HTPC video and audio handshaking annoyances when using a receiver and wmc

[evident]

I have an ivy based (i3-3225) HTPC myself using integrated graphics. it's connected to HDMI to a pioneer receiver SC1222 which then goes to the TV.

one of the things that's a pain in the ass for me is when Im done watching tv i must close WMC everytime i'm done watching TV or else some annoying things happen.

the next time i turn the tv and receiver on, the picture only displays 4:3 and non-HD resolutions until i close WMC and restart it. I have a logitech harmony remote, and can't find a way to make a macro to close WMC before powering down the TV and receiver. What are some settings i could play with to prevent this from happening?

Here's another use case problem: if i just want to listen to music thru my HTPC, I like to turn off the TV to save power and not have any screen burn in issues. It's not an issue if i'm listening music through an app like Mediamonkey. If i'm listening to pandora or internet radio streaming through chrome, or IE, as soon as i turn my TV off, the audio cuts out and doesn't come back. i'm guessing that the app detects that the "audio jack" or output has been disconnected and stops with audio playing. is there a way to change this?

these are pretty inconvenient first world problem and would like to know if anyone else has similar issues like this, or if this is something specific to my motherboard/receiver/tv. these issues make annoying what otherwise is a pretty seemless and awesome experience with my HTPC.

full specs
i3-3225 (Intel HD4000 gfx)
2x4GB DDR3
Biostar H77MU3 - using HDMI out
Windows 7 Pro

receiver
Pioneer SC1222K

TV
Panasonic P55ST50 plasma
HD Homerun Prime on the network

Windows Media center used to watch live cable TV and DVR
mediamonkey used to listen to library of music
IE / chrome used to listen to internet radio

 

[joutlaw]

You can program Alt+F4 to your remote. This will close any active window. You may be able to use it in a macro.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Your problems are similar to frustrations I had, but not with regard to the aspect ratio and other complications. It MAY be specific to your AVR/HDTV equipment -- I can't say.

I have my computer configured perpetually to two "monitors:" my desktop monitor (non-HD, lower resolution) and my HDTV. The HDTV is an LG 42" LCD-LED with "smart" features. One of the nice things about it: I can switch off the video with the TV's remote to save power. The audio feed outputs to the AVR speakers.

You may also want to poke around in your PC graphics configuration screens. I suspect you only have one monitor (the TV) connected to the PC. In my case, I can configure a monitor to my NVidia card, and make it "inactive" if I don't turn it on. Toggling it in Windows would allow me to use it at will. It should be apparent here that I don't have a dedicated HTPC, but instead have "HTPC functionality" on my sig-rig.

Personal habits may reveal or hide these types of difficulties. I pretty much want TV 24/7. That's why the power-saving feature of the LG had been so convenient to me. It doesn't affect the PC's "awareness" that the monitor is connected.

 

[evident]

Your problems are similar to frustrations I had, but not with regard to the aspect ratio and other complications. It MAY be specific to your AVR/HDTV equipment -- I can't say.

I have my computer configured perpetually to two "monitors:" my desktop monitor (non-HD, lower resolution) and my HDTV. The HDTV is an LG 42" LCD-LED with "smart" features. One of the nice things about it: I can switch off the video with the TV's remote to save power. The audio feed outputs to the AVR speakers.

You may also want to poke around in your PC graphics configuration screens. I suspect you only have one monitor (the TV) connected to the PC. In my case, I can configure a monitor to my NVidia card, and make it "inactive" if I don't turn it on. Toggling it in Windows would allow me to use it at will. It should be apparent here that I don't have a dedicated HTPC, but instead have "HTPC functionality" on my sig-rig.

Personal habits may reveal or hide these types of difficulties. I pretty much want TV 24/7. That's why the power-saving feature of the LG had been so convenient to me. It doesn't affect the PC's "awareness" that the monitor is connected.

are you connected straight to your tv or are you connecting through a receiver? can you see if you can reproduce the same problem i'm having? watch live tv w/ WMC, turn off (fully turn off) your tv, turn it back on, do you have screen resolution issues?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

are you connected straight to your tv or are you connecting through a receiver? can you see if you can reproduce the same problem i'm having? watch live tv w/ WMC, turn off (fully turn off) your tv, turn it back on, do you have screen resolution issues?

