CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[loribates]

I know there are posts about this, but I've always been squeamish about feeding my pjs pc signals. The fear of toasting them just is just unnerving to think of but I have a machine close by the pj and on occasion, I'd like to view netflix instant online movies on the pj rather than on my laptop.

I know I'm only going to get SD content but I digress....

I just want to be sure what's the best resolution to send it from the pc to keep it safe.

On another note. Hi everyone! It's been a while. I still haven't been able to order the HD Fury or any other solution for the pj to feed it hdmi. Still feeding it over component with a transcoder. It's been very worry free. Just had surgery monday so I figured I might have some time to play with the pc stuff while I'm off work.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Lori

[Zebu Fellenz]

You're using an 8500 right? I wouldn't go any higher than 1080p 60 on any Marquee save for some of the modded ones. You'll likely be best off with 1280x720 60 or 72 or 1080i 96

-Erik

[Nashou66]

What Zubu said but try 1080p@48 or 960p@48 or 72 double the res of sd dvd 480x2. 1080i@72 looks great also.

Athanasios

[Zebu Fellenz]

Really you just need to experiment and see what looks best to you, personally I've never been able to stand anything at 48hz or any interlaced resolutions but some people like these settings.

btw. On my Marquee 8000 I was able to push it to 1080p 72hz before any problems showed up, I believe at 1080p 72 it simply didn't sync.

[loribates]

My system says it's an 8111. When I bought it from Curt it was supposed to be an 8000 but the system says it's an 8111.
Yay Me


Options I have on this adapter are:
640 x 480
800 x 600
1024 x 768
1152 x 864
1280 x 600
1280 x 768
1280 x 1024
1600 x 1200
1920 x 1200

and
60, 70, 75, 85, 100, 120 Hz

Nothing fancy, just monitor out, it doesn't support multiple monitors so it doesn't have any video out settings, but I never have a monitor attached to it since I only use it for a server and if I need to access it, I do it via remote, so whatever will work best for the pj I can set it and leave it and attach the pj when I want to watch netflix.

Thanks!!!

[Zebu Fellenz]

Try anything but 1920 x 1200 and keep it to 72hz or below and you should be fine, what is the graphics adapter? It would be nice if you could create custom resolutions as you're missing the two most commonly used one's (720 and 1080)

[loribates]

It's just an Intel 82865G integrated graphics controller. The machine is a 2.39 Ghz, 1 gig ram Dell Optiplex GX270 retired workstation. It won't do any custom resolutions that I can tell. I just rebuilt it to use as a light duty server.

Like I said, this would only be for occasional use and I don't have to have "optimum" settings since I only intend to hook it up when I'm bored and want to watch something from Netflix Instant Viewing My main concern is to not hurt the pj.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

[Zebu Fellenz]

What aspect ratio is your screen?

[loribates]

My screen is 16:9, but I have room to play. The screen area is much larger than what I have the PJ set. I built it larger than what I intended to display with this pj for the day I can afford one of the big dog pjs.

[Zebu Fellenz]

Well with a 16:9 screen and the resolution choices you have I would try 1280x768 72 as it is the closest resolution to 16:9

[loribates]

Thank you. It worked ok. It's viewable. Makes me appreciate HD, but better than sitting and watching on the laptop with headphones on.

I appreciate the help. I only had 60 or 75 Hz available at that setting so I chose 60. It's ok for a day when I'm bored. Should just bite the bullet and spring for a device that streams netflix......

Thanks so much!

[loribates]

Sorry to bring this back up but after I've watched it through a couple of movies this way, I have a few questions. (Yes, Miss "It's ok for when I'm bored, not a big deal, blah blah blah" has got tweakitis)

The PJ has my setup memories assigned to two channels. I did a full setup and assigned a channel for the HD-DVD and another setup and assigned it to a different channel for the HD Cable box. Both of which are feeding it 1080i

As soon as I can find another good monitor cable (all the ones I can scavange are just old VGA cables at the moment) I'm going to try to run this through the same transcoder I run the other stuff through to see if it makes a diffference, but for the moment what I've done is disconnect the PJ from the transcoder and plug it directly into the PC

So, do you think I will gain a whole lot by doing a setup with this source and assigning a channel? I think what I'm noticing the most is some convergence issues with this source. I used the resolution recommended above 1280x768 to best fit my 16:9 screen, but would the 1600 x 1200 get me a tighter image? I don't care about the ratio really. That part won't bother me.. where it ends up setting on the screen or whether it fills the screen or not. I just want to tighten up the image. I've forced the netflix player to stream at the highest rate, which means I have to wait a few minutes for the movie to start but better that than a fuzzy movie.

