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Vista RC1/MC with nVidia - overscan

1256 Views 8 Replies 4 Participants Last post by sotti, Oct 4, 2006

ReverendShaft

Discussion Starter · Oct 3, 2006

I'm at the end of my rope here.

I have a new NTPC build (granted, on a tight budget, but new nonetheless). I installed Windows Vista RC1 because I really liked the new Media Center, and didn't see the point in buying a new license of XP/MCE when Vista is just around the corner. The only hardware worthy of note is that I'm using an nVidia 6200 LE for the primary display.

I'm running a DVI->HDMI cable from the 6200 into a Magnavox 50" plasma, model 50MF231D.

When I configured Media Center, everything went perfectly. Still is, actually. I told it I wanted to run at 1080i, and it automatically accounted for any overscan, and gives me a perfect picture.

The Windows desktop, however, is a completely different story. I've tried every native resolution, and can only get an acceptable display at 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 modes. Everything else results in overscan that crops off the entire taskbar at the bottom, window titlebars at the top, and a full row of icons on the left/right edges.

I've tried Powerstrip, but have been unable to find ANY setting that improves on this in any notable way. Further, I am unable to create a resolution spec that isn't progressive. (I really don't like interlaced modes for the desktop. Too much jitter.) I've even tried "resolution-in-resolution" without any success at all.

I know in XP there are overscan correction options built into these video drivers, but anything resembling these functions seem to be completely AWOL in Vista x64 versions. I understand that we're still real early in the game here, but I'd rather not wait what will likely be months before an acceptable driver hits the 'net. There MUST be a way to at least get a 720p resolution to show without overscan.

Can anyone give me any tips at all?

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sotti

· #2 · Oct 3, 2006

Yeah they haven't implemented custome resolution in the nvidia drivers yet, and powerstrip can only do it if the driver allows it.

Basically we're hosed till they come out with better drivers.

RC2 comes out on friday, so maybe nvidia will have something for us then.

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ReverendShaft

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 3, 2006

That's the answer I was afraid of. At first, I had thought something along the lines of a "TVTool"-type utility might be of help, but then realized, "Hey, you big dummy, you're not using the S-Video port!"

Also didn't realize that RC2 was just around the corner, else I would have held off on installing RC1. (Just installed last week.) I'm going to assume -- again -- that an upgrade from RC1 to RC2 isn't possible. I guess it's a good thing I haven't spent the last 3 days banging my head into the wall trying to get my everyday apps working.

I'm all over watching nVidia for any sign of a driver update that does more than the stock Microsoft driver offering. The 96.33 package was a worthless download, IMHO.

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Ashley Saldanha

· #4 · Oct 3, 2006

Custom resolutions work just fine with RC1 and the 96.33 driver; you just have to respect, as NVidia does and Vista may require, the max resolution in the display's EDID. The tail end of this thread may be of interest...

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sotti

· #5 · Oct 3, 2006

I haven't had such luck, my display supports up to 1080i, as well as 480p, 540p and 720p.

The nvidia drivers will not do a custom resolution, they will display other resoultions in one of the factory timings, but will not run a truly custom resolution.

BTW that was my thread you linked too

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Ashley Saldanha

· #6 · Oct 3, 2006

Its not a question of what your display supports; its a question of what your display EDID supports. Check my last post in that thread.

Quote:

BTW that was my thread you linked too

And that is my forum your thread is on...

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ReverendShaft

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 3, 2006

I've just read the thread linked above, and assimilated that into the jumbled mess of crap that I've picked up since trying to get this nightmare to work the way it should.

This is what I've come up with:

1). I don't need any custom resolutions. My flat panel displays everything I've thrown at it (480p, 720p, 1080i) from other hardware (the DVR, DVD-player, and X-Box 360) without batting an eye.

2). The problem here is, of course, the overscan, which is not being corrected no matter what I try.

3). The overscan is presumably caused by the DVI output hard/firmware, which anticipates either a projection display or a display with the capability to adjust the incoming signal. My guess is that allowing for underscan options in the driver (for the minority of people who need it) is a more feasable production model as opposed to hard/firmware underscanning (and forcing the masses to stretch their screens).

4). Unless someone writes some middleware that handles a "zoom out" function on the part of the DVI or VGA output ports, there are a lot of us who will be fishing blindly for the start button or window titlebar controls.

So, with all that, I'll just hold my breath for nVidia to put something together, griping about the overscan until it goes away.

P.S. - Don't ask me to tackle a driver wrapper. I've got less important things to do that actually pay my bills.

Besides, by the time I'd have it done, Vista would see production release. (Yes, it will take me until 2009.)

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walford

· #8 · Oct 3, 2006

The overscan(Zooming in) is caused by the receiving end since if it is a TV it is trying to emulate a stancdard CRT TV which has always had about 5% overscan to compensate for age or tempeature affecting the magnetic fields used for scanning when receivein component, DVI or HDMI TV resolutions

All TV broadcastrs and films assume that their image will be overscanned and therfor no important content is place at the edges. So overscan is caused for TV or film since the meaninful content is therfore larger in size.

Overscan compensation when used in NVIDIA or ATI drivers underscans (zooms out) or created by the use of PowerStrip so that when the TV ovescans the receivved video all is back to normal.

HDTVS normally will never overscan video received over VGA since they then assume that the source of the video is a PC which does have important contend at the edges of its PC desktop applications.

For some reason the Overscan Compensation function in the NVIDIA RC1 Vista drivers is not available or extreamly hard to configure.

There is at least one brand of HDTV which allows you to adjust the amoung of overscan it uses, however, I don't remember which on only that it was not one of the most common brands

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sotti

· #9 · Oct 4, 2006

I had no luck configuring overscan, all I ever got was scaled resolutions, so I could add the resolutions I wanted, but they were still displayed at 480p, 720p or 1080i

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