How to get 1080p output from media centre?

dl763

dl763

dl763

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Hi all,

Wondered if anyone can help with this problem I have?

I have a LG 32LF2510 tv, and a media centre with an ATi X800GT All in wonder connected by VGA cable. I have read the manual for the TV but I cant get it to go to 1920x1200 res, I can get 1360x768 :( I'm running Win 7 Home Premium and have no problem getting the same res using my monitor.

Anyone have any ideas? Would a HDMI to DVI cable work?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Whoops, missed that one too. TALON1973 is right, check your TV manual and you should see the max resolution on the VGA connection won't be 1080p. I know mine is (strangely) 1280x1024. You'll need a DVI-HDMI or similar cable (depending on what adapters you have) to link it up and get 1080p. Oh, and if you're planning on playing HDCP protected content, make sure your card supports it.
 
Actually there's no reason why a VGA or RGBHV cable can't carry 1080p. I'm doing exactly that for several of my clients who have very high resolution CRT projector systems.

It's a different matter though if the display won't accept 1080p via its VGA. That's nothing to do with the connection type; it's a limitation of the analogue video processing in the display :)
 
Most TVs I've seen wont do full Hd on th VGA for some reason.
DVI > HDMI adapter and ya should be fine.

Remember depengin on the under/overscan of yer TV you might ned to resize the image a tad.
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Most TVs I've seen wont do full Hd on th VGA for some reason.
DVI > HDMI adapter and ya should be fine.

Remember depengin on the under/overscan of yer TV you might ned to resize the image a tad.
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i have the opposite with my tv and a pc, vga works fine (full 1080p crisp display), dvi-hdmi just doesnt like it at all tried it on 2 pcs.
it either works but isnt clear or just doesnt work at all :(

still vga is all good, cant even notice the difference.
 
Bassmansam said:
So i guess vga can do 1080p?
Click to expand...
There is absolutely no doubt that VGA can carry a 1920x1080 signal.

The problem is the actual TVs; some support it and some don't. Some may over/underscale, and some may be 1:1 perfect.

My Sammy TV accepts 1080p over VGA.
 
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1080i is interlaced and 1080p is progressive scan

I think that 1080p scans the whole screen top to bottom per frame whereas 1080i scans every other line alternating 1-3-5-7..... 2-4-6-8..... image quality is pretty much the same, it's just the way it gets it on the screen...... however i could well be talking out of my **** lol - it has been known!!
 
Strangely, my LG 42LG5010 TV doesn't seem to display 1920x1080 via DVI/HDMI, but will display it absolutely perfectly via VGA!

However, as has been said, it is entirely dependent on the TV itself, rather than any limitation in the VGA technology.

It could, maybe, also be that the PC won't see that the TV can accept 1920x1080, and you may have to force a custom resolution.
 
The issue with VGA is that it was never designed for high resolutions, and lacked the theoretical bandwidth to do so when first released.

However, cables and VGA transmitters have improved somewhat, so it's not hard to actually pass a pretty decent 1920*1080@60Hz signal down it these days, but that is down to individual manufacturers exceeding the very old specs.

I'd always say go Digital, a HDMI-DVI will obviously work, and assuming the TV has some 1:1 pixel mode, it'll be pixel perfect..
 
Demon said:
I'd always say go Digital, a HDMI-DVI will obviously work, and assuming the TV has some 1:1 pixel mode, it'll be pixel perfect..
Click to expand...

it doesnt always work though as i said earlier. your still taking a risk that the tv can pick up the signal even on hdvi-dvi...

i dont see why the manufactures cant have a standard and stick to it, its clearly rubbish firmware in the tv and how it scans signals.
 
Had a few of these problems over the weekend when I brought my new 47inch TV and couldn't get full resolution 1080 in Media Centre. So here are a few things you need to check.

1. Silly as it may seem, check that your TV can display FULL 1080, not just 1080i only through digital. Otherwise you get the problem were its 1080 resolution but the desktop or text is fuzzy.

