[Ashley Saldanha]

I thought I might as well follow up with an answer to a question I posed a while back, but never got answered...


Can DVI-HDCP equipped HDTVs be connected directly to HTPCs w/o a transcoder?


Well, the JVC 48" RPTV I just finished testing can, even though the JVC manual and the store salespeople say otherwise.


I ran some quick tests with a GF4, an 8500, and then a G550, and they all recognized and handled the JVC - in rather different ways, but they all managed it.


I used PowerStrip to create a number of resolutions, but then neutralized it so extra software was irrelevant (DVI devices do their own timing anyway).


NVidia: The GF4 posted on the JVC, and Windows started up with a New Hardware screen, recognizing the JVC as a PnP digital monitor with a maximum resolution of 1920x540. Despite a lot of fiddling, it would not accept any vertical resolution above 540 lines, but it would accept anything below that. There was considerable over scan at all resolutions.


ATI: The 8500 wouldn't post visually and the screen remained blank until the Windows desktop appeared. At that point, Windows recognized new hardware, but unlike with the GF4, the Radeon said the there was a 1280x720 digital monitor connected, and 1280x720 actually worked - with considerable over scan, but it worked. On the down side, a lot of lower resolutions did not work at all (screen corruption).


Matrox: Like the GF4, the G550 posted visually on the JVC, but there was even more overscan than with the other two. With one exception: 1440x480 appeared with almost no under or over scan whatsoever.


So Matrox and NVidia offered the "cleanest" solutions, but ATI delivered the highest resolution. Down side to all of them: none of them would do 1920x1080i - it just wasn't possible, even with the Matrox's native interlaced support.

 

[Kei Clark]

Ashley,


Interesting.....Is the JVC display a CRT based? Who'd of thought that the development of DVI on consumer sets would have the unintended consequence of PC-HDTV convergence.....what a hoot! Have you tried DVD playback and games yet?


Kei Clark

Digital Connection

 

[Justin]

Yes the JVC is CRT based, and is much of a surprise to see it for sale at Best Buy already for about $1800. It's PQ seems on par or better than any of the other CRT RPTV's out there. I am happy to hear the DVI works with HTPC's as its been discussed in the RPTV forum that it would not, which turned me off to it. There seems to be no info on JVC america's site, the the Canadian site does have it. It would be interesting to know what this set's "sweet spot" is for resolution, and if the DVI port will accept that without running it through its internal scaler.

http://www.jvc.ca/en/consumer/produc...odel=AV-48WP30



Justin

 

[Ashley Saldanha]

Kei, I haven't fooled around with this much, but CounterStrike looked pretty good, full screen with just a bit of overscan... For some reason - perhaps its well known to people here? - when I installed and started up WinDVD full screen, the playback only occupied about half the screen - it was a practically perfect picture, perfectly centered, but it looked like someone had substituted a 27" DTV inside the 48" RPTV.


The JVC aspect control does not work with a DVI connection, and of course the timing from the graphics card can't be adjusted since the digital monitor is supposed to handle that internally. I was surprised by the 1280x720p and will be looking into that some more...


There was some interesting discussion of this particular JVC over in the JVC forum at ***************.com - not all of it favorable.

 

[Waters_10]

Ashley,


Let me start saying that I don't know much about HTPC.


I have the JVC and a GeForce4 TI4400 on my computer. I was wondering about using the DVI connection with this card on my tv set. But when I read the manual I decided it wouldn't be worth to spend some money on a dvi cable if the manual said it wouldn't work.


I'm glad to hear that you tried and it indeed worked.


I have some questions for you:


- Did you use the latest drives for all cards?

- Is there any special cable you need to use or it's just a dvi cable that you would normally use to connect flat pannel monitors?

- How was the dvd picture comparing to a stand alone dvd player?

- Did you manage to get 16:9 full screen dvd picture?


Thanks! And well done!

 

[Ashley Saldanha]

Actually, an ordinary DVI-D cable will do - I just used one that came with a NEC monitor. (Cables are absurdly priced - especially HT cables. $20 tops for a decent DVI cable.)


I'm not sure why the JVC manual says it isn't compatible with a PC, and on the same page says it will accept 480p, 720p, and 1080i digital signals. The fact is, it works just fine. Perhaps they just don't want to to support HTPC hookups - which is understandable if you think about it.


Anyway, I only tested this under Me (I reboot often, and life is short), latest driver, but connecting to the GF4 was as plug-and-play as these things get. The system posted on the JVC, the Windows startup screen showed perfectly, and the Windows desktop appeared at 848x460. The GF4 ID'd the JVC as a Plug and Play Digital monitor with a maximum resolution of 1920x540. I used PowerStrip to create a number of 540p and lower resolutions, and then removed it. After rebooting, all the resolutions worked with varying degrees of overscan. DVDs looked excellent to my untrained eye at all resolutions - fullscreen. I cannot say if it looked better or worse than a DVD player, but as an aside I really couldn't tell the difference between progressive and interlaced playback on the JVC from the DVD player either (I have a JVC XV-S60).


Bottom line is it was a cinch to set up, and well worth the effort since all you need is a $20 DVI cable. The only extra step is creating some additional resolutions in PowerStrip, but you could do that with the driver inf file too.


The one puzzling thing is that the Radeon allowed 1280x720p, but the GF4 driver simply would not attempt anything over 540p. I'm not sure why, or if this was peculiar to the Me driver.

 

[Syzygy]

1. Which of the 3 video cards is best for a dual-monitor setup, where the main monitor is a regular CRT?


2. Can any of the various overscan situations be corrected in any way, or does one just have to live with them (or always use a Matrox G550 at 1440x480, which seems very sub-optimal -- I mean, double-plus ungood)?


3. You said "I only tested this under Me (I reboot often, and life is short)." Do you mean that ME reboots significantly faster than XP, or 98SE, or Win2K?

 

[Adi]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ashley Saldanha Actually, an ordinary DVI-D cable will do - I just used one that came with a NEC monitor. (Cables are absurdly priced - especially HT cables. $20 tops for a decent DVI cable.)

Ashley,


Did you try to use DVI-D single link or double link cable?


User manual says single link cable, but the pin layout in the service manual is confirming to dual link.


What was the length of the cable you used? According to this site, even the $90/6' DVI-D cable can carry only 1600x1024 resolution at 60Hz. They are recommending the repeaters to get full 1900x1080. Could it be the quality of cable?
http://store.kayye.com/kayye/dvidcables.html


Adi