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Thread: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

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    Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Hi all, I'm hoping for some help setting this up. I could probably do it if I faffed around long enough with trial and error, but I am hoping other people might have done this recently and might be able to save me a lot of hassle.

    I have an HTPC set up under my HDTV. Graphics card is a HD3470 and for sound I am using the on board sound chip on an "Abit A-S78H, AMD 780G" motherboard. TV is a Sony Bravia KDL-40W4000.

    I was hoping the graphics card would have an HDMI socket on it, but it didn't, so I went out and got a DVI to HDMI lead. I took that in to HDMI 2 on the back of my TV. (I have cable TV in HDMI). I got a picture straight away when I switched to HDMI 2, but sometimes I find that when I switch away and then back again, the picture on the HTPC doesn't come back up, and I'm stuck not being able to control the HTPC.

    As for sound, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. I took a lead from the little jack on the back of the PC, and the other end of the lead was little red and white jacks, and I put them in to composite. Sound came out when I changed the TV to Composite, but I couldn't figure out how to get the picture to display HDMI2 and for it to use Composite at the same time. So far I can only get it to do one or the other.

    It is really hard to trial and error this because I keep losing the picture every time I switch away from HDMI2 on the TV. It goes to a black screen and I can't get it back (except one time when it came back when I turned the volume knob).

    Anyway as you can see I haven't got much clue what I'm doing so any help will really be useful to me. Thanks

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    I run a media pc similar to yours.

    Well HDMI is meant to deliver sound and image through the same cable, which is going to cause you problems as you won't get sound from the dvi socket. Not sure what you will have to do about that...

    With regards to you losing picture when changing channels. I have noticed I used to get this, and my theory is to do with the resolutions. What resolution are you running your HTPC at? If I ran my pc at a higher resolution when changing channels it wouldn't come back on the screen.

    With your sound issue, I think you may have to feed the picture to the TV via composite, as I cannot see how you will get the TV to pick up an audio source other than HDMI while in HDMI mode lol.
    Terry

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Thanks for the reply.

    Quote Originally Posted by knivesuk View Post
    Well HDMI is meant to deliver sound and image through the same cable, which is going to cause you problems as you won't get sound from the dvi socket.
    That's a shame because my motherboard has HDMI out, but I got this graphics card because it was a bit faster and it was a good price. Perhaps I would have been better off doing without it and just using the motherboard.
    Although I can probably live with it as long as I can get at least some sound.

    Quote Originally Posted by knivesuk View Post
    With regards to you losing picture when changing channels. I have noticed I used to get this, and my theory is to do with the resolutions. What resolution are you running your HTPC at? If I ran my pc at a higher resolution when changing channels it wouldn't come back on the screen.
    EDIT: It's at 1920x1080. 32bit colour. It came within an inch of using all the screen, and then I used a button that let me stretch it the rest of the way. Perhaps this is what is screwing it all up. I will try lowering that now.

    Quote Originally Posted by knivesuk View Post
    With your sound issue, I think you may have to feed the picture to the TV via composite, as I cannot see how you will get the TV to pick up an audio source other than HDMI while in HDMI mode lol.
    Oh god. That would suck.

    I'll have a look at the TV manual and see if it says I can use both or something.

    Thanks for your help so far by the way. I wish I wasn't so clueless at this.
    Last edited by acrobat; 20-09-2008 at 12:46 PM.

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Perhaps I would have been better off doing without it and just using the motherboard.
    Although I can probably live with it as long as I can get at least some sound.
    I know with my motherboard I had to go into the bios and set it so sound comes through the HDMI socket, so you may have to do the same. It took me about 30 mins when I first got it to deliver sound and picture through the cable, but now I just used external speakers lol.

    EDIT: It's at 1920x1080. 32bit colour. It came within an inch of using all the screen, and then I used a button that let me stretch it the rest of the way. Perhaps this is what is screwing it all up. I will try lowering that now.
    Yeah I think the resolution you are using might be causing the issues with it not displaying when you go back to the channel. I'm not an expert though! lol.

