I have purchased a kit to connect my PC to my TV (Sony KD32DX40) it's basically a s-video cable and a 3.5mm jack plug - stereo phono plugs. I connected the 3.5mm jack to my PC sound card and the s-video to my video card out (Nvidia Geforce MX) connected the other end to my TV tried the scart adapter but also tried to connect directly to the front access on my TV which works fine with things like camcorders and camera but NOTHING... I tried disconnect my monitor and speakers from my PC so that it did not have any choice but use TV as display but still nothing. Not sure what I'm doing wrong I looks on the my video card properties but can't find anything that would make it work. Can anyone help ?

[corh5]

Hi

On your PC in the display properties for your graphics card (i have a Geforce 4600TI, so should be same procedure) you have to set it to clone the display otherwise no picture will appear on TV. Its probably currently set to single which is the default

Hope this helps!

[cosaw]

didgit

I've got the same telly and would be interested in a similar kit. Can you give me further details on the kit, where to purchase?, price?, compatability with graphics cards?

My pc is quite old but I wouldn't mind a fiddle.

cosaw

Originally posted by didgit
it's basically a s-video cable and a 3.5mm jack plug

Choose your own cables and they'll be better quality, although don't expect monitor detail.

just got a Belkin kit
http://www.homestead.co.uk/f8v351ea.htm
got it for £10 on eBay, pretty basic but will do the job.

I managed to get the picture on my TV by disconnectin the monitor on the back of the PC, connect the s-video cable before booting the PC. I have not managed to get both screen to work which is a pain as my TV is downstairs and my PC upstairs impossible to operate at the moment. I will try the clone thing when I get a chance and look into sound.

yep clone will work. Also if you play films it won't display on the tv. To get round this you put the tv as the master display and monitor as secondary display

[cosaw]

I know of one chap who tried the method as suggested here, he had the KD32DX40 also:

http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/

He had a few colour issues though, see thread:

Sony KD32DX40 RGB Colour Problem

Presumably this method would allow for higher quality than S-video?

Just a thought for anyone interested.

Simon

Personally I wouldn't bother, your monitor is far superior than a TV.

[cosaw]

Paul, I know what you're saying and totally agree. I think the only reason to do it would be for stuff like dvd, that's why I'd be interested. The tv that I own while having a great picture doesn't display dvd's in the aspect ratio as I would like. Therefore I would use my PC (instead of my standard dvd player) to preformat the picture before sending it to my telly. If I had a 32" widscreen monitor then that would solve the problem

Simon

What ratio are you trying to get?

Is your TV 4:3?

[cosaw]

The tv is 16:9. But it's not quite that simple, it's the way the "Wide" mode of my tv formats the piture. It still chops the left and right hand side of the pictures off so everything becomes less wide than it should be, 2.35:1 becomes more like 1.85:1 with dvd and 1.85:1 becomes 16:9. I know because I've compared films on my PC to those on my tv. The model telly which gives you panoramic mode, or whatever it's called, is a lot more expensive, I didn't even know of the issue when buying the telly.

It's not really a big issue for me at the mo as in all other respects I'm happy with the telly.

Simon

[Zacabeb]

I think that's just the age-old problem of overscan, and I think it would be better to have the geometry of the set adjusted for minimal overscan than to sacrifice picture quality and convenience by using the S-video output from the PC. There will always be a bit of overscan on a regular TV, but if 2.35:1 looks like 1.85:1 that sounds like the set has way too much of it.

[cosaw]

I'm 100% certain it's not overscan. It's the way Sony's are designed. I know because I've messed around with different sets plus different makes in stores. As I said some of the more expensive Sony's have another aspect ratio mode which sorts this out. It's a problem that most people (those less concerned about AV matters) are not aware of as they don't know in their mind what 2.35:1 is supposed to looks like.

There are other makes and cheaper models which have the extra aspect ratio control, why Sony don't just put it on all their sets I don't know. I'm sure it's just a simple software addition.

Anyhow I wouldn't be going the S-video route, I'd be doing the vga to rgb scart method for maximum picture quality/tweakability via powerstrip.

As I said it's not a big issue at the mo it would be more of a practice project in powerstrip before moving on to purchasinga crt projector.

Simon

You have a Sony, I might be able to tell you what the problem is.

What is the mode called which gives you the problem?
When you go to this mode is the picture framed like this?

[cosaw]

It's when you put it in wide mode. Yes 2.35:1 would probably come out like that. As you can see, that's not 2.35:1. It's more like 2:1.

Simon

Do Smart and Zoom fill the edges of your screen?

Have you adjusted things in the service menu?

[cosaw]

Smart and Zoom do fill the screen fine. No I haven't done any adjustments in the service menu. The tv is a KD32DX40, do you own a Sony/know much about them?

Simon

I have a KV-28FX66 and have adjusted it quite thoroughly.

Does Wide have the same effect on all sources? Try switching a console or TV picture into wide mode and see if it happens to video other than your DVD player.