Given that there are not a whole lot of options, all that blabber comes down to two questions. Would I get a better quality image at the 1600 x 1200 and would I gain some image quality by doing a complete setup for this source?

Thanks much!

[loribates]

So, I found another good monitor cable. Now I can run it through this

http://www.provantage.com/startech-vga2tv2way~7STRV010.htm

I assume it's safe however it shows input for 1024 x 768 at 85 Hz, and I was told to keep it below 72. The only options I have on the graphics adapter at 1024 x 768 are 60 Hz, then next available is 75 Hz Not sure I want to risk it passing through at 85 just in case it doesn't output what it says it does. Here are the available inputs/ outputs on the transcoder.


640 x 480 VGA @ 85Hz Input
640 x 400 VESA85 @ 80Hz Input

720 x 400 VGA70 @ 70Hz Input

800 x 600 SVGA @ 85Hz Input

1024 x 768 XGA @ 85Hz Input

1152 x 864 @ 75Hz Mac Input

1280 x 768 WXGA @ 60Hz Input

1280 x 960 1280A @ 60Hz Input

1280 x 1024 SXGA @ 75Hz Input

640 x 480 VGA @ 85Hz Output

640 x 400 VESA85 @ 80Hz Output

720 x 400 VGA70 @ 70Hz Output

800 x 600 SVGA @ 85Hz Output

1024 x 768 XGA @ 85Hz Output

1152 x 864 @ 75Hz Mac Output

1280 x 768 WXGA @ 60Hz Output

1280 x 960 1280A @ 60Hz Output

1280 x 1024 SXGA @ 75Hz Output


May all be a mute point if I find out it the transcoder won't sense inputs and has to be reset each time I switch out feeding it from the PC to the HDbox or the DVD box.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

[Zebu Fellenz]

[loribates]

The transcoder has to be used for the HD Cable box and the Toshiba. Uses a component to RGB cable on the input side, so I figured I could put in an RGB switch box in front of it and not have to be disconnnecting and reconnecting everything all the time. I already have to go move the component cables between the cable box and the DVD player all the time, I was trying to keep the cable moving to a minimum.

[loribates]

I guess the other reason was since it will scale and output different resolutions, are any of those that it will output more desireable than what the PC will output. I'm not running out of my laptop. My laptop will do custom res but I don't want to be dragging it to the basement all the time and that pc is in front of the router with a separate IP and a direct internet connection so it gets better bandwidth than the other IP address used for everything else behind the router

[Curt Palme]

To respond to your email...

I wouldn't run the computer output through the transcoder, there's no point. Set your resolution with the graphics card, and either get an SVGA switcher to switch between the output of the transcoder and the PC, or get a second RGB input card for the projector and use the set's remote to switch between inputs 1 and 2.

It's not auto sensing, but neither is an RGB switch.

And yes, do set a different memory input so you can tweak the projector's convergence and phase for the PC vs the transcoder output.

You don't need to worry blowing up the Marquee, they are well protected. Positive or negative sync, doesn't matter the resolution setting, it will throw a picture.

Here's an SVGA switcher that works well, anything like this will do it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Altinex-DA1916SX-2-In-1-Out-VGA-Auto-Switcher_W0QQitemZ290277826518QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item290277826518&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A4|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

[Curt Palme]

To respond to your email...

I wouldn't run the computer output through the transcoder, there's no point. Set your resolution with the graphics card, and either get an SVGA switcher to switch between the output of the transcoder and the PC, or get a second RGB input card for the projector and use the set's remote to switch between inputs 1 and 2.

It's not auto sensing, but neither is an RGB switch.

And yes, do set a different memory input so you can tweak the projector's convergence and phase for the PC vs the transcoder output.

You don't need to worry blowing up the Marquee, they are well protected. Positive or negative sync, doesn't matter the resolution setting, it will throw a picture.

Here's an SVGA switcher that works well, anything like this will do it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Altinex-DA1916SX-2-In-1-Out-VGA-Auto-Switcher_W0QQitemZ290277826518QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item290277826518&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A4|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

[loribates]

Thank you very much! I have a switcher. Guess now all that's left is to go play and see if I can remember how to set up another memory without screwing up my current memories........ Thank you Curt and everyone!