Having trouble with VGA cable to Plasma ,please help

311

Hello ,just got a cable from komplett and I'm trying to get my tv hooked up to my pc.

Basically the cable is fine ,I've checked it on my laptop and when I choose H&V as the sync mode on the tv ,I get a proper picture.

But when I use it on the machine it was intended for ,nothing shows on H&V and On G is a mess.

The card is an X1300 pro ,I have the latest drivers installed from Catalyst. I'm running Vista Home premium ,my laptop that works has intel graphics chipset and it's running Xp.

Is there anything software related that I can do ,or am I bunched ?

mathias

Oh oh .... the dreaded plasma res + graphics card issue ,

First get the release notes for the driver , they should be posted on the same page as the driver ,

Read carefully , in particular read about res supported on TV out , or supported TV resolutions. Teh X1300 is one card I remember having issues with before with this type of TV. The newer drivers may have sorted it though and the Catalyst control centre has a lot of options , so read the release notes.

If it doesnt support that res , your going to have to change the video card , no other option Im afraid , good news is that most modern cards can handle it no problem ,

Nvidia 8500 or 8600
Ati 2400 or 2600 , all better than the card you have and all available for 100 euro or less

Edit : Actually ATi's release notes dont have the info , just checked , but this is what you are looking for , step by step instructions , follow them and see if it works ,

http://ati.de/products/catalyst/HDTV_Setup_Guide.pdf

311

Cheers mathias , I found a lot of stuff about the card having vga display problems ,but the only resolutions to it ,seemed to be through linux and drivers for linux. Thats kind of what got me thinking ,it might be just a software issue aswell.
I'll go through the release notes ,as I'd like to use the vga cable.

I did manage to dig out some stuff I got with the card ,that I'd forgotten about.

I used an svideo-component connection and ran a set of rca leads back to the television. The quality is grand ,I'm just going to use it for last minute recording of stuff.

One niggly thing though is ,when I turn on media centre with the remote and the mouse pointer won't stay on the desktop. Its locked in the plasma:(

mathias

On TV's with the MCE remote , thats what it does , Im pretty sure thats deliberate , once you turn on media centre with the remote the arrow keys and back control most of the selection , to get out of it you hit the off button and you should be given an option of closing down the PC of just media centre , if you close media centre then the mouse pointer should show back up and your back to the desktop.

With the MCE keyboard or any remote keyboard it should act the same , to get the mouse pointer back with a remote keyboard while in media centre you hit escape , and the pointer shows up , it will disappear again after a few minutes if you dont do anything.

I think thats an anti burn in feature of Media center , I wouldnt be too keen to keep the mouse pointer on screen all the time.

311

Thanks again, I have just about everything connected now . I'm suprised at how good the streamed audio is through the PS3 Media network. I have all the pc's in the house showing up on the PS3.
It would be good to record in windows media to a format that the PS3 coud read:)

Cheers,
Brian.

311

I got a 8600GT card for the plasma. Can't believe the how good the vga is with the plasma.
There is absolutely zero sign of ghosting ,through media centre. The gama and saturation seem to have cut through the ghosting ,tv quality is beyond what I was expecting.

I even got to play Half life 2 ,on the plasma .

VGA + Plasma = great picture:)

mathias

Glad your happy with the card , have one myself , very nice !

311

Sorry for digging up this old thread ,but I'm looking at changing my video card from a 8600GT to an 8500GT.

Is there a difference in windows media centre ,between these two cards?