deadlydeal As indicated in the following, with computers (HDMI) it can be important to turn one device or the other on first to engage the HDCP handshake. As soon as you turn one or the other off, the handshake is gone and the proper order needs to be used again to reestablish the handshake. The post outlines all the HDMI issues and has a list of "things to check" at the bottom.

That isnt the problem.
Ive done that several times.
The tv wouldnt even recognize a normal cable input from the ps3.

Ive never had a problem with turning my tv off and on while leaving
the laptop on and connected.. The only HDMI port that seems to
work now is Number 2, theyre 4.

So yes, as of right now it is working again, but i havent shut the
tv off since it started working again.

If the PS3 is set up for say 1080P, then using a "normal" cable may not work. Have you tried another source like a regular DVD player, or the PS3 when set to 480i for example?

If you have, perhaps there's an issue with the TV. Have you tried unplugging it for a while to see if it'll "reset"?

I just bought a PN50A650 thinking I could hook it up with my T61(Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M) via VGA at the resolution of 1920x1080. The TV does display it, however, with distortion. The content only takes about 2/3 of the TV screen at the right hand side.

All other lower resolutions working perfectly. Does anyone know what the problem is?

The Samsung is very PC friendly. I've run 1080p on the LN40A550. You have two problems.


Adjust the TV's screen aspect ratio to 16:9.
On the TV's main menu, choose the PC input and "tools". There should be adjustments to scale, and position the PC input. I found that the auto -adjust works very well. This is only for the VGA PC input.

>>> also have RGB IN on the back of tv..... it has a RGB(PC) plug and an AUDIO(RGBDVI) plug tha looks like a 3.5 jack<<<

That is likely the VGA port on your TV. You can connect a VGA cable from your computer to the TV using that connections. Use the one that currently goes to your monitor.

Hi, we have a HDTV in a meeting room and want to make it available to users so they can run PowerPoint from their laptop.

The challenge we have is that we must do it using the 3 component cables already in place. What we have to work with is:
a. Source signal is VGA/RGBHV.
b. HDTV interface are either VGA/RGBHV, Component (YPrBr) or HDMI
c. Cable link between the two is component (3 cables)

Test 1: VGA to Component (YPrBr). Using a converter the VGA signal is transcoded to an YPrBr signal so we can use the component interface on the TV side. I tried the Key Digital KD-VA5 but found it was not working at all. The component interface on the TV is very limitative and it looks like very few graphic cards would be able to sync with it without scaling.

Test 2: VGA to Component (YPrBr). Similar to the first one but now the source signal is scaled to match a “preset” resolution. Your laptop resolution doesn’t need to match the TV resolution. A 800x600 coming from the PC can be scaled to match the 480 res on the TV. I tried the Calrad video scaler/converter but the quality was disappointing and isn’t user friendly. Actually you have to enter into a menu to “set” the source and destination signal. Might be good in a static environment but not when laptop will change every day.

So my best bet is probably to go with the VGA to VGA option but I am not sure on how to do it. Knowing that the VGA/RGBHV is a 5 cables signal how should I go from 5 to 3 and then back to 5?

Also, am I missing something with the vga to component that would provide a better result?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks in advance.
SD

Hi.

Is there some consensus about what LCD-TV's are best for using with a PC?

I'm not going to try to match the LCD to my particular PC - after all, I might upgrade my PC soon - so I'm looking for a more general recommendation.

Perhaps a good LCD for these purposes would be one that has a good image but doesn't have a lot of features that aren't needed when using your PC, such as the tuners.

Also, if I buy a 1920x1080 LCD then I will just set my PC to 1920x1080 and leave it like that. In other words, when using a PC you are always using the panel's recommended resolution and you don't care about upscaling or other resolutions.

Hi,

Just bought a new TV (47LG70) and want to hook it up to my computer to watch some video. My computer is a Dell Dimension 5150 and has a Nvidia G Force 8600GT video card with two DVI outs.

I am looking at connecting the video to the tv vai a DVI to HDMI cable and the audio via a 3.5mm to RCA cable. (direct from computer to tv)

I need to go about 20 - 25 feet.

Questions.

1. Will this work and/or is there a better way?

2. What gauge of cable should I use?

3. Can I run my computer monitor and TV at the same time?

4. Anything else I should know?

1. Should work.

2. That's starting to get long. I'd look for a thicker gauge than the standard 28AWG.

3. Yes, but be prepared to fight some issues with multi-monitor setups.

4. The resolutions accepted by the TV over the HDMI input are most likely to be restricted to standard HDTV timings. So, depending on how you configure the multi-monitor support you may or may not get stuff to display on the TV. I have always preferred a single display setup and using a remote desktop to configure the HTPC.

