Connecting Computer to my TV

[sugarsickness]

OK, I need some help from all of you lovely people ^^;


I have a Radeon 9200 AGP card that has an S Video port thing and a Video OUT port. I used the A/V cables that I use to hook my DVD player to my tv and hooked the Yellow plug into my Video OUT port. Hoping it would be that easy (I just want a clone of my monitor for when I want to watch movies on my couch and not this uncomfortable wooden chair) but, of course, it was not. After some quick googling I read about needing to buy a box converter thing and needing to go into windows and mess with things... But nothing that seems like a definitive answer.

Any help that could be offered? <3

[lordfoul]

It should work.

Control Panel
Display
Settings
Advanced
ATI Displays
TV
Click enable/disable button
Apply

Reboot while connected to your TV and hope you see the Windows logo upon boot.

[tokenuser]

Lordfoul is right.

If your TV (or AV Receiver) can handle S-Video, that will give you a better picture. If its done right, you can have the movie on the TV screen as a second monitor, while still having the monitor showing Windows.

[sugarsickness]

woooo ok ><

Some progress. When I ahve the Yellow cord plugged into my Video Out port on my video card and into the back of my TV I get picture (A separate screen, not a clone) but it is black and white and the resolution is wierd. It is too large for the screen and so I ahve to use the mouse to scroll (And altering the res of that screen has zero effect at all).

I ahve what I believe to be an s-video cable (It came in my monitor box but fits into the s-video port so I assume >> )... With that I can't go directly into my TV from my card as it does not have the right port but I can go from my card into my DVD player and use the r/w/y cables to go into my computer (A long time ago I had to hook up my PS2 through my VCR and into my tv and so I figured this logic would be similar) but when I reboot with it set up like that (S-Video from card to DVD | DVD a/v cables into TV) my monitor gives me an "Out of range" error and nothing shows otherwise.

So I'm not sure what is happening. On the back of my DVD player it has the r/w/y ports, s-video, and three "Component Video Out" ports (two blue and one red which I dont know what those are for because the coloring throws me off).

A little closer but not quite there yet. Also I dont ahve any sort of ATI options when I go into ADVANCE in the Display panel (I have the Hydravision thing installed if that makes a difference).

<3

[striker1211]

You have to set your region. It's probably set to PAL. If you live in the US it should be NTSC. Check your ATI tv-out options. I know where the option is in nvidia but not ati.

[edit] Are you sure you have the video drivers installed? You should have a few options inside the advance control panel applet. The displays can work without the right drivers, but they won't work as good.

[edit 2]
Boy, editing is awesome... anywho:
To see if you have the ATI drivers installed do this;
Start Menu
Run
Enter "devmgmt.msc" without quotes.
In the window that comes up go to +Display Adapters>Your Video Card Name
Right click on it and hit properties.

Under the general tab (first tab) it should say "Manufacturer: ATI Technologies"
If it says "Microsoft" then it's not the catalyst drivers.

[sugarsickness]

You guys are the greeeeattttest :D

Almost have it hahaha. Well.

My TV is currently a clone of my monitor and it has color and looks nice but the screen is still 'too big' for my television. It scrolls when my mouse goes too far in a direction.

The reason I don't want to make it a 'separate' screen because the TV will be facing the other way and I wont use it as an extension of my windows desktop - I just want to be able to watch Rev3 shows from my couch ><

So it looks like there is just a little something more I'm missing. To slear something up, yeah, I reinstalled my ATI drivers and I had the options in the Advanced section of the Display dialogue. I STILL had the correct ATI drivers (The Run command said ATI even) so I dont know, but I have the Catalyst control panel now, just the screen is too big (Or wahtever haha).

Any ideas?

[lordfoul]

What resolution are you running at? You should try running at 800x600. Use the controls available on the Adjustments tab on the Monitor Properties page to adjust the display. Click on the TV button to adjust the TV display.

[striker1211]

That's called overscan. It broadcasts to your tv at its native res but all tvs overscan so corners dont show... if you havent noticed tvs arent perfectly square like their video is. There is probably a device adjustment of overscan option in the driver settings. If not just run vlc maximized but not full screen (if you use vlc, i do, it rocks)

[sugarsickness]

Yes, there is an Overscan setting unfortunately that seems alter nothing (Unless it requires a restart although none of the other things have but I'm gonna try that in a minute).

Res is 1280x1024 and changing it has no effect.

The overscan option confuses me a little. There is a large rectangle with a white box indie that you can move around and a red box inside that that you can adjust the size of. I can make guesses anda ssumptions but without me seeing any changes when I hit Apply I can't make sure right now :P Could someone elaborate for me?

[striker1211]

Yes, there is an Overscan setting unfortunately that seems alter nothing (Unless it requires a restart although none of the other things have but I'm gonna try that in a minute).

Res is 1280x1024 and changing it has no effect.

The overscan option confuses me a little. There is a large rectangle with a white box indie that you can move around and a red box inside that that you can adjust the size of. I can make guesses anda ssumptions but without me seeing any changes when I hit Apply I can't make sure right now :P Could someone elaborate for me?

