Outputting Various Refresh Rates From HTPC To Plasma?

Does a PC Graphics Card automatically change the refresh rate (hz) going into a Plasma depending on whether an NTSC or PAL DVD is played? How about switching to 24fps when a blu-ray is played? I can't see how this is done automatically which is why I am asking.. Surely I don't need to keep changing the refresh rate manually on the GPU's settings everytime I decide to watch a different source & see forms of judder?

 

Yes it stays at a fixed output for everything. I thought of this a while ago, you'll want it to switch to 50hz for PAL, 60hz for NTSC and 24, 48 or 72hz for HD/BR.

A reason why I didn't bother use the HTPC for DVD playback, as a DVD player does it automatically.

 

Surely there's some software which can do this automatically?

 

Well even most of the current HD disc players don't output 24Hz and tbh panels that accept 24p are just making an appearance. Does your plasma accept 24p ?

In reality it's not that bigger problem unless you are ultra sensitive to judder, currently I watch everything at 60Hz mainly because of the imaturity of ATI drivers and I hardly notice judder even on HD DVD and BD.

However, you could use Powerstrip as it allows you set different custom resolutions for different applications, for example you could set up a PowerDVD profile to use 24Hz for HD disc playback and then whenever PowerDVD is started it will automatically switch to that res. Be aware though that Powerstrip does not support the Nvidia 8xxx series at this time.

 

I've just purchased (awaiting delivery) the Panny 42PZ70 which as reported by a member last night does support 24hz (even though this is not stated by Panny UK) .

Is there anyway I can use Powerstrip (which I've seen mentioned around quite a bit) to change refresh rates by pressing a specific keyboard shortcut key (ultimately a button on my remote) whenever I need to? I use MediaPortal for all my Video/Movie viewing...

 

I'm pretty sure I could set that up with my imon remote as that is so easy to add and control apps with.

I have no experience with MP or MCE remotes if that's what you're using, I have no idea how easy it is to add apps and commands with that. Does MP integrate PowerDVD ?

I would check the Powerstrip documentation as I would imagine you would be able to start Powerstrip with command line switches for different resolutions, or I guess you could add multiple Powerstrip profiles for the main Media Portal executable with Powerstrip, ie, mediaportal1.exe and mediaportal2.exe with a shortcut for each and each being a different Powerstrip profile, ie, 50Hz and 60Hz.

I haven't played with Powerstrip for a while now but I intend to as soon as I have the time so I will be attempting a similar exercise myself.

 

I was thinking about this too the other day and was also wondering why no one has created a program to do this. I decided to see if i could find some code which would allow me to automatically change refresh rate and screen res depending on the res\refresh rate of the media. I found some VB code which will change the screen resolution and refresh rates automatically but I cant figure out a way of reading the resolution and resfresh of files just yet.

The logic behind a program of this sort should be very simple. The program would just run in the background of your OS and when a given file type is opened, it should:

Read Refresh rate,

If file refresh is = screen refresh then end,

If refresh <> screen refresh then change screen refresh rate to = refresh of the file.

Then on exit of file:

Change Screen refresh rate to 60hz

I guess ill work on it when i get a 1080p tv at the end of the year.