Hey,

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was going to use 22AWG, will this be OK over a 25 foot run?

...and thanks for the note on the multi monitor setup. I don't have to run both at the same time and was curious about how much trouble I might get into.

22 AWG will probably be fine. The only way to know for sure it to try it.

I have a Samsung LN52A650 and VisionTek Radeon 3450 card with a built-in HDMI port. When connected to the TV (tried HDMI2 and HDMI3 on the TV), the video card seems like it's not detecting the TV (even in forced TV detection mode). I verified that the cable is OK and tried 2 known good HDMI cables.

When I connect the TV to the video card using a VGA cable instead it works just fine.

I fiddled with settings and searched various forums and couldn't get it to work with HDMI. I have downloaded the latest drivers as well (using 64 bit Vista BTW).

I've tried rebooting the PC and shutting the TV on/off

Some odd things are happening though:
- TV always displays 'no signal'
- Computer monitor has native resolution of 1680x1050, but when I connect the TV by HDMI, the video card switches the max resolution to 1680x1200 (and 1680x1050 is no longer available)
- in 'Basic' mode in the Catalyst control center, it is telling me I can connect to either a monitor or TV (i.e. seems to detect the TV in this mode whereas it doesn't in advanced), but when I select TV, it does not connect

Any ideas? Thank you for any assistance.

I just picked up this set. When connecting my laptop using the pc input and setting the resolution to 1920 x 1080. The desktop is displayed off to one side and lowered. The result is, the desktop is not centered on the tv and part of it is cut off. This is really annoying.

Does anyone know a fix for this? the tv settings were able to adjust it a tiny bit, but nothing remotely close to centering the desktop.

Most TVs will only accept standard HDTV resolutions and timings on their HDMI ports.

You'll need to try 1280x720 and 1920x1080.

Thank you jvincent.

The VisionTek Radeon 3450 card only enables 1920x1080 when I connect the TV via the VGA port.

When HDMI is connected, it does not show 1920x1080 as a possibility. I looked up other permissible resolutions in the TV manual, and tried one that matched a setting offered by the video card. That did not work either.

The strange thing is that the video card software is offering a different set of permissible resolutions when the TV is connected via HDMI versus not connected at all (i.e. even though it seems not to detect the TV properly it behaves differently with the TV connected)

The HDMI port will report back accepted resolutions to the video card.

The best bet for debugging this kind of thing is to use another computer and remote desktop into the computer that is connected to the TV so that you can change the resolutions and see which one actually sticks.

Also, if you are trying to use a dual monitor setup be aware that those can be problematic.

Hmm... but the HDMI doesn't seem to be reporting 1920x1080 then (and it ought to, I assume because that's the TV's resolution).

What I want to do is to occasionally use the TV as the computer's display device (via HDMI), and then to switch back to the monitor (via Catalyst control panel) when I'm finished with the TV. I don't know if the difference in native resolution of the monitor (1680x1050) and the TV (1920 x 1080) will cause difficulties.

But at the moment, the big issue is the failure of the TV to get a signal at all from the video card using HDMI.

I just posted this to the HDMI thread. Maybe it's more appropriate there.

Thank you.

The best way to rule out multi-monitor issues is to just connect it to the TV.

The desktop is displayed off to one side and loweredWhich brand of video adapter does your laptop have? You should be able to download a software tool that will allow you to adjust the screen position.

Thanks very much, jvincent.

I connected it solely to the TV, rebooted and voila! It worked - only it started up in 1024x768 resolution. I used the Catalyst control center to force it to 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz and this worked to change the resolution.

Unfortunately, audio did not work (home videos, not commercial content)
Also (at least the way I had it configured), the display looked quite poor. Text was not crisp and photos/videos not sharp. When I had the TV connected via VGA I'm quite sure the display was significantly better (it impressed me yesterday when I tested it).

So I guess that means that VisionTek didn't implement ATI's method to drive audio over HDMI.

So in my mind it begs the question: Why bother using HDMI at all if VGA does it better and if I'm not getting audio?

Am I missing something? I'm guessing that the poor video quality with HDMI has to do with the way the image is being scaled at some point in the chain?

Anyway, thanks again for your assistance.