Matt

[Matt]

To be more precise it is characteristic of TVs that have a frame interpolation option, such as 120Hz or 240Hz LCDs. It is not because of the TV being 120Hz in-and-of-itself.

I agree that it’s really odd looking and distracting, especially for film content. A lot of lay people seem to love how smooth it makes everything look.

When you turn it off your TV will just repeat frames to get up to 120Hz/240Hz, keeping the same cadence as the source.

[Matt]

The 2x Radeon 5570 both being passive means you have to consider the heat being stuck in the case. So you’ll have to consider the need for better ventilation with case fans, etc.
Double the graphics cards might be more of a hassle than say hunting down a quieter 5770 that vents out of the case. Perhaps this HiS card? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161344

[Matt]

[quote=”Naylia”]
Because Motorola’s customer is the Cable Co. And the Cable Co does not see the value proposition in it. If they, the Cable Co, can’t increase rates or charge an extra line item on your bill for it then why would they bother to adopt it.
[/quote]

Yes indeed. That seems to be sad truth there  >:(

[Matt]

[quote=”robinhoody”]
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/motorola-announces-nyxboard-qwerty-remote-super-capacitor-based/

According to engadget this remote will be out by the end of the year for Cable STB’s.  I’m hoping they make the remote usable as an IR blaster with BT.  Looks really similar to boxee’s remote too.
[/quote]

That would be nice, but I seriously doubt we’ll see it used anywhere very quickly. Motorola keeps making really great strides in advancing the cable platform that it demonstrates at trade shows and no one seem to adopt quickly (if at all) 🙁

[Matt]

[quote=”Naylia”]
Used is a great way to go on a receiver. Looking at some of the brands, if you can find a model from about 2 years back, you can still have your cake and eat it too. HDMI 1.3a with HD audio format support was around, and still bundled with analog in and out, along with Audessey EQ for much less money that on a new AVR today.
[/quote]

Don’t even have to go that far back. My Denon 590 from last summer has component video inputs (that it will cross convert to HDMI, but doesn’t upscale, which is nice, since upscaling is where AVRs usually mess up the quality), and of course is HDMI 1.3 and does the HD audio formats. It has the full Audessey MultiEQ suite with Dynamic Volume, etc. It’s just missing the multi-channel analog input, which the set-up the 790 has.

I was seeing the 590/790 still around at Fry’s and Best Buy earlier in the summer.

[Matt]

[quote=”autoboy”]
Sounds like it could be a color space issue.  I’m not educated in that enough, but there is PC color which goes from 0-255 and there is video color that goes from 16 – 248 or something like that.  Windows will switch from PC to video color space when it plays a video.  Maybe you should download the AVSforum calibration disk and calibrate the TV.
[/quote]

I think you’ve nailed it. It sounds like a color space issue. Also some applications/video card driver combinations do not switch to 16-248 properly.

Using a generic DVI adapter also means that the card won’t actually enable the different HDMI colorspaces that are possible. DVI is RGB only, it does not support YPbPr.

Make sure both the TV is set properly and it understands it is getting an RGB signal, not YPbPr or XvYCC.

[Matt]

[quote=”autoboy”]
Don’t spend too much money on it just to get HD audio working on that setup since it is kinda a stopgap measure.  A new TV with HDMI will probably be needed sometime in the future and the $ would be better spent on a TV than on an obsolete soundcard.
[/quote]

+1

[Matt]

Well whata’ ya know it doesn’t seem to offer CEC, I thought every vendor had it enabled on their receivers now. Guess the lower-end Pioneer’s don’t have it.

It was a long shot that it would be a problem anyway.

[Matt]

[quote=”XMan”]
I don’t find any reference to CEC in the manual for my model receiver, I’m wondering if it’s not supported?

EDIT

I also noticed remembered that my BIOS was set to IDE mode, so I changed it AHCI . . . no difference.

ARGH!  :'(
[/quote]

Pionner calls their version “Kuro Link” I believe.

