Hi, I'm new and I had a couple questions regarding a possible connection of my PC to my newly bought HDTV. First of all I have a Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB graphics card, in case you needed to know that. The real question I have is the resolution I will be able to display on my HDTV. The TV, Sony KP-51WS510 supports 1080i, and I was planning on buying one of these http://buy.ati.com/shopati/product....ption=Accessories&find_part_desc=&country=USA which I figure would let me display on my TV in it's the 1080i resolution of 1920 x 1080 (correct me if I'm wrong). I do have a DVI, but it's DVI-D(HDCP copyrighted), or else I would just use my DVI input. Any and all answers are greatly appreciated!
You'll have to buy the HDTV dongle from ATI. You can't use the DVI input on the back of your Sony for a computer. It's only there for an HDTV reciever, trust me, I've tried. Once you get the adapter from ATI you should only hook up the TV to the computer. Don't use a computer monitor as well or you'll just complicate an already drawn out procedure. Connect the computer with the adapter and component cables. Boot the computer. You should see the BIOS screen and boot info in 640x480 resolution. The first time you boot you'll likely get this on the screen after you finish booting as well. You need to right click on an open space of desktop and choose Properties to get to the display properties. Try adjusting the resolution as high as it will go. You'll likely get only a small amount of the desktop displaying at a time (it'll shift as you move the mouse around) Try and get to the Advanced button of display properties and click it. Go to the Display tab and find the tab for your TV. Click in the bar next to the part of the button that activates the display and you should get another configuration screen. Here's where you tell the computer that you've got a High Definition source. Check off any box on the bottom that's not greyed out. Click apply and see what happens. It took me several attempts to find the optimal resolution and I can't get my Sony KV32HS510 to display all the way up to 1080. I don't know if that's because the TV is downconverting my signal or if the computer just can't pump out that resolution. I'm using an ATI All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro card in my computer so you should be able to follow this guide with some success. If you get lost feel free to email me. I had to call ATI three times to get this sorted out. Good Luck!
I already own a Sony KV32HS510. I am planning to buy a new "multimedia" PC soon. Starting from scratch, what is the optimal method for going PC to this HDTV? I already have the DVI connector on the TV hooked up to HDTV cable. I am willing to pay up for quality. Thanks.
I can tell you how I've got my Multimedia PC configured. It may not be the best set up but it works for me. Asus 500mhz FSB Motherboard with Raid controller (don't remember the exact model but get one with RAID) 3.0 GHZ P4 500mhz with HT 1 gig DDR ram 2 - 120 Gig Western Digital Hard drives with 8 meg cache in a Striped Raid array for a 250 gig single volume On-board sound because I'm too cheap to buy a new sound card but I should put in one of the Audigy2 cards. Don't have a surround system so it's not a priority. ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro video card Windows XP Pro I've hooked it up to the TV with Component cables as the DVI input on the TV is only for an HDTV cable or satellite box like you are using. I'm pretty sure that ATI is the only video card company making cards that will output to an HDTV with component cables. NVidia doesn't support it. I've also only managed to get the resolution up to 780p with my rig. I don't know if that's a limitation of my video card or if the television is down converting the signal my computer give it but the configuration settings for the video card won't let me select 1080i as a resolution. I don't really care as it looks great anyway. Oh ya, you'll also find that once you enter the HDTV resolution range the TV automatically puts the display in Letterbox. Your desktop will be Letterboxed and you can't change that. It's because HDTV signals are always treated as a 16x9 source by our model of TV and displayed this way. Videos look great regardless. I primarily use this rig for viewing Xvid downloads that have been encoded from HDTV sources. I use my JVC DVD player for DVD's and regular old NTSC cable for daily viewing. I could watch everything through the computer but even with a wireless mouse and keyboard it's a hassle to use the computer for simple viewing. Hope this helps. Sean
Thanks for the detailed advice. It is disappointing that cable HDTV won't work w/ the PC and TV at the same time. This new HP got a rave from PC Mag: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1619249,00.asp
Sorry for the long winded listing of my equipment. I thought you were going to build from scratch. Yes the HP has received some good reviews but I'd still build my own. I am intrigued though to see what the MultiMedia version of XP does. If the remote works better than the ATI one supplied with my video card (a monumental hunk of crap!) it would be worth it for that feature alone. The biggest hassle of watching stuff from a computer on a TV is that it takes forever to find the file you want, open it up in the correct player, resize it for full screen and then sit through it all without rewinding or pausing because then you have to use a mouse to do that! Like I said before, I still do the majority of my viewing from cable and a set top DVD player. I agree that it's a shame that XP isn't ready to display HDTV from a cable or satellite reciever yet. Apparently ATI is coming out with an HDTV All-In-Wonder card this summer. Maybe that will address the problem. Great, something else to spend my money on. Anyway, don't get too wrapped up in it. This HDTV & Multimedia PC stuff is so new that you can't get it wrong since those of us trying it out are on the bleeding edge, as usual. Cheers, Sean
I have an HDTV too and I use this cable from showmecables.com and it works great and saves you some money! http://www.showmecables.com/estore/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=2597&idCategory=437 Good luck!
Hey Manny and Networx, I'm glad I came accross your posts, I'm trying to set up the same system, with the same Sony HDTV as Manny. I'm not sure what Video card I should buy - I've already purchased and returned an incorrect one. What's the ATI'dongle' anyway? Any help is greatly appreciated.
