HDTV Output from the NVidia 8800 series

silverski

Greetings,

Has anyone hooked up any of the 8800 series cards to a Plasma and how does it look.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has tried the DVI to HDMI route.
Or the HDTV output connection.

regards
Silverski

PS. I would be hooking it up to a Panasonic 42thpv600

8T8

The experience depends on the make of the TV as some vendors do and some vendors don't put the EDID data into the HDMI link which basically contains all the info for resolutions and what the computer can display.

Anyway the best thing to do is to try it and see what happens armed with a little info beforehand as from what I can make out the Panasonic VP600 series have a panel that is 1024x768 or 1024x720 in resolution.

So if hooking up the PC to it then you need to set your desktop to that resolution or lower if the TV is the primary display.

When you plug it in the NVIDIA control panel is generally where you can configure it in the display settings section as it's a plasma you can ignore the tick box for HDTV I think as the resolution is not a true HD resolution but it should be okay, you may lose the signal during the bios post or boot procedure though again depends if they intended the HDMI port for computer usage.

L31mr0d

ah... ok the key here is what is the HD version of your panel? Is it 720p, 1080i, 1080p?

I currently have a 8800GTX in my HTPC hooked up to my 1080i 42" Plasma via HDMI. What you will need to find out is if your panel will take sound in from the HDMI port via phono or audio jacks. The problem with HDMI from a computer is that you won't get any audio through the HDMI connection so you'll need to find out if it will take it via some other means.

Also, if the panel is 1080i (interlaced) you will notice the interlacing flicker at the panels native res of 1920x1080. Its better to use 1280x720 instead (or 720p)

Personally the picture is a lot crisper for me over HDMI than when I was using VGA. You can use a direct DVI to HDMI converter.

silverski

L31mr0d wrote:

ah... ok the key here is what is the HD version of your panel? Is it 720p, 1080i, 1080p?

I currently have a 8800GTX in my HTPC hooked up to my 1080i 42" Plasma via HDMI. What you will need to find out is if your panel will take sound in from the HDMI port via phono or audio jacks. The problem with HDMI from a computer is that you won't get any audio through the HDMI connection so you'll need to find out if it will take it via some other means.

Also, if the panel is 1080i (interlaced) you will notice the interlacing flicker at the panels native res of 1920x1080. Its better to use 1280x720 instead (or 720p)

Personally the picture is a lot crisper for me over HDMI than when I was using VGA. You can use a direct DVI to HDMI converter.

Greetings,

The Plasma is 1080i.
The panel at the rear has a VGA port, but I would like to use the HDMI Connection using a DVI to HDMI Adapter.
As for the sound I am not too worried about that at the moment.

But I am more interested in which connection would be better, the DVI output or the HDTV output.

Any advice would be great.


Regards
Silverski

GrumPy

vga tbh

silverski

Irish GrumPy wrote:

vga tbh

Greetings,

Do you reckon that I would get a better result from using the VGA output with one of the 8800 series of cards. and if so why.

Regards
Silverski

L31mr0d

Irish GrumPy wrote:

vga tbh

:eek: analogue<digital. He is sending a digital signal to his HD Plasma screen and you are recommending he downgrade to VGA? Why?

silverski, if you have a spare HDMI port then use it. When you do play a HD clip on both the VGA and then the HDMI. Even get a second opinion and they will tell you the blacks look deeper and the picture looks crisper on the HDMI compared to the VGA. I found that through VGA blacks would look washed out, and the range of colours wasn't as good, leaving the overall image not as crisp.

I bought my HDMI cable from Argos, they had a good one that included 2xDVI to HDMI adapters, meaning you could use it just as a HDMI cable, a HDMI to DVI cable or just as a DVI cable.

GrumPy

L31mr0d wrote:

:eek: analogue<digital. He is sending a digital signal to his HD Plasma screen and you are recommending he downgrade to VGA? Why?

hdmi/dvi cable is terrible.

If it was a straight hdmi/hdmi lead, then yes, better picture.

L31mr0d

Irish GrumPy wrote:

hdmi/dvi cable is terrible.

