My New HDTV!

[mrcandu]

Hello,
After only 3 months, it seems I haved turned into a sagetv addict as not only have I splashed out on a new computer for my setup, I also couldn't resist the urge to bin my old 17inch monitor for a new samsung 23inch HD ready TV!
So as a newbie to the hdtv world, I have a few questions regarding my setup.

I am connecting my tv via the hdmi interface to the dvi output on my nvidia geforce 7900gs. When the computer booted for the first time with the new tv, the resolution switched to 1280 x 720 which I believe to be its best resolution for deinterlaced hd content, but the windows desktop does not quite fit on the screen. Is the best thing to use nvidia control panels undescan option to switch the resultion to 1176 x 664, or use sagetv's overscan option to fit sagetv gui to the correct screensize? I'm not sure if using a lower resolution will effect tv quality? .... or perhaps i am missing something all together?!?

Also...
With no HD freeview tv in the uk, and no hd dvd media in my house, i thought I'd get on the net and checkout some hd previews. I have downloaded a few wmv files from the microsoft website (first site I came accross), which look pretty great but there seems to be an issue with .....i'm not sure if pixelization is the word, but on the blue and black colours the blend seems to be very blocky. Is this the compression of the hd files, or is this something with my setup?, as I remember the hd demo's in the shops being pretty perfect. The picture quality is better than standard def though.

Cheers,
Mat.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mrcandu

Hello,
After only 3 months, it seems I haved turned into a sagetv addict as not only have I splashed out on a new computer for my setup, I also couldn't resist the urge to bin my old 17inch monitor for a new samsung 23inch HD ready TV!

Well first off, welcome to the familly, or is that the assylum...

So as a newbie to the hdtv world, I have a few questions regarding my setup.

I am connecting my tv via the hdmi interface to the dvi output on my nvidia geforce 7900gs. When the computer booted for the first time with the new tv, the resolution switched to 1280 x 720 which I believe to be its best resolution for deinterlaced hd content, but the windows desktop does not quite fit on the screen. Is the best thing to use nvidia control panels undescan option to switch the resultion to 1176 x 664, or use sagetv's overscan option to fit sagetv gui to the correct screensize? I'm not sure if using a lower resolution will effect tv quality? .... or perhaps i am missing something all together?!?

Well without knowing the model, I can only guess. That guess would be that the native resolution of that TV is 1366x768. Your best bet would be to try and run that. Hopefully the Samy will take that over HDMI.

With no HD freeview tv in the uk, and no hd dvd media in my house, i thought I'd get on the net and checkout some hd previews. I have downloaded a few wmv files from the microsoft website (first site I came accross), which look pretty great but there seems to be an issue with .....i'm not sure if pixelization is the word, but on the blue and black colours the blend seems to be very blocky. Is this the compression of the hd files, or is this something with my setup?

Yeah, that's the files probably. Most of the WMV files on the net, like the ones from MS's WMV-HD "showcase" are using WMV9 Main Profile and generally low-ish bitrates so that they're smallish and easy to decode. Likewise for the HD Quicktime trailers.

But there appears to be one exeption, check here:
http://www.drfoster.f2s.com/trailers_hd-dvd.shtml
They're direct links to the trailers from http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com

I just checked the King Kong trailer (which I just watched the HD DVD this weekend) and it appears mostly artifact free, and looks pretty good (although it's cropped to 16x9). Looks like it's using WMV 9.1 Pro, which I hope is VC-1 Advanced Profile.

On a side note, it really is amazing what one can do with VC-1 AP, the Kong trailer is <9Mbps 1080p

[mrcandu]

Thanks for your comments Stanger89....

The model is the LE23R71, and yes the native resolution is 1360 x 768, but unfortunaltly this doesn't seem to look to great through hdmi (flickery screen). I think this resolution is for "PC mode" only using the PC d-sub port.
1280 x 720 looks good with the hdmi so Im gonna stick with that, I also invested £30 in a dvi to hdmi lead, so God darn it i am gonna use it!

I have just checked out the King Kong hd 720p preview, and its the best i have seen yet on my tv..... gonna have a hunt around for some more hd content as it will probably be a while b4 I get an hd drive or sky hd in my house..... got to get my media extender first

[Mark SS]

The larger Samsung LCDs don't work well with HDMI from a PC so it wouldn't be surprising for the same to apply with a 23" set. Good news is that they all seem to work perfectly with 1:1 mapping using a VGA connection.

[mrcandu]

Thanks Mark...... can I still watch hd content through the VGA connection?

[stanger89]

Yup.

[mrcandu]

Great, thats good news........ I will play about tonight.

One final thing I have noticed since the tv purchase is that the remote for my tv seems to be recognised by my novat pci infa red, so when I fiddle with my tv's menu options, all hell breaks loose in sagetv. Any suggestions on where to start on a work around for this problem?

Cheers,
Mat.

[stanger89]

If the two devices really use the same IR codes, there's not much you can do but change the remote on one of them.

[bmcraig]

DId I understand this correctly? One can watch HD quality playback through the VGA port (computer to TV)?

Brent

Originally Posted by stanger89

Yup.

[stanger89]

VGA is capable of way more than 1920x1080p.