Bikr's HTPC and his big vga monitor.

[bikr]

Ok.. Well., , I posted a while ago about my htpc machine, and the keyboard / mouse / monitor etc.. that I wanted to use.. So far everything is perfect , got the system built and it's uber , got SnapStream running and it's awesome , my keyboard and mouse that came with the compaq pc theatre 9000 are working well , except for the 3 and 6 keys on the remote can't be remapped untill I figure out how to stop windows XP from inturperting them as shutdown and standby lol..

Anyway here's my problem:



The monitor only runs in 640x480 , which kinda sucks for some things but it's awesomd for being in bed watching tv and surfing etc.. that's not the problem , the problem is , when its' in 640x480 the screen spills over the edge of the monitor , basically i lose the task bar at the bottom some icons on the side the entire ati panel if i'm running it on the right side and it clips the top ..

I have an nvidia card in there right now and the only thing nvidia comes with to fix this type of thing is Keystone, while this does work , it has many problems , first being it doesn't save the settings , if you reboot you have to readjust it manually every time using their adjust thing <---if you know how to save settings i'm all ears..

the 2nd problem is that it takes up alot of resources to overlay the image, they just didn't do a great job , the compaq 9000 was running a 200mhz chip and was some how able to accomplish adjusting the screen size to fit , you can see this when it boots as it has the same problem as i'm having then during boot it realigns itself and is perfect..

If you know of any software that lets you adjust the screen size please let me know but keep in mind if i goto a different resolution on this monitor such as 800x600 etc.. it goes all nuts and you can't do anything it's all fuzzy and stuff..

Let me knwo if you have any ideas thanks!!!

[iroc409]

just fyi, standard tv resolution is 640x480. that's why it goes haywire, it can't display more.

hdtv is 1024x768 (i'm not sure, i think 480p _might_ be 800x600, and 1080i is 1024, you'd have to check that out).

as far as the resizing, not sure about that. never had that sort of problem with a machine... maybe the tv has some adjustments?

[bikr]

yah , well , that's the problem , it's not a tv , it's a monitor , the monitor was made by RCA specifically for compaq, it's a VGA monitor with no adjsustments on it all functions on the remote go straight through to the pc as a keyboard entry instead of to the tv for accessing a menu etc.. The pc has software on it that allows adjustments , I've also tried contacting RCA to try and get spec sheets but they need the model number and I don't have it with me so I gotta check when I get home..

It is a monitor though , probably just a reboxed TV but it is VGA in.. and it has keyboard and mouse cables coming out of it i think the tv just translates the ir to keyboard and sends it on up the wire..

[MadHacker]

try SciTech display Doctor
my $0.02 worth

[bikr]

only works with 95/98 and dos apparently.. =( i got xp , anymore???

[gogo]

Originally Posted by iroc409

just fyi, standard tv resolution is 640x480. that's why it goes haywire, it can't display more.

hdtv is 1024x768 (i'm not sure, i think 480p _might_ be 800x600, and 1080i is 1024, you'd have to check that out).

as far as the resizing, not sure about that. never had that sort of problem with a machine... maybe the tv has some adjustments?

Standard NTSC res. is 720*480. A TV also does not work exactly the same as a monitor. HDTV is not exactly 1024*768 either.

take a look here for more info:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm
and
http://www.audiovideo101.com/diction...ctionaryid=242

[bikr]

That is awesome , but unfortunatly , still don't have a way to fix the problem.. =(

[Arcturius]

Have you tried tweaking your horizontal and vertical sync rates via the monitor driver?

[bikr]

the only thing i thought i had control over was the refresh rate , and that can't be different than 60..

[Grayson]

Read this: http://www.dansdata.com/gz029.htm

Grayson

[iroc409]

Originally Posted by gogo

Standard NTSC res. is 720*480. A TV also does not work exactly the same as a monitor. HDTV is not exactly 1024*768 either.

take a look here for more info:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm
and
http://www.audiovideo101.com/diction...ctionaryid=242

my bad. however, generally for what they'll display from a pc, most tv's only display 640x480. some tv's will display 800x600, but it seems fairly rare.

i don't have as much exp. with hdtv's as pc monitors tho, but that's what i've heard from friends.

[gogo]

Originally Posted by iroc409

my bad. however, generally for what they'll display from a pc, most tv's only display 640x480. some tv's will display 800x600, but it seems fairly rare.

No big deal, though some old STB card with TV out did produce 720*480. The text was no longer fuzzy, but there was no screen realestate.

Never had nothin but issues with the old compaq monitors.