Ok... the way everything is set up is that all my inputs run through a Philips FTR 9965 to get the VGA out I need. It has a VGA passthrough and I could, if I bought more stuff, just use that... but that's not the point.

What I want to do is get my PC video onto my projector, and my video card (an x800xt) has HDTV outs, so I figured I would use those. There are three plugs on the back of the card, DVI, VGA, and a small port that looks vaguely like an s-video plug but accepts various ATI breakout plugs. The one I'm using breaks it out into YPbPr outs.

At first I plugged all the cables in between the FTR 9965 and the video card and, within the ATI Catalyst Control Center, the 'External TV' was recognized. I switched the PJ input to what should have been the PC but got nothing... I did not, however, get the 'No Available Input' like if there isn't actually something coming into the 9965, so the black screen was apparently what was actually being output by the PC.

I played with resolutions but got nothing.

I checked out the ATI customer care site and found a manual but it seemed to be fairly out of date because it referenced advanced tabs that no longer exist and seem to have had their functions rolled into the Catalyst Control Center.

The only suggestion I've been able to get is that I have to specify component out somewhere, but nowhere in windows or in the Catalyst control center does it allow me to do that. Now I'm stumped... I've posted the same request for help on AVSforum but have yet to get any responses there, but between the two communities someone ought to have an idea I'd hope.

Do you have a monitor connected to the computer also? If so, did you enable the second display in the display manager of Catalyst Control Center?

I don't have the component connected on mine and I am getting ready to sleep now. If you still haven't figured it out by tomorrow I will connect mine and see what happens.

David.

Why don't you try using an svideo cable from your ati card, thats what the port is intended for. See if that helps at all.

Normally I have two monitors connected to my computer with the primary running off the DVI port and the secondary running off the VGA. In the catalyst control center I first tried activating the display on the HDTV out by selecting the cloning option with my secondary display, when that gave me nothing I thought maybe it didn't like powering three displays (even with just two discrete displays) so I deactivated the secondary monitor leaving only the display on the HDTV outs active. That didn't work either, so I tried deactivating all the monitors but the one on the HDTV out and I still got nothing (absolutely nothing that time).

I've been working on and off on this all day and I can't get anything so it'll be interesting to see if you have better luck than me.

Now cornelius


It looks like an s-video port but I doubt just plugging an s-video cable into it will work as I've only ever seen these things used with the ATI break-out boxes that give you an array of ins and outs. If all else fails I could try that, but while I have an abundance of rca cables I have no s-video cables so I'd prefer to get the YPbPr out method to work instead.

Yeah, I wouldn't try plugging an S-video cable directly to the card unless you find information from the manufacturer that says you can. I know my card has a seperate breakout cable for S-video. When I get home from work I will try component out on mine and see what happens.

David.

What version of catalyst control center are you using ? Is it one of the new versions that require the NET framework ? If so, be sure that under the "digital panel properties - HDTV support" you activate 720p, 1080i, etc.... Once these are added you must run in one of these modes for the component output's to work. As my monitor (DVI connection) is only 19" (1280x1024) I needed to run in a 720p resolution that way I got a picture on both my LCD and TV... when I went to 1080i, I got a picture on the TV, but the LCD was all screwy (i.e. didn't support 1080i - 1920x1080) ... anyway, hope this helps... BTW I run an ATI X700Pro... in case you were wondering...

cheers,
gs

Are you rebooting your computer after each different arrangement of cables? I was using dual display, and if I changed anything I needed to reboot in order for it to work, even though on the catalyst software it was reported working. Also as far as I know every ati card that i've owned came with an rca to svideo adapter. I don't think your card is capable of running 3 displays, try setting up 2 and rebooting.

GadgetSmith I'm using the newest version of Catalyst Control, the one that requires the .net installation. It reports its version as 1.2.2243.38605. While I can enable HDTV modes that option is only available on the 'digital panel' i.e. what is on the DVI port and I'm using as my primary monitor, not for the TV. Setting it on the digital panel does nothing for my TV's settings, so how do I change those?

Cornelius While I appreciate the attempt at helping that has to be about the most worthless response I've gotten yet. I'm not rearranging cables, they're all just hanging out back there, and yes I've tried restarting at various times but considering the fact that I can activate and deactivate either monitor without rebooting I should be able to do the same with the component outs (even if an initial restart is, for whatever reason, required). Like I said my card can only do two displays, which you helpfully pointed out to me, I'm fairly sure it can do as many as I'd like it to (with a performance degredation as I add more) if I just clone the two displays to the new devices. Its only capable of drawing two seperate displays, it can put it on as many physical devices as it pleases, but like I've said in my previous posts I've tried having all three physical devices active at one, I've tried having only two, and I've even tried having only the TV device active all to no avail. And finally while its GREAT for you that every ATI card you've ever had had an s-video to rca adapter I'm fairly sure that's not what it was, rather a converter from their proprietary VIVO port to (probably) a composite port but that does me no good as the only adapter I have for this card is the VIVO to YPbPr port like I've said. So while its informative to hear what other people have and what they've done if the situations are entirely different, and the solution is precluded by something I've already said, it'd be nice if you didn't share it at least in here.

Finally, there's been a change... I can't get the Catalyst Control center to detect the TV unless I go into the display options and check the 'force TV detection' button. Nothing should have changed, but this morning when I was playing with it I realized that was the only way could get it to detect the TV. Maybe I checked that originally and forgot then unchecked it last night as I was trying to get it to work, I couldn't really tell you, but if it only gives me a TV device when that's checked is that some cause for further concern and another indication of what might be wrong?