The ATI Dongle is a little device that hooks up to any 9600,9700 & 9800 series ATI video cards to convert it's output to one you can hook up component video cables to. With it you can output your computer's video signal to your TV's Component video input. I've got the 9800 All-in-Wonder Pro video card and it comes with it's own HDTV-Component video dongle. For every other ATI card (I'm not sure about the new X600-X800 series cards) you have to buy the HDTV dongle seperately at $49 (CDN) from ATI. Do you want to have the computer you're building be an HDTV recorder or just want to output your computer in HDTV to your Sony set? I ask because ATI now makes an HDTV tuner card that's and add-in card for any video card and also acts as a PVR. Let me know what your plans are. Networx
Hi, Thanks for the reply. Here's my idea for the set up - I won't be using the computer as a reciever or recorder, although the recorder does seem nice to have. I'm planning on moving my CD music library onto a HD, then being able to play music by choosing it through the tv, like a big juke box. I also plan to download my music going forward on this setup. I bought an external sound card that I think will be good enough sound quality to hook through my 5 speaker system. Other than that, just simple functions like slide shows for parties, although I'm curious how other people use their HDTV/PC setup.
Gentlemen, think outside the square and try out MythTV. It's Linux based so there's a bit of a learning curve but there's loads of support for it in forums just like this. Best of all it's free The URL is http://mythtv.org/ I suggest downloading the Knoppix based MythTV distribution KnoppMyth as everything is pretty much done for you. Looks pretty and works with any remote control including the ATI ones. Hope this helps!
Hey, thanks for the suggestion. I have yet to take the plunge into Linux but seeing as one of the Red Hat Linux creators just bought our local CFL team (Hamilton Tiger Cats) I should probably give it a go. As I'm using an All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro card in both my PVR box and my main machine I won't be able to give MythTV a try. I have no doubt that there are better answers out there than ATI's MultiMedia Centre software. It certainly wouldn't take much to improve on it. Once I get a High Definition receiver I may swap out my All-In-Wonder card for something that works with MythTV. If they get around the ATI driver issue I'd appreciate it if you'd pass the info along so I can try MythTV. Thanks again for the suggestion though. Cheers, Sean
YOu guys should try http://www.shareit.com/product.html...90453&random=149bb6c5a417f028cf0004b2b2ccfe03 not free! 80$Can or myHTPC http://www.meedio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2291 for the free version!
I'm also new I have the All-in-wonder 9800 pro as well...I've attempted networx suggestions (hookup tv with composite and unhook monitor), but the image created in overscanned and can't seem to correct and suggestions? Also...dvd's will not show up on tv...image on program is blacked out....
I just recently setup a hdtv as a htpc and after allot of consideration decided to go with a 61" samsung which resolution is native 720p and has several options for pc hook-up 3 component in 1.1080i input (i hooked my dvd up here) 2.480p input (Xbox goes here) 3.720p input (HDTV reciever goes here) 4.DVI input (this is where i hooked up my pc) 5.PC input (im not actually using this input) The reason im mentioning this is because you said you recently purchased a hdtv and if i were you and was able to i would return the one you bought and look @ some of the alternatives because you arent going to get the quality resolution you are looking for from that tv!! Im not sure what you paid for your sony but after searching on froogle there isnt much of a price difference from what i found about $300 or $400 dollars & when you consider the difference in overall quality in resolution all around thats not much http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=Samsung+HLN+50"&btnG=Search+Froogle I have the same video card 9800 pro all in wonder and using the dvi connection to my samsung hdtv the picture is incredible, the visualizations in media player and winamp will blow you away
Hopefully somebody can answer this question. Why is my screen so horribly distorted? I just purchased the ATI dongle to attach to my ATI Radeon 9600 and connect to my Sony KV32HS500. The TV goes into automatic 16:9 detection mode and after I pass the boot screen (which is 4:3 full screen) it compresses the image down to a 4:3 image within the 16:9 widescreen bars. Not only that, but the top of the screen is being pulled drastically to the right, resulting in a pretty distorted image. Is this normal? Is this something that can be solved, provided I use the right settings on the dongle? I downloaded Powerstrip last night, but I'm not certain how to apply it in order to get things to run in a decent resolution at 4:3 aspect ratio. I can provide the other specs of my computer, but I'm not sure that it would be very useful. Networx, it sounds like you have a set-up very similar to my own, so if you happen to see this post, please feel free to drop me an e-mail if you think you can help. Thanks all!
I have this television, and you most certainly [bold]CAN[/bold] connect a pc to it using the supposedly "HDCP copyright protected" DVI port, which has a Much sharper picture than the component inputs. While I dont have an ATI 9800 (Im debating on the cheaper 9800 or skipping right to a x800), Ive mostly used my living room media pc with a cheap nvidia 5200, although I have also used another of my boxes with a nvidia 4200, both using the DVI. Also this TV, while Im very pleased with it, displays 720p as 480p. And to use it in 1080i, you need to use Powerstrip (or another program) that will allow you to convert the signal to interlaced (30 frames per second) instead of progressive (60 frames per second). I have not actually bothered to do that as I mostly just watch movies, which are automatically resized, and occasionally surf or chat, where I just manually size the window to fill the screen, and then lock the aspect ratio so I dont scroll off the window. As soon as I make up my mind on a new card (hmm...almost twice the performance...2-3 times the cost), I am going to play with it a little bit to get full widescreen resolution and couch gaming. Oh BTW, Im running at 720x480 @ 60hz, with the picture mode on Pro, and the picture is Excellent, with sharp crisp text. Hope this helps you a little.
Using the DVI cable is definately much much much much sharper than any component connection could ever dream of being. It is a huge pain however to get working right. Anyone interested in making it work should check out this program called powerstrip: http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm It allows you to do custom resolutions and display profiles on your PC. After a few hours of messing with resolutions, I have a high def pic on my 57" Hitachi HDTV, and it looks SWEET with games! Good luck!
