PC to LCD TV Problems

[eanelson4]

Hey all, first post here.

I recently bought the Samsung LN40A500 for $799 from BB on Black Friday. Going from an old 27" CRT to this makes me drool, and naturally I wanted to hook my PC up to it to see what it can do with games and movies.

I bought a DVI-D --> HDMI cable and went to hook it up, thinking it would be as easy as that. Sure enough, I am getting a problem where the TV will say "No sigal". Things I checked include:

1) My video card. Instead of running dual monitors, I switched it to one monitor and plugged my TV into the main DVI port. Still got nothing, even though it works on my PC

2) Made sure the HDMI is in the proper port on the TV. Manual says it must be the HDMI2 port, so I put it there.

3) Respolution and Hz. I changed it to 1920 x 1080. Ensured it output was 60Hz.

Anybody have any ideas what I am doing wrong. I'm sure it is something stupid, but I just couldn't seem to come to a conclusion. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

eanelson4

 

[The Boston Dangler]

in the video properties, does it say something like "display 1 - samsung hdtv"?

i have found, for my setup, the tv must be on first, then the pc can boot. if the cable is unplugged while running, the pc must be restarted to get the picture back.

 

[eanelson4]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
in the video properties, does it say something like "display 1 - samsung hdtv"?

i have found, for my setup, the tv must be on first, then the pc can boot. if the cable is unplugged while running, the pc must be restarted to get the picture back.

Interesting. Yes, under the Nvidia control panel, it does say something to the effect of "Samsung HDTV", so my video card is detecting the television just fine. I think I tried rebooting my PC while the TV was on and it didn't do anything. I can try that again when I get home.

Anybody else have other suggestions?

 

[kalrith]

The only thing I found was the following post from another forum: "to connect pc to this tv, you have to set the refresh rate to be 59 instead of 60." That's all he said, so I'm not sure how much credence his statement has.

Adding a second monitor of any kind can be tricky. I tried to do that recently, and my computer didn't like it. I shut down the computer, plugged in the second monitor, turned the computer on, and got nothing on either monitor. I wound up having to flip the power switch on my power supply and boot up with just my one monitor. Then, I think (I don't remember exactly) I plugged in the second monitor while the computer was on and rebooted it. It seemed to work fine after that.

 

[eanelson4]

So a little update:

I got home, tried all kinds of things. I tried starting the PC after the TV was already on, disconnecting both ends of the cable and plugging them in, connecting my TV to the DVI port that my monitor was hooked up to (since I know that one works), etc. I jumped on the phone with Samsung tech support and they were of no help. The best answer the guy could come up with was that my HDMI port on the TV might be broken. I just proved that wrong b/c I hooked my XBOX360 up to both HDMI 1 and 2 and they work for the XBOX360.

The Samsung tech said that he would submit a ticket to their top tech guys and I can call back in 2 days to see if they come up with a solution. I'm expecting a big nothing. This is really frustrating. Any other suggestions?

 

[eanelson4]

Another update:

Progress! I installed new Nvidia drivers, and now it works somewhat. I can get up to 1280 x 720 (720p) to play on my TV. If I try to go any higher (up to 1080p) it doesn't work. I don't understand this as my TV supports 1080p and the manual says it should be able to show 1080p from the computer. At least I have some positive result, however. Maybe the samsung techs can do something with this new result. Even though it is just 720p, it looks great!

Anybody have any suggestions on why it is not showing up to 1080p?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

just a guess:

nvidia control panel > video & television > 2.select connector - hdmi 3.select signal format - 1080p hdtv

 

[olds]

I am having issues getting my TV to see my PC too.
I tried DVI to VGA, no luck. I can go S Video to S Video but I get no audio.
I ordered a cable from mono price that does S Video to composite, I'll give that a try.

 

[rdp6]

reposted from another thread:

I have last year's 1080p samsung (lnt5271f). Before my DVI->HMDI adaptor and HDMI cables arrived from monoprice, I used a DVI to VGA adaptor (provided by Apple) to a VGA cable (came with a Dell LCD) to the TV. The VGA cable is pretty high gauge (skinny) compared to the VGA cables on my CRT monitors. Result: high resolution possible but noisy (blurry) picture. Sound was (still is) passed by stereo cable with male 1/8" connectors.

