Problem Hooking up PC to TV

[Aviator_14]

Hi all. I just got a 19" LCD polaroid tv with s-video and VGA inputs, so I decided to hook the tv up to my comp and also use it as a television, so I got an S-video cable and hooked it from my video card (nvidia geforce 6800 256mb DDR), AND THE SCREEN FLICKERS AND IS IN BLACK AND WHITE, AND THE TEXT IS BLURRY AND HARD TO READ. I used to use a crt with vga as a monitor before and it worked fine, so I know its not the video card. So why is the picture FU**ED UP. Also the resolution will not go above 1024 x 768 and its an HDTV with 1080i so it should be able to, the refresh rate will also not go above 60hz. So is there supposed to be a driver to install, my video card drivers are up to date. All help is appriaciated.

[Sterling_Aug]

What driver did you load for the LCD TV?

What OS are you running?

[Aviator_14]

I am running windows XP SP2.

Which drivers I am supposed to use because the tv didn't come with a driver disk. I have the nvidia video card drivers up to date though. In the video card control panel there is an option for tv output and adjustments, but the picture is still fu**ed up.

The tv is a polaroid 19" LCD. It states on the box and in the directions that it can also be used as a monitor.

Also another question. Which cable is better to use s-video or VGA? should I get a VGA cable and use it instead? because I don't want to end up getting a VGA cable if it is still going to have the picture problem.

[Sterling_Aug]

I asked which driver did you install for the TV, not the video card driver.

Did you install a generic monitor driver or something else? I have a Dell 20" LCD TV hooked up as a monitor to my laptop and it has all of the different video inputs. I can use a VGA cable, an S-video, or an A/V cable and they all give excellent results. I also just got a 50" plasma TV with all of the standard video inputs and I hooked up my other laptop to it and play DVD movies and surf the web on that monster.

It sounds like you have a bad S-Video cable. Take it back and get a new one.

[Aviator_14]

I went and bought a VGA cable and it works good, is sharp, and is in color. But there is one problem. On the box and on the directions it states that the tv can go up to 1440 x 900 resolution, but when I put it above 1024 x 768 it the screen on the tv goes blue and says not supported, but yet it says in the directions that it IS SUPPORTED. What is the problem? How do I make the resolution higher than 1024 x 768? Also the video card still says analog display even with the new LCD monitor, so why does it still say analog display? How do I change the monitor type from analog to digital LcD?

[Peter M]

First of all, the S-Video signal will always be blurry - bandwidth is less than 5 MHz, and it's always always always 480 lines interlaced on NTSC, 576 on PAL. Higher resolutions will not get through. Flickering and black/white is usually due to the wrong TV standard being set in the graphics card driver.

Now, VGA. Your machine says analog display because you're using an analog VGA signal, not DVI or HDMI digital signals. And that's where the trouble starts - the display does not 'know' what's coming and needs to resample and interpret. These capabilities are limited, and often enough these TVs do not support a VGA signal input that matches their native resolution. Yes this is sh*t, but us techy people aside, hardly anyone ever notices.

[Aviator_14]

I fixed the resolution problem. I had to turn the refresh rate down to 60hz and then I was able to raise the resolution all the way up to 1680 x 1050, but if I have the refresh rate over 60hz then it can't go past 1024 x 768, so I guess there is a trade off between refresh rate and resolution because it says it has 5ms response time which is a lot more than 60hz. On 1024 x 768 I can go up past 85hz.

[Crashman]

I'm glad you got it working, but for future reference:
1.) S-Video cables do not support high resolutions.
2.) Your digital TV is labeled "analog display" because it's using an analog cable: VGA cables are analog.
3.) Televisions aren't supposed to support anything greater than 60Hz, when they do it's an added feature.
4.) Getting back to the S-Video cable (which you don't want to use if you can help it), when the picture is black and white it's usually because you're using an NTSC television with the graphics card set to PAL format, or vice versa.

[RamonGTP]

I'm not sure how well that VGA input works, but I reciently got a 46" Sharp Aquos 1080p and built a media center PC that I hooked to it. I used a DVI>HDMI cable and the quality is nothing short of excellent. It's literally every bit as clear and sharp as a high end PC monitor, except a LOT bigger. I'm currently running it in 720p (1280x720). I tried 1080p (1920x1080) but it was a bit to small to read text while sitting on the couch. I've also got an upconverting DVD player and the PC actually puts up a better quality picture using WinDVD that the dvd player does.

[Peter M]

I fixed the resolution problem. I had to turn the refresh rate down to 60hz and then I was able to raise the resolution all the way up to 1680 x 1050, but if I have the refresh rate over 60hz then it can't go past 1024 x 768, so I guess there is a trade off between refresh rate and resolution because it says it has 5ms response time which is a lot more than 60hz. On 1024 x 768 I can go up past 85hz.

These are just the supported signal frequencies on the INPUT side, the signal resampling unit. This is absolutely nothing to do with the frame update rate on the DISPLAY end of the TV device. (And since LCDs don't flicker, it's a non-issue anyhow.)