Aaron Ledger

[swoon]

Like I said in last month’s podcast, I think we’re 3 to 6 months out on something coming to market based on their status as of CES. So now that it’s a month later, 2 to 5 months.

[swoon]

Yeah, but if you get a new panel this year, we can all hate on you!

[swoon]

GT25 is not a bad panel but it is no VT25 or C8000 plasma and I don’t think that is arguable! 

[swoon]

Do you have the latest driver from Avermedia?

Does the problem happen every single time or are there times it does record on that channel?

Would your PC happen to be resuming from sleep when the problem occurs?

What does WMC say about the signal under TV setup for that channel?

[swoon]

What kind of tuner do you have?

[swoon]

IIRC, up to 85C is acceptable.

[swoon]

[quote=hogbuoy]

Thanks, that does make sense and it was what I was hoping. Does the video card get the HD sound from the sound card or an embedded chip on the MB?

[/quote]

 

If you have content with HD audio, you have two choices.

1. Decode the audio using software codec (e.g. Blu-ray playback software deocdes). The audio is then sent in an uncompressed format (called LPCM) to the AVR via HDMI.

2. “Bitstream” the HD Audio via HDMI. It is called bitstream because the compressed bitstream is sent to the AVR exactly as it was received. Bitstreaming requires something called a Protected Audio Path (PAP). Your AMD graphics card supports PAP, so this option is also available to you.

[swoon]

The AVR is capable of switching your input sources to a single output cable to your display. At the same time, it also processes the incoming audio signal and amplifies the signal for your connected speakers.

The video card you have is capable of sending both audio and video to your AVR via HDMI. You should see the default audio device present in the Windows sound configuration. You’ll want to select the HDMI audio device as your default sound device.

The sound card on your motherboard provides additional options such as analog audio output and S/PDIF digital audio. You don’t need to worry about these if using HDMI for audio.

For connection to your receiver, you can connect to any of the input sources. It doesn’t matter if it is named “TV in”, “Aux in”, “DVD in”. Select the one you want and choose inputs for your other sources as well. You will then choose the source on your receiver for the one you want to listen to through your speakers and watch video on your display.

I hope this makes sense for you. If not, feel free to let us know what you want explained.

[swoon]

Is this in the video library in WMC?

[swoon]

That’s a great project. What are you doing for control?

[swoon]

Now you’ve got me intrigued . Maybe I am missing something by not watching Jersey Shore!

[swoon]

Yes, you should always be able to load in safe mode and restore/uninstall the driver. I’ve never had to with the Clarkdale driver, but that would be how I would do it.

If you follow that calibration guide I linked in my first post, you’ll find the section on brightness adjustment which has the flashing bars pattern. These patterns are available for free download on AVS Forum and linked in the guide.

[swoon]

Ok, the Clarkdale is outputting RGB with levels (approximately) <16 and >235 clipped. You can alter this with the brightness setting in the driver. IIRC, the newest driver has a new switch for Limited/Full that I haven’t played with.

To get proper blacks, you must make sure your display is appropriately configured to accept this input. For example, my Samsung display has a setting called “HDMI Black Level” with values of either “Low” or “Normal”. When set to “Low” the display will expect black to be level 16 and white to be level 235, in other words “Video Levels”. Otherwise “Normal” expects black to be level 0 and white to be level 255, in other words “PC Levels”. If there is no setting, you must figure out what your display expects.

Most software such as WMC or TMT, etc should be requesting Video Levels from the driver.

The reason why YCbCr is different and is easier to deal with is because there is no option as the encoding always requires “Video Levels”.

Again, I highly recommend performing a basic calibration of your black levels using a PLUGE pattern.

[swoon]

By haze, do you mean that the black level (brightness) setting is incorrect? It sounds like you may have a levels mismatch between GPU and display. Are you using the latest Intel HD Graphics driver? Have you made sure to check calibration patterns, especially brightness (PLUGE)? This guide will help you make sure your black levels are correct.

[swoon]

That’s probably a setting in your motherboard BIOS.

[Author]

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