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I have been watching successfully on my LCD TV using the VGA connection. Today received the DVI-HDMI adapter I needed to plugin using that instead of VGA - only problem - nothing happens - no signal getting through. Any suggestions what I might have missed, before I contact the TV manufacturer for advice?
I have been watching successfully on my LCD TV using the VGA connection. Today received the DVI-HDMI adapter I needed to plugin using that instead of VGA - only problem - nothing happens - no signal getting through. Any suggestions what I might have missed, before I contact the TV manufacturer for advice?
Please provide more info on makes and models of your hardware and TV, we might be able to help more than the manufacturers support services.
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That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.
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Thanks - and sure, no problem. I was thinking in terms of it being maybe some generic thing I might have missed in the process, but I really haven't been able to think of anything like that.
TV is a Conia 32" LCD CLCD3275SD.
Signal coming from a Dell PC running MCE. Resolution 1360x768.
The TV worked straight out of the box with the VGA connection (once I followed the instructions in the manual which it says "the sequence is very important").
Specifically, the manual offers three sections for connecting:
1. Antenna (never tried or bothered with as I don't plan to use it)
2. PC
3. AV Equipment
The PC section gives the sequence as:
First power off both TV and PC
1. Connect VGA and audio cables
2. Connect power cord
3. Power on TV, switch the input to PC mode
4. Power on the PC
The Av Equipment section basically just lists the connection options, which includes the HDMI, but makes no mention of PC. I am assuming that doesn't matter - that HDMI is just a signal and the TV won't know it is coming from a PC rather than a DVD player etc.
This morning I put the old monitor back on the PC and connected with the DVI just to confirm that it is working - so unless there is a problem with the DVI-HDMI adapter (which I have no way to test), I do know it's not a lack of signal coming from the PC - it seems it has to be more of an issue of the TV not 'finding' it, or not 'looking for' it.
If there are any other details I can supply, please do let me know.
Edit: Here's something ... could it be a resolution thing? Manual says:
YPbPr and HDMI can support these video formats:480i, 576i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p.
Do I maybe need to set the PC at a different screen resolution in order for the HDMI to see it?
Depends on the Video card in the computer, but I know nVidia's drivers have specific TV Options that let you set 480i, 576i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p.
Perhaps look in your Video Card control panel (Right-click Desktop, Choose Properties) for TV settings.
If it is ATI or Intel or something else I don't know where to look. You may also need to look at updating drivers, although Windows Update (under Vista) has given me stable nVidia drivers for Media Center use - check there first (make sure you select Custom Update and select the Optional updates).
Regards,
Shane.
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The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to scritch for this information:
I updated drivers including a very impressive 'Catalyst Control Center' software from ATI. tried all kinds of things to get it working. Now I can't get anything on the TV at all from the computer. For a while I had it so during bootup the display would show on both monitor and TV, but when it reaches past the black windows logo screen, it goes to 'No Signal' again. Not even sure I will be able to revert back to what was working before.
What a mess. Should have stuck with if 'it aint broke dont fix (upgrade) it'.
I had the exact same problem.
The solution was not the video card. It was the TV, apparently (I gave up trying other tweaks and hacks).
Newer TVs have an "Actual pixel" option or something similar, which gives results as if you used the VGA connection. My Samsung 32" didn't support "Actual pixel", so I can't see the outside edges of the picture. So I'm stuck with VGA for now.
One day I'll get a TV with the actual pixel option, but I'm holding out right now for the new LED backlit LCDs, if they ever reach an affordable price.
near the bottom of this post it says that there might be a problem with DVI to HDMI cable on this TV
Maybe you should look in that direction?
Well, grrrrrr! What a pain. I got back to where I was before messing with the driver, with a Safe Mode reboot and system restore, so that's something.
So, is VGA the next best option - how do quality of other options (component, s-video, etc) compare to VGA? Also, what about using an HDMI switch between PC and TV? Think that would make any difference? I'm not optimistic about finding firmware for Conia.
VGA is the best option if your TV does not do direct pixel mapping on HDMI.
