I am so close to giving up

BoogerBomb

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 10, 2003
Messages
6,470
Why cant they make hooking up a PC to an HDTV and get the proper screen size so that there is no overscan and games can be run right just by click a few check boxes?

FYI TV and PC in sig.

I am connecting my PC to my TV using a DVI to HDMI cable. After playing around a bit I finally got the TV to display the computer by checking the boxes in Force 720P and force 1080 mode. Forcing 720 gives me a resolution of 1280 x 720 but with overscan at 60Hz. I cant choose any other hertz and changing the resolution to the one just above it 1280x768 gives me a black screen on my TV.

I say screw it and try to play Doom3. It ran at 640x480 HQ mode but when I exited the game my TV was once again a black screen. I took a stab and managed to drag the taskbar to the extended monitor (17" LCD) and used the ATI icon to reset the TV's resolution back to 1280x720.

I tried HalfLife2 and it gave one error message saying it had to go to lower modes I say ok it thencame back and said it had to go to failsafe mode so I say go ahead. It runs in windowed mode 640x480 4:3 aspect ratio. I set it to widescreen 640x480 fullscreen. It reloads and I can hear all the usual sounds like the game is running but once again the big black screen is on the TV.

What is going on? Do the games use the wrong refreshrate? Wrong resolution? Can I correct the overscan or preferrably go to a higher resolution? Sony says the native resolution is 1380x760 or something like that but I cant set it to that or I get that damned black screen.

Is there something going on behind the scenes that I need a special program to do it for me?
 
Wow thats a lot of reading. Ill report next week when im done reading. lol. I guess I will have to invest in powerstrip since everyone with an HTPC seems to have it.
 
I think the windows nvidia driver allows you to enter custom resolutions are refresh rates and check them as "forced"... Have you tried messing with that? Or maybe entering allowed resolutions into the registry?

I use my PVR exclusively for mythtv and its plugins, and that's linux anyway. That system allows me to write custom modelines to match my TV exactly. Of course my TV sucks and it doesn't lock on to the VBI rate properly at all, but that should be alleviated when I get a real TV.
 
kleptophobiac said:
I think the windows nvidia driver allows you to enter custom resolutions are refresh rates and check them as "forced"... Have you tried messing with that? Or maybe entering allowed resolutions into the registry?

He has an ATI, you know if there's anything like that in their drivers?
 
I got powerstrip and was playing around with it and DAMN is this TV picky when it comes to screen size and timings. I did that adjustment thingy and when i click on the squish in inwards side to side I clicked it twice and it went black. I could only do it once. I couldnt squish it in top to bottom at all. I do like the hotkey for going back to 1280x720 after a game exits.
 
Ahhh... I read ATI icon and didn't think twice. :) Sorry about that.

I think there's a utility that allows you to add custom modes, and if all else fails, you can add them into the display driver's inf file. In fact, if you only allow one resolution in the inf, everything should be peaches and creme.

I had to custom edit the inf to get support for my laptop panel with the desktop ati drivers. :p
 
yep, my tv is picky as hell too. so picky i have given up and am waiting to decide if i want to buy a 6600gt so i don't have as much to worry about, or get a new receiver. You MIGHT want to buy the component dongle to see if that helps any at all or gives you a little more room on the timing adjustments.

Best luck!
 
pre1014 said:
yep, my tv is picky as hell too. so picky i have given up and am waiting to decide if i want to buy a 6600gt so i don't have as much to worry about, or get a new receiver. You MIGHT want to buy the component dongle to see if that helps any at all or gives you a little more room on the timing adjustments.

Best luck!

I had actually considered that. I dont know if my tv treats HDMI and Component differently or not but I guess I will find out.
 
ATI's support for DVI to HDMI is really lacking but their support of Component is pretty damn good but even then you might have to resort to using Powerstrip for it (which is a TPITA). Honestly I would pick up a 6600 series card and give it a try, NV's support for DVI is so much better (as close to "plug and play" as you can get with PC parts).
 
Back
Top