Use a TV without Monitor ... ?

[TroySKI]

I've built my system, have the two PVRs installed, but trying to see things on my TV is nearly impossible (and in some cases impossible).

I don't want to have to purchase another monitor (to be next to my TV) in order to see the software settings and what not...

Anyone have a solution or commnet on what they did.

Possible to set it up once using a monitor and then handle the rest from the TV as I would like?

A HTPC/Tivo system is great if it can be watch from a TV, versus having the family huddle around a monitor.. eheh

Thanks,
Troy

[wangeth]

Use large fonts, low resolution settings (640x480). That's what i did for my SD 27" tv.

[TroySKI]

I did use large fonts, but my FX 5200 card only goes down to 800 X 600 for resolution.

Thanks for the input. Any others?

Thanks,
Troy

[Mark Lamutt]

How are you connecting to your TV? What OS are you running? Are you sure that your FX 5200 card is limiting your resolution, or is it the OS that is limiting it (i.e. XP)? If it's XP, you can force it to go down to 640x480.

And please define which parts of the interface are hard to read and use. When version 2.0 comes out, the interface will be completely skinnable, so everything will be able to be changed.

[mlar]

Windows XP:

Control Panel -> Display -> Settings -> Advanced -> Adapter -> List all Modes

I think you will find that option on most Windows version. On EPIA boards, that is where you will find the 720x480 mode. My ti4200 also has 720x480, 720x576, 848x480 there.

[JJarmoc]

I'm able to run WinXP in 640x480 using powerstrip. I use powerstrip to force my vidcard to output HDTV resolutions, but have noticed it also allows 640x480. Maybe that'll be what you need if XP doesn't run at 640x480.

[mlar]

Windows XP does run at 640x480, but the GUI was not designed for this resolution (all the items on the start menu will not fit properly for example). For HTPC purposes 640x480 will work just fine, but if you want to do anything other than that, 800x600 is pretty much a must. If all you do is boot your PC into SageTV or MyHTPC, 640x480 is fine.

[TroySKI]

Ok, to clarify.

I am running XP and using a FX 5200 card.

Connecting to TV from FX 5200 S-Video out. (More specifically and no booing.) S-Video with an adapter to composite.

What is hard to see.. what it does/is.. are the icons at the top of the screen.

Thanks,
Troy

[Narflex]

The icons were redone in either 1.3.5 or 1.3.7, I can't remember which. They should be more legible.

[TroySKI]

Well, I set my monitor to 640 X 480, cranked up the font size in windows and then even changed the DPI settings.

Well, I've done jacked things up. I can't get my DPI back to the standard 96 setting.

It says that after the "font' is loaded the changes would take placed after restarting... well, restarting doesn't work.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Troy

[sshapiro63]

Try removing the graphics card from within device manager, then reboot the system. Perhaps the OS willl detect the card after reboot and install the driver with default settings.

[TroySKI]

sshapiro63,

Thanks I got it set back to normal.

[TroySKI]

Well, set to 640 X 480, Extra large fonts... Running on a 27" still looks crappy, trying to schedule shows only using a TV SUCKS, MAJOR!

The fonts still look crappy, moire effect and all.

So, unfortuantely, I think my HTPC/PVR using SageTV are shot.

I don't see how it cannot be done. TIVO/Replay-TV aren't anything different, just the software (GUI) (more or less).

I'm getting the impression that SageTV is really made for those that want to watch TV on their computer or plan on having a monitor next to their TV. ???

Anyway...

Troy

[sshapiro63]

Do you have the latest Nvidia drivers for you FX5200? I just installed an FX5200 based card in my SageTV system and the output to my TV is outstanding. The pc desktop looks fine and SageTV interface is very usable.

Maybe the Svideo to Composite adapter is causing problems? Could you be getting noise (distortion) from your pc power supply? I had a power supply that worked fine but had excessive ripple on one of the lines. It produced an awful lot of noise in some circumstances.

[dkardatzke]

Could you post a screen shot of how it looks?

[eruji]

Do you have a 2nd computer?

if so, you can use a program like VNC to have a remote terminal to your HTPC. I use it all the time, works great. I dont like doing administrative things on my 27" SD TV either.

Although i dont have any problems using the sage interface on the tv, its very clear and easy to navigate.

i can even vnc into my htpc and anywhere i can get online, thanks to the browser interface.


download VNC http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

[corykim]

I have only a TV connected to my HTPC. It is a 36" standard format (4x3), HD-ready TV. My video is onboard the motherboard, but is a GeForce 2MX chipset -- the motherboard is an nVidia nForce. The video is connected to the TV via a VGA->Component transcoder.

I run at 640x480 and the image is perfectly crisp and clean. My fonts are razor sharp, and I never have any trouble reading anything. SageTV has enough room that I can control the application with no trouble at all.

Recently, a friend connected his Toshiba laptop via plain composite video (the yellow connector), at 1024x768 internal resolution, which the video chip apparently downsamples to 640x480. While the fonts were a _little_ blurry, we were able to work with Windows just fine, and watch DVD's.

I suggest that you either get a different video card that has credible TV output, or get a transcoder.

[jptaz]

I have an FX5200 as well and here is how I have my system is
configured.

Windows XP Pro SP1 - Latest Windows Update.
SageTVClient - Same as SageTV as far as the GUI settings.

I have my FX5200 setup with 2 Dislpays
Display 1 -> 14" monitor with a resolution of 720x480 (primary)
Dsiplay 2 -> 25" Sony TV with a rsolution of 720x480 ( extended desktop) ( Using Svideo - Composite adapter )

In the Settings area I have Display 2(TV) to the left of the
Display one as SageTV always seems to want to go full
screen in the monitor that is in the left.

On my Sony 25" TV I found 720x480 Res looks best as it overscans properly. ( may be a bit difficult as the only
display as the start menu and other menus tend to be
off the screen a bit but works great just for SageTV.)

I went into the detailed settings in SageTV and disabled the
toolbar in SageTV, I do use it I mapped all the buttons to
buttons on my remote. I also setup the UI Over scan adjustment.
so that the UI was fully visible on the visible part of my TV. This
took some trial and error, but I eventually figured it out.
I suspect the overscan area is different on every TV so you will
have to play with this. I also found that I wanted the scaling set
to 100 instead of the 107 default for it to look right.

I went in edited the Sage.properties file in note pad
and changed the followingsettings:

ui/auto_show_osd_on_mouse_move=false
ui/default_epg_num_cols=4
ui/default_epg_num_rows=6
ui/dfont_adjust=5
ui/dfont_name=Arial
ui/disable_toolbars=true
ui/ui_overscan_correction_offset_x=40
ui/ui_overscan_correction_offset_y=25
ui/ui_overscan_correction_perct_height=0.9
ui/ui_overscan_correction_perct_width=0.9

Updated: These are the correct values


Hope this helps. I will try and remember to send my actual values
tonight as I am at work now.

John

[Sailn]

I use 800x600 on a 24inch awia tv (primary) and a 1024x768 projector (seconday overlay). Maybe it's just me, but the mx440 on my motherboard with a bit of sharpening (just to the point where the flicker is noticable) is more than readable.

[pawn]

Not to gloat, but until you see your computer on an HDTV compatible TV and use a VGA to Component transcoder, you won't know what you're missing. I consider it worth dropping a couple o' G's on.