A/V Receiver that can pass 1920x1200 over HDMI

I currently have a Win7 HTPC/XBMC setup that is hooked to a 16:10 monitor through a Marantz NR1501 AV receiver. The PC is driving the monitor at 1920x1200.

This mostly works well, except that I can occasionally see pixel shimmering in certain colors that appear to be somewhere around middle gray. I suspect that the receiver is having trouble handling the higher output resolution, as this doesn't happen when the PC's HDMI output is connected directly to the monitor (I have tried a few different video cards as well as the Intel IGP, and all have the same characteristics).

So assuming the HDMI switch in the receiver is the problem, are there any receivers that are known to reliably work with 16:10 display resolutions? I've heard that anything rated for HDMI 1.4a should work (I believe the Marantz predates this, and in any event I can't find any reference to the HDMI version in the specs).

I can also just switch my video output to 1080p but my HP monitor doesn't handle this well and the desktop becomes distorted. Alternatively, it might be cheaper to just get a 16:9 monitor or TV. Fortunately it's not too distracting when watching video, only when I'm at the desktop.

Anything out there that does video processing against the incoming signal will likely be expecting a max of 1080p.

HDMI 1.4a is misleading. Technically, the specification goes well beyond 1080p, but this does not mean that all 1.4a receivers process >1080p signals. In fact most do not, and will expect to output 1080p.

For many receivers, HDMI processing can include adding the OSD, but some are able to add the OSD without changing the input signal.

Your best bet is to find a receiver which does pure HDMI pass-through for video, but even then those units may have firmware which is confused by 1920x1200.

Try disabling any scaling or processing features of your receiver. Some receivers will allow you to set the output to something akin to "let my device decide" and wash its hands of the whole resolution business altogether.

Any chance you can run optical to the receiver from onboard soundcard rather than HDMI?

InternationalHat said:

Any chance you can run optical to the receiver from onboard soundcard rather than HDMI?

Click to expand...

That's definitely an option. I could connect the PC directly to the monitor using the monitor's DVI input or even DisplayPort, and then connect audio to the receiver via SPDIF. However, I'm also using the receiver to switch between the HTPC and other components (game console, Blu-ray player), so this would require some degree of manually switching the monitor. Monoprice actually makes a 4x1 HDMI switch that will extract HDMI audio to SPDIF so that is also an option. I actually have one of these but haven't used it for a while because IIRC it was kind of flaky in other ways. But it might be worth digging it out again and trying it.