this is my first real HTPC build as it’s the first actually feeding a TV (I have a 30" monitor so never bothered with a TV before).
I’m basically seeing 2 things:
the desktop is larger than the viewable area of the screen. i.e. 50% of the windows task bar is off the bottom of the display, as are 50% of the normal icons off the left. A full screen app means the menu bar is totally off the top. Hope this makes sense!
wasn’t sure what to expect here but the desktop picture quality is pretty bad, especially text. I appreciate it wasn’t going to look as crisp as a monitor running at the same res but it looks like a laptop screen running off a boggo VGA driver. Playing a movie off the PC does look pretty good but still not as I thought.
PC is an office spec HP DC7900 SFF upgraded with 4GB RAM, BR Drive, sound card I can’t remember and an ATI 3450 gpx card. All drivers are updated using Microsoft ref drivers (I’ve yet to try an ATI driver).
The PC is hooked to the Samsung via HDMI and the res is set to 1920x1080.
Any ideas as to how to improve either problem? Posting in this forum as I’m assuming it’s PC config.
cheers gents. Tried the ATI drivers and either I couldn’t find the right setting or they made no diff Better still they managed to stop XBMC from playing .iso and .mkv files. I removed CCC and they started working again. Strange.
The display does just look like it’s running at the wrong res…even though it’s set right.
Been through all the rest of the options on the TV and can’t see anything else to put it in “PC mode”. I guess I could try it via DVI but that’s largely defeating the object.
:Offtopic:
been looking at the 32" model of this telly (samsung 530) alongside the sony ex403 something or other have you had any other problems or are you pretty happy with it? would be nice to get an honest opinion from an owner as they look wonderful and terrible depending on which retail outlet set them up and what the input is in the store
been looking at the 32" model of this telly (samsung 530) alongside the sony ex403 something or other have you had any other problems or are you pretty happy with it? would be nice to get an honest opinion from an owner as they look wonderful and terrible depending on which retail outlet set them up and what the input is in the store[/QUOTE]
I’ll be honest and say I got it as a Christmas present from my Dad and it’s currently setup in his spare room (aka my room!) and not in my house. As such it’s not yet been used with my Pioneer amp + Kef speakers so I’ve not been able to test the reports of audio sync with external receivers. It does look good with blu-rays mind. No problems and very happy other than the display looks like it’s not in native resolution when driven from the HTPC. Still can’t tell if it’s the TV or the PC.
Mine has arrived and is now sitting on the floor next to me at work. Can’t wait until I get home and try it out.
What made me pick the Samsung is that reviews reported lower latency which should be helpful for gaming, as it will be my PS3/Xbox TV. I also looked at the equivalent Sony, which seemed to review slightly better on subjective image quality. But reports on its game lag were less convincing.
Just had first light on the TV… but can’t answer original question due to lack of suitable cables. I did quickly plug a PC into the VGA input, and after auto-adjust that looks pretty good. I could see the whole desktop at 1920x1080. Not pixel perfect on text, but that might be due to non-optimised cleartype settings. Rest looked good. I need to food myself before trying to put it in place, and connecting it up to the consoles and cable TV box.
Side note: legacy connections are not generous… one composite, one component, one scart. No s-video or DVI, although with the right cable the latter can go through one of the 4 HDMI inputs.
So does the 2nd issue of desktop image quality still stand? I’ve also skim-RTFM and am a quick wiring away from connecting a PC to it via DVI-HDMI so I could have another go.
Haven’t used it seriously yet. Seems to look ok with a cable TV box over scart. As well as can be expected with low-def source on 40 inches! Still playing about with the settings to optimise it further. Xbox looks good on it too in 1080p. Haven’t plugged in the PS3 yet for a more before and after comparison, and also looking forward to checking out my blu-rays. Both of them.
Got a bigger re-wiring job on the weekend I think… no idea what’s connected to what any more, and at this point I might retire the LD player and VHS
My only very minor annoyance is the TV plays a little tune when you turn it on or off. Don’t see a way to turn that off yet…
I think I might have found it… connected the TV to a computer with a DVI to HDMI cable. That gave issue #1 which I then fixed in the same way as you did by selecting fit.
Next I created a wallpaper 8x8 alternating pixels black and white. Set that as tiled wallpaper. It was perfect. 1:1 black and white pixel mapping. Trying other modes out of interest gave a moire from scaling. Back to the correct mode. Text still didn’t look… right. It looked like a halo around contrast areas. Browsing through the menus I found turning sharpness from default value of 50 down to zero got rid of that haloing. It then looks like what you expect from a monitor. So if that is what your problem is, that’s the solution.
[QUOTE=mackerel;457699]I think I might have found it… connected the TV to a computer with a DVI to HDMI cable. That gave issue #1 which I then fixed in the same way as you did by selecting fit.
Next I created a wallpaper 8x8 alternating pixels black and white. Set that as tiled wallpaper. It was perfect. 1:1 black and white pixel mapping. Trying other modes out of interest gave a moire from scaling. Back to the correct mode. Text still didn’t look… right. It looked like a halo around contrast areas. Browsing through the menus I found turning sharpness from default value of 50 down to zero got rid of that haloing. It then looks like what you expect from a monitor. So if that is what your problem is, that’s the solution.[/QUOTE]
I owe you a pint!! looks perfect now. Total legend mate thanks!!
Nice to know that worked. I’m guessing the TV defaults are set for uses other than what we may expect. Think it may take some time to optimise all the settings for each use.
Got round to connecting up the PS3 to new TV. Default settings really sucked! Whites were clipped, and dark areas were too dark. Backed off on the contrast, brightness and backlight levels helps a lot, but I’m still not quite happy. Will fiddle more tomorrow. Wonder if there is a real difference there as the Xbox looked ok as is, but there might be a content difference too.
The sound of the TV is pretty good, which is surprising as I don’t even know where the speakers on it are. They’re not visible from the front at least, and generally sounds rich and well balanced. Not quite Hi-Fi great, but for a flat panel TV it exceeds expectations. Now I have to decide if I still want to use my surround amp. My old TV sounds very flat in comparison.
What can be a plus and negative, the TV doesn’t seem to do auto channel swapping. If the current input goes inactive, it just sits there rather than switch to the next active input. This is both good and bad as I often flick between gaming and cable box, but at times I don’t like the cable box grabbing the input on the old unit. I think this will just take a little getting used to working differently.
my Sony has all these options, but has some preset profiles for whatever it is your watching, and in a few buttons they really do make a difference. The most notable is the games, when watching TV we leave it to auto most of the time, but watching football definately needs a switch to the “Sports” setting, I don’t know what it does but it does crispen up the tv. For ease of use, I just use the presets, but now you have me wondering about making up some test images to have a little tinker. At the end of the day, there’s always the factory reset!!
I just remembered, I had set the PS3 to output a deeper black level which looked great on the old set. That might make it look different from the Xbox default. The Samsung has a bunch of presets too, but I’m a kinda believer that I only need one setting. I’m treating the TV like a monitor, it primarily needs adjusting to give the full dynamic range at a comfortable viewing brightness. The only gotcha I now need to look out for are local area adjusts of which sharpening and local contrast are two. They may help in some situations, but having a linear relationship with no “enhancement” processing is always a safe bet.
Better still they managed to stop XBMC from playing .iso and .mkv files. I removed CCC and they started working again. Strange.
