Screen refresh problems with Sony Bravia (1 Viewer)

[mhz]

I have recently setup my Media Portal PC and am having a few problems with the refresh rate and the TV.
My TV is a new Sony Bravis X Series (46"). It is one of the First in the series (not the new 100Hz version with Motionflow)

My PC is using an ATI Radeon Card (a 9200se i believe), with an RGB and a DVI output on it.
I can connect an LCD monitor to the PC without a problem and run full resolution at 60hz, however my TV won't allow me to run full res on 60hz, it will only accept 30hz for some reason. As soon as i change the refresh rate to 60hz i get an error message on my tv telling me the the display mode is not support.

Sure this shouldn't be the case for such a high end TV. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

Oh i should also mention that i run a DVI to HDMI cable from the PC to the TV.

Cheers

 

[Shivian]

I'm not sure but I have a similar setup. Maybe your cable is of low quality and can't handle the bandwidth?

For reference, I am running a nvidia 6600GT 128MB card connected to a 46" bravia X and I run it at 1920x1080, 32bit colour and 60Hz on a dvi->hdmi cable (2m).

Try also updating your drivers. That is a lower end radeon card but last I checked, the outputs on them should support the full hi def resolution you are after fine.

 

[Lotsofjazz]

On HDMI you will only be able to watch TV formats, like 720P 1080i; 1080P , PC resolutions wont work. So make sure also on the DVI out at the GFX card a compattible resolution is put out. Older 1080P LCD Tv's like your's is quite normal that 30Hz is the max vertical refresh. Note that this is NOT comparable with the refreshrates of PC Monitor resolutions, 30 Hz is for a PC monitor unwatcheable, with TV format you wont notice.

Try 720p or 1080i at 60Hz I think that is best for your configuration (australia is NTSC, righ?)

 

[Shivian]

Australia is PAL. The Bravia X isn't that old (just one gen old now) and I know the refresh works at 60Hz because mine is running at it at 1080p no problems. You have to use the HDMI input for that resolution (it has a VGA connector that only supports 720p/1080i max).

But again, video drivers need to detect the screen capabilities correctly. The nvidia drivers were pretty competant at that but I have no experience with the ATi drivers in this department.

 

[Alvinder]

shiviam

please advise. I have the same setup as yours.

i am planning to install blu-ray/hd-dvd rom drive on my htpc.

I want to know if i need hdcp compliant video card to view blu-ray movies.

thanks
Alvinder

 

[Shivian]

You most certainly will but that's just the start of the battle. You'll also need a media player capable of handling blu-ray encrypted content (PowerDVD seems to be leading the way there). As new blu-ray disc profiles come out, you may lack support for a period of time though while PowerDVD updates to handle the new formats.

HD DVD handling is going to be a problem. From what I hear, PowerDVD dropped support for HD-DVD in PowerDVD 8.x. It was in PowerDVD 7.3. One solution is to rip your HD-DVD discs to ISO files and play them off your HDD.

I don't know the status of HDCP playback in mediaportal I'm sorry. It seems to support h.264 playback fine when you have the right codecs but if you want to play blu-ray/hd-dvd movies, that is something else! I don't have HDCP setup on my system because I am waiting for pc HDCP support to stabilise (particularly the way they handle audio over HDMI and the software support is still sketchy).