New ASUS M2NPV-VM / Nmedia HTPC-280BAV Build

[BruenerXII]

Nmedia HTPC-280BAV
ASUS M2NPV-VM (using onboard component VIDEO/SOUND/LAN)
Athlon 64 3200+
Crucial Rendition 1GB DDR2-667 (Part #: RM12864AA667)
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150
WD Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2
WD Caviar 80GB IDE
HP 16x DVD+-R
Logitech Cordless Desktop Ex 110
SageTV 5.0.4

Well I believe it's all working now.. But my gawd what a pain in the ass to get setup..

First problem: Could not get WinXP Pro to setup on the SATA drive. The Bios (mobo came with the latest 0405) would recognize the drive, XP Pro would do the initial install, but after the XP setup finished the first bit and restarts itself.. hangs while rebooting. The SATA2 drive that i was trying to install windows on was previously in my old HTPC and was/is set to 64k cluster size. Maybe thats why Xp would not install.. 64k clusters.. The Case has no room for a floppy so i couldnt do the F6 thing to load SATA drivers. So i went out and bought the cheapest IDE drive i could find and then XP install went without a hiccup.

Second (major) problem: GE6150 mobo, SageTV and VMR really do not like each other unless you use OLD Forceware drivers. 82.05 is what came on the mobo drivers cd. Of course i skipped that and installed the latest Forceware 91.47
BAD idea.. If i had of just stuck with 82.05 i would have saved myself hours of troubleshooting. With anything higher then 82.05 it seems the VMR gets corrupted. (there are other posts about this problem search for 6150) I Attached a couple pics to show what happens.

Third problem: with these 82.05 drivers, I cant do any resolutions higher then 640x480... 720x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 all have screwed up overscan where i loose the edges of my display. The Start button is not even visable anymore. I'll have to screw around with the timing settings, front porch, back and all that crap.. hopefully should be able to get a higher res working.

Oh yah, I got the wrong instruction book for my case, and the Driver install cd for the VFD that came with the case was cracked.. had to find that all on the net.. minor pain in the ass. Had to change my SATA drives Letter so that all my old recordings would show up and work in SageTV Recordings.

As is, it seems to be working good now, much quieter then my old HTPC (this case rocks) and the VFD is a great addition. Now i just have to figure out this LCD Smartie status display and Sage plugin for LCD Smartie and I should then be able to maybe relax and watch some TV!

I'll maybe make an update in a few days
Below are the screenshots of VMR on 8x.xx and 91.xx forceware. First one is just after turing tv on, second is after a channel change, u can still see crap from the previous channel.. its right $#@!'d lemme tell ya

[blade]

Originally Posted by BruenerXII

The SATA2 drive that i was trying to install windows on was previously in my old HTPC and was/is set to 64k cluster size.

You should never install windows on a 64k cluster drive because you're going to waste loads of space and have slower performance.

The Case has no room for a floppy so i couldnt do the F6 thing to load SATA drivers.

None of my systems have floppy drives. If I need one during setup for anything just temporarily plug one in. You don't have to install one in a case to use it.

Second (major) problem: GE6150 mobo, SageTV and VMR really do not like each other unless you use OLD Forceware drivers. 82.05 is what came on the mobo drivers cd. Of course i skipped that and installed the latest Forceware 91.47
BAD idea.. If i had of just stuck with 82.05 i would have saved myself hours of troubleshooting. With anything higher then 82.05 it seems the VMR gets corrupted. (there are other posts about this problem search for 6150) I Attached a couple pics to show what happens.

This is not a Sage issue, but an issue with the 6150 chipset. It does the same thing with other players as well.

Third problem: with these 82.05 drivers, I cant do any resolutions higher then 640x480... 720x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 all have screwed up overscan where i loose the edges of my display. The Start button is not even visable anymore. I'll have to screw around with the timing settings, front porch, back and all that crap.. hopefully should be able to get a higher res working.

You don't have to mess with timing, porch settings, etc... Nvidia has overscan adjustments in the drivers. All you do is set the resolution you want to use then go into the overscan settings and there are vertical and horizontal sliders. You adjust them so that the picture fits the screen properly and click ok. The resolution and all other settings are set automatically.