While it is true that in theory HDMI/DVI is suposed to give better quality then VGA, in practice you generally see no difference unless you run a very long VGA cable & hence get noisy signal.
If your screen does not do 1:1 pixel mapping on HDMI - then in order to use HDMI your gfx driver will need to do overscan correction by downscaling the desktop (to eg 1168x680 ish) , and add in a black border out to 720p. Then the TV drops the black border and upscales the 1168x680 image to it's native pixel res (eg 1390x768). This rescaling definitely affects PQ making HDMI a bad choice in that situation.
The main potential drawback with VGA is that you may not be able to view BlueRay at better than 720p. (Not sure about that tho coz I haven't tried ye).
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The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to swetta for this information:
Thanks for that - very useful, as I do like to try to understand the actual processes that go on. Just a shame I didn't know before I bothered buying the adapter and wasting the time trying to get it to work We live and learn.
I have a conia 32" LCD running through a dvi-HDMI adapter I bought off ebay for $19. My Video Card is a 7600GS. When I get home, ill check the exact model of my TV, but I found it is not easy to get 1:1 pixel ratio on this telly. This TV kind of decides whether or not to use overscan depending on what resolution and timing you feed it. if you feed it 720p for example, it overscans, but if you change it to a nonstandard timing with powerstrip it becomes 1:1.
the only way I could get 1366x768 over HDMI was with the new Nvidia Beta Drivers and the Custom resolutions option. the card was trying to feed an interlaced picture @ 30hz whenever my horizontal pixels went over 1280 (even using powerstrip). with the Custom timings page in nvidia control panel, I was able to get rid of the interlacing and force it to use 1366x768 60hz non-interlaced, and now it looks Great.
maybe some of those Adapters have got less pins or something? maybe im lucky, but mine works so I dont think it is a bug in this model (I'll need to check my model number).
If your screen does not do 1:1 pixel mapping on HDMI - then in order to use HDMI your gfx driver will need to do overscan correction by downscaling the desktop (to eg 1168x680 ish) , and add in a black border out to 720p. Then the TV drops the black border and upscales the 1168x680 image to it's native pixel res (eg 1390x768). This rescaling definitely affects PQ making HDMI a bad choice in that situation.
With a 1360x768 panel I wouldn't have thought that PQ while watching TV would necessarily be worse with HDMI. With VGA at this resolution the PC has to scale the stream anyway because it's not broadcast at that resolution. Of course the Vista desktop will obviously look better with VGA, but I would have thought you'd get as good a picture from HDMI. On my system (which has a native resolution of 1366x768) I actually get better PQ on TV via HDMI running at 720p resolution.
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|Antec NSK 1380|Abit F-I90HD MoBo & On-Board ATI x1250 Graphics|Intel Core2 Duo E4600|2G Corsair RAM|Samsung 160G & 500G Spinpoint HDDs|Pioneer 212 DVD|MCE Remote & Receiver|Hauppauge HVR2200|Vista Home Premium|Seagate FreeAgent 160G USB external HDD|Shintaro Wireless keyboard with trackball|HDMI to Sharp Aquos LC32AX3X TV|
With a 1360x768 panel I wouldn't have thought that PQ while watching TV would necessarily be worse with HDMI. With VGA at this resolution the PC has to scale the stream anyway because it's not broadcast at that resolution. Of course the Vista desktop will obviously look better with VGA, but I would have thought you'd get as good a picture from HDMI. On my system (which has a native resolution of 1366x768) I actually get better PQ on TV via HDMI running at 720p resolution.
Hmm maybe TV/vdeo is not noticeably worse, but I find the windows desktop basically ends up with less pixels (due to overscan) and its a tad blurry - not a prob for tv/video - just think of it as anti-aliasing, but bad for text.. I use my mcpc for email and web browsing too.
Another thing Ive noticed is that the scaling done by the ATI X1250 chipset on my mcpc is superior to that on my LCD tv - so I prefer the PC to do it. eg. SD digital looks crap using TV tuner, but almost as good as HD using pc to do tuning/scaling.
We live and learn.
