Bus error: Jake Billo’s weblog

It’s been slightly over a week since I moved into the new place and things are working out well so far. One of the major changes is that I haven’t had as much time to sit down and develop: instead, the roommates and myself tend to be more social in the community area. Unfortunately for the screaming fans of XenonMKV, though, this means I haven’t had a chance to deliver on some bug fixes and requested features. I hope to have something new by the end of the month on that end.

On the technology front, I haven’t had as much luck getting 1:1 pixel mapping on a KDS-55A2020 television as the KF42E200A, but it’s still quite usable for movies without any overscan. I’m using the default nVidia drivers on Windows Vista, and using the “Adjust HDTV desktop size” controls in the nVidia Control Panel applet. There were some promising threads on AVSforum but they all seemed to deal with Windows XP and Powerstrip, both of which are needed to create and display custom resolutions.

I’ll likely have a new Judge Jake episode out within the next week or so, as well.

I’ve discussed the holy grail of pixel mapping for the Sony E2000-series LCD projection televisions before. With the latest nVidia drivers on Vista, I believe I’ve found the most practical solution to this issue.

First, it’s notable that even using the HDMI inputs, 1:1 pixel mapping doesn’t seem easily attainable from a PC. While the native resolution of this particular TV is indeed 720p (1280×720, progressive), there is still a significant amount of overscan to account for.

My particular solution involves setting two display resolutions. The first is a 1:1 (or approximate) pixel mapped image when at the Windows desktop, set at 1152×648. This resolution is automatically detected in the Windows Display control panel and nVidia resolution list when connected with a DVI to HDMI cable. The second is a full 720p image while in Windows Media Center, which can have its own resolution detected independently:

To set up this type of display mapping, first install the latest nVidia drivers. Once installed, you should have an nVidia Control Panel option when right-clicking the desktop. Use “Advanced Mode” if prompted.

• In Windows or the nVidia control panel, change your display resolution to 1280×720.
• In the nVidia control panel applet, there should be a new “Resize HDTV Desktop” setting at the bottom of the tree view. Select this option.

• The right panel contains a frame for the “Resize my HDTV Desktop” option. Click this option, then click the Resize Desktop button.

• When resizing the desktop, size it so that the arrows are slightly outside your HDTV display area. I find that putting the arrowheads offscreen (so that only the bottom parts of the arrows display) is the best setting.

• Close the resize desktop dialog and click OK (if available) in the nVidia control panel. Open the Display control panel again and change the resolution to 1152×648.
• You should now be able to see all desktop contents, in a 1:1 or close to 1:1 display. Try adjusting TV display settings, if possible, to improve the display quality.
• When ready, start Windows Media Center and run the Display wizard. Select 720p resolution. Media Center will automatically correct for some overscan.
• Try playing a high definition, 720p or higher video. If there are black borders surrounding the video, you’ll need to close Media Center and repeat this process, but increase the desktop resizing correction. When Media Center closes, verify that your resolution returns to a standard 1152×648 so that the Start Menu and desktop are completely visible.

It might not be a perfect solution, but it’s a significant step up from previous solutions involving third party utilities. Did it work for you, or do you have any other suggestions? Let me know in the comments.

Over the past few days, I’ve been trying to achieve the proverbial “holy grail” of display resolutions with my Sony KF-42E200A television. These series of TV’s also go by the series name E2000; the A in E200A indicates the Canadian model of this set. They use LCD rear projection technology, and are nearly deprecated in favour of people wanting thinner LCD panel or plasma TV’s. I, however, enjoy the more accurate colour reproduction, wealth of inputs and inexpensive nature of this particular 42″ set. It also has a replaceable lamp in the event that it dies.

However, it’s buyer beware for this TV when attempting to use the system as a home theatre PC; because the E2000 series has deprecated a VGA port in place of two HDMI inputs, you have to be wary of what resolution you decide to send it. The TV is “smart” enough to detect common PC resolutions (800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864) and tries to adapt them to the screen size, but also detects common HDTV resolutions (720×480p, 1280×720p, 1920×1080i.) When a HDTV resolution is detected, the TV automatically “overscans” the content:

This is perfectly acceptable for DVD and game console content, because all of those devices compensate for overscanning when outputting video. However, when it comes to PC usage, your desktop often gets cut off, making it fairly difficult to see certain icons and controls. You do have several options: changing the resolution or resizing the desktop within your ATI Catalyst Control Center / nVidia Desktop Manager. For my 8500GT, I can’t use PowerStrip or similar programs to force a custom resolution because the driver support’s not there.

In any event, what I’ve found so far is that setting the resolution to 1152×648 (I’m using a DVI to HDMI cable) will give a 1:1 pixel mapping resolution, with a slight amount of black borders around the edges. Then, using the nVidia control panel, I changed the resolution to 1280×720 and selected “do not resize my desktop” in the HDTV settings panel. Afterwards, I switched the desktop back to 1152×648 for standard PC usage.

When configuring Windows Media Center, I chose a 720p resolution, which automatically compensates for the overscan issue and uses the nVidia 1280×720 settings.

Reference links that may assist in your efforts are at AVSForum:

Sony E2000 Settings/Tweak Thread
The Official Sony E2000 series Thread
Setting up PowerStrip to yield 1:1 Pixel Mapping on Sony A10 LCD RPTV

Repeating this here because it might help anyone with a recent nVidia card running XviD video:

There’s a diagonal blocking/lag issue with the nVidia 8800-series cards when playing video using the commonly used Combined Community Codec Pack. To fix this, click Start / All Programs / Combined Community Codec Pack / FFDShow Video Decoder Configuration. (If you don’t have CCCP installed, double-click the black and white ffdshow icon in your system tray when playing an XviD video.)

Scroll down to the bottom of the left panel and choose Output, then check “YV12″ under Planar YUV. Click OK, restart your video and any blocking issues should be resolved. Here’s the finished dialog:

Original solution from the CCCP forums, but we all know how short-lived those can be.