[Nightanole]

Im having trouble getting my new aiw 8500dv to do interlaced video in winxp. im running the latest drivers. i got powerstrip 3.16 and got 480p and 540p going right. Everytime i try to run a interlaced rez powerstrip says the vid card took it and then changes to the interlaced rez. But its still the same rez i started with, either 480 or 540, it never actualy switches to the new rez. Do i need a reg tweak to get the interlaced videos enabled? Im using these timings
http://www.dtvmax.com/radeon_guide.htm

 

[da_burl]

I'm no expert, but I think the newest drivers do not support interlaced, the last one to support it was the 6025. I can't get any interlaced timings to stick with my AIW Radeon either, even with 6025. But, I am pretty happy with 720x480p and 1440x480p for DVD, and 960x540p if I want more a little more desktop for other PC uses.

 

[DRS]

I'm sort of going down the same road as you. I'm using the 6071 drivers and I had the problem that you mention of even if you select 1920x1080i it would just go back to your default resolution, I fixed this be selecting "default monitor" instead of plug and play.


The problem is when 1920x1080i gets displayed it comes out as a garbled mess on my PJ and monitor.

 

[Karnis]

You need to select a monitor driver that supports that resolution in progressive scan mode. Most users select the Sony-GDM-w900. That plus the latest drivers do not support interlaced rez for the overlay....it may work on the desktop (and maybe for games, but I can't confirm this) but your video overlay will only display one half of a too-tall-and-skinny image.

 

[dave77]

I fixed this problem with my 8500LE (driver version 6037) by defining a custom monitor profile using PowerStrip. Here is the .ini file created (comments at top removed):


[Version]

signature="$CHICAGO$"

Class=Monitor

ClassGUID={4d36e96e-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

Provider=%MFG%


[Manufacturer]

%MFG%=MonMfg


[MonMfg]

%MODEL%=Mon.Install


[Mon.Install]

DelReg=DEL_CURRENT_REG

AddReg=Mon.AddReg,RES,DPMS


[Mon.AddReg]

HKR,%MODE%,Mode1,,%RANGE%


[DEL_CURRENT_REG]

HKR,MODES

HKR,,MaxResolution

HKR,,DPMS


[RES]

HKR,,MaxResolution,,%MAXRES%


[DPMS]

HKR,,DPMS,,0


[Strings]

MFG="HTPC"

MODEL="MAG"

MAXRES="2560,1440"

MODE="MODES\\2560,1440"

RANGE="30.0-75.0,50.0-85.0,+,+"


I set the max to 2560x1440 so I could do 1440i, since my set will do 720p. It works fine, but I have the garbled display problem that DRS has when switching to interlaced modes. As a workaround, I found that if I switch the depth to 256 colors (8 bit) first, then switch to the interlaced mode, then switch back to 32 bit color, it works.


It's very difficult to get games running at interlaced resolutions though because they want to start out a lower progressive resolutions when first run, and when they switch to interlaced upon choosing a higher resolution, the display gets garbled. I have to memorize how to quit out of the game after switching resolutions without being able to see the display, and set a hotkey to change the desktop to a progressive mode to "un-garble" it. Then before playing the game each time I have to switch into the resolution the game will use, using the color depth trick. This only works for games that do not insist on always starting in a low res progressive mode before switching to the mode chosen for gameplay, otherwise I'm out of luck. Even though the Radeon is supposed to have lower 3D performance in interlaced modes, the performance in 1280x1024i (embedded in 1920x1080i) has been pretty good, and looks great! I wish more games would let users define custom resolutions so I could run them at 1920x1080 (or even try 2560x1440), or get awesome performance using 1280x720p. Usually the only 16x9 mode they offer is a piddly 856x480. Is there a way to force games to use custom resolutions?


Hopefully ATI will solve the interlaced mode issues (the overlay problem and this garbled display business) along with the supposed gamma fix in their next driver release. If not I will definitely be ditching the Radeon for a Matrox Parhelia based card (assuming it doesn't have similar problems).


- Dave