FWIW, my ATI 1950pro is connected via (included) component dongle to a Sony TV and it does show the BIOS screen. I can even access BIOS with my Rocketfish USB Bluetooth keyboard. Of course the downside is it's only 1080i.

Hi All,

I hope I'm posting this in the right forum :) I searched, but couldn't find any discussion on this.

I just bought a Toshiba 37AV500U LCD and am having a weird issue with the VGA input (attached to my PC).

From time to time, I get a little square (maybe 300x100 pixels) in the top-right corner that seems to be out of sync with the rest of the screen. It's like it's delayed by a fraction of a second, compared to the rest of the picture. It grows down to maybe 300x300 and then disappears. The picture is perfectly fine for a few minutes, and then it repeats.

This happens whether I am watching a fast-paced 720p movie, or just working on the Windows desktop ( though it's less noticeable on the desktop, because there isn't as much movement of the picture ).

I've tried setting different resolutions within Windows (1360x768, 1280x720), but it persists. I also tried booting into Ubuntu Linux, and it occurs there too (rules out a driver or Windows-specific issue).

I don't have this problem watching standard def TV (still waiting for the new cable box to arrive) or playing XBox/PS2 using the component and composite inputs.

I'm leaning towards this being a video card issue ( ATI Radeon X800XT ), as I have read that pre-X1k cards have issues with HDTV resolutions. The strange thing is that my regular monitors are 1440x900 widescreen LCDs, and they don't exhibit this issue.

I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this, or has suggestions on how to remedy it?

Thanks,
Mike

Crap. A minute after posting this, I found the answer somewhere else. Looks like it's a Toshiba-specific problem:

I have:
32" Viewsonic LCD
37" Viewsonic LCD
32" Samsung LCD

All purchased from Costco in the last year or so. I use a new MacBook Pro (DVI with the HDMI-DVI converter in the Costco hidef cable kit). I boot the MBP into Windows Vista Ultimate and OSX Leopard.

I have found an amazing difference between these three tv's. I have been completely unhappy with the VGA cable connectivity. Color and resolution were not very good. Using HDMI on the 37" Viewsonic is fabulous. Both Vista and OSX look amazing - Vista doesn't do as elegant of a job of auto-detecting, but once the resolution is set the picture is really nice. We do some collaborative work on it, sharing office documents, media etc... Funny thing is that the 32" picture is really bad. Resolution sets ok, but there is often a shakiness to the picture, and the colors/picture just doesn't look good.

I am now in the market for a 50", which is how I stumbled on this site. Thought I would share my experience, and hopefully get some tips from anyone that has bought one of the ~50" Costco units recently. I will probably pick up the Sharp or Viewsonic. I think I need the 1080p. I really dislike a bunch of aspects of the Viewsonic interface, but the 37" has been so amazing that I will probably turn a blind eye to it's strange remote codes and sluggish response.

askywalker, welcome.

Many TVs don't allow you to use to use the screen's native resolution with either VGA or HDMI interfaces (or both). If this is the case you will get very poor results and is likely the problem you are having with your 32" Samsung LCD. When looking for a 50", make sure that you can use the screen's native resolution.

Ok, so I know my Hitachi 62VS69A tv can only display 720p widescreen, but I would still like to connect my video card to it to watch HD video. For VGA I have a HIS Radeon HD 2600 XT Video Card - 512MB GDDR3, AGP 8x, Dual DVI, HDTV with HDMI Support and it comes with a DVI to HDMI connector and a 12ft HDMI to Video Cable V1.3 that I purchased off of EBAY. But I just can't seem to get a display going on the tv. I know that resolution compatibility can get tricky, and so that's why I'm posting this thread so I can hopefully get some help on getting me connected.

Sincerely,

Usually, the video card assumes that it is attached to a monitor. However, in some cases, TV's do not behave like monitors and fail to return the correct codes the card needs to determine the available screen resolutions.

Fortunately, the ATI Catalyst Control Center allows you to specify that you are connecting to an HDTV and you can then choose 720p output.

... and in some cases (like mine: Sony KV-34XBR800 and ATI Radeon 9600), the ATI video card will not even acknowledge the TV DVI/HDMI connection and you will be force to buy/use the ATI component video dongle (if supported by your particular ATI video card model).

Hello,

I just purchased a 50 inch Samsung Plasma display and am renting a Rogers HD box HT6200 NL Canada. I have Vista Ultimate with Media Center. Is there any way I can connect my computer to this box with a suitable tuner card to record the content instead of renting Rogers PVR? Is there any way to stream HD content from the computer to the TV? What are some of the best alternatives for what I want to do here in Atantic Canada?

AFAIK, this is the only option, right now:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=87729
to get the content from the rogers box to computer.

As for computer to TV; lots of options.

The TV probably has a VGA input and sound plug (whether 3.5mm or optical or..?)
or if your PC has HDMI output, that's the easiest route.

