Possibel new user-a little trouble with the trial

[joeyprice]

OK, new to Sage, new to HTPC's. I finally got the TV to display images - this was a major triumph for me. The problem is its all in black and white- major bummer. I'll break down the system for you:
Athlon 64 3000
512 mb RAM
120 GB ATA133 HD
Liteon DVD ROM
Haup. PRV 150
I honestly can't remember what my video card is- but its a GeForce chipset with an S Video out- which is of course what i'm using to connect to the TV set. Any thoughts on fixing this?
TIA
Joey

[kny3twalker]

are you using a svideo to composite cable adapter if so that is probably part of the problem
cheap ones always come out black and white for me

otherwise try another svideo cable
make sure the svideo is set to svideo (on) rather than probably by default is set to composite

you can see what video card it is by checking the device manager
or using system information tool or many other things
I should let you in the display properties as well

[joeyprice]

Thanks for your help. I was indeed using one of those cheap converters. Am now using a nice S Video cable and I have a color picture - sometimes.
Its hit or miss weather it will display a picture, or a garbled mess of white, black and grey horizontal lines, which occasionaly "block" into large yellow pixles. There doesn't seem to be any one channel, program or other variable that causes this, almost like it will show a picture if its "in the mood". Any thoughts on this? The video card is an Nvidia FX 5200.
Thanks again for your previos post.
Joey

[kny3twalker]

sounds like an issue with the pvr card
update your drivers

but make sure sageTV is not running or set to start with reboot

also make sure the TV is set to primary monitor
that tend to make a big difference with a low end video card as to whether it will display video correctly

[joeyprice]

Thanks again - worked like a charm.
BTW - I used that video card because it was what I had on hand - do you have a suggestion as to a better one?

[kny3twalker]

well for around 200
a 6600 GT is good
but probably over kill for svideo
unless your tV has component inputs
for a little less a 5700 Ultra(maybe a 5700 non LE) or 9600 PRO/9600XT is a good choice

the nvidias tend to have better TV outs though

and make sure whatever is displaying the video is set to primary

[joeyprice]

It seems that everytime i eliminate one problem another pops up. I must say that I'm glad I am using this software on a trial basis. Does anybody have a SageTV install that is working properly?
My latest: Audio; Video Drivers
Can't get local DVD playbadk to work, and what is worse is that after I try it, it kills the live tv display and audio. Reboot the computer, reinstall the video drivers, reboot the computer again and I'm back to watching live TV. Try the time shift - audio dies and do the above again. Anybody have a positive experience with BeyondTV?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by joeyprice

It seems that everytime i eliminate one problem another pops up. I must say that I'm glad I am using this software on a trial basis. Does anybody have a SageTV install that is working properly?

Lots of people do, I've had mine going problem free for about as long as I can remember, but on to your problem.

My latest: Audio; Video Drivers
Can't get local DVD playbadk to work, and what is worse is that after I try it, it kills the live tv display and audio.

What decoders are you using (Detailed Setup->DVD)

Anybody have a positive experience with BeyondTV?

Last time I tried it (probably v 3.2 or 3.3) I crashed it about 8 times inside an hour, just trying to watch standard recordings. Every app has their horror stories though.

[teedublu]

I recently upgraded my FX 5200 driver using the latest at NVIDIA's website. I got a B/W screen. I gave up trying to resolve it and went back to the last driver that I downloaded from the card mfg website -- which was several months older, but it works!

Moral-1: Latest isn't always the Greatest.
Nvidia and ATI etc, bundle many card drivers into a single setup (unified). So for an "established" chip , the newest driver may not have any improvements for your card, and worse, might break something.
Moral-2: Download drivers from mfg of card instead of the chip.

Also, IMHO, the FX5200 is an excellent choice standard def TV-out and it doesn't use a lot of power (usually fanless).
Don't enable hardware acceleration though (DXVA default).

TW

[mc2wheels]

and I had no idea that the picture would be better without hardware acceleration, but it is. Thanks for the tip.

[joeyprice]

I'm going nuts - now i'm back to nothing - grey and black horiz. lines.
Any idea why i have to keep re-installing the video drivers?

With the setup mentioned above can anybody tell me a driver/setup combination that will work? I hate to think I spent all this money and have nothing more than a doorstop.