HDTV vs a Monitor

[Overawed]

I have read through the threads and nothing really seems to match up with what I am looking for. Here is my problem:

I have formatted and done a fresh install of both Windows Vista and Windows 7. Everything runs exactly as expected with high marks while the computer is attached to the computer monitor. I want to let this be my entertainment system for the family room and connect it to my HDTV. I bought a DVI to HDMI adapter and then an HDMI cable to go into the TV. As soon as I do this, the computer begins to hiccup every second or two and this is seen on mouse movement or video playing (internal or streaming). Audio seems to be unaffected but I am routing audio through the sound card to a receiver. I set the HDMI video connection for video only no audio.

I have tried variations of resolution settings but still get choppy results. I also have adjusted refresh rates to no avail. As soon as I plug it back into the computer monitor, things begin to stabilize and all is well again. The TV is designed to be a computer monitor and is less than a year old. Not sure what I am missing on this. I did find one website that stated you need a "high speed" HDMI to DVI cable for this. I ordered that but am doubtful as to the accuracy. I am wondering if the problem is that the video card was never designed for this and therefore incapable or is there something else I should look at, any suggestions are certainly appreciated.

Here is the data for the system:
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo E6300 CPU @ 1.86GHz 1066FSB 2x1MB L2 Cache EM64T
CD: 18X DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
CD2: 16X DVD ROM
HDD: Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives (320GB (160GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
MOTHERBOARD: (Quad-Core Supports) EVGA nForce 680i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)3GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Memory w/ Heat Spreader
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
OS: Microsoft(R) Windows Vista(TM) Home Premium
POWERSUPPLY: STANDARD 420W CASE POWER SUPPLY
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTS 640MB 16X PCI Express(EVGA)

I have reformatted the drive and installed Windows Vista and then also tried installing Windows 7. Same results both operating systems which leads me to believe it is hardware related.

 

[rb420]

May be a silly question does your tv have a VGA port?

 

[defg0003]

Since the output from your graphics card is as expected on your main monitor, I would take a hard look at the setup functions on your HDTV/extended monitor.

Simplest possibility, go to the setup or editing functions in your menus for the HDTV. Look at how the HDMI is "labeled" - does the TV "know" that this is a computer signal? ("know" = recognized properly). It may be processing the signal as an OTA or Cable/box signal. Try editing the "label" for the HDMI input signal path to "computer."

Alternatively, if your HDTV has an VGA/analog/Dsub connector (for computer), try using a DVI to VGA adapter (very common) with a VGA (15 pin) connector into the HDTV. In setup, make sure the Dsub/VGA connection is correctly identified or labeled as computer input.

Given what you see on your computer monitor, it would seem that the signal from the GPU is as expected. Process of elimination?

 

[Overawed]

My apologies for not including that information. My television is a Mitsubishi and it does not have a VGA port. I only have access through the HDMI. It does have a complete "use with computer" option that I have gone through extensively inclusive of manually overriding refresh rates and resolution values. When you plug in the cable, the tv identifies a new connection and suggests PC. If you select PC it then tailors itself to a PC configuration but will allow you to manipulate the refresh and resolution values.

I will play with it some more tonight but was just wondering if anyone had heard any other common difficulties with this process. I know the video card was created before this was a common thing, just wondered if I need to replace the video card or the cable or the adapter rather than keep troubleshooting resolution and refresh rates.

 

[CaedenV]

well, that is an odd issue. Can you tell if it is the TV or the PC that is initiating the lag?

Check your fps/Hz output on the GPU and that it matches your TV. So long as you are matching the resolution and Hz rating (60, 120 or 240Hz/fps) then the TV should not care what the input is coming from (PC, OTA or cable box). The safest standard to start with is 1080p at 60fps/Hz. Some GPUs default at 59Hz for some reason, and this can confuse the TV.

The 9800 should be perfectly capable of displaying to a TV. I hooked my 9800GT to several TVs while I used it with no problems. However I always used the "PC" input which is typically VGA.

 

[RetiredChief]

What resolution are you using for the output, ie 1920 x 1080??

Not sure what you mean by "(Req.DDR2 MainBoard)3GB (2x512MB)"
are you quoting a requirement of 3 Gigs and you only have 1 gig ???

If so, Ram is cheap (Not sure about outdated DDR2), But I would not run windows 7 with less than 2 gigs and preferably 4 gigs. (SAME-SAME Vista).

On Vram not sure what the Min requirement is, but 640 megs should be enough, But is less than what is the Norm for most newer GPUs .

E6300 should be OK for 1920 x 1080P.

I had a E6400 (OCed to 3.2 GHz) forget what GPU I had (It's in the Closet) Hooked up to a 24" Monitor/HDTV (1920 x 1200), Played Blu-rays fine.

Currently have a 32" samsung LED HDTV that I'm using at a Monitor. Note: this replaced the samsung 27" Monitor/TV.
Inputs:
Hdmi 1 - i5-750 (OCed 3.2 GHz) with a 6770 GPU
Hdmi 2 - i5-2400k (OCed 4.2 GHz) with a 6870 GPU
HDMI 3 - Stand-alone DVD recorder with cable input.