Do you have to enable the DVI panel and TV differently for 720p/1080i support ?? I thought it was only one that you needed to do this on (primary display)... anyway, which resolution did you try ? 720p or 1080i ?
edit 2: to carifly; after activating the 720p/1080i resolutions, you then changed the desktop resolution to 1280x720 or 1920x1080 on your primary display, then cloned them to the TV ?

gs

edit: ps. I should also add that I had trouble getting this to work on my ATI card when I tried the component out the first time... it wasn't exactly "user friendly"... I wasn't thrilled with the quality of it either...

also, do you have a TV with HD inputs to test the ATI card... the problem may be with the e-box (settings?) ?

gs

GadgetSmith I have a few screenshots that may clarify what I mean about setting HDTV resolution support.



I can only set HDTV support within the specific monitor's settings, while I can turn on HDTV modes for both of them (and have) I run into another problem when I try to clone one to the TV to get it to go in an HDTV mode.



The Control Center sets the resolutions of both to something out of that list, either what the TV was last set to or to 640x480 if this is the first time since the last restart that I've been playing with it. One of those in there (640x480?) should be 480p but even using that still gives me nothing.



Those are the only settings I have for the TV device, and under the 'formats' menu choice there is only NTSC vs PAL settings.

I can't seem to force it to output any different resolutions to the component cables no matter what I do, and after re-reading the 9965's manual I've realize that the ONLY things it will accept (on anything other than the VGA passthrough) are standard HD resolutions.

Do you think something about the card's inability to detect the TV without being 'forced' (whatever exactly that option does) points to something not working right in the way the e-box is accepting the input? There's NO documentation online anywhere about this and its really starting to piss me off, up to now I'd always been very happy with the way ATI handled its outputs and multiple monitor configurations but now I've finally found a place where its just trash.

Unfortunately the 9965 is the only thing I own with component ins, so I have no way to test if its the card or the box, but looking at all the evidence so far it seems like maybe its something with the box... so I guess that changes the question a little. Anyone have any ideas for how to set that up correctly?

What i'm suggesting is setting your (20" Dell LCD ?) to a desktop resolution of 1280x720, then "clone" that resolution to the "TV" (i.e. e-box). Basically you have both the LCD and component outputs both in 1280x720. I don't think you will need to set those under the "TV" properites, it will automatically do it as it is set for your 20"LCD. Under "attributes", be sure to select "centered timings" that way your LCD will display the desktop "letterboxed". I believe this is what I needed to do in order to get the component output to even start sending a signal... and that was hooked directly to my sony CRT HDTV.

If you use "force detection" does it give you the option of adding the HDTV resolutions ? ... and being able to select a 1280x720 desktop resolution ?

gs

Ok GadgetSmith, I think I've got it now, but doing that made it work for you? This stupid catalyst control center is so hard to work with, but I finally got it set with centered timings and cloned displays, then activated the TV as the secondary and got the resolution set correctly. Unfortunately... I still got nothing on the PJ.

I wonder if the fact that it doesn't detect the TV as being connected could be the vital clue, because I have a feeling that the 'force detect' option just creates the TV device whether or not there's actually any such device connected to the machine on the off-chance that (if it is connected but not detected) it will work.

Which makes me wonder if there's something wrong with the way the e-box is percieved by the card and somehow incompatible with what I'm trying to do.

I think I may just have to give up and buy what I need to get the VGA signal directly to the e-box because absolutely nothing seems to change what's happening. Although, actually, the e-box MUST be getting some kind of signal because when I had set up the cloned desktops and gotten all of that to the point you suggested I changed the resolution a few times to see if that would do anything and the 'auto calibration' popped up on the monitor in the PJ which tends to happen when the resolution of what's on the screen changes somehow. So it seems like its getting a signal, just not one that's usable in any way?

I'm absolutely stumped now. But thanks for your help just the same.

sorry to hear that, and glad you appreciate the help. I was only giving advice on what had worked for me. After your response I could give a beep wether or not you ever get it working.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be a jerk, but everywhere I've tried to go for help with this I've been inundated with, "Well my card does this..." or "You could use this instead..." which does me absolutely no good because the card people reference is usually fairly different when compared to mine (to the point of someone trying to explain to me what their nVidia card was doing when I wanted help with an ATI card... thanks but no) and all the 'alternatives' listed are things I've come up with myself but do me absolutely no good because I don't have the parts required and beyond that its not what I was asking. I wanted help making what I had work, not suggestions of what I should get.

I had finally had enough just then and it all kind of came out at you, sorry.

Well get ready for another "my card does this". I hope this one will help. lol

I only have one monitor connected. I have no component tv's so I had to use my other monitor with the N6 to get the component into it.

I had to use force detection also. It would only let me use the tv as primary display and I could only activate it through swapping devices.

When I forced detection, CCP detected 2 tv's. When I selected the first one I got the same menus you have. Pretty much exactly the same. It would let me set any mode I wanted to but the N6 reported that it was only receiving 480i no matter what I did.

Then I choose the other tv device. When I did this I got a new menu called component output properties or something like that instead of TV properties. Then I had check boxes to enable the HD modes. Then I was able to switch between HD modes and the N6 verified it was changing.

So from the screen shots you posted it seems to me that CCP is still not detecting the component outputs and is treating it like an SDTV output.

I'm off to bed now. Sorry I didn't get on this until late. Good luck.

David.

http://ati.amd.com/products/catalyst/HDTV_Setup_Guide.pdf

worked for me

Seeing as this topic is being resurrected after a year this information probably won't help the original poster, but I know the answer to his question if someone else searching stumbles upon this thread.

ATI's new drivers and catalyst panel doesn't automatically activate some cards for component output like they should. So a frustrated programmer took it into his own hands to make an application that will activate HDTV component output. Download this app below called ATICVPatch.zip check your options, apply, and restart.

This was a quite a frustration for me too, and fortunately this solves the problem perfectly.

Click to view attachment