TV out Displays everything except the actual Film

[SIMES]

Hi

Wonder if anyone has come across this issue..

I have run a damm long s-video cable from the TV out on my Radeon 9700 pro to my TV.

All seemed fine, I plugged it and voila up came the windows desktop on my tv, all fine, everything showed up, so I downloaded realplayer and started up an an avi, but strangely, the avi does not show?

It shows fine on the actual monitor, and everything else is visible on the TV, I can see realplayer , but where the film should be there is just a black square, no video showing.

Doesn't matter whether i go full screen or in a skin , doesn't matter whether I use Realplayer, or Windows media player, both show fine on the montitor, but just don't appear on the tv..

I then loaded powerDVD and played a normal DVD< and that works fine, shows on my TV screen and on the monitor.

The codecs are all installed but that's a moot point obviously as the avi's play fine on the monitor anyway...

Anyone any ideas?

Not that i doubt this is relevant but

P4 2.8g
1 gb ram
RAdeon 9700 Pro
Real player/Media Player
Sony tv

Help.. I need somebody, help, not just anybody....... etc, etc

[mazinz]

i had the same problem with the same radeon card. I use media player classic and in the options i believe i had to uncheck "direct draw: or direct diplay and this fixed the problem.
Pretty much whatever media player i used (ex quicktime) in that player i know i had to uncheck something that had to do with overlays.

[Gazorgan]

TV out is treated and second monitor. Direct-X doesnt' do second monitors. If you switch primary/#2 it will work fine.

You can also fiddle with a windowed player that's nearly full screen, that usually works, just not full screen. Disabling any Direct-X display will also work (you need a player that can use something else than direct-x drivers). WMP Classic can usually fake it.

[pixel]

Its because media player is set to display the video for the refresh rate of your monitor.

If you are wanting to use the current media player to play the files on your TV, you need to set the TV as the main display, and the videos will play on your TV, but you will end up with the black box instead of the video on your monitor.

To do this you right-click on the desktop, go to properties, go to settings tab, click advanced, and go to the displays tab (if you have the ATI control panel software installed). You then click on the box with the 2 circles in it beside the TV, and check the box with the two monitor shapes in it for the monitor. This sets the TV as the main display, and the monitor as a duplicate.

[SIMES]

Its because media player is set to display the video for the refresh rate of your monitor.

If you are wanting to use the current media player to play the files on your TV, you need to set the TV as the main display, and the videos will play on your TV, but you will end up with the black box instead of the video on your monitor.

To do this you right-click on the desktop, go to properties, go to settings tab, click advanced, and go to the displays tab (if you have the ATI control panel software installed). You then click on the box with the 2 circles in it beside the TV, and check the box with the two monitor shapes in it for the monitor. This sets the TV as the main display, and the monitor as a duplicate.

God Bless the Internet and all who Sail In her!!!

I've been mucking around with this for 2 hours and 5 minutes after I post the question it's resolved - to damm clicks!!

Thanks very much for your time.
SIMES

[pixel]

Just glad I could help.

[SIMES]

Just glad I could help.

Yah, you really did. Very chuffed, I can now watch films on my 42" projector tv in the comfort of my living room instead of on 19" monitor in my office!!

The pic quality from the avi divx is actually fine on the tv as well, not brilliant but not bad.

Maybe you can help with another issue..

Is there a max res on tv out? In advanced it shows my TV as 1024x768 and I can't set it any higher (the option is simply not there) , my card supports like 2000x1800 on the monitor, presumably this is just a limitation of tv out?

Also, is it possible using clone to have my monitor set to one resolution ie, 1600x1200 but the tv at it's (supposedly ) max resolution of 1024x768

Right now, I have to set the monitor the same as the tv at 1024x768 because otherwise I only get half the picture visible on the tv.

I realise, that I am using 'clone' so I guess it does just that 'clone' the monitor image, but is there no such thing as an 'intellegent' clone, that clones the image but displays it at the res the tv is capbale of both rather than trying to use the monitor res?

Did that waffle make sence? It's not a major big deal as I guess I can just keep setting it back to the high res each time, after watching a film, but it means I have to re-arrange all my damm icons each time.

SIMES

[monzie]

Hi.

OK the original problem is due to the 'Overlay' (contrast, brightness, hue, gamma etc.) that is used by Windows to play video files. When windows detects a video file being played it uses Overlay. As already said the overlay is ONLY available on one monitor (or TV) at a time, which is why you have to make the TV the Primary monitor (so it gets the overlay), no overlay=no visible picture.

But you CAN get the video file playing on BOTH screens by enabling the CLONE options in Display Properties.