You know, I'm going to try and do that for you between now and tomorrow, and I'll get back here then.

I run an HDMI-to-HDMI cable from my graphics card in the PC to my ONKYO TX NR616 AVR. the ONKYO passes via HDMI to the LG TV.

We're both running HD HomeRun PRime, but that wouldn't have anything to do with your problem.

Be patient with me here. What I think you're saying: you're closing Media Center on the PC, then turning off the TV and then turning it on? OR -- do you leave MC running and then turn off the TV? NO -- I just checked your OP again: It's the latter case.

My experience with the integration of HT equipment and a PC left me with this conclusion or set of observations. You have to configure the monitor and its resolution within Windows. Following that, there are configuration options within Media Center. If Media Center doesn't continue to detect that the appropriate hardware is turned on and available, your symptoms are just a subset of things that I'd found will happen.

Again, I will try what you suggest, but I can imagine -- it might actually replicate your problem.

I've found that the sequence with which you turn on the devices affects the integrity of the PC configuration/integration. If I want to watch TV at all, I have to turn on the TV and AVR first, then boot the PC. The PC then recognizes the ONKYO as "the monitor" -- it doesn't see the LG TV as such.

IF I boot the PC and leave these things off, then I have troubles. I need to be careful about driver updates -- graphics for instance, or it will foul everything up.

When I set up the TV as a second monitor, and then set up Media Center (hopefully the first and only time), Media Center wants to know if the LG TV is for its exclusive use, or that Media Center defaults to the LG as a display.

Because I have the "video-sleep" feature on the TV, I can have what you are seeking: sound without video; less power-consumption on the TV -- no "burned-in video." The other thing I can do, or had done successfully, is to put the AVR on Standby after configuring the TV feed to pass through to the TV and use the TV speakers (or a 2.1 PC speaker-set plugged into it.) But this can be problematic, because I'm sending a 5.1 feed to 2.1 speakers. I had problems with it today, but I had done it before.

Like you, too many details and steps means inconvenience. You don't want to shut down MC so you can get back your TV aspect-ratio and configuration. Me -- I want to determine what the steps are to change audio output without fouling up my 5.1 MC configuration. Once you get used to the "steps," you do what you have to do to get the result you want.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

OK. I just did what I generally "don't like to do:" I turned off my LG -- the white "on" light is now red. Media center continues to run and the sound continues to feed through the AVR.

Now I'm going to switch it on again:. . . . .

Well, well, well! This has been interesting. See, I run MC in a "window" stretched to the edges of the TV. That way, I have the mouse available on my desktop monitor. So with that, here's what happened.

The TV comes back on, initially showing the LG logo which usually happens when it's not getting a signal from the AVR. For about 5 seconds, I thought I would need to reboot the PC after flipping the TV back on.

But -- NO. The screen then went blank -- causing me more momentary panic. Then, the Media Center window with clips of Joan Rivers on a talk show reappeared, just as I left it. NO changes in the aspect ratio.

All this stuff is very finicky. What I really WANTED to do and haven't been able to do successfully yet is to use two 5.1 speaker systems at will -- the AVR, and my Logitech 5.1 speaker system with the 3.5mm plugs for the PC sound ports. Trying to do that, it would foul up the entire media center configuration. This is something many complain about regarding Windows -- which should have made that feature possible. I have a software program -- VAC or Virtual Audio CAble -- which I hoped would allow me to do it, but I haven't figured out how yet . . .

 

[evident]

thanks for trying it out for me. when your WMC came back on, your resolution was correct, and you were outputting digital audio?

I think what I need is to program a delays in my remote, when i push "Watch TV" it should power on receiver, power on tv, wait 5-10 seconds, start WMC. when "Turn Off", it should ALT+F4, power off tv, power off receiver.

Leaving WMC on when disconnecting displays seems to be the problematic issue.

I'm also stuck without a solution for powering off my display but leaving the input on. it's really cool that your TV can do that!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

thanks for trying it out for me. when your WMC came back on, your resolution was correct, and you were outputting digital audio?

I think what I need is to program a delays in my remote, when i push "Watch TV" it should power on receiver, power on tv, wait 5-10 seconds, start WMC. when "Turn Off", it should ALT+F4, power off tv, power off receiver.

