windows media center no picture on my tv??

vig

hi
im just after buying a sony bravia and have linked my dell pc up to it to run media center but cant get any picture,i can get the channel info. that ntl provides (name of program;channel number etc.) but no program;im also using the hauppage wintv pvr usb 2 set top;is the wiring wrong?? please help its driving me insane

Saruman

Did you actually read the instructions? Im not familiar witht eh WintvPVR USB but every single machine i have ever used to display on TV or any external device requires me to go into the software (usually graphics) and change the output to TV or there is a keystroke you can set to do it.

Its not an automatic thing. Unless.. are you plugging the bravia in to the PC as if its a monitor? As in you DON'T have a monitor and are using the bravia instead?

vig

yeah i have the whole lot in my sitting room the bravia is the monitor,it doesnt look like something i could clean up by tuning thats why i think its wiring but im not sure im new enough to this

8T8

WinXP MCE 2005 requires MCE compliant TV tuners in order to display the TV signal.

Do you have the MCE version or the non-MCE version of the WinTV-PVR-usb2 ?

By the way there is also a dedicated HTPC forum here.

vig

yeah its the mce version

Saruman

Again... just to be absolutly clear... the Bravia is plugged in to the VGA or DVI port on your graphics card right?? Not S-video or something on the TV adapter?

If its not plugged in to the VGA or DVI port then it will not automatically show up when to you go through the input choices on the TV.

You may have it hooked up right for the TV adapter but its not necessary and you need to set up the software to change over display.

The TV adapter is for displaying TV on your Computer.. what YOU need to do is display the computer on a perfectly good TV

In fact the S-video on the MCE is probably only in INPUT not an output.

8T8

I think or I may be getting my wires crossed here that vig's problem isn't with the TV/Computer that is working fine it is displaying the TV signal through MCE that is not working he can get the EPG and everything else just not the actual live TV feed ??

What sort of TV signal do you have vig STB (set top box Sky,NTL, Chorus) or getting it from an aerial ?

Or it is that you cant get any output from the computer on the TV in other words you cant see the computers desktop on the TV ?

vig

yeah everything seems to be in place but when i go to pc settings on the tv none are highlighted;ok heres a breakdown of the wiring to give you a picture:
1.ntl lead goes direct to wintv set top
2.wintv set top has s-video connection going to ntl set top which has scart connection
3.wintv is connected to pc with usb and pc is hooked to the tv or else i would not be typing this

im using ntl

Saruman

ok help us out... can you see your windows desktop? is it only when you run media player that you cant see the TV signal?

3.wintv is connected to pc with usb and pc is hooked to the tv or else i would not be typing this

Oh just see your other post now... hey no need to be smart.. a lot of people have other computers/laptops they post on boards with when they have a problem!

vig

yeah man everything else is fine

alright man all messing aside;does the wiring description in my last post sound correct do ya think

Saruman

OK im not familiar with this combination.. i assume its NTL digital you are using if you have an EPG...

Anyway did you say the NTL cable feed is going directly in to the winTV box? as in it goes there first instead of the NTL decoder box???
I would have thought you need the decoder box in order to decode the NTL digital signal first then send it to the wintv????

vig

ok just tried that and i got picture but black and white and the program names seem to be out of sync with each other (ntl displays setanta sports and windows says animal planet)

Saruman

Hmm usually black and white = NTSC
Look for a regional setting or somewhere to tell it what country you are in or set to Pal.

We are getting somewhere though so thats good

8T8

vig wrote:

yeah everything seems to be in place but when i go to pc settings on the tv none are highlighted;ok heres a breakdown of the wiring to give you a picture:
1.ntl lead goes direct to wintv set top
2.wintv set top has s-video connection going to ntl set top which has scart connection
3.wintv is connected to pc with usb and pc is hooked to the tv or else i would not be typing this

im using ntl

s-video wont work in most cases unless you get a special converter that properly converts the scart RGB signal into s-video. The small adaptors like these don't work, you can only use composite in these cases or like you say you get a black and white fuzzy picture over the s-video input.

I think that's the source of your problem happened to me the first time I tried it as well thought my tuner was broken till I learned otherwise. Just use the composite input to get your TV signal working in colour in MCE until you can acquire one of those proper scart->s-video converters.

vig

yeah man much appreciated i was close to throwing it all in the recycling bin;ill go look for settings & get back to ya soon

Saruman

Oh one other thing it could be.. some devices cant display an S-video signal properly through a scart connector.... so if you have the scart on the NTL box and S-video on the wintv box and your NTL box cant decode s-video then it will be black and white.

oh 8T8 beat me

vig

well im a lot further now than i was a couple of hours ago;ill hunt down the scart;thanks for all the help lads;just one last question;if there's no quick answer dont worry;i dont want to use the dell speakers that came with the pc i just want the audio to come through the monitor/tv;do ye know how?

8T8

You need to check the TV to see if it supports PC audio in basically a 3.5mm jack like on your sound card for use with this kind of cable.

If it doesn't then you can use the RCA connectors for that you need a cable like this that basically has 3.5mm on one end and the red/white RCA connector on the other end that will pipe the audio into the TV's speakers.

You can also acquire adaptors that will turn the cable into one or the other.

RuggieBear

within the ntl epg help/menu (I can't remeber exactly where) there is an option to output in various ways, eg RGB, scart/ composite etc....

maybe that's the issue

vig

cheers for all the help lads ill put these on my list of things to get in maplin tomorow

netwhizkid

If you have an S-video to Scart lead like this one

Apologies for the German but that is the exact lead I have. When I wanted to work the TV out on my Dell Dimension 8400 last weekend My ATI graphics card would only pump out Black and White even when set to the Irish PAL setting until I found this guide. If you connect the wires as Instructed it will give you a perfect colour picture.

SouperComputer

If you have an S-video to Scart lead like this one

Using a cable like that is a common mistake with NTL digiboxes. They dont put out video on the SVideo pins, so its either composite or get an RGB to Svideo converter. Not cable, CONVERTER!

Have a look on the HTPC forum as it's come up a couple of times.

Also, the grayscale output issue can be caused by using a 4pin SVideo cable in a proprietary socket. This problem can be solved by changing the output to composite in your TV Out settings.

8T8

Interesting link netwhizkid on that mod of the scart adaptor I must give that a go sometime :cool:

vig

been away from the pc for a few days but for anyone taking notes the link 8t8 gave me for the rgb convert worked a charm full color

8T8

vig wrote:

been away from the pc for a few days but for anyone taking notes the link 8t8 gave me for the rgb convert worked a charm full color

Glad to hear it worked out, not sure if your aware of this but if the live TV is in 4:3 mode you can stretch the image full screen by pressing the I (info button) on the remote and press zoom number 3 tends to work best.

vig

cool just messin with it now;im just after puttin up a question in a post 'windows media center tv guide?' i dont suppose ya have any advice for me there?

8T8

Sure but the HTPC forum is probably more appropriate for these topics than this forum so you should ask a moderator to move the thread you already created or remove the one you made through edit->delete and create a new thread in the HTPC forum.

Home Theatre PC Section;
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=643

vig

thanks man gonna put it there i took down the other one (not very well)