDCP Explained":
"DVI is an 8 bit RGB signal, while HDMI can be 8 bit RGB, or 8 bit, 10 bit, or 12 bit YCbCr. If you have a DVI source and DVI display, there will be no problem. If you have a DVI source and an HDMI display, again, no problem. If however, you have an HDMI source and a DVI display, the below-black video information may be lost in the translation. There is a bug in the Silicon Image HDMI transmitter that pops up when converting YCbCr to RGB." This was written November 2004, SI may have resolved this by now.
Currently source material (DVD and HD) is 8-bit color. Not sure if we'll ever get beyond that or if we really need to. But I felt it was necessary to show there is a difference between DVI and HDMI and that it wasn't just the audio capability HDMI adds.
jim @ May 27th 2006 6:37PM
it's nearly June and this card still isn't on shelves, even though there was a promised shipped date of april. Still waiting to beleive it when I see it.
Pokerson @ May 29th 2006 5:16PM
I think x1600 it's not best choice for men who wants to create HTPC, because there is not enaugh performance, much beter to wait more performed adapters with HDMI.
HDMI