VGA - Scart RGB?

[SteveL]

I'm not using scart, but I am using 1080i (interlaced/vga), and I am using catalyst v4.11. But I am sure there must be later versions that work as well or better.

That's what I'm hoping Mike...I've got hold of the MCE Catalyst 5.1s - 5.5s and gonna try over the weekend, I'll report back on my findings.

Unless in the meantime, someone knows the last one that worked ok

 

[GazH]

Firstly, I have not tried these at 1080i etc (only got a CRT).... but ATI have just released 5.8 drivers.

I've upgraded from 5.4 and no problems so far.

HTH

Gaz

 

[David PluggedIn]

yeah i only have a 'normal' 10 year old TV so fancy sockets for me

Hi Snow,

nothing wrong with CRT, for ultimate picture quality it is still the technology to beat.

 

[godsie]

I have recently purchased one of these VGA to scart cables from keene electronics in order to connect my uvem HTPc to my CRT TV, have a ATI Radeon 9600 and initially tried connecting up to my Philips 32PW9059 to AVi scart socket RGB.

On turning TV on the blue power light on the fron just jept flashing and TV would not power up. when i took cable out TV worked again.

then tried it on a relative's Panasonic CRT TV TX28 and got a fast scrolling picture, have been using powerstriep and tweaking settings as per this thread as well as trying various timings and refresh rates I can get a picture which looks like 4 PC screens on the TV but with still lot of scrolling, I don't know what else to try with powerstrip I have the latest drivers installed for the radeon card but it does not accept many of the powerstrip defined resolutions like 940x540 etc. I have goine back to s video for now, any ideas appreciated

 

[SteveL]

Firstly, I have not tried these at 1080i etc (only got a CRT).... but ATI have just released 5.8 drivers.

I've upgraded from 5.4 and no problems so far.

HTH

Gaz

Many thanks for the info Gaz...much appreciated, will give the 5.4's a go this weekend, might try the 5.8s too

Is RussKing or GroovyClam still around, would be interested to hear what versions they are using

 

[groovyclam]

godsie,

I use a ATI 9600 on a Panasonic TV no problems:

Step by step:

1) Right click PowerStrip tray Icon and choose "Display Profiles ->
Configure"

A screen opens

2) Click on "Advanced timing options"

A new screen opens

3) Click on "Custom Resolutions"

A New screen opens

4) Click buttons under list on left to be "User Defined"

5) Copy the following between the ================ and =============== to
the clipboard as if you were going to paste it into notepad ( don't copy the
====== )

=======================
PowerStrip timing parameters:
1024x576=1024,88,48,160,576,1,5,43,20559,41

Generic timing details for 1024x576:
HFP=88 HSW=48 HBP=160 kHz=16 VFP=1 VSW=5 VBP=43 Hz=25

Linux modeline parameters:
"1024x576" 20.559 1024 1112 1160 1320 576 577 582 625 interlace +hsync +vsync
=======================

6) To the right, bottom of the current PowerStrip screen is a suitcase
button -> click it and the stuff you have just copied to the clipboard is
put into all the correct places in PowerStrip

7) Click on the "Add New Resolution" button

PowerStrip will add the settings to the left list but will probably also say
it needs to reboot windows. Click any "OK" buttons to let it reboot.

8) After reboot you will have an 1024x576 resolution option off the
PowerStrip right click "Display Profiles" which you can choose

( If it is not off the right click then do:

a) Right Click "Display Profiles -> Configure"
b) use the Resolution slider at top right so pull slider to 1024x576
c) click any "OK" buttons and resolution will change

)

Once 1024x576 is chosen, then your VGA-SCART input on the TV should
stabilise with a centralised image of resolution 1024x576 with about 8
pixels lost on each side due to overscan.

You may possibly also need to turn tiling OFF for stabilisation. It is better to have tiling ON but if you can't get a stable picture with tiling ON then you will have to turn it off.

To do that:

1) Right click PowerStrip tray Icon and choose "Display Profiles ->
Configure"

A screen opens

2) Click on "Advanced timing options"

A new screen opens

3) Click on "Custom Resolutions"

A New screen opens

4) Double click the words "New Resolution" in the heading at the top right.

The tiling requester opens and you can turn tiling OFF.

5) Click any "OK" buttons to get back to the desktop.

6) You may need to reboot at this point and then choose something other than the 1024x576 resolution and then *choose* the 1024x576 resolution.

Best of luck.

 

[SteveL]

Groovyclam...can i ask what version of Catalysts you use please?

 

[groovyclam]

SteveL

I haven't upgraded my display drivers in ages as I had a bad experience ( it may have been the first version of 5 ) where the screen fonts went all blocky.

My driver files say 30th Nov 2004 version 6.14.10.6497 how can I find what "version" these are ( 4.x / 5.x ) ?

 

[SteveL]

SteveL

I haven't upgraded my display drivers in ages as I had a bad experience ( it may have been the first version of 5 ) where the screen fonts went all blocky.

My driver files say 30th Nov 2004 version 6.14.10.6497 how can I find what "version" these are ( 4.x / 5.x ) ?

Many thanks bud, that's useful information. I would guess that they're are Catalyst 4.11 (as the version number is year/month) like the 5.8s just released (2005/August - 5.8)

I'll give the 4.11's a go as someone else mentioned them too...

Many thanks for the info

 

[groovyclam]

Steve - before the 4.11 install, check for existing ATI driver files after the 5.x removal and manually delete or rename them as I seem to recall my ATI uninstall didn't go very cleanly once.

 

[SteveL]

Will do...I did have probs when I went from the 5.6s back to the 4.7s, there were 2 files that were still hanging around from before.

