STR-DN1000 won't display image from ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

Hey guys, I'm a total noob to home audio, but I'm a veteran computer geek. Thanks for any help or advice ahead of time.

I just picked up a Sony STR-DN1000, and set it up yesterday. I got the DVD player working pretty easiliy. But when it came time to setup my HTPC, it wouldn't display anything.

I have an older PC (built 4 years ago) with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. I have a DVI-HDMI cable going from the DVI port on the video card to the HDMI 1 port on the STR-DN1000 receiver. I have an HDMI cable going from the receiver to the tv, which is an Olevia 42" LCD-HDTV.

Prior to the DN1000, I used to have the PC plugged directly into one of the HDMI ports on the TV and it worked fine. But when I choose HDMI 1 as the source on the receiver, I just get the No Signal! box on my TV. If I switch to my DVD player as the source on the receiver, it immediatley displays on the screen, so my TV is set to the right source. I checked the input mappings, to make sure they are correct, and everything checks out there. I even tried the other 3 HDMI inputs to see if I plugged it in in the wrong order, but I didn't get anything. If I unplugged it from the reciever and plugged it back into the TV, it'd come right back up again.

Any reason you guys can think of that a DVI-HDMI cable wouldn't work with this receiver but it works on the TV? I'm wondering if getting a video card with an HDMI port instead of a DVI port would fix the problem, or getting a DVI-Component cable instead of DVI-HDMI.

Bump

That is my thought, that the receiver somehow isn't picking up on the signal or something. Tonight when I go home I'm going to plug it into each of the 4 ports just to see if it's a bad port. I gotta try finding something that has an HDMI output (since I don't own a BDP yet) to try testing as well.

This is such a new receiver that there isn't a lot out there yet in the way of reviews or tech support. I sent an email to Sony and got a generic 'plug this type of cable into the back of this port' etc.

Of course, then I read this in the manual and thought 'uh oh': We do not recommend using an HDMI-DVI
conversion cable. When you connect an
HDMI-DVI conversion cable to a DVI-D
component, the sound and/or the image may
not be output. Connect other audio cords or
digital connecting cords, then set “Input
Assign” in the Input Option menu when the
sound is not output correctly.

Just a thought, but what other cables am I supposed to try and use? I looked up on ATI's site, and it doesn't specify if it's DVI-D or DVI-I. My bet is D, since I is supposed to include both audio and visual from what I've read, and there's no way my card is putting out Audio.

So I went home, swapped out my ATI 9800 Pro for an Nvidia Quadro FX 600, and it worked like champ. Came right up through the interface. Even displayed the bios bootup, which wasn't even showing up on the TV. It's really kind of sad, because the ATI will run circles around this card for gaming. But for movies, the Nvidia will do just fine.

My only complaint now, is that the upscaling done by the reciever makes the image grainy. I'd run the video card in 1080 if it wasn't so dang small, so I run it in 720 for now. But the receiver upscales it to 1080i (I thought this thing was supposed to do 1080p???) and makes it look like, well, like it's digitized and choppy. It looks fine when I'm playing movies or games, you only notice it on the text of the desktop icons and start menu.

Anyways, I got to playing with it, and I was a little dissappointed in the sound the receiver puts out all by itself (ie coming direct from the DVD player). The receiver is definitely not taking advantage of the 2 12's on my Technics SB-2840's. Not sure why, but I blame the EQ. Maybe now I'll have to listen to movies the way the producers wanted me to The sad thing is, the receiver can totally drive these speakers if it's getting the signal too. So here's what I did...

I have an extreme audio card in my PC (It's a creative soundblaster card, I can't remember the model number). It has a built in GUI menu though that lets me tweak the snot out of the sound coming from my pc. So I got that all set up, turned up the bass and the 24 bit crystalizer, messed with some surround effects, and got it sounding just the way I like it, and watched the opening sequence for Casino Royale.

A-ma-zing.

Popped the dvd into the dvd player

bleh.

Popped a Kenny Loggins cd into the dvd player (it's my wife's, I swear), and cranked up Danger Zone (good song for clean bass). Didn't really impress.

Put the cd in the computer, and it was amazing. So I cranked it up to see how loud and booming I could get this thing, and lets just say I chickened out with the Volume at 35 and still climbing.

So the receiver has a good solid amplifier in it. Not sure how to word the explanation as to why my creative audio card outperforms my receiver in quality of sound. You'd think they could have done a little better on that end.

Maybe I've just been spoiled by the old school technics receiver that was all sound and no frills.