With the DVI->HDMI adaptor and HDMI cable 1920x1080 @ 60hz is perfectly clear. My macbook pro doesn't pass audio through DVI (I think audio over DVI is rare) so it continues to be passed through the stereo cable. I'll look into using the optical digital output when I set up a home theater.

I don't know if it is mentioned in your TV manual, but for mine it is important to use HDMI1 input and in the setup menu on the TV "name" it PC, otherwise the colors are all wrong and text looks bad.

 

[sdifox]

setup dualview. one for your computer, one for your tv. You may have to turn on tv before you turn on computer. Then go check your dual view setting.

 

[eanelson4]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
just a guess:

nvidia control panel > video & television > 2.select connector - hdmi 3.select signal format - 1080p hdtv

Tried that already. It just says no signal when I try to bump it up to 1080 like that.

Originally posted by: rdp6

I don't know if it is mentioned in your TV manual, but for mine it is important to use HDMI1 input and in the setup menu on the TV "name" it PC, otherwise the colors are all wrong and text looks bad.

Yeah, my manual suggests I have the chord in HDMI2 so thats what I have it in, but I tried it in HDMI1 as well and it doesn't make a difference. Either way, I can't get 1080p.

Originally posted by: sdifox
setup dualview. one for your computer, one for your tv. You may have to turn on tv before you turn on computer. Then go check your dual view setting.

Yep, that's how I have it set up already.

I should be more clear about my problem. On my PC, I am able to select the 1080p setting no problem, and have it output that signal. The problem is on the TV, if I go above 720p, it just says "No Signal". IDK if its a problem w/ my TV, the cable or what. The cable is brand new and thicker guage than my monitor wire, so I doubt thats the problem. Hopefully there is just a setting I have missed or something. I'll continue to mess around with it today and see what I can do.

Thanks for the help thus far everybody! Any extra thoughts are always appreciated .

 

[sdifox]

I tried googling the model but came up with nothing. you sure that is the model number?

question, on the feed to your tv, do you have it set as hdtv? try not setting it as hdtv since nvidia driver might not understand that 1080p is possible.

Do you see multiple choices for the setup?

 

[eanelson4]

Originally posted by: sdifox
I tried googling the model but came up with nothing. you sure that is the model number?

question, on the feed to your tv, do you have it set as hdtv? try not setting it as hdtv since nvidia driver might not understand that 1080p is possible.

Do you see multiple choices for the setup?

Oh, my bad. It was a typo. The model number is LN40A500. What do you mean changing the feed off of HDTV? How would I do that?

Also not sure on what you mean by multiple choices for the setup.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: eanelson4

Originally posted by: sdifox
I tried googling the model but came up with nothing. you sure that is the model number?

question, on the feed to your tv, do you have it set as hdtv? try not setting it as hdtv since nvidia driver might not understand that 1080p is possible.

Do you see multiple choices for the setup?

Oh, my bad. It was a typo. The model number is LN40A500. What do you mean changing the feed off of HDTV? How would I do that?

Also not sure on what you mean by multiple choices for the setup.

on the dual view setup there is a drop down that allows you to specify how you want the monitors setup. Usually you have your monitor on the right and the tv on the left, so the drop down option would look like minitor+hdtv. The issue is, there might be a setting further down that is monitor+ ln40a500 dvi. Try that option. I have dvi-dvi connection to my pj and that is how it works.

But then I used to run a dvi-hdmi cable and it picked up as hdtv.

try unchecking treat second display as hdtv and select the monitor +dvi option.

 

[bboyi1]

Hello and thank you all for posting questions and answers about this topic. I have the LN40A500 also and have been problems connecting to my Sony Vaio notebook. I've been posting on the CNet Samsung forums but have yet to receive and working information. So far, I can only get the TV to display my computer's until the Windows log-in screen. After I login, the TV drops the signal and I can't get it back. It is frustrating! Eanelson, what did you do to get your TV working? I have to leave my TV on, restart the notebook then the option of PC pops up on the Samsung... then I get to the login problem. Man, with the Vizio I had before this, I could just plug in a computer at anytime and get it going with the notebook. Any help? Step-by-step please... PS. I use a RGB to RGB cable... Remember, I can see the windows login screen on my tv! After that it loses the signal.