...if I pull up a media file or divx file or anything with video in it, I see black on the TV...You are using overlay as the video renderer.
Make the TV your primary display or change the renderer to VMR9.
How to do the later depends on the player.

Diogen.

Simply toggle your video on the laptop so that only the TV is on and the laptop screen is off. It will work fine. The laptop is not capable of having the video running on both the external monitor and the laptop monitor at the same time.

I know on a number of laptops the video toggle is achieved by hitting FUNCTION and one of the F Keys.

Slyboy,

That's Brilliant, worked perfectly! Much Aprreciated!

The laptop is not capable of having the video running on both the external monitor and the laptop monitor at the same time.Huh?
I think this is not true.

Diiogen.

This was th case for me, maybe it depends on the video card?

If you use WMP11 try this (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=462531&postcount=4).

Diogen.

I am interested in replacing my CRT monitor and SDTV with a 50+ inch HDTV. Are the resolution of HDTV today good enough for computer use? (read news, emails etc.)

My display card supports VGA, DVI and S output, what are the features I need to look at when I purchase a TV for computer use? (1080p TV of this size is out of my budget).

Thanks!

Jaylw, in many cases there is not a suitable match between the type of TV and the computer. Starting with Michael's great post #1 of this thread you can get up to speed on whether or not you can do it in your case.

We have a new JVC 1080p set. I want to hook up PC output. The vidcard has dual monitor support via vga and DVI, and tv out via component/svideo/composite. The set supports 1080p only by HDMI. It would require a 50 ft cable to connect. Given the length and good quality cables, should I go component or DVI-HDMI? I realize the set does not "officially" support pc HDMI output, but I know I how to make it work and understand the limitations (Computer geekiness has its benefits). I'll also be connecting audio, obviously, via the receiver and am leaning towards toslink. I've seen plenty of threads on the audio connection and nothing conclusive on it.

The benefit of going DVI/HDMI is being able to get true 1:1 mapping to the TV. The issue is going to be the 50' run. I've never priced a 50' component or DVI/HDMI cable but I suspect that both are going to be very expensive.

50' for component will probably result in some signal degradation unless you use the very expensive coax based cables but it should always work.

50' for DVI/HDMI may start to run into issue with signal quality impacting the ability of it to sync. The good part is that if it works, the signal will be perfect since it's a digital signal. Again, you'll need to use a premium cable.

There may be a software setting to correct the video display issue as Diogen has pointed out, but I know from all the laptops I've supported within business environments, we've had to have presentations run with the LCD laptop monitor off to get video clips to run properly on certain hardware. Perhaps the newer laptops are capable of having the video overlay images appear on both sources. I know other video sources, like TV Tuner add-in cards also displayed this same sort of result - we only got them to display after using the Function-F4 toggle on the older laptops the client was running.

Diogen - thanks for that link though. I'm going to try that out at some point when I install WMP 11.

This is not a WMP 11 feature, the same is true for v.9 and 10 at least.
And with many (most?) other players I know and use: ZoomPlayer and TheaterTek in particular.
Things change when you go with MCE2005 - there VMR9 is the default renderer.

Diogen.

Given the length and good quality cables, should I go component or DVI-HDMI?DVI is rated to 30' and HDMI is rated to 50'+. The usable length depends a lot on the quality of components and cable as well as the environment (noise, etc.)

Monoprice has a 50' DVI/HDMI cable for about US$86. Monoprice also has a 50' component video cable for US$38 and a 50' 75 ohm coax audio cable for $11. These cable are made from RG6 which you could purchase in bulk for about CDN$0.15/ft. Connectors run about $3-$5 each. Brand name cables will cost a lot more.

You will need to be aware of things like ground loops when making connections of this length. Good quality cables and connectors are essential. Silver solder is best when constructing cables from components.

Hi, recently I purchased a male rgb component cable (http://image.bizrate.com/resize?sq=160&uid=514933144&mid=23). I am going from my video card in my PC that has a s-video out on it and into the rgb plugs in the tv. It works fine except for one thing, as soon as I am in windows the color is screwed up and is blue, like somebody messed with the settings but I cannot find a way of correcting this. During bootup and even in safe mode the color is proper but normally it is blue. I am wondering if anybody would know how to fix this? Thanks.

I'm surprised it works at all, going from S-video to component. Hmmm... I think the boot screen (and possible safe mode) are 640x480 resolution, so the signal would be the equivalent of 480p. When Windows is booted you are probably using a higher resolution that doesn't match anything your TV understands. I still can't believe it works as well as it apparently does. Are you sure that's a standard S-video output on the card and not some kind of hybrid connector (like ATI sometimes uses)?

What brand/model is your video card?

My video card is a Geforce ASUS EN 7600GT. I made a mistake though :D. It's not S-Video, it's just the TV-Out haha. Umm, but it goes from the TV-Out to three RGB female jacks, which I have my three RGB male cables into which has three rgb male on the other end as well. The 640x480 theory seems to possibly be correct. I will test it and post a reply. Thanks!

Well, I am kind of confused. The 640x480 resolution works however I cannot set it this low for my TV when I am in windows normally. Only if in safe mod or forced on startup. Windows Media Center won't change the resolution to 480p either, it just leaves it as is and says it changed.

It sounds like you are connecting it to the component input of the TV.

If that is correct, it may simply be that once windows loads you are trying to run a timing that the TV is having trouble syncing to.

Are you only connected to the TV or do you also have a monitor connected?

If you have a monitore, are you running clone mode or extended desktop?

Dual monitor setups with HDTVs as the second monitore can be "finicky".

Did you install the specific drivers for the card or are you just using the standard Windows drivers? Did that video card come with a manual or electronic manual on the driver disk?

I'm not familiar with that card, but maybe someone else can make a suggestion on how it should be configured. Or maybe see if there are drivers available for it online and get those installed.

Is it possible to use this videocard on a CRT- direct view 1080i HDTV to display in HD resolutions? I currently use it for output but only using Composite cable.. so everything is blurry etc.. There's only component and HDMI (and i think HDMI is the only one left that I can use) inputs on my TV. I could potentially change one of my other machines from component to HDMI just to free one component input for use with the computer if its necessary.

Wondering if anyone actually had this exact combo.. I doupt it but hopefully people can still help me figure out how to set this up. I was thinking of getting the DVI to component adapter from ATI but they do not work with nVidia cards (from what i could find).. So I was thinking maybe just use a VGA to component adapter since both are analog.. but not sure that this would work either.

Is my best option just to use a DVI to HDMI cable? is it going to be less of a hassle this way? I know these TVs produce alot of overscan but I have fixed most of it using the service menu (my xbox 360 had lots of overscan in certain games)..

*EDIT
I have finally bought a DVi to HDMI cable and plugged my PC and Panny. The computer detects the TV fine. Problem now is I can't get a good resolution to display on the screen. 1080i works (and i could even fix the overscan even with the nvidia drivers/interface) but it flickers (interlaced/30hz) so thats not good.. Other than that, i could only get 480p to work with alot of overscan though. And the option for overscan in nvidia is disabled when not in HD resolution. I was surprised to find that the nvidia drivers were "equiped" that much.. you can create custom resolutions, timing etc.. you have alot of ADVANCED settings that you can use but even trying the listed resolutions didn't work. Even checking the "interlaced" option didn't change anything.

Obviously, id like to have 1080i res. but have heard of people only being able to display 720p. I dont mind, if 720p is usable and text is readable, thats fine with me, and since my TV is only 34", having too small text doesnt help either..

Thank you very much.. Any help would be great