1) Go into Display Properties>Settings>Advanced>Displays and first of make the PC monitor the Primary Display and the TV the Secondary display, APPLY the changes (and make sure the TV is on and connected). Now set the TV (again in Displays) output to your telly's requirements (either PAL (UK/Europe) or NTSC), again APPLY the changes.

2) Now go to the OVERLAY tab and at the bottom (ignore the pop up info) select the CLONE mode options. When in these additional options select THEATRE (THEATER) mode, Full Screen (or same as source, see later) and your tellys aspect ratio (but even on widescreen TV's keeping 4:3 is sometimes better......you can always use the TV's zoom features), APPLY the changes.

3) What you have now achieved is a hardware (gfx card) derived Overlay (not Windows) for the Secondary monitor (the TV). Play an avi and you will have it on both screens (if you've followed my instructions).

4) Now, depending on you vid files you might not like what you see in Full Screen mode on the TV (eg nasty black bars for non 4:3 ratio files) so use something like Zoomplayer or the Core Media Player to zoom the height and width independently to fill the TV screen (use Same as Source in Clone Options).

5) Now that you have a full screen picture on the TV AND on your monitor you can now use the pc for other things at the same time (without the pc monitor having to play full screen video... or visible at all), bloody useful if the kids want to watch something whilst you get on with some serious work...

As for TV resolutions...........a COMMON MISTAKE is to assume that the info on the TV tab is for the OUTPUT to the TV, it's not. It is the INPUT to be processed (usually the desktop res) and converted to either 576 @ 50hz lines (PAL) or 480 lines @ 60hz (NTSC), as set earlier. Normal TV's CANNOT take higher resolutions. Think of a DVD (PAL 720 X 576) that is the maximum a PAL TV (excluding non-visible overscan) can display going higher would be pointless (less on NTSC) you would get LESS picture on the TV (as you have already found out....)

So follow the instructions and use something like Zplayer or TCMP for avi's and/or a software DVD player for DVD's, resize on the pc to get the TV picture 'just right' (no bars)!!

S'pose the audio's going to be your next question as watching TV with a sound stage for the PC is SOOOOOOOOooooo annoying (depending on the position of your pc/speakers to the TV)?!!!!

HTH

PS. TV-out is king (silly little monitors)!

[SIMES]

Hi.

OK the original problem is due to the 'Overlay' (contrast, brightness, hue, gamma etc.) that is used by Windows to play video files. When windows detects a video file being played it uses Overlay. As already said the overlay is ONLY available on one monitor (or TV) at a time, which is why you have to make the TV the Primary monitor (so it gets the overlay), no overlay=no visible picture.

But you CAN get the video file playing on BOTH screens by enabling the CLONE options in Display Properties.

1) Go into Display Properties>Settings>Advanced>Displays and first of make the PC monitor the Primary Display and the TV the Secondary display, APPLY the changes (and make sure the TV is on and connected). Now set the TV (again in Displays) output to your telly's requirements (either PAL (UK/Europe) or NTSC), again APPLY the changes.

2) Now go to the OVERLAY tab and at the bottom (ignore the pop up info) select the CLONE mode options. When in these additional options select THEATRE (THEATER) mode, Full Screen (or same as source, see later) and your tellys aspect ratio (but even on widescreen TV's keeping 4:3 is sometimes better......you can always use the TV's zoom features), APPLY the changes.

3) What you have now achieved is a hardware (gfx card) derived Overlay (not Windows) for the Secondary monitor (the TV). Play an avi and you will have it on both screens (if you've followed my instructions).

4) Now, depending on you vid files you might not like what you see in Full Screen mode on the TV (eg nasty black bars for non 4:3 ratio files) so use something like Zoomplayer or the Core Media Player to zoom the height and width independently to fill the TV screen (use Same as Source in Clone Options).

5) Now that you have a full screen picture on the TV AND on your monitor you can now use the pc for other things at the same time (without the pc monitor having to play full screen video... or visible at all), bloody useful if the kids want to watch something whilst you get on with some serious work...

As for TV resolutions...........a COMMON MISTAKE is to assume that the info on the TV tab is for the OUTPUT to the TV, it's not. It is the INPUT to be processed (usually the desktop res) and converted to either 576 @ 50hz lines (PAL) or 480 lines @ 60hz (NTSC), as set earlier. Normal TV's CANNOT take higher resolutions. Think of a DVD (PAL 720 X 576) that is the maximum a PAL TV (excluding non-visible overscan) can display going higher would be pointless (less on NTSC) you would get LESS picture on the TV (as you have already found out....)

So follow the instructions and use something like Zplayer or TCMP for avi's and/or a software DVD player for DVD's, resize on the pc to get the TV picture 'just right' (no bars)!!

S'pose the audio's going to be your next question as watching TV with a sound stage for the PC is SOOOOOOOOooooo annoying (depending on the position of your pc/speakers to the TV)?!!!!