[cosaw]

Not in so many ways. i.e. you don't lose any image side to side, this is to do with how the Sony preformats all images within the 4:3 frame before any stretch. However the problem is that this 4:3 frame is not actualy 4:3, it's more like 3.5:3. If its the same on your set then measure it, it's not 4:3. This allows "wide" to stretch to the full width of the screen without overlap left and right (even though you wouldn't be able to see it anyway). I think it's a compromise so that when wide works on an anamorphic Broadcast signal (which is its main purpose) it stretches it exactly to 16:9. It performs the same stretch to everything, so esentially what the set does its chop the sides off the image then stretch to fill the screen left to right. The reason this doesn't affect anamorphic images, is because they are allready squashed left to right (or stretched vertically if you want to look at it that way), i.e. the set was designed around the basic anamorphic image.

My set is digital, but the analogue tuner works in exactly the same way. The only real way to see if you set displays this is to compare what can be seen on a PC dvd player to that of your telly. That's how I confirmed the difference.

I've had over a year to think/theorise about this

Simon

[cosaw]

If you like I can do a mock up tommorrow when I've got time. I haven't got a digital camera so I'll mock up what I can see on TV and then actual PC. If you've got a dvd in mind, suggest one of the following and then you can compare on your set the exact frame and I'll show you the differences.

Popular titles I have: Gladiator, Star Wars Episode II, Spiderman, Vertical Limit, Erin Brokovich, Stuart Little, Edward Scissor Hands, Godfather trilogy, Gangs of New York, E.T.

Simon

What I was asking is can you get a full screen image in Wide from any source other than your DVD player?

Don't worry about theorising, I can tell you that the 4:3 mode and every other mode are independant of each other. What I think is that there is too much blanking on 4:3, but in other modes it's fine.

Every mode is just a modification of the video signal, if you can get a full picture to the edges then your TV is fine.

[Member 34135]

If any of you are still looking for pc to tv kits we have a high quality range here.

Andy.

Is it better if I use a s-video lead for the tv or should I use a dvi ---> scart mod?

[cosaw]

Paul, yes is the answer to your first question.

What I think is that there is too much blanking on 4:3

I would agree with that.

if you can get a full picture to the edges then your TV is fine

Yes I can, and I do believe there is nothing wrong with the TV anyway. I believe my model is supposed to show dvd as it does. However it does not show the whole picture (regardless of overscan). The more expensive Sony's do have extra aspect ratio modes which sort this out. Perhaps these can be activated (on cheaper sets) in the service menus, I don't know.

Example from Gladiator 48 mins 51 seconds 1st frame of line up shot:

Full 16:9 image as extracted from Power DVD on my PC:

Mock up of image as shown on Sony KD32DX40 in "WIDE" mode:

See how on the left I lose about two thirds of Oliver Reed (dressed in black) and the top of the tower. And on the right I lose most of the slaves arm? Also a small amount of image is lost top and bottom (the black bars are thiner, by ratio to actual film image height, on the tv) this may be due to overscan alone but I'm not fully confident of that either. Side Note: I've lost more to the left than the right but that's only because RGB centring was set up incorrectly to -5 after I was playing to see how much of the image I could see left to right by using RGB centring alone.

For your own interests you may like to confirm this on your Sony? VHS is the same, Star Wars EP:4,5,6 I have in 2.35:1, they come out the same, this time in "Zoom" mode I beleive.

Simon

Ok, I see what the problem is. It can be fixed in the service menu, only thing is that it's not a quick fix as it will affect the other modes and you need to write a few things down.

I'll restate that the modes are independant of each other, Wide could be configured to be a five inch row and zoom could be 4:3 if you set the parameters that way.

All thats happened is that the wide mode has been scaled in too much causing a large amount of cropping which I can see from your mock-up.

[cosaw]

Ok so you see the problem. As it's not a quick fix, I probably wouldn't like to mess, I've never played around in the service menus and wouldn't like to as I can't afford a new telly when I screw it up. If I could get my hands on a service manual then perhaps I'd think differently about the matter. Otherwise I'm happy to leave the telly be if I have to.

only thing is that it's not a quick fix as it will affect the other modes

I'll restate that the modes are independant of each other

I'm not quite sure what you mean; there seems to be some contradiction.

A good question would be: are there any redundant aspect ratio modes that can be activated so that the existing modes don't need to be interfeared with? Might have a word with some people at a Sony dealership.

Where did you get your knowledge/conficence about tweaking in the service menus, just from these forums?

Cheers,

Simon

It's not quick because some of the settings in Wide will affect the other modes.

The modes are 99% independant because you can go to the affected ones and set them back to what they were. e.g. If you added 100 to a setting in Wide, it would add 100 to all other modes and you would go through these subtracting 100.

One setting that's not independant in Wide is the vertical offset (RDPOSYM) which is always linked with 4:3. If you change it to 6 then 4:3 will be 6 also.

I know this much because I've used the service menu alot, no one helped me I just went through all the parameters and saw what they did. I've had my TV since the end of 2002, so have spent considerable time adjusting it.