[BruenerXII]

Originally Posted by blade

You should never install windows on a 64k cluster drive because you're going to waste loads of space and have slower performance..

ahha.. but it should work?

Originally Posted by blade

None of my systems have floppy drives. If I need one during setup for anything just temporarily plug one in. You don't have to install one in a case to use it.

........ thanks for the tip Einstein but by this time i would have had to remove everything from this little case just to get a floppy plugged in.. and none of my PC's have a floppy anymore so it first would have had to go into one of them, go buy a blank, find the drivers, hope it works (no guarantee with SATA from what i've read) so i just went the safe route.. $45 for a 80GB IDE.

Originally Posted by blade

This is not a Sage issue, but an issue with the 6150 chipset. It does the same thing with other players as well..

ok, well i read a few posts that stated otherwise but ok.. Just giving people the heads up.

Originally Posted by blade

You don't have to mess with timing, porch settings, etc... Nvidia has overscan adjustments in the drivers. All you do is set the resolution you want to use then go into the overscan settings and there are vertical and horizontal sliders. You adjust them so that the picture fits the screen properly and click ok. The resolution and all other settings are set automatically.

Hmm, maybe in newer drivers.. but in 82.05 I don't see any vertical and horizontal sliders anywhere that could do this, or a overscan settings for that matter. Could you go into a little more detailed explanation on how to do this?

[blade]

Originally Posted by BruenerXII

ahha.. but it should work?

No idea, I've never tried it.

ok, well i read a few posts that stated otherwise but ok.. Just giving people the heads up.

They're wrong, it happens in WMP and other apps. Jeff said the other day they observed the problem and it was in fact an Nvidia problem.

Hmm, maybe in newer drivers.. but in 82.05 I don't see any vertical and horizontal sliders anywhere that could do this, or a overscan settings for that matter. Could you go into a little more detailed explanation on how to do this?

Yes you can, it's been in the drivers for a long time now. I know I used it back when I first set my HTPC up almost 2 years ago and I know your drivers aren't that old. I don't recall exactly where it is in the driver.

[MeInMaui]

Just a quick thought regarding the floppy drive. I haven't put floppies in my computers in years either. Any time I have drivers come on a floppy, I just hop online and go to the manufacturer's website. Ususally the drivers are available for download so I don't have to bother with the floppy at all. I'm sure there are still a few manufacturers stuck in the stone age, but so far this has always worked for me. YMMV

Aloha,
Mike

[BruenerXII]

Originally Posted by blade

Yes you can, it's been in the drivers for a long time now. I know I used it back when I first set my HTPC up almost 2 years ago and I know your drivers aren't that old. I don't recall exactly where it is in the driver.

I found the overscan settings you are talking about in the Nvidia drivers. But for some reason it is greyed out for me. I attached an image..
Is it because I am on SDTV 480i? Component? hmm damn it!

[blade]

Originally Posted by BruenerXII

I found the overscan settings you are talking about in the Nvidia drivers. But for some reason it is greyed out for me. I attached an image..
Is it because I am on SDTV 480i? Component? hmm damn it!

I just assumed you were using a HD set since you were expecting to run higher resolutions. If you're using a SD set 640*480 is the most you're going to be able to do. TVs aren't like computer monitors they have fixed resolutions.

With 640*480 (480i) you can't adjust the overscan.

[ben_95sl1]

I believe overscan is disabled on the component outputs of my 6150...atleast that's what I noticed with mine...which I thought was ridiculous. What's also ridiculous is that I can't switch between component and svid/composite outputs. If something is plugged into the component outputs, it always switches to it. It is possible to do it by manually removing the component connection, but it also requires a vga display device to set it up every time, and you need to use a mouse. For some really dumb reason the profile does not even save the info on which tv mode is to be used (HDTV or NTSC), it simply switches to the last TV mode used, not the one you tried to save in the profile!!!

I "upgraded" from a ati radeon 8500le with component adapter to the asus am2 6150 board, but they seem to have made my life worse. The ati had more settings and did everything required. Luckily, my projector accepts 720p over VGA, so I settle with switching between VGA and svideo whcih works for now. I hope the regular Nvidia graphics cards are able to easily switch between component and svideo using shortcut keys???

