Re: Can I use component in rather than VGA for MCE

It is good to be cautious, but there isn't really anything in these settings
that you cannot readily undo. One of the benefits of having a dual monitor
setup is that if you mess up the settings on one display badly enough so
that it is unusable you can still access the display settings for it from
the other monitor and change things back again.

The way the TV is connected to the computer now I don't think you want to
change the setting to TV. As far as the video card is concerned your TV is
just another Flat Panel Display monitor. All of the following pertains to
Media Center settings, NOT ATI or Windows display adapter/monitor settings.

When you go into Media Center Settings->Media Center Setup->Configure your
TV or Monitor, (ignore the first part about adjusting TV colours and
watching the video for now) click Next:

In the Connection Type options list you are presented with 3 choices...
1-Composite or S-Video, 2-DVI, VGA, or HDMI and 3- Component (YPbPr).
Currently you would select the second option DVI,VGA or HDMI.

After that you need to choose the Display width, Standard (4:3) or
Widescreen (16:9). I believe you need to select the Widescreen setting.

Finally you will come to the point where you need to confirm your display
Resolution, either accepting the value shown or not, in which case setup
will show you a list of available resolutions and you pick the correct one.
I see in my list (Standard 4:3) that 1280 x 764 is not available, HOWEVER,
if I change the Display width to Widescreen instead of Standard 1280x768
does become a valid display option.

There are several more settings to make after the above but those were the
main steps in setting the correct resolution for using Media Center on your
TV.

The ATI/Windows display settings might also give you a different set of
resolution values if you are able to set the LCD TV as being 16:9 Widescreen
instead of 4:3 Standard (in Advanced settings or Catalyst Control Center).


"Betty" <Ireportspam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uDHi$vRUHHA.3592@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you so much for responding again Ralf. I'm printing your response ,
so I can understand
what your trying to tell me. Especially the RGB part, since that seems to
be my problem.

Only the recorded TV is bad. Everything else looks the same as it does on
my
HP monitor. Actually, I'm pretty sure windows thinks the secondary monitor
is another HP 1905,
and I have been too chicken to force The ATI converter it to try and see
it as a TV.

I'm going to make a ghost image, before I mess around much more. I had a
video driver problem with my first IBM PC 6 years ago and ever since.I
have been extremely cautious with graphics

I'm new to MCE but not to newsgroups, so I can tell your someone who not
is helpful to newbies
but someone whose advise can be trusted.. Thanks again.

Betty

PS: Buy.com is sure taking their good old time getting that dummies book
too me!



"RalfG" <itsnotme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eyUWhrQUHHA.1000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The maximum resolution specified for your TV @ 1366x766 is higher than
the 1280 x 764 specified for the VGA input but that could possibly
include the standard TV overscan area (non viewable) for television
signals. 1280 x 764 over VGA input could well reflect the native
resolution of the TV display panel. Media Center also has the ability to
incorporate the TV overscan area (at least in Tweak MCE) but you'd have
to experiment with it to see if it is worthwhile using.

32 bit colour is correct. If you chose 16bit you could end up seeing
distinct colour bands instead of subtle shading in large areas of similar
colour, like sky, clouds. If Olevia does not supply a computer driver
for the TV, you might try adding the sRGB color profile to the Color
Management section for the TV in the ATI Catalyst control center. You can
also adjust the colour output to the TV from the ATI card settings as
well, leaving the settings on the TV itself unaffected.

IINM, 480i(interlaced) is standard television resolution, ie 640x480
resolution, which is lower resolution than VGA. Your TV can do much
better than that when using a suitable video source, though your OTA TV
signal might only be standard. Standard VGA begins at 640x480p
(progressive) and resolution goes up from there (to 2048x1600 on your ATI
card). Interlaced scans every other line alternately, 240+240 to achieve
480 lines while progressive scans every line sequentially. If your over
the air TV signal is standard resolution Media Center would have to
interpolate the low resolution TV recording up to 1280 x 764 resolution.
It might not do that as well as the TV's internal circuits do. The aspect
ratio would be different too. I know from experience that MC does a poor
job of changing the resolution when it displays my higher resolution
photos on my 1280x1024 monitor.. other software does a much better job of
it.

How does video played through Media Player or some other video source on
the computer besides Media Center look on the TV? Same as Media Center
recorded TV or better?

Did you configure Media Center to use the same resolution that your TV is
set to? This is apart from the resolution settings on the ATI card or TV.
Media Center has its own internal settings for display resolution and
type of connection (VGA, S-Video, Component etc.) being used. Eg. Media
Center looks fine on my regular TV but if I were to drag it over as is to
my flat panel monitor (res 1280x1024) Media Center will still display
using the default S-video resolution of 720x480, which looks awful on the
monitor. Media Center has to be reconfigured to display at the monitor's
native resolution and over the DVI connection before it will look clear
and sharp. Using your existing VGA connection I think your Media Center
display settings should be; Digital Flat Panel for display type, VGA for
connector type and 1280 x 764 for resolution.






.

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