PC to TV DVI to HDMI signal issues

[GokuuSon]

I know this type of question has probably been asked about a million times on this forum, however I think my issue is a bit unique. I used to have a Toshiba REGZA 32" LCD and had the PC connected to it via DVI to HDMI and it worked fine, after some fiddling. The Toshiba recently broke down and I had to get a new TV, which wound up being a Panasonic Viera 32" LCD... picture wise the TV is amazing, but a bit lacking in the inputs department compared to the Toshiba.

Anyway, when I tried connecting the PC to the TV this time, I had it detected no problem, though the image was screwed up so I played with some settings and accidentally lost picture via the DVI-HDMI cable. I decided to go with the other connection and went VGA cord from PC to TV and got that working somewhat, still with some minor issues.

To make a long story short, I eventually figured out my problem with the DVI-HDMI cable and actually got the image to display, but a curious issue arose. Anytime I switched inputs and went back to the DVI-HDMI input, there would be no signal until I unplugged the HDMI and plugged it back in. I've tried to figure out whether it's the TV's fault, the PC's fault, or the cable's fault (the cable has been used for a while now, so a possibility). It worked at first with the TV, so I tried resetting the settings to factory defaults and that didn't fix the issue. I also tried plugging into a different HDMI slot on the TV, that also didn't help. So I've ruled out the TV as the problem. Now the question is whether it's the PC's fault or the cable's... I'm waiting on a new cable to arrive so that I can test it out, but I'd like to hear if anyone has any ideas on what's going on. I do have a lower end ATI video card with a DVI and VGA output.

Well, hope to hear from the community. Thanks all. I'll post an update on when the new cable arrives.

[waynewright3884]

Have you found a solution to this issue yet?
I am having the exact same problem with a 46" Phillips LCD and a Radeon X300SE card. Its very frustrating! I did find that changing the settings in the Video Display properties or changing to a diferent profile in the Catalyst Control Panel will cause it to come back without physically unhooking the cable.

I'm sure it must be something to do with the cards output since we are using two differnent LCD screens.

Thanks.

[GokuuSon]

I did manage to fix the problem, but I think it had me going back and reverting my video card drivers to as old as they got and then downloading the newest available to be able to reset the resolution properly. The basic issue most likely wound up being that I had screwed up some setting on the video card, as it was definitely the video card that had an issue realizing that it needed to be displayed.

I will say this though, my tv still never displays the boot up process, the picture comes up only after the windows login screen comes up.

But yeah, I would try resetting your video card drivers as the first and foremost fix. Let me know if it works out for you.

[cambridge7579]

I have the same problem, and cannot find the answer. Change to a new HDMI cable did not fix the problem.

For my case, HDMI-1 and HDMI-2 have the problem, and HDMI-3 and HDMI-4 works fine. But recently, HDMI-3 have same problem, and HDMI-4 still working.

So I think it looks like HDTV problem

[GokuuSon]

First off if you could, tell me what kind of video card you have. Secondly, please tell me whether your video card has a direct HDMI output or if you have to use a conversion cable such as DVI-HDMI.

I've found that it usually isn't the television's issue, it is in fact the video card's issue. As I've said in a previous post, I actually needed to revert my video card drivers to an earlier version for the output to work without issues. It seems to me that there is some issues of compatibility between ATI Catalyst newest drivers with the DVI-HDMI output. If your card is some other brand, then there could be other issues at work. Hopefully some of this can be helpful to you. Let me know if anything comes of this.

[cambridge7579]

It is Integrated ATI Radeon HD3200 Graphics with direct HDMI output (No DVI-HDMI). From display setting, it is ATI Catalyst.

Do you fix the problem with video card driver rollback? Which ATI driver version are you using?

[GokuuSon]

Currently, I went back to the earliest Catalyst driver available and haven't really tried updating it to any newer versions to see where it all goes wrong. If you want to test it out, try going back to the earliest driver and see if that works and then try updating to the next one on the list... I'm sure eventually you'll hit the incompatibility issue with Catalyst.

Another random question I have is, do you use the VGA on your video card for anything or is the HDMI the only output you have going out?

[redwudz]

I will say this though, my tv still never displays the boot up process, the picture comes up only after the windows login screen comes up.

Probably because your video card drivers aren't loaded till then and it's using the generic Windows drivers which may be lores 800 X 600. With HDMI you are also dealing with HDCP issues. I use the latest ATI drivers with my DVI>HDMI with no problems. (ATI HD3870) The Catalyst drivers and setup can be a pain at times, though.

Here's one guide for working with ATI cards: http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html

[GokuuSon]

Thanks for the tip redwudz. I was only thinking that it wasn't being displayed because the current TV doesn't support that initial resolution or something. Because with my old Toshiba, I could see bootup with no issues.

I'll check out the guide when I get home and see if I can't do something with it.

[cambridge7579]

I downloaded the latest driver from AMD, no lucky. Rollb back ati driver to old version is too much risky for me.

Finally, I downloaded HDMIOn.exe, and asign it with a hotkey. This partly fix the problem. See link
http://thydzik.com/hdmion-a-solution-to-loss-of-dvi-video-epid-signal-on-hd-tvs/

As it said, it caused by HDMI EDID.

Some guy said that disable an ATI service can fix the problem, but I cannot see the service from my service list. My video card is integrited in Mother Board.

[surfmonkee]

this worked for me, assuming you have the drivers for the video card installed and up to date:


Start - Run - Services.msc
Right click on 'Ati External Event Utility' and select properties
Change 'Startup Type' to Disabled. Press OK
Reboot

www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=997183

[pandy]

http://sklep.elbox.com/cgibin/shop?show=3IHDMI&sort=id&sid=4a8352d0

Buy this it is HDMI cable with additional uP/uC that solve common problems with HDMI handshaking - there is many problem with so called interoperability - page is in Polish but seems that they have also shop in English but HDMI product are not listed on English version - contact them with email and ask about iHDMI cables.

Eng. version

http://www.shop.elbox.com/

This cable work due of plenty problems with some DTV STB and many TV on Polish market so they "invent" some "digital glue" between TV and STB

OR

You can change firmware in TV (contact service and describe issue - give them clear info that this is related to the new TV)

[redwudz]

Just for information, a Google translation of that Polish site which lists information about the referenced cables: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://ihdmi.pl/&ei=jLFMS9_zBY-msw...%3Den%26sa%3DG