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Windows 7 Media Center - Has Black Bars

post #1 of 12
10/18/10 at 5:51am
Thread Starter 
Looked everywhere and cant find my scenario, please help.

Setup: Windows 7 htpc - WMC
ATI 5670 1GB , CCC 10.9 (hdmi)
Onkyo 805 (hdmi)
Panasonic plasma 65" (hdmi)

I have the panny set to FULL mode, and the ATI set to 1920x1080.60hz output.
I have the ati set to overscan to fill the edges and everything looks real good on the desktop, Amazon unbox, browser etc.

The problem is when I start Windows Media Center the screen resizes and I get black bars all the way around maybe 1" like a picture frame. I have done the TV Setup in WMC about 100 times now, trying projector, monitor, everything! It is definitely set to 1080p output, and the tv is receiving a 1080p signal, but WMC is somehow altering the picture ie downscaling it and putting a black "picture frame" around everything including the blue WMC interface.

I am just about at wits end
please help
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post #2 of 12
10/18/10 at 6:07am
In Win Media Center setup, go to display settings and try setting your display to 'Flat Panel' instead of TV.
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post #3 of 12
10/18/10 at 6:22am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for responding so quickly. I have tried every iteration of the tv setup including flat panel, projector, monitor, tv. Some settings will move the minimize, maximize and back buttons more toward the center of the screen, while leaving the blue outer edges and black "picture frame" where it is.

It seems like WMC is over-riding the ATI overscan settings and resetting them to 0%. On the desktop in order for it to stretch all the way to the corners of the screen I have to set the ATI overscan bar to about 3/4 of the way across the slider.
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post #4 of 12
10/18/10 at 6:39am
Same thing happens to me.

I don't have to mess with the ATI overscan at all (it is always at zero), I just close WMC in the Tasks menu, and then I open it again with a button on my remote. I have yet to find a solution.
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post #5 of 12
10/18/10 at 6:44am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aplejaks48 View Post

Same thing happens to me.

I don't have to mess with the ATI overscan at all (it is always at zero), I just close WMC in the Tasks menu, and then I open it again with a button on my remote. I have yet to find a solution.

That's what I'm afraid of. It's like I'm losing 2" from my screen. I've searched every forum and tried everything I can think of and its like beating my head against a wall. There has to be a way to tell WMC "HANDS OFF" and let the Catalyst Control Center do its job. It is definitely something that WMC is doing I just dont know how to disable it. I guess I could start looking through the registry...
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post #6 of 12
10/18/10 at 7:02am
I found this link that might have a fix.

I'm at work right now so I cant test it.
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post #7 of 12
10/18/10 at 7:21am
Thread Starter 
Thanks, aplejaks48!

I will test this tonight when I get home. That looks to be my exact situation so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I'll post an update tomorrow!
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post #8 of 12
10/18/10 at 5:09pm
So I went to :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVer sion\\Media Center\\Settings\\DisplayService

and edited RefreshRate (was set at 25) to match what I have in ATI control panel (which is 60) and it seems to have fixed the issue in my brief testing. Sweetness.
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post #9 of 12
10/18/10 at 7:37pm
i had the same issue. It was fixed by reducing overscan but will come back when I rebooted or switched inputs on the receiver. I finally found that it was the ati drivers. 10.9 has an overscan bug and using 10.9a resolved it. It has n ot come back since
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post #10 of 12
10/19/10 at 3:55am
This may not nessesarily be your issue, but the issue described in this thread is often caused by use of the free DivX codec pack.
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post #11 of 12
10/19/10 at 4:35am
I just went through a similar frustrating setup experience. The trick is to get your video card, Media Center, and your TV all set to map the pixels 1:1. Most TVs have a setting for this. I have two flat screens and they are different but I finally got them both working at 1920 x 1080 with no "bars" and no over-scan.

Even this PC (which also has MC running as a backup system) was a bit tricky to get the display right. In this case it is a 1920 x 1200 monitor so I have thin black bars at the top and bottom. I prefer this because if I stretch the image to fill the screen, it gets a little less sharp.

And getting HDMI sound to work-- well that's a whole "nuther" story.
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post #12 of 12
10/19/10 at 5:18am
Thread Starter 
Thank you everyone for your responses.
Problem solved. I fiddled around in the registry and now it works correctly.
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