Dual Monitors w/ Display Port to HDMI Looking Ugly

[Hitoshura]

A good friend of mine was trying to get rid of a well taken care of Samsung 28" monitor for a great price. ($60)

I had to buy a display port because my GPU for some reason only has 2 DVI slots, 1 HDMI and 1 display port. I had read up that the Display port would actually be better overall along with my other monitor having HDMI, something about it running more optimal. But I noticed the text is blurry on my Samsung. Now my main display is actually a brand new Sony Bravia 32", an actual TV, not a monitor.

For whatever reason, my PS4 gets full 1080p and looks fantastic on the Sony TV, but when I hook my PC up... if I dare set the resolution to 1080, the font looks absolutely awful and makes everything else look unreadable. I have to set it to it's "recommended" 1360 x 768, which in contrast looks absolutely amazing and colorful compared to hooking my PC up alone to the Samsung monitor, which when hooked up alone, does look very crisp and clear but the color looks almost washed out compared to the Bravia. So obviously, this blur is being caused when I have both monitors hooked up.

TL;DR Using a Display Port to HDMI adapter for my monitors makes the font on my secondary look very blurry and ugly. Is it because both resolutions are not set identical? This is so bizarre. I could have sworn I have used two completely different monitors before with different res's and they both didn't suffer any loss. I have a feeling it also might be because I am using both, an actual computer monitor, and an HDTV w/ speakers. But hopefully I am wrong, and you geniuses will pull me out of this.

I ended up returning the display port to HDMI adapter, getting my cash back so I could try something else. Today I ordered a DVI cable instead, and hopefully that will retain that crisp display. Either way this isn't a huge deal considering I will mostly be using that Samsung to watch Netflix, fight cards, while I do random shit in FF14 or something mindlessly boring in a game like grinding, or just to keep chats open with friends.

and before people start asking what kind of friend sold it to me, he's a long time friend that would not rip me off in any way. Besides, like I said earlier, the monitor looks fantastic when you hook it up alone, just... my only complaint is that the colors cannot compare to a brand new TV, but that's to be expected from a used one. I will definitely try to tweak the color settings when my DVI cable gets here.

[Sonomaa]

maybe drivers, it might not have been recognized properly by the system and was trying to default to a non-optimal resolution
Ive had a few HDMI to DP cables and they worked fine, just gotta make sure you get the right direction, most of them are display port on the PC to the HDMI connection to the monitor

[Modoru]

Yeah, as Sonomaa said, check your device manager and make sure it's not listed as "Generic PnP monitor".
Samsungs are usually listed as their product number or whatnot.

If that's not the case, then I'm not quite sure?

[Stromgarde]

In my experience DisplayPort to HDMI adapters are extremely hit or miss. Try getting different, active adapter and see if the problem persists; I've had good experience with StarTech.

[Purrrfect]

Is the cable you are waiting for something like this?
http://www.konecable.com/images/hdmitodvi.jpg

I would just use one of those and a regular hdmi cable if your tv and monitor do not have displayport, and you are only using 2 screens. You need to use the displayport if you are going over 2 though.

Alternatively, I ordered [one of these] for my work pc so I could use 3 monitors and it has worked pretty flawlessly.

[Niya]

As Purrr said, as long as you only want to hook up 2 monitors and both are somewhere around full HD resolution, you'll be fine with DVI and HDMI. DP would only be needed for 3+ monitors and/or for higher resolutions.

[Hitoshura]

Thank you all! I will post my results when my cable comes in tomorrow! Can't wait.

[Hitoshura]

Well.. this is a shocker but very happy with the results. So it turns out the solution the entire time was just to go DVI and ditch that Display Port completely. Remember what I said about the Sony TV looking better? I take that back, because this Samsung with a DVI cable connected to it just obliterates the Sony TV now. Not only does the color looks a lot better now, but everything looks much cleaner... and too perfect. $60 plus the $8 I had to spend on the cable makes this my best second hand purchase to date. I am very happy for once because I always get fucked over on things like this and PC hardware in general in the past. But now things are finally going my way, I have had a resurgence of some sort.

[Niya]

Great to hear ^^ I guess that DP-HDMI adapter was just crap then... (or either side didn't like the converted signals)

[Hitoshura]

It was best buy's brand, but the geek squad tool told me that it would be the best option, even over HDMI. I paid $25 for that overpriced shit.. didn't even look good.

This is the cable I picked up: http://www.amazon.com/BlueRigger-Dig.../dp/B009WA4EBU

I also found a very tiny cheap USB Wi-Fi piece since for some reason motherboards still don't come equipped with Wi-Fi: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WN7.../dp/B008IFXQFU

Amazon Prime trial + these $8 each = fuck you best buy! They will price gouge your eyeballs out.

Anyway, very happy with everything over all. I was able to finally move my desk and rig to my living room where it's coldest, it's starting to get hot in California. I will update this thread with a photo because I want to know what you guys recommend for setting them up since there is a size difference. Sony is 32" and the Samsung 28".. I think or 24".