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.

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.

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?

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...

[daredevill]

According to the user manual through the hdmi input you can have 1920*1080p@24hz which I see as being the best resolution for that set.
Below are the others you can have (any comments on the best setting are welcome)..
1920*1080i@50hz/60hz
720*576p@50hz/60hz
1280*720p@50hz/60hz
720*576i@50hz
720*480p@60hz
1920*1080p@24hz

I have yet to finish my htpc but will post when its done.

[dejongj]

Why do you see that as the best resolution? Have you tried it?
I prefer 720p myself...

REF :denniswaugh

Dennis, a quick question. I presume you have a DVI connection on your Nvidia and are using the HDMI on the Pioneer? did you use a dvi-hdmi cable for this? Or have you got an Nvidia with HDMI out?

Cheers

Simon.

[denniswaugh]

Hi Simon,

I use a DVI to HDMI cable.
I don't think there are any video cards that have HDMI connectors just yet.

Just to let you know, I now use a Nvidia 6200 (Gigabyte GV-N62128DE).
The only problem I have with this card is that I do not see the boot(post) screen at startup.

Apart from this issue, everything is fine.

Hi, I'm using an ATI 9600 Pro graphic card and have connected it to my pioneer 436 FDE plasma. The problem i have is that When windows has booted i have a screen resolution of 640x480, then i have to manually correct this, i then change to 1280 x720 but now i have a little bit of overscan. There is a function in ATI Catalys where You can create a custom resolution but when I use this the ATI Catalyst software crashes. So my Q:s are.
1) Is there a solution for not having windows boot in 640x480 resolution (i saw a post of a .inf file for displays but my plasma was not listed

2) Is there a fix for Custom resolutions in ATI Catalyst software.

Any help is appreciated!

Hi dennis,

Thanks for the info, will probably go for one of those then.
Where did you get the cable from? I presume it is DVI-Male to HDMI Male??

Simon

[denniswaugh]

Hi Simon,

I purchased a Molex 3m DVI-D to HDMI cable from "joe.fernand@btconnect.com".

Hope this helps.

Hey guys.

We got a PDP 436XDE over Chrimbo so I picked up a DVI-HDMI cable to connect the Radeon 9800pro in my MCE'05 box to the screen. Its all working gorgeously and the videos from www.wmvhd.com running in 720p are just sublime.

However, its not without issue:

1) On rebooting the MCE box it keeps forgetting its previous screen res and defaults back to 640x480, I have to keep putting it back to 720p res everytime it starts.

2) The other issue is that when I turn the plasma off, but leave the MCE on, then I turn the Pio back on there is no video signal from the MCE box. I can't really tell whether its the plasma, or the ati card/driver which is causing the problem. Pressing any of the buttons on the remote still doesn't cause any video signal to wake up the screen, which means I have to reboot it and then that causes the issue above....

Any thoughts ?

Thanks
Si.

[hutters]

Originally Posted by simonplant

2) The other issue is that when I turn the plasma off, but leave the MCE on, then I turn the Pio back on there is no video signal from the MCE box. I can't really tell whether its the plasma, or the ati card/driver which is causing the problem. Pressing any of the buttons on the remote still doesn't cause any video signal to wake up the screen, which means I have to reboot it and then that causes the issue above....

Do you switch the plasma off or just put it into standby, i.e. off with the remote not the power switch? I put my 434 into standby with the MCE remote and don't get this problem.

[hutters]

Originally Posted by stegen7

Hi, I'm using an ATI 9600 Pro graphic card and have connected it to my pioneer 436 FDE plasma. The problem i have is that When windows has booted i have a screen resolution of 640x480, then i have to manually correct this, i then change to 1280 x720 but now i have a little bit of overscan. There is a function in ATI Catalys where You can create a custom resolution but when I use this the ATI Catalyst software crashes. So my Q:s are.
1) Is there a solution for not having windows boot in 640x480 resolution (i saw a post of a .inf file for displays but my plasma was not listed

2) Is there a fix for Custom resolutions in ATI Catalyst software.

Any help is appreciated!

Have you tried Powerstrip? I use Powerstrip succesfully with my Radeon 9600 and Pio 434.

Originally Posted by hutters

Do you switch the plasma off or just put it into standby, i.e. off with the remote not the power switch? I put my 434 into standby with the MCE remote and don't get this problem.

Sorry, yes indeed I meant standby, not power off.

Si.

[hallabusa]

Hi Simon,

"..2) The other issue is that when I turn the plasma off, but leave the MCE on, then I turn the Pio back on there is no video signal from the MCE box. I can't really tell whether its the plasma, or the ati card/driver which is causing the problem. Pressing any of the buttons on the remote still doesn't cause any video signal to wake up the screen, which means I have to reboot it and then that causes the issue above...."

I have a 435 xde connected to my PC which has (had) a Radeon 9800 pro card - I had the same issues when I installed the latest version of Catalyst Control software; if i went from input 3 (HDMI) back to freeview for example, I'd be unable to get back to 3 - it's as if the PC wasn't turned on. As you correctly say, a reboot fixes this temporarily but it's no long term fix. I emailed ATI directly but they havn't responded yet (about two months ago!!). I rolled back to the older drivers and everything was OK - although I then suffer from overscan on 1280 * 720. Given that I'm trying to quieten the PC a little, I've tried a FX5200 card I had and it works well and resizing the resolution is a doddle (I'm going to buy a new 6600gt passive card as I'm impressed).

I've just wasted 2 days trying to get a Sapphire ATI X1800 to work properly with my Pioneer 435 XDE. The latest Catalyst drivers are supposed to have fixed all the problems but they don't. After spending hours trying to get the HDTV settings to setup the right screen sizes, the card just restets to a tiny resolution setting (one which I never set up!) after a reboot.

The ATI so called "support" is non existent - you try ringing the numbers they have on their site and see how far you get. As for email support - well the words "hole" and "black" spring readily to mind.

My retailer (Overclock) was far more helpful and suggested a swap to NVIDIA which is exactly what I am doing.

ATI can forget about my custom in the future and I strongly urge others wishing to enjoy the pleasures of Plasma and HDTV to do the same

[Adamv]

Just goy my pioneer xde and tried connecting it to my MCE with an ATI x550 graphics card. Nightmare!!

It wont even boot. Have to unplug the DVI lead and replug in once past the boot cycle. Works perfectly well using the VGA connector (but the VGA port is on the front of the pioneer media box and looks poor with a 5m VGA lead snaking across the living room floor)

I am going to try one of two things and would welcome any suggestions:

1. Connect from the DVI-I port through a DVI - VGA adapter to the component in on the pioneer using a VGA to component lead.

2. Change the graphics card to an NVIDIA card as suggested earlier. Must be a low profile card PCI or PCI Express as I am using an ebox from Evesham.

Cheers

Adam

[dejongj]

It won't even boot? That is very odd! Not displaying a screen I can understand but not booting just because a cable is plugged in is odd....What resolution have put the card in? Should be 1280x720 either 50 or 60 hz....You may have to do that using a different monitor....