HTPC Issue - I cant work this out

[Sonik_Simo]

I have a htpc which has started playing up. Everything was working fine until one day the drive my os is on failed( broken sata port). I replaced the drive and reloaded win7 32bit and now i can not get picture to my plasma via hdmi from the gpu. If i hook the system to my dell 27" monitor via hdmi all is good. I have tried many things including several different video drivers and changing settings to stop audio being sent over hdmi. I have a Dell studio 1555 (win7 64bit) which has hdmi out and that hooks straight up to the plasma no probs via hdmi. My gear is as follows:

CPU- AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor 6000+ (4 years old)
MOBO- Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P (2 months old)
RAM- Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 (4 years old)
GPU- MSI 5670 1GB (3 months old)
PSU- Silverstone strider 750 (4 years old)
TV - Hauppage HVR 2200
HDD- WD 2tb,1tb,1tb,1tb,750gb and 500gb black (system drive)


I have been trying to figure this out for well over a week now. I have tried different gpus (4870, 8600gt), no hdd connected bar the system drive, different cables, plugging the hdmi straight into the tv and bypassing the amp, lowering the resolution, hooking up a monitor and trying to see the plasma as a second screen and clean installs but still no luck. The plasma is no longer recognized on the htpc. I have many other components and everything runs fine through the amp and tv except for the htpc via hdmi. I can get video over vga (dvi-vga adapter), but i was using that port on the tv for a xbox360 and wanted to continue running the htpc through my amp. I dont understand what has happened here. Everything is the same before the hdd failure. I look at the htpc and i just want to put my foot straight through it. Its starting to piss me off


I hope someone can shed some light on this situation.

[mike-s]

I would suggest you check the resolution, if it's worked at HD resolution (1920x1080 isn't it?) perhaps it's the refresh rate? I'm just thinking this as it's working at those settings on one monitor, but not on another, it may just be working slightly outside the spec of the tv? That's the first thing i would check personally.

[Sonik_Simo]

Originally Posted by mike-s

I would suggest you check the resolution, if it's worked at HD resolution (1920x1080 isn't it?) perhaps it's the refresh rate? I'm just thinking this as it's working at those settings on one monitor, but not on another, it may just be working slightly outside the spec of the tv? That's the first thing i would check personally.

Thanks for the reply mate. Would it not work over vga (dvi-vga adapter) if the res or refresh rate was out?

Edit - tried different res and refresh rates but no luck

[Sonik_Simo]

Anyone else have any ideas?

[cicada]

Just to clarify, HDMI from HTPC direct to telly didn't work either right (bypass AMP) ?

And different HDMI cables didn't work?

Hmmm that's a real pickle of a problem.

Can you add some more specifics.
What resolution are you trying to drive at 1080P @ 60hz?
What Telly and what is its native resolution?
Can your telly update its firmware, could it have done so recently?

[Decromin]

Does windows detect the plasma as a second display when you hook it up? can you cycle through the output settings (WIN+P in win 7) and does that allow you to send to the HDMI connected device? As cicada asked, does it have the same probs when directly attached to the TV via HDMI?

[Sonik_Simo]

Originally Posted by cicada

Just to clarify, HDMI from HTPC direct to telly didn't work either right (bypass AMP) ?

And different HDMI cables didn't work?

Hmmm that's a real pickle of a problem.

Can you add some more specifics.
What resolution are you trying to drive at 1080P @ 60hz?
What Telly and what is its native resolution?
Can your telly update its firmware, could it have done so recently?

HDMI from htpc via hdmi port or dvi-hdmi converter does not get recognised by the tv at all even when bypassing the amp. When i hook the tv up as a secondary monitor windows doesnt see it and on the tv it states "unknown signal" I have tried different cables and nothing. I have a dvd player with hdmi out and the cables work for that.

I have tried the resolution from the lowest windows will offer up to 1080i. I was mainly using 720p as this is the tv's native res. The tv is an el cheapo Celestial PT4299HD. What i dont get is it worked fine with the tv before i reinstalled windows.

I dont think the tv can update its firmware.

[cicada]

hmmm what was the old system before you nuked it? Win7 as well or an older flavor?

