My Guide: nVidia Perfect Full Screen TV-Out

[subz]

This is my guide to how I eventually setup my system for Mediaportal. My aim was only to have full screen TV-Out where all Mediaportal menus were easily readable on the TV and for Mediaportal to not minimize or shrink to a window when stopping or finishing a video. Here's how I did it, I hope its of use to some!

Install the latest nVidia drivers (not critical but is always a good start)

nVidia Settings

• Open the nVidia settings window (right click desktop>nvidia display>monitor)
• Enable Clone mode with your monitor as the primary display, TV as secondary (nView Display settings>nView Display Mode>Clone)
• Set the resolution for the TV to 640x480 (in nView Display Settings right click on the TV icon, which should be labeled 1b, and click change resolution)
• If the slider wont allow you to choose 640x480 untick "Show only physical panning resolutions" and click apply
• After setting the TV resolution click on Full Screen Video in the main nVidia settings window
• Make sure Full screen device has Secondary display in the drop down menu

Disable auto-panning

• Drag the nVidia settings window to the top left of your screen
• If you can, turn on your TV and make sure it's showing the top left upper most corner of your desktop
• In nView Display Settings>nView Display Settings, click Disable auto-panning on secondary device (viewport lock)

This will prevent Mediaplayer from going off center thanks to auto-panning and any mouse movements etc.


Set Mediaportal to run in 640x480

• Assuming you installed Mediaportal in the default location, open up:
  C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal
• Locate and right click on MediaPortal.exe and select Properties>Compatibility>tick Run in 640x480 screen resolution
• Click OK

This will make Mediaportal full screen when the TV-Out resolution is also 640x480.


Mediaportal Settings

• Run the Setup MediaPortal shortcut on your desktop/start menu
• Click General
• Make sure the following are ticked:
• Start MediaPortal in fullscreen mode. Depending on your whether or not you experience excessive resolution changes when begining a video you might want to try with this unticked.
• MediaPortal always on top
• Use Exclusive DirectX Mode for fullscreen tv/video. This is a must, it allows you to flip between the menu and your video on your TV.
• Allow MediaPortal (and other apps) to gain focus (per-user setting - needs reboot!)

Now you can run MediaPortal and it should be perfectly fullscreened on your TV out. The only other tweaking is to load up MediaPortal and go Settings>Screen Calib. and set the UI and screen calibrations to match your TV.

Then you're all done (Hopefully)

Hope this helps people

[tourettes]

It's possible that by using MP in a windowed mode you will get tearing (as the exclusive mode does work only in the full screen mode.) Also 640x480 resolution is not optimal for the PAL / NTSC television.

[subz]

I havent experienced any image tearing as of yet.

The only reason for using 640x480 is that it's either that resolution or my monitors resolution (2048x1024). Is there any other way of setting the resolution that MP runs at besides my desktop resolution or forcing it to run in 640x480 through compatibility?

[regeszter]

You can clone the windowed MP with Forceware 84.21 driver without disable auto-panning because that driver can handle the MP as a video and put it to secondary display very well.
I am use MP in secodary display and the CPU load <5% if MP on the main screen.

[jlo]

Do you mean you can use the overlay full-screen function for the Mediaportal interface? How do you set that up?

[regeszter]

Here are my settings:

Driver is 84.21. Primary screen is LCD with 1280*1024, secondary is the TV with 720*576. It is cloned mode. The full screen device is the secondary display.
MP is running on primary monitor and it is cloned to TV. It works fine.

(I have tried it with 9x drivers but that only cloned a part of the primary screen as a 720*576 window and I dont want setup it as subz adviced)

So my settings same as subz guide except the resolution and if you use 84.21 you can skip this part of guide:

"Disable auto-panning
Drag the nVidia settings window to the top left of your screen
If you can, turn on your TV and make sure it's showing the top left upper most corner of your desktop
In nView Display Settings>nView Display Settings, click Disable auto-panning on secondary device (viewport lock)
This will prevent Mediaplayer from going off center thanks to auto-panning and any mouse movements etc."

[jackelectronics]

I personally recommend that 720x480 is used instead of 640x480 because this is the native resolution used in most standard definition devices. However, it is more tricky to set up because the pixels are not square and is also a non standard PC resolution. Have a look at my page at http://www.jackelec.myzen.co.uk/comp...tal/index.html

[regeszter]

jackelectronics:

Your guide is good. Thanks!

[FLY]

Jacke,

I saw your script about "switching to a native TV resolution for MediaPortal and then back to your Windows desktop resolution afterwards".

So how do I run it automatically when MP starts ?

[jackelectronics]

My scripts are based on AutoIT so if you google for AutoIt, download and install it. Also, modify the MediaPortal shortcut to start from the script instead of the actual mediaportal.exe. The script changes the resolution and then starts MP. Upon MP exit, the resolution is reverted back. Jacke.