Would you recommend a program like drivercleaner or do it manually?

(really appreciate yer help here)

 

[groovyclam]

I definitely did it manually.

I think I did something like remove the ATI software through control panal and then remove the driver through control panel, then rebooted to safe mode.

In safe mode AND USING A DOS BOX NOT THE FILE EXPLORER I went into windows/system32 and moved all files starting ati*.* to a backup dir. Also any files starting ati*.* in windows/system32/drivers/

Then reboot into safe mode again and after reboot check no ATI files are reported as being used in the driver details for the display hardware, check the ati*.* files have not been restored into windows/system32 and windows/system32/drivers by the reboot and then run the ATI 4.11 exe.

Hope that works - can't swear it was exactly what I did, but if I were to have to do it again that is what I would do.

 

[David PluggedIn]

Hi Steve

probably a little late for this advice, but utilities such as drivercleaner etc while good at what they do, arent the best solution. What we would recommend before making any software changes on an HTPC are to create complete system level backups using Norton Ghost (or similar). Thats the only way to be 100% sure that you can quickly and almost effortlessly experiment with different configurations.

again sorry if it sounds like advice after the event, but if your system is running well at the moment then get it backed up anyway!

cheers

 

[SteveL]

Groovyclam and David PluggedIn, many thanks guys

I have to wait until the weekend to do this as I need to borrow a PC so I can use VNC, so the advice is in time

Will make a backup of my MCE drive later this afternoon, just in case. Great advice!

thanks again

 

[godsie]

Hi Groovyclam

Thanks for your excellent reply, I have done what you suggested, only thing is that my HTPC (or graphics card) does not seem to accept the 1024x576 resolution. any ideas , do I need to try alternative ati radeon drivers, i will see which ones I have got at moment

 

[groovyclam]

godsie - I would suggest going for the 4.11 catalyst drivers since that is what I am using.

All issues about clearing out your current drivers properly that SteveL and I have just been talking about above will apply for you.

How are you viewing your HTPC whilst you are doing this ( i.e. how is your monitor/TV connected ) ?

 

[groovyclam]

godsie - my Monitor hardware driver is set to the "Microsoft Default Monitor" - maybe you should change yours to be that as well.

 

[godsie]

Hi Groovyclam will follow your tips thanks once again for the reply, I have the HTPC connected with the vga-scart lead to RGB scart on TV and also via S Video from the radeon to TV as back up to see the screen whilst tweaking

will let you know how i get on

cheers

godsie

 

[philbury]

I'm lurking on this thread too.

Having had a disaster trying this once before (Complete format & reinstall) I have been building up my courage to try gain. Thanks for the info!

I will definitely do a disc image before going at it!

VNC and powerstrip are beyond my usual level of tweaking.

 

[godsie]

I have checked my monitor drivers and they seem set to default monitor which I hope is correct. i looked both in the control panel under system and also in the ati display settings page under the monitor tab. will try and sort out the catalyst drivers next

 

[GazH]

Not sure re your onboard graphics, but you can buy the cable from http://www.keene.co.uk/ priced around £35.

Ask for a VGA Radeon to SCART cable. It's available with audio as well for an extra fiver or something.

Mine is working like a champ (using Radeon 9500SE).

D.

Just ordered one.....

Be here in 7-10 working days, can't wait....might get powerstrip and give that a go next.

Cheers Deksawyer

Gaz

 

[deksawyer]

Gaz, It'll be well worth it.

I've put together a word doc with the settings I used and the steps I took to get it working.

Please SAVE to your hard drive from here

Might be helpful to others (thanks to the people I've mentioned in the doc for their help as well!).

D.

 

[GazH]

Gaz, It'll be well worth it.

I've put together a word doc with the settings I used and the steps I took to get it working.

Please SAVE to your hard drive from here

Might be helpful to others (thanks to the people I've mentioned in the doc for their help as well!).

D.

Doc saved, cheers D.

Gaz

 

[Spies]

Where do I look for people selling these cables second hand? £35 is a bit steep for a cable.

 

[Jaka]

OK, I am so happy right now! I just got my 16:9 CRT screen two days ago and was struggling to get any of the 16:9 resolutions working and guess what ... I got it working today.
Was reading through this thread (yes, all of the 19 pages) and figured I'd give those custom resolution setting found in my advanced driver config another shot. I use a nVidia 6800 card, so it's different from the ATI driver settings.

I have an option to select or define custom resolutions. So first I was struggling with setting the 1024×576 resolution only to get a virtual desktop. BLAH
Then I set it back to 1024×768 and used the option not to keep aspect ratio for the MPC. Until today!

I said I'd give those custom resolutions another shot. And it was worth it. I first selected the predefined 1280×720 resolution wich worked just fine on my JVC HV32P37 CRT TV, then I set it to 1920×1080 and it kind of worked with garbled display. I guess the vertical and horizontal scan don't work well.

Will try to tinker with it some more and report back.

I was wondering, do the DH standards numbers describe the vertical resolution? 1080i ... 1125i
If that is true, then my TV is capable of recieveing a resolution of 2000×1125 (groovy!!).

I'm still using the S-Video connection from my GeForce to the TV and will buy a VGA-RGB or Component video adapter.

Yes I know how to solder, but the idea of spending 20€ on a converter rather than spending another 800€ on a new TV set if I do something stupid is somehow more rational.

The picture now is nice, but if I'm playing DiVXs/XViDs the colour seams to smudge too much. I tried the TV settings and it didn't help. But if I play DVDs, the picture is nicer.

Will report tomorrow when I get the cable.