[ralferoo]

Further to my last post, I've tried out my Z3 with a friend's newer Geforce 5600 card, and it displays the same symptoms as mine, i.e. works DVI only works at 640x480 or 720x480 and no higher.

This leads me to conclude that either my projector's HDMI input is broken or my cable isn't up to scratch. Obviously, I'm loathe to shell out more on another DVI->HDMI cable if not required, so wondered if people who have got a similar combo working.

Is there a maximum distance on these cables? I have a 5m DVI->HDMI that claims to be rated for 5Gbps, which is AFAIK the maximum supported by HDMI anyway.

Another plan, if anyone in Coventry or the West Midlands is willing and has a PC DVI -> HDMI combination working (whether Z3 or not!) and wouldn't mind me bringing round my cable and projector to see if either or both is faulty, that would be even better, as that way I can try out my cable with their set-up and my projector with their cable. But, obviously that's hassle for someone too!

[Comer]

For Radeon card with ATI driver and Control Panel downloaded try right-clicking on the desk-top and going into Display Settings. Go to Settings tab and click the Advanced button
Click on the Displays tab
(This is where my memory gets a little hazy) Click On the TFT display and look for the Troubleshooting tab
In there Click something to do with Force to 720p.

Sorry I can't remember the process in more detail

Conor

[Comer]

Hi Ralferoo

I'd be interested to know if this worked???

[ralferoo]

Obviously, as I don't have a Radeon, I haven't been able to do the exact same, but we played with every option we could find in the Windows monitor setting dialog and also the nVidia advanced dialog.

I've done a bit more googling, and the DVI comparison on Toms Hardware seems to suggest nVidia cards tend to have lower quality DVI output than other cards, although that seems a bit odd, as people using LCD monitors will be using 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz which is higher than the projector's 1280 x 720 / 60Hz...

On the off-chance that the cable is causing the problem (it's a 5m one), I've ordered a 2m cable from a different supplier.

Other than that, I'm going to have to conclude nVidia cards aren't up to it or my projector is duff...

So, is anyone out there using an nVidia card with their Z3 then?

[Comer]

Originally Posted by ralferoo

Obviously, as I don't have a Radeon

I missed that, didn't read that you had a nvidia card.

[ralferoo]

(copied to the other thread I started)

Yesterday I ordered a 2m cable from Cable Universe (who turn out to be fantastic - 12 minutes between order confirmation e-mail and disptach e-mail, and cable arrived first thing this morning!)

That seems to have solved the problem completely. So far, I've only tried 1280x720@60Hz, but since that's the res I actually need, I'm happy enough!

Only problem is that a 2m cable means I'm going to have to move the projector to a less optimal position so it can still reach the PC on the floor. Oh well, it's only a stop gap measure until I get sometime link the Avel Linkplayer or Kiss DP-600...

Thanks to everyone who offered advice...

[WonkyEwok]

In case it helps, I bought the Cable Universe 5m dvi-dvi cable to go from my radeon x800 to a hitachi tx100. Sparklies all over dark colours. Returned it for the 2m version and everything was fine at all resolutions.

[sainthalo]

those might be really inferior cables because personally i bought a cheap DVI-DVI cable from Germany 10m (about £18) and a DVI-HDMI adaptor (£12) - the picture is awesome - no sparklies and sharp and colourful pictures
i recommend having a close look at the cable to see if it looks like its well made (ie writing on the cable itself and the terminations dont look cheap)
(PS I bought extra adaptors which are in the classifieds)

[Evil Ally]

I have my new Z3 attached to me radeon 9800pro via a 12m DVI-HDMI cable. No issues at all, just plugged it in and it worked. I have a "Bettercables" cable which seems very well made. I will maybe try it with my nvidia card at a later date.

I have a Z3 with a Leadtek nvidia 6600GT, connecting to HDMI with a 8 m cable, using a HDMI<-->DVI connector on the PC side. I use nvidia's reference drivers 66.93.
I do get a picture and all that, however, I'm very confused about how it looks and what settings I should use in the nvidia control panels.
The strange thing is that the picture that I see is not the full XP desktop. The picture displayed is smaller than the actual desktop, meaning for instance that the taskbar is not there and it's the same on the top and left/right sides of the picture.
It doesn't scroll if I move the mouse outside the displayed frame, the mouse only disappears on all edges.
If i turn off the option "Treat as HDMI device", I can set a sort of underscan option (or something like that) under the advanced meny, in which the entire picture gets displayed, however I rather sure that what I get then is not a 1:1 ratio of the pixels.