Take a screenshot maybe. 1280x1024? On a normal tv? The max it should be on is 1024x768. If you are cloning a widescreen lcd onto a tv i dont think it will work right because they both dont display the same aspect ratio. It would be like fitting a rectangle into a square's hole or something.

[sugarsickness]

Yeah, if I lower my res it looks good >< I feel silly.

Although I despise 1024x768, anyway I can have the TV use that res and my monitor use the higer one? I can easily just change it when I go to watch something but it would be even awesomer if I didnt have to. I would think that that wouldnt be possible since it is cloning the monitor? I can't find an option to alter the res of the TV only.

[lordfoul]

I'm glad you've gotten it to work. I actually don't have an ATI card or Hydravision to look for you, but I would bet you can.

[striker1211]

Yeah, if I lower my res it looks good >< I feel silly.

Although I despise 1024x768, anyway I can have the TV use that res and my monitor use the higer one? I can easily just change it when I go to watch something but it would be even awesomer if I didnt have to. I would think that that wouldnt be possible since it is cloning the monitor? I can't find an option to alter the res of the TV only.

The only way you could have different resolutions would be to use the tv as a secondary display, and not clone it. Clone=Clone lol.

[sugarsickness]

The only way you could have different resolutions would be to use the tv as a secondary display, and not clone it. Clone=Clone lol.

That's what I thought :P ahhhh >< I guess I'll just change res every time, probably wont be that bad :]


Thanks guys, time to watch the new DiggNation 8]

[sugarsickness]

So I spent a few hours after figuring out how to get it all set up moving my desk and bed in a good position and after satisfied I was so tired so I just went to bed. Woke up to watch some Diggnation and Geekdrome and... The video does not show up on my tv. It is just black, vlc fullscreened or not. I have no idea how that works out but it is ><

I am using the yellow Video cable and not S-Video (If that might make a difference and I can route the s-video through my DVD player then i can do that?).

[striker1211]

So I spent a few hours after figuring out how to get it all set up moving my desk and bed in a good position and after satisfied I was so tired so I just went to bed. Woke up to watch some Diggnation and Geekdrome and... The video does not show up on my tv. It is just black, vlc fullscreened or not. I have no idea how that works out but it is ><

I am using the yellow Video cable and not S-Video (If that might make a difference and I can route the s-video through my DVD player then i can do that?).

Did you send your computer to S3 suspend? If you did you may have to restart because it "forgot" your tv was there. If you restarted then that's odd. Did you mess with the refresh rates at all? Can you see anything on the tv or just not the actual video, it could be a directx problem or something.

[sugarsickness]

Computer was not in any suspend mode and the desktop everything was there - just not the actual video. It palys fine on the monitor but the TV won't show the video.

I tried watching various video files (.mov .m4v .avi) in multiple media players (winamp, vlc, mpc) with identical results in each - a black box on my tv where the video would be.

[lordfoul]

This (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=18861) maybe of some help.

[striker1211]

The quick fix would be to make the tv the primary display, then overlay drawing would work correctly. Sometimes mine does it so i have to slowly drag the video over to the other monitor. Open the video on ur main screen. Then drag it slowly to the tv. You should see the video disappear as it goes to the other screen. Keep pulling it over and wait for it to start drawing on the tv. Once it does you can finish dragging it over. If none of that works find a 3d acceleration button or slider for the tv and set it to off. It might also be called "compatibility mode" or something.

[striker1211]

Using ATI Control Panel:
The THEATER MODE option can be enabled using the following steps:

* ensure Clone mode is enabled
* open Windows Display Properties
* select the Advanced button under the Settings Tab
* select the Overlay tab

For CATALYST™ 3.2 and higher

* select the CLONE MODE OPTIONS button and then Select the THEATER MODE button
* apply the changes

For CATALYST™ builds previous to CATALYST™ 3.2

* select the THEATER MODE button
* apply the changes

[sugarsickness]

This (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=18861) maybe of some help.

lordfoul and striker, I am forever in your debt.

Not only does that solve the issue with the black box but whenever I have video playing it is fullscreen on my tv regardless of res or where it is. When my little brother visits he can watch a movie ive downloaded or something and I can keep working!

Thank you all so very much :D Now its time to watch Diggnation ><

[lordfoul]

I aim to please.

Can't let technology stand between a man and his diggantion.

[ahskrenaim]

I aim to please.

Can't let technology stand between a man and his diggantion.

SORRY about resurecting this old thread but it is the closest thing that I could find to the answer to my problem. My computer when playing DVD's in Media Player Classic or PowerDVD (only players installed) displays, not a black screen, but a dark one. This is running on a single monitor, not a projector. In PowerDVD I was able to find a setting to set a brightness "profile" which made the picture about right but MPC (my prefered player) has no such option which I could find. I have seen other posts saying somethign about an "Overlay" tab under Display Properties>Settings>Advanced>Overlay, but I do not see this on my computer.
(fyi Nvidia not ATI need any other info? let me know)
P.S. Lordfoul, I have refered to your posts many times to fix problems in the past and specifically remember a list of useful programs you complied a while back (THANKYOU!). (not that I am specifically writing to Lordfoul but the name just reminded me that I never got the chance to say thanks)

P.P.S. Should I have just made a new thread?

[tehBoris]

The nVidia control panel calls it the more obvious "video colour settings".