Now whenever I see these type of BS problems with sound or video I start to point my finger at HDCP / HDMI compliance and all that shite.

Anyone else starting to think Content protection DRM related issue here?

I'm just guessing mind you, I'm no expert :P

I had an issue when I upgraded my htpc a while back. Lost the ability to do 1080P over component. Couldn't work it out for ages.

Finally found out that nvidia / ati have had to remove support for that res over component so everyone can be railroaded into HDMI with its copy protection. In another few years support for 1080i is meant to be removed as well.

Anyways you can't even get it to work on the lowest res so I have no idea. What was the lowest resolution you tried? Make sure you try a "non HD" res like 576i.

[bubblegoose]

Originally Posted by cicada

hmmm what was the old system before you nuked it? Win7 as well or an older flavor?

Now whenever I see these type of BS problems with sound or video I start to point my finger at HDCP / HDMI compliance and all that shite.

Anyone else starting to think Content protection DRM related issue here?

I'm just guessing mind you, I'm no expert :P

I had an issue when I upgraded my htpc a while back. Lost the ability to do 1080P over component. Couldn't work it out for ages.

Finally found out that nvidia / ati have had to remove support for that res over component so every one can be railroaded into HDMI with its copy protection. In another few years support for 1080i is meant to be removed as well.

Anyways you can't even get it to work on the lowest res so I have no idea. What was the lowest resolution you tried? Make sure you try a "non HD" res like 576i.

Yep. I'd be pointing my long finger at that ATI card! I have had sooooo many problems with them in HTPC builds!

But as small as it may seem, my pet hate is ATI cards that for some reason "underscale" by default. So the 1080p res gets to the screen with a big fat black boarder around it, and you have to go through a million settings in the stupid ATI menu to set it to 0% scaling so it sends out a full 1080p res. And THEN ATI keep changing where the option lives in their shitty menu layout, so every time I go to do it, it takes me an extra few minutes to work out their new interface...

[Sonik_Simo]

Yeah older system was win7 32bit. Im going to do a fresh install again and use the drivers my laptop is using and then take the system over to my mates house and see if i can get a signal on his plasma he uses for his htpc. If that fails i will switch to 64bit win7 and 64bit drivers and see if somehow that magically makes a difference. After that the only things left will be sell the mobo and cpu and move to intel to see if that makes a difference ( possible hardware conflict) and then lastly buy that latest gen 46" Samsung led ive been looking at. God damn expensive problem!

[Daft_Munt]

I had a sort of wired issue with my 37" LCD TV (Pyrod) after upgrading to Win 7, basically it would work on the 37" unless I had an HDCP LCD hooked and then it would mirror the screen. Remove the HDCP LCD and I would loose picture on the 37.

[cicada]

Originally Posted by Daft_Munt

I had a sort of wired issue with my 37" LCD TV (Pyrod) after upgrading to Win 7, basically it would work on the 37" unless I had an HDCP LCD hooked and then it would mirror the screen. Remove the HDCP LCD and I would loose picture on the 37.

Very interesting. ATI or nVidia?

Yep, don't you love HDCP is listed under the ubute features list on video cards. Your cards artificial neutering is apparently a "feature".

[mike-s]

Jesus H Christ *slaps forehead* Why didn't i think of that. It's very much a possibility.

[Sonik_Simo]

I managed to get hdmi out to tv via pc using a dvi-hdmi converter and an 8800gts 640mb card i had in the wifes pc. It took a few attempts and after doing a hot swap of the dvi connections it came up on the plasma. Im going to rma the 5670 gpu. Thanks for all the help guys. I figured it had to be the card or the mobo and since its running fine on the mobo now with a different card it must be the ATI 5670. I popped the 5670 in the wifes pc and same thing. No hdmi to plasma. Her build is on an Asus mobo. Pretty shit for a card to bomb out on me like that and waste a whole lot of my time. Even if it is an Ati driver issue the cards going back. I put this one down to shit hardware or even shittier drivers.


Just one question, will the 8800gts 640mb g80core card be ok to use for my htpc?

Cheers
Simo

[mshagg]

Yes mate, can get away with much less grunt than that in a htpc