Hi everyone
Just wanted to add my experiences with this issue to the list. Like everyone else here after switching the display away and back MP would be resized and in the top left corner of the screen. Also if TV was active when switching this would sometimes lead to MP crashing.
I didn't go into trying to solve this completely uninformed. I read everything I could find about this problem and studied possible solutions. Also I work for 2 different computer component manufacturers doing R&D/troubleshooting and provide end user support for one of them. So while I'm not the smartest person around I do know a bit about the systems themselves.
I tried every suggestion in this thread, some I found elsewhere and a couple of ideas of my own. Most did not work at all. Some appeared to work fine but only in the short term. For whatever reason the issue would return. A couple seemed to solve the problem completely but there were side effects such as stuttering or black screens that never occurred without the fix in place.
I did find a workaround that if done properly was a 100% cure. After switching the display away from MP the system needs to be allowed to go to sleep before switching the display back. Once the display is active again wake the system and MP will display properly. The downside is the system needs to be in a sleep state before switching the display and this for me is a deal breaker.
For me, the only real solution to this problem is the Gefen HDMI Detective Plus or a similar product. I know this item has been talked about a lot here especially regarding its cost. I'll be the first to agree that for what it is the price is substantially higher then it should be. A person could build a comparable device for next to nothing. However, if one has the knowledge to assemble something like this and write the code then the $60.00 or $70.00 saved is most likely not worth the time invested. And if a person is not able to build this the cost savings is immaterial.
Knowing what I know now I would have skipped all this and bought the Detective Plus in the beginning. 30 seconds or less to install it and the problem is gone for good without all the wasted time and aggravation trying all these other fixes.
Just wanted to add my experiences with this issue to the list. Like everyone else here after switching the display away and back MP would be resized and in the top left corner of the screen. Also if TV was active when switching this would sometimes lead to MP crashing.
I didn't go into trying to solve this completely uninformed. I read everything I could find about this problem and studied possible solutions. Also I work for 2 different computer component manufacturers doing R&D/troubleshooting and provide end user support for one of them. So while I'm not the smartest person around I do know a bit about the systems themselves.
I tried every suggestion in this thread, some I found elsewhere and a couple of ideas of my own. Most did not work at all. Some appeared to work fine but only in the short term. For whatever reason the issue would return. A couple seemed to solve the problem completely but there were side effects such as stuttering or black screens that never occurred without the fix in place.
I did find a workaround that if done properly was a 100% cure. After switching the display away from MP the system needs to be allowed to go to sleep before switching the display back. Once the display is active again wake the system and MP will display properly. The downside is the system needs to be in a sleep state before switching the display and this for me is a deal breaker.
For me, the only real solution to this problem is the Gefen HDMI Detective Plus or a similar product. I know this item has been talked about a lot here especially regarding its cost. I'll be the first to agree that for what it is the price is substantially higher then it should be. A person could build a comparable device for next to nothing. However, if one has the knowledge to assemble something like this and write the code then the $60.00 or $70.00 saved is most likely not worth the time invested. And if a person is not able to build this the cost savings is immaterial.
Knowing what I know now I would have skipped all this and bought the Detective Plus in the beginning. 30 seconds or less to install it and the problem is gone for good without all the wasted time and aggravation trying all these other fixes.
Firstly, Windows MCE doesn't have this problem so it seems that Media Portal doesn't handle resolution changes correctly. With more and more people using HDMI->Receiver this problem really needs some attention. This thread is two years old.
- April 15, 2007
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Switzerland
I am having the same problem with MP and Win 7 with an ATI card using the latest drivers (Catalyst 11.9, IIRC). Screenshot attached. It happens whenever MP wakes up or starts before the TV is on.
It only happens on the HDMI interface (using DVI->HDMI adapter). On VGA (using DVI->VGA adapter ) I can't even get full 1920x1080. Instead the whole Win 7 screen is smaller, (1280x768?) but centered.
I can confirm the remark in a previous post, that MP displays correctly if I wait for the MP screen saver timeout (blank screen after 5 min. in my case). When MP is reactivated, the GUI size is correct. It seems to me that the easiest solution would be to provide a way to tell MP in configuration what resolution to use as an option instead of taking the Windows value. If this isn't as easy as I think, how about just providing a keystroke to toggle blank screen on and off?
P.S. I found a workaround, but need to add it to macros the on my remote control. Changing to windowed mode and back to full screen (2 x Alt-Enter) seems to restore correct full-screen display. However, the WAF is suffering terribly from this and other relatively minor problems.
It only happens on the HDMI interface (using DVI->HDMI adapter). On VGA (using DVI->VGA adapter ) I can't even get full 1920x1080. Instead the whole Win 7 screen is smaller, (1280x768?) but centered.
I can confirm the remark in a previous post, that MP displays correctly if I wait for the MP screen saver timeout (blank screen after 5 min. in my case). When MP is reactivated, the GUI size is correct. It seems to me that the easiest solution would be to provide a way to tell MP in configuration what resolution to use as an option instead of taking the Windows value. If this isn't as easy as I think, how about just providing a keystroke to toggle blank screen on and off?
P.S. I found a workaround, but need to add it to macros the on my remote control. Changing to windowed mode and back to full screen (2 x Alt-Enter) seems to restore correct full-screen display. However, the WAF is suffering terribly from this and other relatively minor problems.
Attachments
Best solution for me is to isolate Pin19 (hot plug detection) of my HDMI cable between mediacenter and hdmi receiver. Therefore I used a very thin stripe of electrical tape to conceal pin19 at the hdmi plug. Works perfectly for me. But remember, doing this is at your own risk and don't blame me if you damage the cable and or the receiver/mediacenter.
