More HDTV woes

[jphhughes]

I recently purchased a evga Nvidia 7950GT with the hopes of getting better quality video. I have a Panasonic PlasmaTH=50PX60u which as two HDMI commections. HDMI one is connected to the cable box DVR and works fine. I'm using a HDMI to HDMI cable. The HDMI second connection on the TV is connected to the video card using a DVI-I to HDMI cable. I am getting no picture at all. The Panny manual says to connect the HDMI2 connection for a DVI connection which I have done. I specifically went with the 7950 because it is DHCP enabled and I believe the Panny required this. So does anyone have an Idea why I am not getting a picture panny? If I connect the Video card via Component cable everything works and using the provided DVI to Vga adapter works with my analog monitor. I am using the 93.71 Nvidia Driver Thanks

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jphhughes

I recently purchased a evga Nvidia 7950GT with the hopes of getting better quality video. I have a Panasonic PlasmaTH=50PX60u which as two HDMI commections. HDMI one is connected to the cable box DVR and works fine. I'm using a HDMI to HDMI cable. The HDMI second connection on the TV is connected to the video card using a DVI-I to HDMI cable. I am getting no picture at all. The Panny manual says to connect the HDMI2 connection for a DVI connection which I have done. I specifically went with the 7950 because it is DHCP enabled and I believe the Panny required this.

Nope, displays can be capable of HDCP or not, but they cannot require it. Only sources (HD DVD/Blu-ray players, cable/sat boxes, PCs) can require HDCP.

So does anyone have an Idea why I am not getting a picture panny? If I connect the Video card via Component cable everything works and using the provided DVI to Vga adapter works with my analog monitor. I am using the 93.71 Nvidia Driver Thanks

Does the card detect the display? If so, what resolution do you have selected?

[jphhughes]

No the card does not detect the display. When I restarted the Pc it did not detect the TV only the Analog Monitor. I tried using the Nvidia driver software to force the Tv display but that did not work either. My only suspecion is possiblythe cable although I had used the cable with a SA4200HD box whihc worked. I have since given that box back and replaced it would SA8300HD DVr. Also I previously had an Nvidia 6600 withe a DVI-I port and that did not work either. So at that point I though that the Panny needed an HDCP enabled card.

[jphhughes]

Could the cable be the problem here. The connectors on the Video Card are DVI-I. THe cable I am using is a HDMI to DVI-D conversion Link(http://www.firefold.com/ProductInfo....DMIDVI-10-BLK). As best as I can determine a DVI-D should work with a DVI-I connector.

edit: I also contacted Panasonic through their live chat service deal. They did advise the following after I asked them about it: "Our Plasma Displays do use a High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) System. It is possible that this may be connected to the issue you are experiencing; although, you should be seeing an error message concerning this." Not sure what if any impact this might have.

[mattdcknsn]

Originally Posted by jphhughes

As best as I can determine a DVI-D should work with a DVI-I connector.

A DVI-D cable will work with a DVI-I (computer) connection. This is how I am setup at home.

If you are running this with another monitor hooked up via VGA then you might want to boot it up without this connected. There might be some overriding on the video card itself?

[jphhughes]

Originally Posted by mattdcknsn

A DVI-D cable will work with a DVI-I (computer) connection. This is how I am setup at home.

If you are running this with another monitor hooked up via VGA then you might want to boot it up without this connected. There might be some overriding on the video card itself?

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I tried that but will give it another try. By the way I see your have an Nvidia 7600 card do you have this connected with a VGA analog Monitor and a DVI connection? regards

[mattdcknsn]

I am using a DVI-D cable from video card to TV (no monitor). My tv is too old for HDMI. I just have a regular DVI cable purchased for TV use.

The cables are the same between DVI-I and DVI-D, the only difference is that DVI-I has analog as well as digital pins (I=integrated), on the DVI-I cable there are 4 pins, 2 above and 2 below the horizontal bar which carry analog signals. The DVI-D cables dont have those pins so its only digital.

This webpage has a good detail of the differences,
http://www.datapro.net/techinfo/dvi_info.html#Page05
Where it says "DVI Connector Guide"

[malore]

jphhughes, here is a thread from someone else that had problems setting up a panasonic HDTV. It seemed like he got it working more by accident than anything else, but some of the suggestions might help.

[jphhughes]

malore thanks for the thread. That's exactly the same problem I am having. Unfortunately I have not had a positive accident as yet. I have sent sabre a pm to see if he has any additional information that might help.

[jphhughes]

Well I just received this replay from customer support at EVGA

"Answered By Jason P (3/27/2007 10:03:07 AM): The only supported method of connecting the card to a TV is through the component connection supplied with the card. The DVI connection is not designed to interface between the card and a TV. The HDCP is supported through the card, but Nvidia's drivers does not support the transfer between DVI to HDMI. If you any questions, please contact us. EVGA Customer Support"

I find this hard to believe but have no way to argue the point.

[stanger89]

They just don't want to support it. The card can't tell if it's connected to a TV or a monitor, and the TV can't tell if it's connected to a PC or a CE device.

[jphhughes]

Originally Posted by stanger89

They just don't want to support it. The card can't tell if it's connected to a TV or a monitor, and the TV can't tell if it's connected to a PC or a CE device.

You are pretty close to being right on the money. As it turn out the problem was a crimped pin in the DVI connection. I pulled the PC out of its rack and started checking various connectiona . So it was my bad. But it also shows that you don't take the"experts" word as gospel. Thanks everyone for your help.

[jphhughes]

This is a second reply from eVGA support after I argued their first response.

"Unfortunately the nVIDIA drivers don’t support using a DVI to HDMI connection because of the way it has to convert the signal. It creates overscan/underscan issues with displaying through HDMI. Does the computer have a DVI or VGA port? As I know HDMI gives higher resolution I would suggest if possible using a direct DVI to DVI or DVI to VGA connection on your TV or using the component. If you just recently purchased the card and wish to get a card that does support DVI to HDMI, contact the vendor which you purchased on that matter."

Now that I corrected the connector problem. It work just fine. But I'm not going to tell them that.

[stanger89]

Guess we shouldn't tell them it worked perfectly out of the box on my 6800/IN76 too

Just curious, did it autodetect/configure everything for you once you got the pins figured out?

[jphhughes]

Well, because I had previously forced the configuration I decided to run the monitor wizard and that did automatically configure both displays and did show the Panasonic as a digital device. One point though under the nvidia controal panel setting it showed the Monitor as Panasonic but the connection type box was grayed out. I was hoping that it would have showed HDMI. Perhaps now that the physical connection is wokring I should remove and reinstall the driver?

[stanger89]

I think that might only apply to analog displays.