[Matt]

This is a bit of a long shot, but try disabling HDMI CEC support in the receiver. You never know what might be screwing with things.

[Matt]

[quote=”jbachman2″]
I just ordered a Onyko TX-SR608 for two reasons:
1.  My Harman Kardon AVR630 is on it’s last legs
2.  I wanted a receiver that could handle DTS-HD and Dolby True HD

Now the problem is that my TV’s DVI input (no HDMI on it) does not work.  This hasn’t been a big deal because I’ve just been using the component video.  So my question is, what are my options for using component video while still getting HD Audio to my receiver?  Will a ATI 5xxx video card output analog video while also sending HD Audio to the receiver?  I am assuming this is not possible, but thought I’d ask.  I’ve considered the Auzentech sound card that will do HD Audio but I read on their website that it’s designed for PowerDVD 9 and I am using TMT3 so I don’t even know if this is an option.

Any assistance would be appreciated.
[/quote]

Modern graphics cards don’t do component output anymore, since HDMI is so common now. So sadly you need to figure out how to get that DVI port working. What TV is it? and why is the DVI port dead? Can you have it repaired?

[Matt]

[quote=”captain_video”]
Does your receiver have HDMI inputs and component outputs?  If so, you should be able to use the HDMI output from your HTPC for the digital audio and video and then have the receiver convert the video to analog and send the output to the TV via component connection.  I would think most receivers that have both types of inputs and outputs should be able to convert them to the proper signal if they have the switching capability.
[/quote]

Nope. upconverting from analog to HDMI is allowed, the opposite is not. It breaks the rules of copy protection, etc. You won’t find a receiver that will go HDMI to analog.

[Matt]

[quote=”xjboonie”]
[quote=”Naylia”]
Yes, I have decided that all future tv’s I buy will be 1080p, confirm that they can do pixel perfect on AVSForum prior to purchase, set my HTPC to 1920×1080 and never think about it anymore.

The only issue is that you still need to make sure they do pixel perfect, or have a setting that enables it. Many 1080p TVs still have overscan of a couple percent…
[/quote]

How do you know if a TV is pixel perfect?
[/quote]

These days nearly all name brand 1080p TVs do. You almost don’t have to worry about it.

The key is to check the manual for the TV you’re considering and look for a setting in the aspect ratio choices. LG and Samsung call their pixel perfect mode “Just Scan”. A few vendors actually just call it “1:1”, or give you a choice to turn overscan off as some Vizio sets do. Panasonic is a bit of an oddball and makes it less than obvious as a sub-choice called “HD Size” you get no overscan by setting it to “Size 2” in their aspect ratio settings.

You can also easily find out as Naylia mentioned by checking the owner’s threads on AVS, and the reviews on CNET mention it, and any self-resepecting A/V review site/magazine will mention it, or at least the lack of a setting for it if a TV is missing it.

[Matt]

[quote=”joao12345″]
Hi,
Just wondering…i know that certain type of recorded content can only be accessed by the HTPC housing the card the only exception to this are MCE extenders. Does the same limitation apply to media players i.e Western Digital WD TV (supports WMV9) or ASUS OPlay (supports WMV)? can these devices access the recorded media freely like an extender????
[/quote]

Niether of those are certified Media Center extenders. They basically just pull whatever files it find on the network across, using your PC a file server. Further, neither support the newer WTV format that Media Center 7 uses.

A MCX (Media Center Extender) is actually a special thin client type device that relies on the Media Center PC as a host for a special MCX user interface session on the PC. To the system it behaves almost like another user is logged on, ala Remote Desktop. So it is much more than just a file server. This also means it is more secure and is in essense just an extension of the main PC, so copy protected content can be played.

[Matt]

To sucessfully pass the Digital Cable Advisor tool aren’t you required to have 4GB of RAM?

[img width=650 height=380]http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/blogs/CableChronicles/final.jpg[/img]

[Author]

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