New HTPC questions

cstrasz · 01-30-2013, 08:29 AM

Hello,

I recently built a HTPC that's mainly a gaming console for my living room. The system is windows 7 based and hooked in via HDMI.

I noticed that cleartype is not an option in my display settings. Is this normal? I was hoping to clean up some of the font rendering like I do on windows but it's non existent as an option from what I can tell (the clear type wizard that lets you pick the clearer font images is no where to be found).

The videocard is an Nvidia graphics card. I don't see any options for actually moving the position of the image in Nvidia's control panel. Instead it seems to be limited to just taking care of underscan/overscan but no horizontal/vertical adjustment. Anyone know if this is exposed anywhere or do I have to change this through my tv?

The audio is showing up as PCM in my receiver with a straight signal. However, I'm not noticing as rich sound in games as I do with my game consoles. Should I be seeing my receiver decode the signal to be dolby digital or something similar? I feel like it's just outputting it directly as it's coming from the PC, but I expected my receiver to take care of all the surround aspect.

Thanks!

Zap · 01-30-2013, 12:28 PM

Windows ClearType Tuner

I checked and it was easy to find AFTER I changed Control Panel to display by category and not my usual small icons. Click on the Appearance and Personalization category, and uder Fonts click on Adjust ClearType text. It will run you through a wizard.

With the display adjustment, it may be your TV. I recently (month ago) switched TVs and am unhappy with how the new TV handles this. Old one the picture was always perfect. New one, TV always zooms (overscan?) and EVERY time I turn the TV on, I have to adjust it. My HTPC was unchanged, so I am assuming the fault lies with the TV. It may (or may not) be the case with yours. I'm unhappy enough with mine that I'm ready to try using the VGA input on the HDTV instead of an HDMI input, as soon as I get a longer VGA cable.

Hopefully someone else can help you with your sound issue.

Aikouka · 01-30-2013, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zap

With the display adjustment, it may be your TV. I recently (month ago) switched TVs and am unhappy with how the new TV handles this. Old one the picture was always perfect. New one, TV always zooms (overscan?) and EVERY time I turn the TV on, I have to adjust it. My HTPC was unchanged, so I am assuming the fault lies with the TV. It may (or may not) be the case with yours. I'm unhappy enough with mine that I'm ready to try using the VGA input on the HDTV instead of an HDMI input, as soon as I get a longer VGA cable.

That sounds like an overscan problem to me. Normal broadcasts are designed with overscan in mind, so they aren't affected; however, you will have to either change some setting on your TV or your HTPC. Since I use a receiver (i.e. everything goes to one HDMI input on the TV), I changed mine on my HTPC. In the nVidia Control Panel, I pretty much just shrink down my resolution to fit on the TV, so I'm not actually displaying a 1080p picture anymore.

LoveMachine · 01-30-2013, 02:26 PM

What Nvidia card is it? The last one I used for HTPC was a GT240 about 3 years ago, and I'm pretty sure the picture position adjustments were in there somewhere. Have you tried updating the drivers and utilities? I remember from some chart on missingremote.com that some of the earlier NV cards with HDMI did not support all the latest audio codecs, so if it's an older card, you may want to switch to an optical connection (assuming your MB has that capability).

cstrasz · 01-30-2013, 08:04 PM

It's an Nvidia GTX 680. I've figured out the audio issues by using an optical out instead of HDMI.

I also fixed the overscan. Basically, this Samsung LED DLP has 3 HDMI inputs but only the 3rd one is labelled PC (didn't realize this since it's hard to get back there, just saw it posted on a forum somewhere). I plugged it into there and there was an aspect that was 'widescreen PC' and all is well there.

That said, I'm stumped as **** as to why I don't have the normal Display options available on the TV. What I mean is if you go into Right click and then personalize, the only options on the left are change desktop icons and font size. I know windows 7 has more and my desktop has clear type settings and other adjustments. But these are just gone on the HTPC/TV setup so I can't find any way to adjust cleartype (already have font size set to largest at 150 dpi).

If I go to that cleartype link and do the checkbox for turning it on and try to continue, it throws up a browser box that says 'Please turn on cleartype.' even though it's checked to on. It's like cleartype is not possible on this display. Is that odd to anyone else? Sucks because I know it would help me read text better on here.

cstrasz · 01-30-2013, 08:07 PM

LOL. I just realized I installed Vista and not Windows 7. G'damnit. Installing 7. Be back in a few hours.

thestrangebrew1 · 01-31-2013, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cstrasz

LOL. I just realized I installed Vista and not Windows 7. G'damnit. Installing 7. Be back in a few hours.

lol how the hell did you miss that?

Zap · 01-31-2013, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aikouka

That sounds like an overscan problem to me. Normal broadcasts are designed with overscan in mind, so they aren't affected; however, you will have to either change some setting on your TV or your HTPC.

I know this and the HDTV has such a setting. The "problem" is the setting won't be remembered after the HDTV powers off. Every time I power on the HDTV, I have to set it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cstrasz

I also fixed the overscan. Basically, this Samsung LED DLP has 3 HDMI inputs but only the 3rd one is labelled PC (didn't realize this since it's hard to get back there, just saw it posted on a forum somewhere). I plugged it into there and there was an aspect that was 'widescreen PC' and all is well there.

Huh, I may have to try this on my screen (Haier 55") to see if it makes a difference. PITA though, because it is wall mounted using a super slim (under 1") mount.

Aikouka · 01-31-2013, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zap

I know this and the HDTV has such a setting. The "problem" is the setting won't be remembered after the HDTV powers off. Every time I power on the HDTV, I have to set it.

Yes, and that's why I said to fix it on the computer instead, and I said that because...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zap

Huh, I may have to try this on my screen (Haier 55") to see if it makes a difference. PITA though, because it is wall mounted using a super slim (under 1") mount.

I don't know your set up as it might be using a receiver. Since a receiver only has a single output, that may cause a problem if you set it to a zoom that's designed for a PC and attempt to play other content on it that requires the overscan.

Hence why I said to consider fixing it on the PC.