PC Hookup to HDTV Help Needed

[brianj320]

Ideally what I am trying to accomplish is to output HD-DVD/BluRay playback on my computer to my Panasonic HDTV through HDMI. I currently am using a Sapphire Radeon 4870 with a DVI-HDMI adapter on one DVI port for the HDTV and the other DVI port I have my normal 20" Samsung LCD monitor. When I play a HD-DVD or BluRay where the output (audio and video) is on the LCD monitor, the picture and audio is flawless with no hiccups or issues at all. When I have my desktop extended onto my HDTV and drag the movie player application to my HDTV, I will ONLY receive audio. Where the picture should be is completely black within the application. It is like the HDTV isn't receiving the video feed for the movie, which I don't understand. I need some major help here; I have googled for the past 3-4 days with no luck at all.

What I have attempted thus far: switched HDMI ports on the HDTV, switched DVI ports on the 4870, switched HDMI cables, disabled my LCD monitor completely (unplugged from PC), restarted many times after doing something above, and messed with tons of settings within movie applications and PC settings.

The interesting thing with all this is if I clone the LCD monitor instead of extending desktop to the HDTV, the disk will start to play as it should but then I get the HDCP error (due to having 2 displays running in clone mode). But what boggles my mind is that the video will actually run and be seen until the error message kicks in! So the video will work (albeit momentarily) in clone mode but will not in desktop extension mode or in using the HDTV solely (LCD monitor unplugged).

I'm very frustrated and at a loss of what to do; any help/advice would be appreciated from anyone. Thanks in advance!

HDTV: Panasonic Viera TC-37LZ85
Samsung 20" LCD Monitor
AMD Phenom II 940 Deneb
Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H
4GB Corsair XMS2 1066 RAM
Sapphire Radeon 4870 1GB
LG GGC H20L Blu-ray/HD DVD drive

 

[kalrith]

My initial thought is that your video player is switching to a resolution that is not supported by your TV, but I might have some more thoughts if you answer the questions below.

Does you TV work as a computer monitor at all?
What video player are you using?
Can you try it in windowed mode and see if it does the same thing?
At what resolution are you running the TV?
Have you gone into the TV settings and set the input (to which the PC is connected) to PC mode instead of video mode?

 

[Chapbass]

This problem is normally due to the "extended" desktop not being able to display overlayed video, such as video from a dvd or BD.

Looks like you tried disabling your LCD monitor, that SHOULDVE done the trick. I'm at work ATM so I cant really look into it, but the problem it looks like youre running into is video overlay issues. I had that problem on my HTPC back in the day, but its been a while. Look for things in your drivers (I also used an nvidia card).

Good luck, if i remember maybe ill look into it when I get home tonight.

 

[JoeBleed]

I think for it to work, from what i have read, all of your devices need to be HDCP compliant.

I can't speak from experience on this, i just use the vga port on my tv and it works great, plus i don't have a hd dvd or blue ray drive for my computer. But i have ran across this in reading at other places before.

If i remember right, some solutions were to have HDCP compliant video drivers and video card that supports HDCP. And i think anyDVD would work without all of that, but i don't remember for sure.

 

[s44]

You're using an official ATI adapter that came with the card, right?