Pioneer HDMI plasma to DVI PC problems

[Wendreda]

I've got a Pioneer plasma 435 XDE that has an HDMI input. I was expecting to be able to link this to the DVI output from my 256MB DDR ATI Radeon X700 PCI-express graphics card in my MCE 05 Evesham PC with an HDMI-DVI cable but it won't work. Windows refuses to boot (unless the graphics card drivers are removed & without which MCE 05 won't work). The hard drive, motherboard & graphics card have all been changed with the same results. The PC connects fine thro the VGA ouput to a CRT monitor (and presumably will to the plasma which does have VGA input too).Neither the PC or TV boys seem able to help.
Are there known problems with a DVI output talking to an HDMI input on a plasma and if so is there a fix? Is it to do with the copy protection HDMI insists upon ( I think) ? Would a different graphics card help? Obviously I'd want to use the DVI rather than VGA output if I can.
Many thanks!

[denniswaugh]

I had the same problem connecting my ATI9600 via DVI to the HDMI on my pioneer 434. Buggered about for months with new drivers and powerstip but could never get it to work. Always ended up connecting via VGA.

I then tried a cheap Nvidia fx 5200. Straight out of the box it worked, Fantastic.

Downloaded the latest drivers from Nvidia and you can very simply adjust for overscan.

I was so impressed, I brought a fanless Gigabyte 6800.

[Wendreda]

Thanks for that. Sadly, currently Evesham only seem to support ATI cards with this system-but at least now I've got some ammunition! Do you know if it's a problem with HDCP compliance as my TV vendors suggest - the catalyst site says the card is "HDCP ready" which suggests it shouldn't be a problem. Can I just check you're using MCE 05?
Anyway (I'm new to all this) -what's overscan & why should I expect it with a different card (powerstrip,too is a mystery!).
Anyone else had similar problems/solutions?
Cheers.

[denniswaugh]

Hi,

Yes I am using MCE05.

I don't know if it is anything to do with HDCP compliance. I think it is more to do with the ATI drivers. I was using ATI 9600 fanless with 256Mb memory.
I tried numerous versions of driver and only once did I managed to get the desktop on my pioneer, although it suffered severe overscan.

Overscan is where the desktop is larger than the screen, i.e. the "file" menu on the Explorer toolbar is missing (off to the left of the screen) and the (x) exit button is off screen to the right.

With the Nvidia driver, there is a slider marked underscan which I have set at 6%. It's as simple as that.

I have been an ATI user for the past 8 years and always thought highly of them, however; I've owned my Pioneer plasma for 17 months and spent 14 of those trying to get DVI to HDMI to work with the ATI card.

The Nvidia cards just worked straight away.

[MPK]

This is something I have been wanting to try for a while, but will probably wait until I get a new graphics card with dual DVI port. In any case, it should not be a problem with HDCP as this only matters if the source is encoded in HDCP (e.g. when watching DVDs), but a normal PC desktop is not copy protected. I think certain Radeon cards do not work with HDMI because they are DVI 1.0 instead of DVI 1.1 compliant. No doubt you tried all the refresh rate and resolution settings your XDE can accept.

[hutters]

I have a Pio 434 hooked upto to my Radeon 9600 fanless via DVI to HDMI using MCE 2005 and Powerstrip. I don't have my config available to me at the moment, but I may be able to post it this evening if it will be of any help.

It took me a while to get the Powerstrip settings sorted. You won't get the BIOS POST displayed on the screen, you will only get a picture once Windows has loaded the drivers.

The information in THIS POST helped me greatly.

[Wendreda]

Thanks for all the advice.

Evesham are adamant that the problem lies with the pioneer 435 xde plasma.They say its HDCP protection stops the HDMI talking to any device that's not similarly equipped and say that no graphics cards are HDCP compliant at present (planned for next yr they say) & that the "HDCP ready" tag just means that in future drivers will be produced to accomodate it! So from their point of view I just need to go down the VGA route for the present.

You've mostly mentioned the 434- has anyone got experience of getting the 435 xde to work with a graphics card thro its HDMI port? I'd like to know for sure before shelling out on a new graphics card (Evesham don't look up for a swap!) Does the 435 have copy protection over & above what the 434 requires?

Cheers.

I had problems connecting my new media pc via DVI/HDMI to my 435 xde. Kept showing nothing. I had not enabled my HDMI port. Simple as that. Press input 3 then go to options/settings (i can't remember which) and then HDMI then ENABLE. then it worked. I believe I am suffering from overscan - i will try the overscan 6% thing at home tonight...

[riccol1966]

one final question - I may be stupid but how do I get the sound working if I use a DVI-HDMI connection to my pio and don't have an AV amp? I just want to somehow connect the l+r direct, so where do I connect this on the media box. And if I went VGA, does this carry sound or do I have the same issue?

[Snash]

Originally Posted by riccol1966

one final question - I may be stupid but how do I get the sound working if I use a DVI-HDMI connection to my pio and don't have an AV amp? I just want to somehow connect the l+r direct, so where do I connect this on the media box. And if I went VGA, does this carry sound or do I have the same issue?

get a two to one adapter 3.5mm stereo jack to plug your L/R into then plug the adapter into your pc sound line out from your sound card or motherboard's on board sound.

[dejongj]

What a nonsense Evesham are telling you....I've got an nVidia 6600GT in my HTPC and an Radeon 9700 which is now upgraded to an Radeon 9800 in my Dell notebook and all worked straight out of the box with a DVI-HDMI cable...On all types of resultions...Best is 1280x720p I think...Oh and of-course I've got the fantastic Pio 435...

Maybe, and this is a long shot, the DVI output on the evesham isn't the digital kind but the analogue version?

[dlock]

Originally Posted by riccol1966

one final question - I may be stupid but how do I get the sound working if I use a DVI-HDMI connection to my pio and don't have an AV amp? I just want to somehow connect the l+r direct, so where do I connect this on the media box. And if I went VGA, does this carry sound or do I have the same issue?

I haven't got around to trying this yet but if you use Input3 HDMI you can connect up the PC soundcard to the Scart socket of Input 3 - from reading the manual it implies the two connections on this input are shared and that setting the input option in the Setup Menu only selects the source of the Video and that Audio is only available from the Scart. Let me know how you get on.

[daredevill]

Bugger just started to build me HTPC but have just taken delivery of the new PDP436XDE anyone know if this has the same issues ? reading the thread I think I will have to go with nvidia

[robpow]

Originally Posted by daredevill

Bugger just started to build me HTPC but have just taken delivery of the new PDP436XDE anyone know if this has the same issues ? reading the thread I think I will have to go with nvidia

I am planning to order a 436XDE too and was wondering if I should use the VGA output from the embedded ATI Radeon X200 or buy a new card with DVI out and connect to the Pio's HDMI input.

Did you test this yet?

Cheers,
Matt

[dejongj]

The VGA port is on the front, many people don't like that...But it depends on how you have stored the media box...