HTH

PS. TV-out is king (silly little monitors)!

Aha, good stuf, yes, now I don't have to keep changing the res on my monitor, AND i can see the video on both screens concurrently.

Re the sound, that's not an issue as I also run a cable from my audigy 2 out to the tv sound in/left/right on the TV so that's all covered, I spose if I was gettng really flash I could plug that into my amp, but not sure if divx avi's etc, support 5.1, but no matter it's fine in stereo.

Only one more question as I see it, I am not getting any 'black bars' aside from top and bottom which I expected as I have a 4:3 tv and the video is obviously widescreen, but what I am getting is not quite the whole picture visible on my tv as I can see on my monitor, It's not a lot, I would guestimate, I am losing around 5% on each side, so I don't quite get the full image on the tv.

Is this something I should try the Zoomplayer for? ps What is core Media Player?

Cheers
SIMES

[pixel]

Thanks for your help monzie.

At least I now also know how to set it up to have the video playing on both displays as well.

[medievil]

Thanks for your help monzie.

At least I now also know how to set it up to have the video playing on both displays as well.

Overscan, you lose about 5% of the picture on all tv's due to overscan. It's normal. For instance If you have a DirecTV system (Can't say for non US DSS systems as I am in the US) and Capture from it, You will get the full screen res. You will noting that around the outer edge of the screen the quality is terrible. IT's because Dtv knows that tv's overscan and simple doesn't waste the bitrate in the stream encoding...Their hardware encoders focus the most bitrate to the center of the picture...On a tv you never see the difference cause it is hidden.

[monzie]

Yes, try the excellent Zoomplayer.... as its the doggies danglies (for tv-out work I don't think anything else comes close... except maybe TCMP). It does what it name implies........and a lot more.

The Core Media Player is also excellent...and has better audio controls (sort of a cross between Zplayer and WinAmp).... and costs less than Zplayer if you want DVD support (but both fully functional without DVD and free).

Search the Other>Tools section on this site (under Video Players) for more info.

The problem you may be experiencing with the loss on the tv image may be due to pc resolutions not being 100% the same as TV resolution and the media player you are using.
For instance 720 horizontal pixels on a TV is equal to a true 768 horizontal on a pc monitor (but there aint 768 h/pixels on a TV!). Why? Because a tellys pixels are not square. So what happens is the TV slightly strectches the image (due to the pixel shape) but then runs out of room to display the edges of the picture...hence the slight loss (if someone has a better explanation feel free to post).

So use Zoomplayer or TCMP to get the full picture.
Note: You will realize if you start changing aspects ratios etc. that odd things happen on your TV (ie vertical height adjustments also controls horizontal widths and hortizontal width adjustments also controls vertical heights)..............its all good clean fun......

HTH

[SIMES]

OK Cheers all, Will try zoomplayer, the 5% is not killing me, it's not a big issue but if I can get it 100% right, why not go for it.

Man, I wish I had gotten to grips with s-video out earlier, so much fun watching on a proper TV.

[SIMES]

Yes, try the excellent Zoomplayer.... as its the doggies danglies (for tv-out work I don't think anything else comes close... except maybe TCMP). It does what it name implies........and a lot more.

The Core Media Player is also excellent...and has better audio controls (sort of a cross between Zplayer and WinAmp).... and costs less than Zplayer if you want DVD support (but both fully functional without DVD and free).

Search the Other>Tools section on this site (under Video Players) for more info.

The problem you may be experiencing with the loss on the tv image may be due to pc resolutions not being 100% the same as TV resolution and the media player you are using.
For instance 720 horizontal pixels on a TV is equal to a true 768 horizontal on a pc monitor (but there aint 768 h/pixels on a TV!). Why? Because a tellys pixels are not square. So what happens is the TV slightly strectches the image (due to the pixel shape) but then runs out of room to display the edges of the picture...hence the slight loss (if someone has a better explanation feel free to post).

So use Zoomplayer or TCMP to get the full picture.
Note: You will realize if you start changing aspects ratios etc. that odd things happen on your TV (ie vertical height adjustments also controls horizontal widths and hortizontal width adjustments also controls vertical heights)..............its all good clean fun......

HTH

Monzie

I've installed zoomplayer, but where does it allow me to control the horizontal sizing that is output to the TV?

Cheers

[monzie]

OK

Fire up ZP and right click on the vid window, select Aspect Ratio and choose Disabled (fit to window).

On the same menu click Wheel Function (for your mouse) and choose any of the top three options (depending on what aspect you want to change), and start playing.....

Using the mouses wheel becomes sort of adictive............

Or drag the window height wise or width wise or use the keys..............

Best way of learning is just to experiment with the settings......

HTH