New user- few questions (1 Viewer)

[Jeff_Brown]

First of, Hi everyone. This looks like a great place to learn more about setting up and fine tuning our systems.

Ive been building my system slowly for a while now. and just finally mounted my projector on the ceiling and ran all my wires last week.

Right now I have a 2.4 GHz with a soundblaster audigy 2NX sound card, 5.1 speakers, and a Panasonic PTL500U projector. I still dont have a video card though.

Now for a few questions from a beginner. What is everyones favorite DVD program. I used windows media player for a bit, but hate that when I select "full screen" and I run it at 1280x720 the video only fills a small portion of the screen. What programs offer a great selection of video sizing and aspect formats, as well as being compatable with dolby dts and other high audio formats?

Another big problem of mine is when I run a 1024x768 screen to my projector, it fills the screen (uses all the pixles) although stretched. But when I select to send a 1280x720 image, which is the native resolution of my projector, the image actually doesnt fill my projecors screen. It is actually smaller than the projected image, ie. i get grey areas around the image.

Any help is much appreciated

 

[SethH]

Do a search on the forum (or google) for powerstrip. It's a program that allows you to output at many different resolutions. I think it's used by most of the people here with HTPC's.

 

[Steve F M]

I have the same problem. My projector is native 720p and when I run that resolution the output is very small on my screen. Why would powerstrip help us if we are already outputting at 1280 x 720?

 

[SethH]

My mistake, I should read more carefully next time.

 

[Jeff_Brown]

Actually Seth, it worked like a charm.

I would set the resolution in windows, but its like it actually wasnt putting out that resolution. it was slightly smaller and squished, so it wasnt the clearest. but once I set the resolution through powerstrip, it filled the screen, and WOW, such a clear awsome picture. That was exactly what I needed to fix my problem.

 

[Steve F M]

Jeff where did you download Powerstrip from if you don't mind me asking? I want to see what the rave is all about.

Thanks

 

[Jeff_Brown]

Steve, since I dont have 15 posts yet, I cant paste a URL, but if you type powerstrip and Entech (the company) you should find their site, and on the left hand side where it says powerstrip 3.57 you can just click and download it.

Getting the correct resolution wasnt as easy as cake though. I crashed once, lost picture twice, and fooled around with the resolutions for about 30 min. Even when I chose 1280x720 nothing changed. But I stayed persistant and kept fooling around, and oh man it was worth it. Once you really hit your native resolution it is a thing of beauty. Good luck with getting yours working.

 

[Steve F M]

Found it but when i use the powerstrip for 1280 x 720 which is my projectors native resloution it shows part of the right side of the screen on the left side if that makes sense. Anyone have any ideas why that is happening?

 

[Jeff_Brown]

Actually I had a problem with the top half on the bottom. Like I said, it was a LOT of trial and error. I think what eventually got it was going through ALL of the resolutions, and eventually when I went back to 1280x720 it worked properly. Truthfully, Im a total beginner so Im sure someone would know a lot more than me, but I would suggest playing around with all the settings and hopefully you will get lucky, thats pretty much what happened with me.

 

[Steve F M]

I've been messing around for hours with no luck with powerstrip. My projector excels at these resolutions

1920 x 1080i h - 33.750 kHz v - 60.000Hz Dot Clock Freq - 74.250

1280 x 720 h - 45.000 v - 60.000 Dot Clock Freq - 74.250

This is straight from my manual but I can't get this to work in powerstrip. I have tried everything to get my display to accept the 1280 x 720 but it keeps crashing.

Can anyone walk me through this?

My projector is a Panasonic PT-AE500U

Thanks

 

[Chris]

What video card are you using? Chipset/Ram are most important here

 

[Steve F M]

XFX Nvidia 5200 128MB with DVI out.

 

[Chris]

You will never get 1080i support with that card, sorry. 720p is going to be the highest you'll get from it. (1280x720).

Answer to do it is simple: get Nvidia's latest drivers, enable HDTV over DVI, and walla, new modes will appear. No need for powerstrip.

 

[Steve F M]

Where do you enable HDTV over DVI at? I can't find that anywhere in the options. What card would you recommend for 1080i? No gaming just straight Movie watching and eventually HDTV via an OTA Card. I am running WMCE 2005 so it would need to be compatible with that.

Thanks

 

[Chris]

Here's a clip of where you go. This is off a machine I'm working on at the moment, but feature remains the same.

You really want a 57xx and up to do 1080i, preferrably with 256mb.. but the 52xx series will never do 1080i. Supposedly, you can make the 55xx series do it, but I haven't tried.

 

[Steve F M]

I don't think my 5200 has that box to check. "Show standard HDTV Formats". I'll look into getting a 5700.

 

[Steve F M]

What about this card?

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=322719