There are quite a few options to set, is there anyone who knows what to set to get a correct picture with a 1:1 ratio of pixels and the entire desktop displayed using nvidia graphic cards?

[ralferoo]

Yeah, I came across that when I finally found an HDMI cable that worked.

The reason is that the HDMI input defaults to having overscan, whereas VGA doesn't. Press the image button on the remote and keep going down to the last option (you might need to go via the menu button and first choose advanced settings).

If you set overscan to be 0, then the entire desktop will be displayed without distortion. However, you might find that a lot of streams have bars of various colours at the side, so I use an overscan of 3 or 4 to trim the image a bit to get rid of them. Ideally, the software would allow cropping, but as it's video, scaling looks OK anyway.

I've set up both versions as user defined settings so I can quickly swap between PC mode and video mode.

[Comer]

If you set your overscan to anything other than 0, you will not get 1:1 pixel mapping. I have mine set to 0 on the Z3 for over 250 hours with no problems. Just ensure you have the latest firmware for the Z3 as it is suggested that overscan set to 0 increases the chances of getting the "predator look" and the pj locking up.

Chech out this thread from this page for some good tweeking tips by ROne

[ralferoo]

Originally Posted by Comer

If you set your overscan to anything other than 0, you will not get 1:1 pixel mapping.

That's what I meant by having distortion if overscan isn't 0. However, I think on balance I think the image still looks fantastic on video sources when overscan isn't 0 and removes unsightly colour bars (e.g. green bar on the right or white bar at bottom or whatever other junk has been added for no good reason).

Will look into the thread about the predator lock. I've been using my Z3 for about 30 hours in DVI mode now (60 hours total) and never suffered, with firmware 1.01.

I'm actually wondering, given my bad experience with cables, whether the predator lock is due to the Z3 getting confused with corrupted control bits on long cables (akin to shimmering when various pixels get corrupted)...

[Comer]

Originally Posted by ralferoo

...removes unsightly colour bars (e.g. green bar on the right or white bar at bottom or whatever other junk has been added for no good reason).

I've never seen this using either Theatertek or Dscaler

Originally Posted by ralferoo

Will look into the thread about the predator lock. I've been using my Z3 for about 30 hours in DVI mode now (60 hours total) and never suffered, with firmware 1.01.

You have no worries, firmware 1.01 does not suffer the lockup problem

Check out that tweek thread for info in HDMI using L1 or L2. Signifigant improvements in contrast can be achieved.

Conor

Originally Posted by ralferoo

Yeah, I came across that when I finally found an HDMI cable that worked.

The reason is that the HDMI input defaults to having overscan, whereas VGA doesn't. Press the image button on the remote and keep going down to the last option (you might need to go via the menu button and first choose advanced settings).

If you set overscan to be 0, then the entire desktop will be displayed without distortion. However, you might find that a lot of streams have bars of various colours at the side, so I use an overscan of 3 or 4 to trim the image a bit to get rid of them. Ideally, the software would allow cropping, but as it's video, scaling looks OK anyway.

I've set up both versions as user defined settings so I can quickly swap between PC mode and video mode.

Much thanks to both you Ralferoo and Comer!
That was it. My PJ had the overscan set to 10 (!) Wonder why it's like that by default (Since I cannot recall that I've been fiddling around there before).
Yesterday after posting my question I stumbled in to this setting just by luck, (after some hours of frustration) even before reading your posts and I was back in heaven again.
I had been using VGA some time back (took some real time to get all my parts for the HTPC), and finally I get that picture I've been waiting for, for so long.

There was quite a difference between using the L1 and L2 HDMI modes. I (think) L1 was the one that was better for me.

I think that after playing around now for some while, that the lens shift has some cons to it. The entire lens-package becomes a kind of "instable", making it somewhat difficult to get that perfect positioning. I've heard that even the Sanyo support may come with the suggestion to "poke" a little with the finger on the lens-wheel / package to perform those real tiny adjustments. Doesn't feel that 100% to me.
I can however, imagine what a fuzz it is not having a lens-shift.

Thanks again for the help.