Fix My HD-Out on My Graphics Card

May 14, 2006 12:43 PM

I just bought a new graphics card. The only thing I need it to do is to output my computer display to a television. To this effect, the card has three output options: (1) RCA, (2) S-video, (3) HD (red, blue and green cord). The first two options work great. The third, which is the one I'm really jonesing for, doesn't. What appears on the TV through the HD-out is all wonky and strange -- I can sort of make out stuff, but just barely. Any ideas as to how to get this up and running? I'm on XP (Home Edition), and here is the TV I'm using.
posted by JPowers to technology (8 comments total)

Can't help with any specifics, but be sure that you have the 3 component video cables connected exactly right. Double-check the colors, and the signal component type used by that color cable. Otherwise you get wonky strange results.
posted by omnidrew at 12:50 PM on May 14, 2006

There's two ways of sending a signal over component video cables -- RGB and Y/Cb/Cr (aka Y/Pb/Pr).

You TV probably only supports Y/Cb/Cr (or is set to operate in that mode), while your video card is sending it a RGB signal (or perhaps the reverse).

Check the settings for both your graphics card and your TV to make sure that the agree on the signal format. (And if they both support both RGB and Y/Cb/Cr, use RGB, it's higher quality.)
posted by nmiell at 1:01 PM on May 14, 2006

What kind of card? NVidia totally screwed up the component out on a few releases of their drivers in the last year or so, so there is a good chance that the drivers on the CD that shipped with the card are screwy.

Go to Nvidia.com and download the latest windows XP drivers. Last I checked, they fixed the issue, unless NVidia has broken things again.
posted by Good Brain at 1:11 PM on May 14, 2006

Sorry, missed the link to the card. Definitely download the latest drivers, if you haven't already.
posted by Good Brain at 1:12 PM on May 14, 2006

Make sure you are broadcasting a signal that your monitor can understand. If you have a CRT tube, it's a 1080i signal, otherwise newer flat TV's are 720p. 1080i can also broadcast into 540p. Download the newest Nvidia drivers and run the HDTV setup wizard by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting properties -> the settings tab -> advanced -> Nvidia Tab -> Display Settings for your HDTV.
posted by SweetJesus at 1:46 PM on May 14, 2006

To add to what SJ is saying, it looks like that TV explicitly does NOT support 720p... you can use only 480p and 1080i. So be sure you have configured the NVidia wizard with that information.
posted by Malor at 3:27 PM on May 14, 2006

If the card was sending a format that the TV didn't understand (ie, was sending 720p to a TV that only did 1080i/480p), would there actually be a semi-legible picture? Or wouldn't it just be noise/trash?
posted by Dunwitty at 4:24 PM on May 14, 2006

Is the picture stationary or rolling around? Can you describe "messed up"? Is it in colour? Are the colours correct? (etc)

From a quick scan of the manual it looks like an all-analog CRT TV, so my guess is that it would either roll or be stationary but physically distorted, but either way sharp and colourful.
posted by cillit bang at 4:44 PM on May 14, 2006