video is off center with HTPC & new video card

[NTB]

A while back I "inherited" a little Compaq PC from my grandfather when he moved in with my mom and dad. Since they already had a PC, he figured he wouldn't need it any more. So I decided to drop some more memory, a couple old hard drives, and a new video card into it and use it as an HTPC.

I wanted to get a card with built-in H.264 acceleration, so I was looking at some of the Nvidia 7xxx series cards (7600 and up), and then today I came across a good deal on an 8500GT so I grabbed it. Yes, it's overkill for a Sempron-based machine, I know. But, it has the video acceleration I wanted, and now I have a spare DX10 card lying around, in case my own 8600 should decide to keel over

Anyway, I hooked it up and then ran it to my HDTV via a DVI-to-HDMI cable. Those cables are a SCAM in local stores, BTW. :| Everything looks great, except that the image is a little off-center vertically. There is a black bar at the bottom of the screen, and the top is off far enough that an icon in the top left corner is almost completely off the screen when the resolution is set at 1280x720. Any body know of a way to move the entire image? I dug through both the TV's on-screen controls and nvidia's own controls for the card, and found something to re-size the desktop, but nothing that would let me actually move it.

Nathan

 

[heyheybooboo]

I wanted to get a card with built-in H.264 acceleration, so I was looking at some of the Nvidia 7xxx series cards (7600 and up)

The Radeon HD2600/2400 & Geforce 8600/8500 are desogned to significantly remove VC1 & h264 off the cpu - capability not within other series

and then today I came across a good deal on an 8500GT so I grabbed it. Yes, it's overkill for a Sempron-based machine

See above. The Sempron will work quite well. If you are not convinced see the AnandTech HTPC ? TV Tuner Reviews review

Anyway, I hooked it up and then ran it to my HDTV via a DVI-to-HDMI cable.... Everything looks great, except that the image is a little off-center vertically. There is a black bar at the bottom of the screen, and the top is off far enough that an icon in the top left corner is almost completely off the screen when the resolution is set at 1280x720.

This seems to be a configuration issue that has resulted in overscan problems. The 1280x720 pixel field is not scaling properly. The HDMI input may be a native 1360x768 or similar.

Review the input resolutions in your panel manual - DVI, db15 or composite may be better alternatives depending upon the resoltion you wish to achieve.

 

[Deinonych]

There should be a section in the NVIDIA Control Panel called "HDTV Settings" that will allow you to adjust the scale and centering of the image.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo

The Radeon HD2600/2400 & Geforce 8600/8500 are desogned to significantly remove VC1 & h264 off the cpu - capability not within other series

According to Nvidia's own website, everything from the 7600 on up can do this.

See above. The Sempron will work quite well. If you are not convinced see the AnandTech HTPC ? TV Tuner Reviews review

I meant as a general rule. If I were using this as a normal PC and playing games, I think I'd outstrip the CPU before I did the card. I might be wrong though

This seems to be a configuration issue that has resulted in overscan problems. The 1280x720 pixel field is not scaling properly. The HDMI input may be a native 1360x768 or similar.

Review the input resolutions in your panel manual - DVI, db15 or composite may be better alternatives depending upon the resoltion you wish to achieve.

already checked the resolution itself; after 1280x720, it jumps up to 1600xSomething (I forget exactly what). There is no DVI input on this particular panel, and the DB15 is limited to 1024x768. haven't tried the componen input yet.

Nathan

 

[NTB]

Just went and tried the 1600x900 setting to see what would happen, and it works beautifully. Doesn't make much sense, since the TV is only supposed to be a 720P panel, but I'm not complaining

Nathan

 

[L00PY]

That resolution happens to be one that your TV recognizes so it accepts it and scales it down to your native resolution. Ideally, you should be sending it the native resolution, but that can be very tricky depending on your TV -- doubly so if you've got a plasma. I'd suggest Googling your TV model and see what other people are using. You may also want to search over at AVSForums for it too.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: NTB

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo

The Radeon HD2600/2400 & Geforce 8600/8500 are desogned to significantly remove VC1 & h264 off the cpu - capability not within other series

According to Nvidia's own website, everything from the 7600 on up can do this.

Sorry for not phrasing that better. I should have specified the hardware based h.264/vc-1 decoding by the gpu that removes the 'software decoding' of h264/vc-1 functions from the cpu. If the 7600 has that capability that's good news