Leaving WMC on when disconnecting displays seems to be the problematic issue.

I'm also stuck without a solution for powering off my display but leaving the input on. it's really cool that your TV can do that!

I would've hoped your plasma TV had such a feature. I could be mistaken, but I thought they used more juice than LCD/LCD_LEDs.

I just got lucky with the LG. It was the right price, had a lot of the right features, the right size. I didn't even think about the video-sleep feature when I bought it. We've got other LCD TVs -- A Panasonic, a Sansui and a Samsung. My brother presides over the Samsung, but I think it is similar. The others are problematic for reverting to a default input when they're turned off. Or -- at least the Panasonic does.

It seems we're "in the same boat," though. I was experimenting with PCI_E tuner cards, then connecting them via coax and SD to the cable-box, then Media Center, then MC with the HDCP complications and HDTV. Once I had it all working, I wouldn't give up getting the bugs ironed out. Most mainstreamers don't care -- don't want to do it -- think it's too much trouble. I rely on MC for DVR capability.

But contrary to a lot of HTPC enthusiasts, I wanted to make it work flawlessly on a "general purpose PC" which did a lot of other things. That's why I want to switch between two speaker systems without major steps and procedures. But every time I've tried to make it work, it causes so much trouble that I don't persist in trying further. Or -- I come back and "pick at it" every few months.

 

[evident]

posted this question on thegreenbutton and someone told me to look at dr hdmi or hdmi detective. basically looks like a box that spoof's HDMI EDID info so that you dont have any handshake type problems. only downside is it costs about $100.

 

[bradly1101]

I understand if you need the receiver for switching, but I had trouble trying to run things that way, so I use a direct connection from the PC to the TV and have optical-out audio from the PC to the receiver. If I needed up to three (for my TV) inputs I could run the HDMI audio out of the TV via its S/PDIF connector to the receiver, bypassing all that video handshaking.

 

[evident]

I understand if you need the receiver for switching, but I had trouble trying to run things that way, so I use a direct connection from the PC to the TV and have optical-out audio from the PC to the receiver. If I needed up to three (for my TV) inputs I could run the HDMI audio out of the TV via its S/PDIF connector to the receiver, bypassing all that video handshaking.

two reasons...

my biostar motherboard has no optical out, a major oversight and i didn't notice it until I set up my system. although i do have a spare asus z77 itx motherboard that i'm tempted to swap in

second reason is that i dont believe you can bit stream DTS-MA with anything but HDMI.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

two reasons...

my biostar motherboard has no optical out, a major oversight and i didn't notice it until I set up my system. although i do have a spare asus z77 itx motherboard that i'm tempted to swap in

second reason is that i dont believe you can bit stream DTS-MA with anything but HDMI.

Brady still offers an interesting option, but I need to think through the implications. First, if I were to reconfigure the input/output of the AVR and TV, then I'd likely have to run my MC setup all over again: MC would no longer see "TX NR616 [Onkyo]" -- it would see "LG HDTV." There might be complications if I wanted to just "listen to music" from MC. But I think the "passthrough" feature of my ONKYO AVR also exists for the LG HDTV. That being said, my system uses an ASUS Z68 board -- which for these discussions would be no different than a Z77.

 

[bradly1101]

two reasons...

my biostar motherboard has no optical out, a major oversight and i didn't notice it until I set up my system. although i do have a spare asus z77 itx motherboard that i'm tempted to swap in

second reason is that i dont believe you can bit stream DTS-MA with anything but HDMI.

I see. Is MA that much better than plain old DTS? I'm out of the loop with the latest stuff, but if it's a receiver problem and not cables, you may have to take the audio from the TV's audio out (if available) and put up with lesser (but still marvellous sounding to me) regular DTS.