[mayamaniac]

on installing an OS on a 64k formatted drive, this is a bad idea and should've never been done in the first place. There are hundred of thousands of small files, less than 64k, in an OS. And with 64k being the smallest block, tons of drive space are wasted.

For the SATA/Floppy thing, you should've thought about it when putting the system together. WinXP does not support SATA drives on installation, and it does not support loading drivers from CD/DVD drives before installation, only on Floppies. This is why you have to do the F6/Floppy thing and load the drivers separately.

And blade is right, that overscan compensation feature has been in the nvidia driver for a long time, at least over a year. It seems there is something odd about the GF 6150 from the rest of the 6 series. Hopefully nvidia will fix it in future drivers or you might have to get a PCI-E video card. There are passive cooled (fanless) GF 6200 that work perfectly fine with latest nvidia driver.

On the brighter note, just be glad that Asus is an Nforce chipset, good job there.

[BruenerXII]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

And blade is right, that overscan compensation feature has been in the nvidia driver for a long time, at least over a year. It seems there is something odd about the GF 6150 from the rest of the 6 series. Hopefully nvidia will fix it in future drivers or you might have to get a PCI-E video card. There are passive cooled (fanless) GF 6200 that work perfectly fine with latest nvidia driver.

Yah it has to be a bug with the GF 6150.. because my other system with a GF 6200 AGP, using COMPONENT, with the same TV I am using now, had no problems resizing the screen to fit my TV. Of course that was with the latest 9x.xx series drivers, and I'm stuck with 82.05 on the GF 6150 because of the other VMR issue. Tomorrow (after the F1 and Nascar races) I'll create a restore point and then try the latest drivers again just to make sure.

Originally Posted by ben_95sl1

I believe overscan is disabled on the component outputs of my 6150...atleast that's what I noticed with mine...

I agree, but.. all of a sudden 720x480 works! 800x600 and 1024x768 are still screwed.. Maybe if i can find the overcan compensation settings in the registry, I can compare them to the ones in my GF 6200 system and maybe see if i can force something.

Originally Posted by jds23

You spent a lot of time and a few bucks to get 640x480, and judging by the pic you attached, it looks like that is where you are still at. Is your set capable of anything higher than 480i? What is it? Did you consider using the digital output of the HTPC, as that is really where you will actually use some of the capabilities of what you bought..?

My TV is a 27" Panasonic Flat screen capable of (just) 480i through the COMPONENT (Y Pb Pr). A new TV will be my next purchase at least my HTPC will be ready for it. My new Nmedia case was what this system was built around. I wanted that case, but its only mATX so i needed a new mobo and the M2NPV-VM was the only mATX board with an onboard GF 6150 that comes with COMPONENT out.. so.. SOLD! Plus this mobo has plenty of room for upgrade.. up to a X2 5200+, 8GB of ram, PCI Express x16.

[BruenerXII]

Update:

Nvidia Forceware 93.71 has fixed my two big issues.

1. VMR corruption is now gone!
The release notes: "Issues Resolved in Version 93.71
• GeForce 7600 GS, GeForce 6150/6100: During video playback in VMR
mode, video is corrupt and shaky when noise reduction is enabled."

But..
View a list of NVIDIA GPUs and supported PureVideo features and you will see that the 6150 isnt't even suppose to support noise reduction. So maybe that has something to do with it. Anyway.. it works now so, props to Nvidia!

2. These new 93.71 drivers, (using component out) will fit the picture to my screen at any resolution 640, 800, 1024 all work now with no over/underscan issues.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

WinXP does not support SATA drives on installation, and it does not support loading drivers from CD/DVD drives before installation, only on Floppies. This is why you have to do the F6/Floppy thing and load the drivers separately.

Really? Even if you have an XP SP2 install CD?
So MCE does allow install to SATA without needing drivers from Floppy?

(more of Bill's innovations)

[ben_95sl1]

I'm having a number of problems with this motherboard, and I have no idea why. It won't even install the sound drivers because I get a hardware not supported error everytime, and it also asks for microsoft hd audio driver files, and I have no idea where they are, or why it needs them. I'm using my chaintech av710 for now, as it works and installs easily.