Thanks for the reply. So the Hauppauge HD PVR can be connected to the Rogers HD Box and record the HD content to my computer? I'm concerned about the over heating issues with the latter. I had been hoping that there would be some way to connect from from upstairs to downstairs with ethernet or coax as my computer is upstairs, and I already have coax/ethernet routed to my crawl space underneath the living room to the tv. I understand the other types of cables that you mentioned are limited in length. I'm also wondering if my 3.4 P4 single core processor will be fast enough to process HD. I read in some articles that a dual processor is needed. My NVidia 7300 card has DVI out but not HDMI. I understand that an adaptor is available. It would be a bit of a pain, though, having to move the desktop computer downstairs each time I want to see a movie, and the fans are not all that quiet. Leaving it permanenly in the living room would not be an option of choice as the living room is already somewhat cramped. Ordinary S-video from DVD looks pretty good on the 50 inch screen. It's a lot of expense to gain the additional resolution.

I can't really think of any connectivity options available over long distances like that, so can't help you there.
But as for the second question - There aren't many PC's today that can process HD on the fly and still retain quality. So no, your P4 probably can't encode live. But it could probably record im a quick/lossy format to create a (massive) raw file and then slowly encode it in good quality later.
For perspective, my brand new Phenom 9750 can only do ~25-30 fps 720p x264 using 3 cores. Each individual processing thread (1 per core) gets 8-11fps.

Thanks for the clarification. My Asus P5B-VM mobo is supposed to be able to take up to a 3 GHz Dual Core Intel which I presume would make a significant difference. It seems to me that if frecording programs is all that I want to do I would probably be better off renting or buying the Rogers PVR box. What advantages are there to the Hauppauge by comparison?

This thread is about HDTVs as a monitor, not about recording HD. Please use appropriate threads. Future off-topic posts will be deleted.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=14099 Recording HD

Hi guys, thanks for the reply. I have been trying to fiddle around with the Radeon HD 2600 XT HDTV output settings but to now avail. I should have included that I had accidentally purchased a DVI to HDMI cable and had instantly gotten picture on my tv, but soon noticed I didn't have the sound, that's when I bought the 12ft HDMI to Video Cable V1.3. Do you think maybe the version is causing me the problems? I have read that they're at version 1.3b1.

Do you also think I should just go back to DVI to DHMI? I have Delta 66 M-Audio card with s/pdif out that hopefully can output 5.1 surround.

Sincerely,

Genesis or is that Phil?

I've never fiddled with HDMI so this is just food for thought.
Before you add the digital audio cable, check your control panel/sound and see if the default audio out is the HDMI device on the vid card. Unless you change this it's probably defaulted to the standard wave device on the audio card.
I didn't see a mention of which OS, or whether you intend to run HDMI straight to the TV or use a receiver to process the audio and pass video through to the TV. And what is a "12ft HDMI to Video Cable V1.3"?? Is that just a 12' v1.3 HDMI cable?
As I mentioned above, using the component dongle and digital out from the sound card is quite acceptable and probably less hassle?

Why did the ATI DVI-HDMI adapter not work? good question!! :D
If you've got a small monitor that can be attached too, it really helps. Get the computer working with the small monitor and shutdown, then hook up the TV too. When you start it up, go into CCC or display properties and ENABLE the secondary display and see what happens. Just dragging the display#2 icon to a different position will start the wizard. In CCC BASIC mode, there's another "setup my display" wizard. Try these out. Maybe it'll work.

Good luck.

DVI normally would not carry any audio. But ATI often uses their DVI connector to carry other signals, in this case the audio for their DVI-HDMI adapter.

However, if you did not use the ATI adapter and connected a DVI-HDMI cable, it probably did not include the necessary wiring to pick up the audio.

My suggestion is to use the ATI DVI-HDMI adapter. Then use a standard HDMI cable.

Berty:

First band I ever like was Genesis, yes:p

"12ft HDMI to Video Cable V1.3" is the way is was written off of ebay, but yes it's a common DHMI cable, gold plated and it is going after the ATI DVI-HDMI converter straight into the back of my Hitachi 62VS69A. I did what you suggested, switching the audio before hand and restarting the pc. I immediately got a picture of MS-Dos and the first Welcome screen from Windows XP which got me really excited, but the picture seemed very low in resolution and when the desktop came on, I lost all picture, instead I get this flickering images of lines and color for a little bit until my tv decides to shut off. I then tried to the basic wizard setup with CCC and tried different display resolutions to no avail.:(

Did you hook up a normal monitor (so you have two going) to see what's happening?
There's always alternate plan B, use RGB and digital audio. :/ Could save some grey hairs too.

OK, so I've got this LG TV and every written source says it has a resolution of 1366x768 but it accepts a 1080p signal. I watch HD from about 4' away and it has a fine picture at that distance. I also have it hooked up to my 8800GT NVidia card by DVI to HDMI and it reports a native resolution of 1920x1080. It will accept either resolution but the 1080p setting makes the desktop smaller than the 768p setting so I think it's capable of outputting a 1080 picture.
Could this TV have a 1920x1080p panel and is there any way of testing this?