 

[bradly1101]

Also have you tried forcing media center to match your TV resolution in the following Registry key?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DisplayService]
"PhysicalWidth"=dword:00000320 [choose values for all width and height entries in decimal for your resolution]
"PhysicalHeight"=dword:00000258
"LogicalWidth"=dword:00000320
"LogicalHeight"=dword:00000258
"Format"="RGB32"
"TvMode"="On"
"RefreshRate"=dword:0000003b
"Interlaced"=dword:00000001

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Also have you tried forcing media center to match your TV resolution in the following Registry key?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DisplayService]
"PhysicalWidth"=dword:00000320 [choose values for all width and height entries in decimal for your resolution]
"PhysicalHeight"=dword:00000258
"LogicalWidth"=dword:00000320
"LogicalHeight"=dword:00000258
"Format"="RGB32"
"TvMode"="On"
"RefreshRate"=dword:0000003b
"Interlaced"=dword:00000001

+1 and :thumbsup: . Back to the OP's main problem, or an aspect of it.

 

[bradly1101]

+1 and :thumbsup: . Back to the OP's main problem, or an aspect of it.

The more I think about it, I doubt this will work.

 

[nickbits]

Didn't read thread too closely but I avoid resolution issues by powering on my AVR last. Intuitively it makes more sense for it to come on first but I had a lot of issues with that.

 

[bradly1101]

This may be helpful:

http://superuser.com/questions/96683/how-do-i-fix-monitor-detection-in-windows-7

 

[bradly1101]

I searched a lot (I'm killing time before a 12hr scheduled blackout - my own 1st world problem), and it looks like Intel doesn't have a setting in their video drivers to disable display detection, which would fix the audio I think. I hope the only fix isn't adding a video card.

 

[evident]

I searched a lot (I'm killing time before a 12hr scheduled blackout - my own 1st world problem), and it looks like Intel doesn't have a setting in their video drivers to disable display detection, which would fix the audio I think. I hope the only fix isn't adding a video card.

I think that's another root cause of it. I could try moving my main pc's 7770 over to the htpc and test it to see how it reacts.

 

[bradly1101]

I think that's another root cause of it. I could try moving my main pc's 7770 over to the htpc and test it to see how it reacts.

I looked through Catalyst Control Center and couldn't find it.This is from the older CCC, and it may only show with a TV detected. My TV is on an Nvidia card.

 

[Aikouka]

I have an i3-3225-based HTPC on my Vizio M701d + Denon AVR-2112ci, and I've never had an issue with turning off the TV with Windows Media Center open.

 

[evident]

I have an i3-3225-based HTPC on my Vizio M701d + Denon AVR-2112ci, and I've never had an issue with turning off the TV with Windows Media Center open.

what motherboard?
do you use the intel HD4000 integrated video?
do you leave your PC on all the time?
what happens when you try to listen to music via pandora or web interface and then you power off your tv? does your audio stop for 3 seconds and then continues on, or does it stop completely and you get some speakers are disconnected error?


I programmed my logitech harmony 650 remote and changed up the sequencing a bit. It now does an ALT + F4 to close the WMC app before turning off the receiver and TV (PC is left on at all times for DVR).

the turn on sequence is tricky. it's kind of confusing w/ the harmony software to program the sequence and delays.

Things seem to be working a little bit better for now. need to keep testing it though.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have an i3-3225-based HTPC on my Vizio M701d + Denon AVR-2112ci, and I've never had an issue with turning off the TV with Windows Media Center open.

And apparently -- nor do I. Instead, when I want to "pass-through" the HDMI feed through the AVR when it's in Stand-by to my HDTV, it requires more than just configuring the AVR for it.

I need to "experiment" some more. I had actually got it to work properly more than a year ago, but I forgot all the details of how I did it.

This is the scenario. I have my "TX NR616" AVR configured as the default 5.1 audio device. Media Center is similarly configured for HDMI 5.1. But I want to turn off the AVR (left in Stand-By), pass through the HDMI signal to the HDTV so the audio comes out a 2.1 speaker set I have hooked up to the TV.

Today, when I tried this without reconfiguring either Windows audio devices or Media Center, I get the video feed, but the audio goes silent. Moreover, something happens that automatically --AUTOMATICALLY-- mutes the AVR.

I suspect -- when I had got this to work a year ago or earlier -- I had reconfigured Windows to 2.1 and Media Center to 2.1. But this is unacceptably inconvenient. I should be able to pass through the 5.1 signal and play it through a 2.1 system.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

All one needs to do is make the right web-searches. I should've stumbled on this a long time ago.

If it doesn't work as desired, there's probably something else:

http://www.hack7mc.com/2010/08/switch-audio-output-devices-with-audio-renderer-updater.html