Maximum Screen Resolution??

[dex1]

Hey Everybody,

Is there a maximum display resolution that Sage can work with?
I'm trying to use 1680X1050 on my Dell 2005FPW flat panel but end up with very bizzare displays, usually after fast forwarding.

WMP and other programs can display the same files just fine at that resolution and Sage does OK if i change the display to 1600X900.

I'm using an nvidia 6200 with 256Mb of onboard memory and a DVI-D digitial connection to the display.

thanks,
jay

[mikejaner]

I am using 1920X1080

[dex1]

hmmmm, any idea what causes this?

[gplasky]

Try turning of 3d acceleration in Sage. According to the Dell site to optimize this monitor's performance, your system must be able to support WSXGA+ resolution (1680 x 1050) That's probably going to be more of a function of your video card and its drivers.

Gerry

[dex1]

Yeah, that's what i said!

The monitor recommends that particular resolution (1680X1050) and everything else works fine on it at that resolution including WMP, power dvd, etc.

The card is a geforce 6200 which supports up to 2048X1536. I have turned off the 3D Acceleration with similar results. I've tried the drivers that shipped with the card and the latest nvidia drivers too. I also tried the latest nvidia decoders which seemed to make it worse and i'm now using the standard intervideo and have tried the other standard decoders.

It seems to be not as bad at 16bit color and freaks out sooner at 32bit color. Sometimes the picture is fine and it's just the Sage menus that go wild. Always having an origination point in the upper left corner. I've also got the latest Java.

It's definately worse when running in full screen. If i just have a small window open i can usually get through a half hour show if i don't fast forward through the commercials.

I'll try to post some pics where it's not quite so bad in the hopes that the symptoms will provide more info.

don't know if it matters but if i close Sage (i'm on a client not the server) and change the screen resolution, or even change the frequency from 60hz to 59 (anything where you have to click yes to change the screen settings and the screen blanks out etc). then that kind of resets the problem. so at least i don't have to reboot!

THANK YOU ALL for taking a look! I upgraded from a 15" lcd and a ti4100 video card just because i watch so much STV on the computer so this is really driving me nuts.

[parkimar]

hmmmm, any idea what causes this?

Drugs ?

[dex1]

Drugs ?

yeah, i've been wondering about these pharmacy charges from Dell

[sleonard]

This is definately a Sage or possibly Java problem. Many others have seen similar screen corruption when using Cayar's STV and V2.2x. I get it real bad when trying to play certain DVD's in V2.2x stock (haven't played many DVD's w/ V3.0x yet), and even brief flashes in V3.07 after enabling the hidden features (Malore's menu's). Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix it and I suspect it is a bug.

[mkanet]

I "think" I know what causes this

I run my display res at 1920x1440@72. When you have a very high res display mode set the amount of video memory allocated to the sagetv.exe java app is sometimes not enough to draw everything correctly. I have tried upping the value for "minimum_video_memory_for_dx9" in the .properties config file, but it still doesn't fix it. My guess is that if I had 256mb's of RAM on my 6600GT, this wouldn't happen.

If you notice, this kind of problem tends to mainly happen to add-on STVs/STVi's (which haven't been fully tested with super high res screens).

[dex1]

Thanks for taking a look. It's very frustrating.
I'm running @59 or 60hz as those are the supported rates for the monitor. The video card does have 256mb.

Forgive my ignorance but I don't know what "Cayar's STV " or "Malore's menu's" are.

Here are some additional pics which show it not as drastic and will hopefully shed some more light on the issue.

Thanks a lot! I love my Sage, my wife won't give it up, i watch all my TV on it but it helps to be able to use it!

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by sleonard

This is definately a Sage or possibly Java problem....

How did you rule out video card drivers?

[sleonard]

I guess I haven't totally but it was clearly introduced by an update to Cayar's STV around the end of last year or the beginning of this one. A lot of people who installed that version of Cayar's STV started having the problem immediately afterwards. Since then I went back to a stock Sage 2.2x install but the problem never went away even with 4 or five different versions of ATI drivers.

Many others have had this happen even without custom STV's with both ATI and nVidia cards and many different driver versions. I am experiencing it again with a clean 3.07 install. Opus replied to another thread on this and said that Sage was aware of it, that it has to do w/ 3d accel. (turning it off seems to make the problem go away) but they haven't got it to reliably reproduce itself enough to find out why it's happening. So now I'll also add the the bug could also be with XP/Direct X.

[Opus4]

As long as we were talking about the same thing, I was told it has to do with DirectX when video is playing. I don't know if what was mentioned in this thread is the same thing as what I've (rarely) seen on a couple menus when 3D Acceleration is enabled.

An aside: I remember working on DirectX code for a game one time where the graphic items I drew on the screen were reordered by the driver so that what should have been in the background was drawn on top of everything else, as a result of driver 'optimizations'. Note that I'm not saying that has anything to do with what is happening here, just that strange things happen with DirectX and/or video card drivers at times.

- Andy

[gplasky]

dex1
Double check your DirectX and make sure you're running Direct X 9c with the latest updates since your 6200 is a realitively new card.

Gerry

[dex1]

make sure you're running Direct X 9c

yes, i'm running DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.09.04)
don't know if it matters but looking at the DriectX files listing the only one that didn't have additional information after it was "quartz.vxd"
"quartz.dll" is ver. 6.05.2600.2508

[dex1]

Problem Solved!
Here is the update for future generations of Sage Users....

It turns out that this problem, which only manifested itself at a resolution of 1680X1050 was caused by the video card.

After putting my old video card back in and having no problems at 1680X1050 I RMAd the new card. The replacement card has been working fine at 1680X1050 for three weeks now so I am comfortable saying the problem appears to be corrected.

So if anybody runs into these strange, intermittent displays. You might want to take a look at your card.

Thanks to everybody who took time to help resolve this!

jay

[RedR]

Heya,

I seem to recall having this problem awhile back. Updating the video driver along with turning off 3D acceleration. Am running a GeForce 5700 and will be moving to a 6600 GT (yes I do love my nVidia cards

Enjoy,
RedR