[Omzig]

Hi,

I've got an HTPC running Beyond Media hooked up to my receiver. After it was hooked up for a while I started having video problems, in particular it seemed like the video output from the receiver stopped working.

I disconnected the HTPC and the problem went away and I haven't hooked it back up since.

The receiver is a Denon AVR-5700. The video card is an ATI Radeon 7000 series. They are connected via an S-Video cable. The HTPC output resolution is 640x480.

I've got a lot of other devices running through the receiver and don't have any problems. I need to use the receiver for video switching because my old TV only has one S-video input.

I'm assuming that there's something wrong with the video card output signal, so I'm thinking of getting another one, but if there's something else going on I don't want to waste my money on another card.

Any thoughts on my problem would be appreciated.

 

[walford]

Since you gave us little informatiion about your system and it is hard to guess what your problem is.

If you also have a PC monitor connected to your PC does it work OK? If using 2 displays what is the other disaplay and which display is the primary one.

Have you tried going direct from your PC to your TV with a different cable to see if the switch or cable is causing your problem?

 

[Omzig]

So what kind of system information would be helpful?


When I had the problem I was running it on an old 500 Mhz PIII, running Windows XP. It had 256 mb of RAM and everything was installed on an 80 gb hard drive. The computer also had an old 17 inch CRT hooked up that was running at 1024 x 768 resolution. The computer moniter worked just fine.


I could hook it up to the TV directly and it would work just fine. It actually worked fine for a while through the receiver, but then the receiver started acting odd and I ended up loosing the video output from the receiver.


If I need to provide any more details, let me know.

 

[walford]

Your statement that you only have problems when the receiver is in use answers all of your issues.

If your system works fine hooked up directly to the TV then there is certainly nothing wrong in your system since you only have problems when using the receiver then it is what is causing you problems.

 

[Omzig]

I guess I wasn't clear on my question. I'm not really good at asking them sometimes.


I'm trying to figure out if there are problems that can be encountered between the video signal coming out of a cheap video card and a receiver? Like could there be a voltage problem or some sort of frequency setting that could damage the receiver?


I tried looking up the pin-out for s-video connections and the nominal peak to peak voltage. I found some information and tried measuring it, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice a cable and had a hard time touching the pins.


The card was just a cheap one I got from Newegg. Maybe a higher quality card would interface better with my receiver? Or maybe theres a cheap one that everyone uses and I could get that one instead.


I have gotten a newer/old computer. It's now in a four year old Gateway with a 1.4 Ghz P4 with 512 mb of RAM. I want to hook it up again, but not at the expense of damaging my expensive receiver.