If it was a straight hdmi/hdmi lead, then yes, better picture.

proof please? so are you saying VGA is better than a DVI to HDMI conversion. Because afaik, NO conversion happens when going from DVI to HDMI, it is a straight through digital signal. DVI is just an older standard of HDMI, the only thing that changes in a DVI to HDMI cable is the adapters at each end. Both signals are digital so no conversion needs to be done when the signal gets to the TV. Which is why I can use my cable as either a DVI only, or HDMI only cable.

Also its odd that you would say the cable is horrible as that all depends on the manufacturer. You could get an equally bad VGA cable as a DVI to HDMI cable.

I built ADC's and DAC's in college and no matter what conversion method you use, going from digital to analogue and vice versa will always results in signal loss. Where possible remove any form of conversion from the signal. So the OP is better off using HDMI, to keep the signal digital.

GrumPy

Well all I know is, using hdmi/dvi cable from my pc to hdtv, colours are all wrong, and it's just plain shíte. Maybe it's the tv though, cause my friend has a larger version of my set and he has the same problem

Kintarō Hattori

I'd have to agree with L31mr0d in keeping the signal digital. Dvi to HDMI would be far better than using VGA.

mathias

I dont have a 8800 , but do have a 8600 running to a hdtv , up until last week the card ( which uses the same 8 series drivers by the way , thats why im posting ) had a bad overscan issue , no matter what input I used the top, bottom , left and right of the computer screen could not be seen.

Nvidia posted Beta drivers last week that fixed this issue ( they were unofficially available on other sites , nvidia only posted last week ).
These Beta drivers added the manual overscan correction , which comes in the form a screen with two sliders and four arrows which you position in the four corners of the screen.

Works a treat.

The only other thing I can tell you is that over component , my card oversaturates colours , over the HDMI its fine , and as posted above , DVI to HDMI is pin for pin compatible so there should be no issues.

silverski

Greetings all,

thanks for your replies.
I would find it hard to see why I should convert down from Digital on the 8800 DVI to use the VGA connection on a digital TV.
Surely DVI - HDMI would give far better results than VGA.

Also , I am sure that there is no difference (other than sound output on the HDMI) between DVI and HDMI
I suppose the only way to find out for sure is to make the choice and choose one of the 8800 cards.
But I am still unsure of the quality of the HDTV output connection separate from the DVI output

Regards
Silverski

mathias

If by HDTV output you mean the little attachment you get with the component out , its quite heavy on the colours , as posted , it oversaturates heavily. It also doesnt look like a very high quality attachment.

Im basing this on the fact that the 8 series use the same driver.

Its also analog , as its component.

Otherwise , DVI is the same as HDMI etc.

In my opinion its best to use the DVI , ( DVI is HD after all )
Anyway , its easy enough to try all the connections and pick the one you like best , me , I like the DVI.

L31mr0d

mathias wrote:

Nvidia posted Beta drivers last week that fixed this issue ( they were unofficially available on other sites , nvidia only posted last week ).
These Beta drivers added the manual overscan correction , which comes in the form a screen with two sliders and four arrows which you position in the four corners of the screen.

Works a treat.

Dude you just solved all my HTPC woes the only refresh rate on my TV that wouldn't cause overscan was 720p at 30hz (interlaced). This wasn't ideal as a lot of games I had installed had 50hz as their minimum refresh rate, which would cause the picture to either open windowed, or too big. This new feature allows me to set the refresh to 60hz and correct the overscan manually. Cheers for this, btw, for everyone else, i'm using beta drivers 163.11

silverski

Greetings all,

Before I make the leap to a 8800 card, I have connected the Plasma to my Nvidia 6800 Ultra.(using HDMI-DVI connector)
I have the Dell 24" as the primary
And have downloaded the latest Forceware driver.

And the display is terrible on the plasma.
Everything seems of of sync.

I have tried different resolution settings.
Nothing seems to work.

Can anyone advise.