    Let me know if it was the resolution that was the issue though, interested to know if I am talking rubbish or not haha.
    Terry

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    I just tried leaving the resolution the same but getting rid of the stretch thing. That didn't help I will try changing the resolution now but I was hoping to not do that because this is it's native resolution (I think?).

    Also I read online that "ATI card (such as an HD3470) will carry the audio over the DVI -> HDMI adaptor". I'm praying that is the case. The specifications do say:

    Connectivity: HDTV
    HDMI Output Support
    HDCP Ready: Yes
    • HDMI with 5.1 surround sound audio

    So I bought it assuming it would do this, but I might have not understood what it can do.

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    can't you use the HDMI socket on the motherboard ?
    as the 3470 can be used as in crossfire mode ( not sure about the hdmi )
    in crossfire mode you need the plug the monitor into the onboard ( i have not tested this yet )
    Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    I had no idea what crossfire was to be honest, but I just read about it and it sounds like you are on to a winner. I'll try that soon. I'm just downloading something on to the PC which will take about 25 mins then I'll do it and reply back.

    Thank you

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Only problem is that I would be shocked if you had the correct onboard graphics to match your graphics card to allow crossfire. Would sort your problem out if it did!
    Terry

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Err yeah. I remember what Crossfire is now, I just assumed I wouldn't be able to use it because I assumed it was for 2 graphics cards (like SLI). But it sounds like can use other chips even different versions so I reckon it might work. Because the internal chip is an ATI HD3200, so same just a bit of a weaker chip. Anyway, I'll know for sure in 5 mins and then I'll post back Thanks again.

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    You can most certainly crossfire your 780G and 3470 but if i may be so bold to suggest you overclock the pants off the IGP first or else you may see a slowdown rather than a speed up!

    The should be an option in the BIOS to change the clock speed of the IGP your graphics card is 800MHz and IGP currently 500MHz probably worth aiming as high as you can (well not a lot of point in going above 800) then run Furmark or use ATItray tools to test stability.

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Thanks. I'm not sure I would want to overclock it It would void my warranty and I'd be concerned about heat in there. This is turning out to be a complete nightmare. I'm trying to uninstall all the drivers for the HD3470 at the moment because it wouldn't load windows since I started it with the on board chip instead.

    Is there a way I could get sound through the DVI --> HDMI on the HD3470? There is lots of stuff to suggest that might work. Or alternatively, could I just use that for graphics and then get none digital sound from the sound chip in to the TV some other way? I managed to get it working with headphones in the front headphone socket and video from the HD3470 at the same time, which makes me think I was close. I think I would rather take that route than having a big slow down or having to overclock something.

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Unless there is a sound source attached to the gfx card, there is no way to get sound from DVI -> HDMI

    I have an 8600gt in my htpc and I have to use external speakers, the only alternative is if you have optical out on pc and optical in on tv

    Are you using the D-SUB input on the TV for anything?

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Thanks for the info, that seems logical. Some of the stuff I've read just had me wondering... And nope, I'm not using the D-Sub.

    I think I have it working now. I uninstalled all the drivers and then switched it to use the on board chip, and now I have reinstalled everything while using that chip, and I seem to have sound now I need to work out what kind of performance hit I have taken though. Unfortunately I didn't do any benchmarks (besides the vista test thing) while it was booting up with the HD3470. Now it's still using that (thanks to Crossfire), but it's all coming through the little on board chip, so I'm not sure how much slower it will be like Webby said. I'll see if I can do some tests or something, and pray I can get away without having to overclock it.

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    not the same board but should give you an idea

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...pset,1785.html
    Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Totally didn't see the make of your board initially lol. Its the same as mine that I used in my media pc
    Terry

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    Re: Would anyone please be able to help with tips plugging an HTPC in to a TV?

    Thank you, I'll have to spend some time on it tomorrow. I was doing some stuff and watching a normal DVD and I noticed the temperature of the chip was about 55C or something, so I'll need to see if there is any head room for overclocking.

    I have it working with sound at least now though. I am still getting that problem where it loses the signal after I switch to another HDMI channel on my TV, and then switch back and the picture is gone. Seems to happen even when I am using a lower resolution. So if anyone knows any ways to get around that, please let me know =)

    Thanks.

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