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PC to Plasma Pana TH-50PX50U / Config / Options?

376 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by JAHarris, May 8, 2006

DigiPaul

Discussion Starter · May 6, 2006

I have a brand new Panasonic TH-50PX50U connected via DVI to HDMI cable to a

Pentium-4 PC running Windows-XP Pro. The picture quality is very good, although

a little bit over-scanned, but Iâ€™m not sure about the settings and software

I need to better achieve what Iâ€™m looking for, and I need some advice to help me

solve some problems.

My PC Video card is an ATI Radeon 9000 connected to a standard 17â€ LCD monitor

through its VGA-out connector, and to the Panasonic TV via the DVI-I port (DVI

to HDMI cable).

My actual setting is that both the LCD monitor and the plasma

TV are working together (I believe the setting name is â€œcloneâ€). The TV works

fine at 1280 x 720, but I canâ€™t set the 17â€ LCD to work at his native

resolution 1280 x 1024 as it goes to the same 1280x720 value

that I have choose for the plasma output ( it is supposed to maintain different

values for each monitor, but I will deal with this later, my priority is to get

the best results when using the PC with the plasma TV)

I tried different settings going through the ATI Catalystic Control Center (6.4)

and I get picture on the TV Pana only when setting to 1280x720. The TV has

a 1366 x 768 resolution, and I wander if there are better values to have the best

picture quality on my plasma?

The main use for the plasma is to watch DirecTV, and Iâ€™m looking for the best

software that allows me to play family home videos and picture slideshows directly

from the PC at the best picture quality and in full screen mode.

I tried starting a slideshow within â€œWindows Picture and Fax Viewerâ€ program

that I already have installed with Win-XP, and I watched some AVI video-files

with â€œWindows Media Player-10â€, but Iâ€™d like to know of better and more

customizable programs.

What are the options?

Would it be better if I imported the clips and pictures onto Adobe

Premiere timeline (for example), and directly play them from there?

(I have the complete Adobe Creative Suite CS-2 Deluxe installed)

BTW: My other PC is a more powerful Pentium-4 /3.40GHZ double processor

with a Nvidia GeForce PCX5750 PCI Express video card. Does this card work

better to the point of justify the work of installing this PC in my entertainment

room?

Iâ€™ll appreciate any help regarding this matter.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

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JAHarris

· #2 · May 6, 2006

Hi,

First, if you want to view any HD quality content via your HTPC your vid card does not have enough horsepower. If I am correct the 9000 is an AGP card. I have not kept up with ati so I dont know what they offer in an AGP card right now. I use a 9800pro on my 36" SDTV and I am quite sure it would do well with HD as well. On our 42" Panasonic plasma I use a 6600GT (agp) and I found the nvidia drivers much easier to deal with. If the 9000 is pci-x16 then just go for a 7600GT or the ATI equivalent.

As far as using the monitor and the plasma you can set both up seperately in the CCC and then set up a hotkey to switch back and forth. Works great for me.

As far as getting the resolution spot on for the plasma I dont believe any vid card will do 1366 x 768. That said, you should be able to get something of a custom resolution in the monitor properties screen of the CCC (pretty sure its monitor properties, HDTV support..... )

For video playback I would recommend zoomplayer. There is something of a learning curve but it is worth it.

It is late. I hope that was some help.

J

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DigiPaul

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 6, 2006

It was a big help JAHrris, thanks a lot.

Iâ€™m considering moving my more powerful PC to

the entertainment room, since last night my wife and I with some

friends finally enjoyed video clips and vacation pictures on the

large screen. All I did was to drop some jpgs folder and played

the files with the standard Windows Picture Viewer automatic

slideshow and mp3 audio files playing in the background, and the

overall quality surpassed previous viewing experiences when burning

DVDs (and all the work that involved).

I have now posted (I should have earlier) the same message to the

plasma TVs forum as there may be some people in the very same situation.

One more question for you JAHrris: Why do you prefer Zoomplayer

over the Windows Media Player?

Thanks again

Paul

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JAHarris

· #4 · May 8, 2006

Hi Paul,

WMP does have a few things going for it. It works pretty well, it is free, and it is becoming the standard with non-HTPC folks. Zoom is not free and does not include a video decoder, but it is HIGHLY configurable. That is where the learning curve comes in. If you are only going to watch home movies and look at pictures then WMP will probably work just fine. Most folks here are upscaling DVD's for HD sets and zoom gives them the ability to configure things how they want. There is also the fact that they are a small company (may just be one guy) making a great product and I hope they continue to prosper.

From the sound of things it looks like you have it all working pretty well with what you have. You can probably even organize it all in WMP as well.

Have fun,

J

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