Regards
Silverski

mathias

Before I make the leap to a 8800 card, I have connected the Plasma to my Nvidia 6800 Ultra.(using HDMI-DVI connector)
I have the Dell 24" as the primary

Nvidia have only recently sorted out some major driver issues , one of them that has not been sorted is that hooking up a TV and a monitor ( which have very very different requirements ) results in a terrible picture.

Try hooking up just the plasma , the resolution will have to be set for the plasma , you will notice that the computer picks up the display as a HDTV or TV and not a monitor , that will improve the picture a lot.

Hooking up two displays normally works fine if they are both the same type , not so if one is a TV and one is a Monitor.

silverski

mathias wrote:

Nvidia have only recently sorted out some major driver issues , one of them that has not been sorted is that hooking up a TV and a monitor ( which have very very different requirements ) results in a terrible picture.

Try hooking up just the plasma , the resolution will have to be set for the plasma , you will notice that the computer picks up the display as a HDTV or TV and not a monitor , that will improve the picture a lot.

Hooking up two displays normally works fine if they are both the same type , not so if one is a TV and one is a Monitor.

Greetings,

Thanks, I will try that again, as for when I did it the first time I was unable to read any content on the plasma.

My driver version on my card is 6.14.11.6218 is this the correct one.

Also I was hoping to load the beta drivers for my card, my os is XP but the beta drivers are only avail for vista would they work on XP

Thanks for your help
regards
silverski

mathias

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_162.18.html

This is the correct driver for XP , you must use the XP driver , the Vista one definitely wont work.

silverski

mathias wrote:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_162.18.html

This is the correct driver for XP , you must use the XP driver , the Vista one definitely wont work.

Greetings mathias,

thanks for the advice

regards

silverski

silverski

Greetings,

Have tried in vain to get the plasma to work correctly, but to no avail.

I did turn off the DELL monitor, and tried a number of settings using the Nvidia control planel. My main problem is the size of the screen i can not get it to display the start button , I did resize my screen using the Nvidia control panel and that worked until I pressed "apply changes", then it reverts to the same problem.
I have set the two displays to the same resolution. but still it looks terrible.

it is great to hear that other people have seen pin sharp displays it gives me hope that I may be able to resolve this eventually.

I even downloaded powerstrip, but was unable to locate the setting for clone display.


any help would be very much appreciated.

regards
silverski
PS. I hate the idea that I will have to revert to vga input only but it seems that this is only option open at the moment.......

mathias

A couple of questions ,

What is the native resolution of the plasma display and is this the resolution that you tried. It wont look good on any other resolution?

Did you try the Plasma as the primary and only display connected to the card ?

silverski

mathias wrote:

A couple of questions ,

What is the native resolution of the plasma display and is this the resolution that you tried. It wont look good on any other resolution?

Did you try the Plasma as the primary and only display connected to the card ?

Greetings mathias

Yes, I did set the Plasma as the primary, and single display.
Then in the Nvidia control panel it allowed me soem additional settings,and one of them was to set the Plasma to the native resolution. But this did not work to well.


One more thing to try is to disconnect the DELL monitor completely and hope that if it goes worng that I will be still able to access using this monitor.

Regards
Silverski

L31mr0d

what do you mean by "looks terrible" can you be more specific

mathias

Your plasma is 1080i right ? So what is the native resolution on the plasma , is it 1366 x 768 ? If not what is it ?