The developers of mediaportal should definitely think about a good software solution for this Topic! Before implementing new features you should care about the many, many, many bugs! Building a well functioning mediacenter with mediaportal is almost a full time job with neverending tweaking and searching for workarounds. (sleep/wakeup for recording, correct an robust initialization of the tuner after wakeup, flickering of the gui during media playback, etc...)
The developers of mediaportal should definitely think about a good software solution for this Topic! Before implementing new features you should care about the many, many, many bugs! Building a well functioning mediacenter with mediaportal is almost a full time job with neverending tweaking and searching for workarounds. (sleep/wakeup for recording, correct an robust initialization of the tuner after wakeup, flickering of the gui during media playback, etc...)
This sounds great! Does this mean that if I isolate pin19 the halfscreen problem between my HTPC (ATI card) and Panasonic plasma TV will gone once for ever? I can turn on the HTP without turnng the TV first on and the screen size will be the default correct one?
Do I risk loosing any functionality with this or risking to damage the TV or the HTPC? I don't care about any powersave features. Anyway, I'll give it a try!
Thanks for this solution!
I completely agree with this! I would much more prefer to have a stable as possible release that has as many bugfixes as possible then to have a new feature or development introduced on weekly basis. There are many basic features (including plugins commonly used) that have completely enough features for 90% of users, how nice would it be to have a rock solid, bugfree software (as much as possible).
We work daily for the stability of the system, and we reached a very good level for the 90% of our users. All devs use it daily on their houses 
We switched from SVN to GIT as source control system in order to allow a quicker and easier maintainable way to create branches so that new features won't hit the trunk before a well-tested QA session.
About some bugs, and one of those is the topic of this thread, please keep in mind that they are not bugs completely on MP side, but are a convergence of multi-factors situations: why others offers the same ? why nobody have a solution for directx apps ? Asking those questions will put the issue in the right light.
Simone
We switched from SVN to GIT as source control system in order to allow a quicker and easier maintainable way to create branches so that new features won't hit the trunk before a well-tested QA session.
About some bugs, and one of those is the topic of this thread, please keep in mind that they are not bugs completely on MP side, but are a convergence of multi-factors situations: why others offers the same ? why nobody have a solution for directx apps ? Asking those questions will put the issue in the right light.
Simone
We work daily for the stability of the system, and we reached a very good level for the 90% of our users. All devs use it daily on their houses
We switched from SVN to GIT as source control system in order to allow a quicker and easier maintainable way to create branches so that new features won't hit the trunk before a well-tested QA session.
About some bugs, and one of those is the topic of this thread, please keep in mind that they are not bugs completely on MP side, but are a convergence of multi-factors situations: why others offers the same ? why nobody have a solution for directx apps ? Asking those questions will put the issue in the right light.
Simone
:sorry:
I really didn't want to be rude with this, I'm very thankful
for the whole MP team for providing, creating, maintaining, etc the whole project, and Media Portal is the heart of my HTPC. I'm also 90% satisfied with all the features I'm using, therefore I'm only left with very few bugs that are still present but besides that, the whole software rocks.I meant this comment in general. Basically, there are two types of users: one who always gets the newest version, even if untested, full of bugs, etc, but with some new features and one that says "if it is stable and has (almost) everything I need, then don't touch it". I do like the new features and possibilities, but prefer stability. In case of HTPC it is even more important. If it is working, don't touch it
Of course, this is my opinion. At the moment, I can say I have a nearly perfect setup (server+client) which I do not really intend to change since it has everything I need, works fine, quite stable, but it took me many many hours, days, weeks to achieve this. I'm curious which new feature could be introduced that would make users like me willing to change their setup?We work daily for the stability of the system, and we reached a very good level for the 90% of our users. All devs use it daily on their houses
We switched from SVN to GIT as source control system in order to allow a quicker and easier maintainable way to create branches so that new features won't hit the trunk before a well-tested QA session.
About some bugs, and one of those is the topic of this thread, please keep in mind that they are not bugs completely on MP side, but are a convergence of multi-factors situations: why others offers the same ? why nobody have a solution for directx apps ? Asking those questions will put the issue in the right light.
Simone
There is no doubt that all MP developers have done a great job! Thanks for that! I'm using this software every day and I know that bulding/designing and implementing such a system is very hard work. And basically everything is functioning.. At least theoretically ;-).. The only thing is, that there is so much to tweak before getting an installation that is satisfying in all aspects (by the way, this is also the case for windows media center). No day without this "oh no, live tv's not running.. Not again.. Only 3 minutes until my favorite movie starts, which i've been lookinf forward to for 7years" or something like that.. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about
..@gurably for me isolating pin19 solves the issue completely, eventually you have to build a monitor driver (an .inf file) to override the edid information that your mediacenter gets at startup, if you're tv is off. In this case a generic monitor is detected, for which you need to install your custom .inf file. I think there are some other threads about the edid override topic, which is also related to the hdmi sound problem, where only 2 channels are available if the receiver is off at startup. Good luck!
There is a solution to this that doesn't require any hardware modifications.
1) Install VNC server on your HTPC.
2) Turn off receiver, this should drop resolution when computer detects it.
3) VNC into server from second computer with receiver still off.
4) Change resolution to match Primary monitor/TV resolution.
This should keep the computer from changing resolutions (and thus shrinking the MP window) when you get power on/off cycles.
1) Install VNC server on your HTPC.
2) Turn off receiver, this should drop resolution when computer detects it.
3) VNC into server from second computer with receiver still off.
4) Change resolution to match Primary monitor/TV resolution.
This should keep the computer from changing resolutions (and thus shrinking the MP window) when you get power on/off cycles.