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Plasma and PB don't play well?

P

photoman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 30, 2005
14
0
We have recently finished our basement and placed a Pioneer Plasma 43" HDTV screen on the wall. It runs natively at 1280x768. When using a DVI to HDMI adaptor directly into the TV's processing module the screen is distored and mis aligned. When being driving on a smaller resoultion it goes to the upper left hand corner in it's respective size. The computer is a 1.33ghz 12inch Powerbook with a NVIDIA GeForce FX
Go5200 (64MB DDR). Is this a driver problem with hopes of being fixed in 10.3.8 or am i out of luck. Pictures will be posted shortly.
 
Specs

The TV is a Pioneer PDP-4340HD with media reciever. The input from the computer is under the Tv's Input 3 HDMI plug with a HDMI-DVI cable running into the 12 inch powerbook with a DVI to mini DVI adaptor. This is the only cable running into that input number. And when run into the VGA port on the front of the Media reciever the image is good but not... digital as desiered. Got a $6,000 dollar digital display ... I want to use it. :(

EDIT: Pictures are belayed a day as I left my mini dvi adaptor with the adc convertor at the office.
 
photoman said:
The TV is a Pioneer PDP-4340HD with media reciever. The input from the computer is under the Tv's Input 3 HDMI plug with a HDMI-DVI cable running into the 12 inch powerbook with a DVI to mini DVI adaptor. This is the only cable running into that input number. And when run into the VGA port on the front of the Media reciever the image is good but not... digital as desiered. Got a $6,000 dollar digital display ... I want to use it. :(

EDIT: Pictures are belayed a day as I left my mini dvi adaptor with the adc convertor at the office.
Click to expand...
Not all HDMI is equal. Specifically, some TVs that have HDMI inputs have a notation in the docs that tell you that HDMI from a computer may not be supported... my Sony TV in my bedroom works this way. I could connect my HD cable box via HDMI, but not a computer.

You might want to check the docs for your TV and make sure there are no restrictions regarding the use of HDMI from a non-TV source (i.e., a computer).
 
Maunal

I sit here with th HDMI maunal for my tv... "PC signals are out of correspondence". :mad: BUT if my memory serves me right we tried this on an 15inch powerbook 1.5 with the ati radeon 9700 with 128mb ram and it WORKED with correct screen placement... I am confused :mad:
 
I dont know what to do but I had to comment on your tv. Your whole setup there looks so nice with the tv just hanging on the wall. I should get me one of those :rolleyes:
 
photoman said:
I sit here with th HDMI maunal for my tv... "PC signals are out of correspondence". :mad: BUT if my memory serves me right we tried this on an 15inch powerbook 1.5 with the ati radeon 9700 with 128mb ram and it WORKED with correct screen placement... I am confused :mad:
Click to expand...
So the TV's manual says this shouldn't work, but it DID work with a different computer?

In my experience, that means you got lucky; if something works and it's not supposed to, you can't always expect that luck to hold out if you change anything. Or, it's possible that the DVI-to-HDMI conversion worked differently with the other machine... they are using different video cards, for example.
 
Displayconfigx

You could try using DisplayConfigX, I had a problem connecting my 23" widescreen to my Cube (it wouldn't recognise widescreen), and after a lot of playing around I got it working.

http://voodoofx.all.de/displayconfigx/

Hope you get it sorted, and nice set up by the way.
 
dude its an easy one.. I've had the same problem with my 12" powerbook + 42" LG plasma. You've gotta set the frequency to 100hz on the output. Well that should work, im not sure about the frequency settings in the US (i'm in Australia) but when I first hooked up my PC/Ibook to the plasma it would come out all distorted until I set the resolutions on the pc/ibook to be the right pixels at the right frequency.

edit- just as a starter try going 848x480 (Standard definition widescreen) @ 100hz and work your way up. Just saw the link you posted and thats the exact problem I was having.
 
Thanks

Just got home but have'nt had a chance to try it yet though. As for the set up you would have no idea how much trouble it was to get that working with no visible wires.. We had to purchase a 30ft extension cable for the screen to the media reciever and have it be able to fit in with the condiut for the 7:1 Bose Surround Sound (I know Bose does not offer 7:1 surround.... we proved them wrong that it would "ignite" thier speakers) .... aka dry wall barely fit. it was nerve racking but well worth the effort..
 
photoman said:
Just got home but have'nt had a chance to try it yet though. As for the set up you would have no idea how much trouble it was to get that working with no visible wires.. We had to purchase a 30ft extension cable for the screen to the media reciever and have it be able to fit in with the condiut for the 7:1 Bose Surround Sound (I know Bose does not offer 7:1 surround.... we proved them wrong that it would "ignite" thier speakers) .... aka dry wall barely fit. it was nerve racking but well worth the effort..
Click to expand...
Hey, it could be worse. For my home theatre* (plasma TV and speakers in living room, all other gear in media closet in my office), it took two guys a WEEK to run all of my wires behind the walls... and they had to cut and patch drywall, since my building's built like an office building, steel and concrete slab and columns.

But there aren't any wires showing. :)

* I'll post the complete specs if anyone's interested.
 
Alright Display ConfigX is pointless as for any HDTV resolutions you have to buy it... and i am not going to buy it if i can't even see if it works for what i need it to in the first place. BUT i dragged my dual 1ghz MDD downstairs and plugged it in today..... and drum roll...... it WORKED ati 9000. worked... but one LARGE issue. the video inputs do not support triming. so i can't squeeze the image to not have bits cut off at the edges. Only the VGA port of the front of the reciever does. So... i think their is no hope. for dvi at least. Though i broke down and had to play some Unreal 2004 through VGA it's pretty wild on a screen that big. Thanks everybody for your help.
 
TV's use retangular pixels, computers use square pixels...

From that, if the TV is 1920x1080 you need to set the computer to 1920x1200 to fill it correctly... It makes up for the pixel size difference.

Now since it worked on a pc and not on the mac, i dunno if that is gonna help much... my guess is the pc figures this size difference out automatically... but it works over here with the 1080i back projection.
 
Lol I like the power mac mistaken as a PC. The Desktop was a Dual 1ghz MDD Powermac G4 i think it relies more on the graphic chips and lack of adapters than anything else. Thanks for the hint but i refuse to buy Display ConfigX till i know i can trim this puppy right.
 
photoman said:
Lol I like the power mac mistaken as a PC. The Desktop was a Dual 1ghz MDD Powermac G4 i think it relies more on the graphic chips and lack of adapters than anything else. Thanks for the hint but i refuse to buy Display ConfigX till i know i can trim this puppy right.
Click to expand...

lol... thats what i get for reading things to quick :p
 
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