Also, whenever I install new nvidia drivers, windows will not start anymore, and I need to go back to last known working config at startup screen. I sort of fixed last time by uninstalling completely and reinstalling; but the error occured the first time I installed the drivers from the asus install utility (which also failed miserably at installing the sound).

I've come across someone else with the same sound problems as I have, but nobody gave a response on the asus forums...

For some reason I have a feeling I need to completely reinstall windows again, which is VERY annoying.

EDIT UPDATE
I've fixed the sound problem...the issue was that the ms hd audio thingy needs to be installed first before the soundmax drivers can be installed...it was asking me for some files, which I found in system32/drivers and after pointing the hardware wizard to them, it installed perfectly. You might need to install the kb888111 hotfix included with the soundmax drivers; I did, but not sure if it was necessary.

As for the nvidia drivers; 93.71 failed to install every time, even after uninstalling the old ones first. I manually updated the drivers in device manager and it worked. However, there is still no overscan settings for 480i for me; appears exactly the same as before. Perhaps the nvidia control panel settings doesn't get updated then? Still working on it.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ben_95sl1

As for the nvidia drivers; 93.71 failed to install every time, even after uninstalling the old ones first. I manually updated the drivers in device manager and it worked. However, there is still no overscan settings for 480i for me; appears exactly the same as before. Perhaps the nvidia control panel settings doesn't get updated then? Still working on it.

Make sure you uninstall and reboot so it loads standard VGA drivers. If it continues to load nVidia drivers take your computer off the net and you may want to try one of the cleaner utilities out there. 3D Guru usually has one. But you need to have the standard vga drivers loaded when you install the nvidia drivers if you want a true clean install.

Gerry

[blade]

Originally Posted by ben_95sl1

However, there is still no overscan settings for 480i for me; appears exactly the same as before.

I've never ran 480i except when playing around with the settings just to see how bad it looked, but I've never noticed overscan settings for 480i. I thought you could only adjust it for 720p and 1080i. Of course I could be wrong because I've spent very little time at 480i.

[ben_95sl1]

Apparently, they used to have overscan settings in 480i, I believe I read ver 77.?? of nvidia drivers. Seems very stupid to remove functionality like that. I'm thinking ATI does a much better job. I had no major issues with my old 8500le; it was more configurable.

I did successfully get the 93.71 drivers to install as per normal, but they seem to have one major glitch with my 6150 when switching displays. No matter what I did, everytime I switched to the Tv output from the VGA output (@ 720p) it always goes to an HDTV type output (component) and the output to svid/composite just comes up as garble-dy-goop, even though there was no connection to the component outputs. I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, rebooted with just the VGA and just the tv output and every time it failed. It boots fine to svid/composite, but it won't switch back from vga after that. So these drivers don't work for me. If they had overscan in 480i over component, that seems to switch properly, but they don't and losing space on a 27" tv is a big deal.

So now I'm back to 82.05 which is what asus includes for the board. I really understand how people become frustrated with htpcs, there is so much unecessary crap involved with some relatively trivial things. Obviously manufacturers know exactly my configuration, and deliberately write drivers and software to make me mad.

Ben

[blade]

Originally Posted by ben_95sl1

Apparently, they used to have overscan settings in 480i, I believe I read ver 77.?? of nvidia drivers. Seems very stupid to remove functionality like that. I'm thinking ATI does a much better job. I had no major issues with my old 8500le; it was more configurable.

You're right it was removed after v77.77. I've never really ran at 480i/p so I wasn't aware it was ever an option.

[GbrNole]

why is it that no matter how hard i look / try i can't get the edge enhancement and noise reduction feature to show up in the 93.71 video settings?

overscan functions show up and work very well but for the life of me i can't get the additional viseo features to show - all that appears is just brightness, contrast etc.

[GbrNole]

why is it that no matter how hard i look / try i can't get the edge enhancement and noise reduction feature to show up in the 93.71 video settings?

overscan functions show up and work very well but for the life of me i can't get the additional viseo features to show - all that appears is just brightness, contrast etc.

[BruenerXII]

It's in there for me.

Open Nv Control Panel.
Set it on advanced view.
Video & TV.
Adjust video color settings. (NOT adjust TV color settings)
There is a tab there 'Enhancements' ..should be in there no?