2. Make sure the refresh rate on the desktop matches is the same refresh rate what is configured in Media Centre. You will have to do this in the Media Centre display options, otherwise Media Centre will automatically drop the resolution lower than your desktop when you launch it.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
it doesnt always work though as i said earlier. your still taking a risk that the tv can pick up the signal even on hdvi-dvi...

i dont see why the manufactures cant have a standard and stick to it, its clearly rubbish firmware in the tv and how it scans signals.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't be taking a risk at all with HDMI, it is a very precise and quite small standard, and is fully compatible image wise with DVI.

Any HDMI TV will report via EDID what resolutions it supports over HDMI, there are only 3 of note
720p (1280*720) @ 50/60Hz
1080i (1920*1080) @ 50/60Hz
1080p (1920*1080) @ 50/60Hz

As long as your PC video card can generate one of these, it'll work.. Every modern video card for the last 4-5 years probably supports all these with ease, and every modern LCD for the last 3 years or so also seems to support native and standard HDMI resolutions.

The only real issue I'm aware of is that some older cards/drivers struggle in detecting the display at startup where there are 2 outputs, in which case using a VGA monitor on the other connection, and then set the video card up in windows, detecting the TV etc, and then it usually works fine from then on.. Sometimes I have just forced 1920*1080/60Hz on the PC to ensure that no matter what, when in Windows the HDMI->DVI connection always works. This can lead to nothing being displayed while booting on some very old video cards, but we are talking 6 year old things here..

I've built and installed so many HTPC's on so many TV's over the last 5 years, I haven't seen a single instance of a video card/TV refusing to play ball, other then as mentioned above, having to initially get the video card drivers set correctly..

Some older LCD's (not full HD ones) sometimes only support 720p or 1080i, and as Malachy mentions, 1080i isn't ideal for PC purposes, but invariably even then, if you know the native res of the screen, many will accept that via HDMI, or at worst, 720p, which if not the native res, will still look odd for PC Text, but fine for video.
 
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you should come an see my tv then, samsung full 1080p NOT 1080i, plays bluray player fine, xbox fine, ps3 fine, av amp fine, wdtv live fine, all 1080p res as i stated above.

vga cable full 1080p display no issues at all.
hook up a dvi-hdmi cable and it displays fine but is mega fuzzy and off sceen a little like i said thats 2 pcs its occured, tested with 3 video cards (8800gts, 8800gt, 260gtx)

not that i want this to develop into some sort of argument , but stating hdmi is perfect & it will work regardless is simply not accurate - you only have to do a quick google search to realise that the connection and video cards dont really go hand in hand and their are many people with issues even if youv never experienced them in your 5 year history or whatever..
 
iamtheoneneo said:
you should come an see my tv then, samsung full 1080p NOT 1080i, plays bluray player fine, xbox fine, ps3 fine, av amp fine, wdtv live fine, all 1080p res as i stated above.

vga cable full 1080p display no issues at all.
hook up a dvi-hdmi cable and it displays fine but is mega fuzzy and off sceen a little like i said thats 2 pcs its occured, tested with 3 video cards (8800gts, 8800gt, 260gtx)

not that i want this to develop into some sort of argument , but stating hdmi is perfect & it will work regardless is simply not accurate - you only have to do a quick google search to realise that the connection and video cards dont really go hand in hand and their are many people with issues even if youv never experienced them in your 5 year history or whatever..
Click to expand...

Sounds like overscan, i.e. your TV is not able to (or not setup correctly) to do 1:1 pixel mapping over HDMII.. What model number is it? As long as the PC can be set to 1920*1080 @50/60Hz, then it's 100% the TV (assuming the HDMI cable is OK, and that normally just produces sparklies, not softening/distorting the image)..

The golden rule is, do some research, if the TV as a PC mode or 1:1/Native screen modes etc, then DVI->HDMI is probably the best route, if it doesn't have this, then you'll have permanent overscan which kills PC usage as the desktop will stretch outside the bounds of the screen, and not be very sharp.. in which case, you are stuck with whatever the Max VGA supported resolution is for that TV, all these things are generally able to be determined easily on the web..
 
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