silverski

Greetings,

These are the input signals that can be displayed

∗ Mark: Applicable input signal for Component (Y, PB, PR), HDMI and PC (D-sub 15P)
Note • Signals other than above may not be displayed properly. • The above signals are reformatted for optimal viewing on your display.
Signal name Horizontal
frequency (kHz) Vertical
frequency (Hz) Component HDMI PC
525 (480) / 60i 15.73 59.94 ∗ ∗
525 (480) / 60p 31.47 59.94 ∗ ∗
625 (576) / 50i 15.63 50.00 ∗ ∗
625 (576) / 50p 31.25 50.00 ∗ ∗
750 (720) / 60p 45.00 60.00 ∗ ∗
750 (720) / 50p 37.50 50.00 ∗ ∗
1,125 (1,080) / 60i 33.75 60.00 ∗ ∗
1,125 (1,080) / 50i 28.13 50.00 ∗ ∗
640 × 400 @70 Hz 31.46 70.07 ∗
640 × 480 @60 Hz 31.47 59.94 ∗
640 × 480 @75 Hz 37.50 75.00 ∗
800 × 600 @60 Hz 37.88 60.32 ∗
800 × 600 @75 Hz 46.88 75.00 ∗
800 × 600 @85 Hz 53.67 85.06 ∗
1,024 × 768 @60 Hz 48.36 60.00 ∗
1,024 × 768 @70 Hz 56.48 70.07 ∗
1,024 × 768 @75 Hz 60.02 75.03 ∗
1,024 × 768 @85 Hz 68.68 85.00 ∗
1,280 × 1,024 @60 Hz 63.98 60.02 ∗
Macintosh13” (640 × 480) 35.00 66.67 ∗
Macintosh16” (832 × 624) 49.72 74.54 ∗
Macintosh21” (1,152 × 870) 68.68 75.06 ∗


It think that the Native resolution is 1024 x 768 and the plasma is a 1080i

IS it possible that I am unable to pixel map the plasma.There seems to be no size or pos adjustment in the menu settings for hdmi, nor is ther phase adjustment.

I think all is lost

Regards
silverski

mathias

Unfortunately I think that the problem is right there , using DVI/HDMI on that nvidia driver I dont think 1024 x 768 is selectable , and also that resolution is not a proper HD resolution , 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080 are the two main res for HD.

A typical 1080i TV usually has 1368 x 768 , the thing here is that both figures are higher than the figures for 720p ( 1280 x 720 ) and a scale down without too much loss is possible , whereas with your native res , you need to scale up on the horizontal and down on the vertical , not something that gets done very well , which is probably why it doesnt look too good.

The Nvidia driver is probably not able to handle that.

In all probability the VGA input on your TV is set to take that resolution which is why it will probably work better than the DVI.

Edit: , just had a quick look at the release notes for the latest XP drivers which are here ,

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/162.18/162.18_WinXP_ForceWare_Release_Notes.pdf

And on page 74 it shows the outputs available for the DVI, your card cannot support 1024 x 768 over DVI so its best to go with the VGA which does support that res. , Over DVI your TV is taking in the signal ( which will be either 1280 x 720 , or just SD 480 i ) but having scaling trouble as mentioned above , thats why it doesnt look too good.

silverski

mathias wrote:

Unfortunately I think that the problem is right there , using DVI/HDMI on that nvidia driver I dont think 1024 x 768 is selectable , and also that resolution is not a proper HD resolution , 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080 are the two main res for HD.

A typical 1080i TV usually has 1368 x 768 , the thing here is that both figures are higher than the figures for 720p ( 1280 x 720 ) and a scale down without too much loss is possible , whereas with your native res , you need to scale up on the horizontal and down on the vertical , not something that gets done very well , which is probably why it doesnt look too good.

The Nvidia driver is probably not able to handle that.

In all probability the VGA input on your TV is set to take that resolution which is why it will probably work better than the DVI.

Edit: , just had a quick look at the release notes for the latest XP drivers which are here ,

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/162.18/162.18_WinXP_ForceWare_Release_Notes.pdf

And on page 74 it shows the outputs available for the DVI, your card cannot support 1024 x 768 over DVI so its best to go with the VGA which does support that res. , Over DVI your TV is taking in the signal ( which will be either 1280 x 720 , or just SD 480 i ) but having scaling trouble as mentioned above , thats why it doesnt look too good.

Greetings mathias,
many thanks for the detailed reply, I think that this will prompt me to upgrade to the Nvidia 8800 Ultra.

I will try the VGA connection tonite and see how I get on.


Regards
Silverski

silverski

Greetings,

Did a test connection tonite using the laptop on the VGA connection, so far all looks good.
It seems much better if I use the TV as a single display rather than a clone.
I will try the 6800 Ultra on the weekend and then test the Apple G4.

The sooner I make the decision to upgrade to the 8800ultra the better.

regards
silverski