Only reason I mentioned above is to point out that the problem is driver settings, or your Hardware, .Hard to find exactly what the Min requirements are for 1920 x 1080.
Did Find this on older systems: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/226487-28-processor-requirement-seamless-1080p

 

[cale_afterearth]

I'm pretty sure u may have a bottleneck ...?

I have a q6600 @ 2.4ghz
with a geforce 9800gtx
4gb ddr2 800mhz ram

and I kept getting the same thing.

but as soon as I overclocked my CPU to 3ghz it stopped.

maybe u should look into it, doesn't cost u anything.

also I'm connected to a HDTV @ 1080p via dvi -> HDMI. plus a monitor.

 

[PCgamer81]

I will be honest...

I think your best bet would be to get yourself a modern GPU with an HDMI port. You can grab yourself a 6770 1GB for around $120 that would perform waaay better than the 9800gts 640mb and would be newer with better driver support.

 

[Overawed]

You guys are quick so I will address you by name on here:

CaedenV - I have matched the refresh and resolution of the two and still it was choppy. I lowered the resolution and this improved the spike time between "hiccups" but they were still there fairly heavily even at 1360 x 768 (that may be incorrect going off my poor memory on those values). Yeah I thought the 9800 should be sufficient but that may be inaccurate simply due to age of the card.

RetiredChief - My apologies for the confusion there as I simply cut and pasted a list from the invoice on original purcahse (Feb 2007). I do have 3 gigs of ram and it is all DDR2. I could add ram but this is not really a big deal if it doesn't work, I just thought I would give it a try. I started out with 1920x 1080 and then when I had problems I scaled down through about a dozen lesser settings to no real avail. I did go through the link you provided and based on their data I should be having zero issues. More troubleshooting to go! Yay....

Cale_afterearth - I was wondering if I had a bottleneck somewhere either hardware or software driven. I neglected to mention that everything works as expected in safe mode but I don't think that is of any help on this problem. I have never overclocked this cpu but I know the motherboard is capable of it and I will give it a whirl. Let you know if I am successful or not. I might try the dual monitor thing too. I did not want to leave a monitor hooked up but if that works no problem I can leave one on it...lol

PCgamer81 - Yup if I cannot get this to work successfully, with the data I now have, I will try another card. This machine in discussion has only a 420w power supply so will have to do with something fairly tame but I should be able to get a nice radeon or nvidia that fits the bill. One friend of mine states that ATI is the only one who has the default sending of audio and video through the HDMI port on a video card, but I am not sure of that statement being fact or fiction as I have not done the research yet.

Thanks to all of you so far and I will continue to play. When I am resolved I will post here. Have a new hardware cable due in Friday and if that fails or I cannot get it before then I will put in a new video card this weekend and see if that clears it up.

 

[cale_afterearth]

I hope u get it sorted soon
the overclock on my system made a massive difference in games, skyrim especially. before I was stuck at med-low settings, @1600x900 (Max monitor Res) n I'd get about 20fps.
now I can set it to Max except I turn fsaa off, 1080p on the TV at 40~fps.

also I have both TV and monitor connected but I only use 1 at a time. unless playing supreme commander.
I make sure one is disabled in windows Cos sometimes nvidia will like to run both even if one is switched off

 

[RetiredChief]

You did catch that cale_afterearth had the same problem but solved it by OCing CPU. If not mistaken that was also used by one of the individuals in that post I linked.

The E6300, like my E6400, Overclocks realitively easily. I had no problems getting my E6400 to 3.2 GHz. But if using tha (YUK) stock HSF, you would need to get a better aftermarket HSF.

Quick question, You said you have 3 gigs Ram install. Is that 2 x 512 plus 2 x 1 gig modules? Reason I ask, Must have 4 modules, not 3 to run in daul channel mode. Have you double checked that the memory is error free and runing in daul channel mode. Down load CPUID CPU-z, install and run. At the top will be a memory tab that will display if in single channel or daul channel mode.

CPU-z: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

To check memory for errors use Prime 95: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

 

[Overawed]

I will go through those this evening. I did run a memory checker and found no issues. I do have 1 gig in one and 4 (512's) in the other slots. Maybe that is a contributing cause.

Out of curiosity, I know the motherboard manual has some basic definition and processes for overclocking but is there a good article on performing that procedure? I looked over some of the manual's data on oc but apparently this motherboard was made with overclocking about everything in mind. Gets a bit confusing and I don't want to burn anything up by screwing this up...lol

Thanks again!

 

[RetiredChief]

Puzzled. You have 4 or 6 memory slots?? Anyway if you have a mixmatch of ram most likely you are running single channel.
ie go for 4 gigs (2 x 2) for $55 and up.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611%20600006042%20600006066%20600006107&IsNodeId=1&name=DDR2%20800%20%28PC2%206400%29
Over Clocking E6300:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=overclocking+e6300+guide&oq=overclocking+E6300&aq=1&aqi=g3g-v1&aql=&gs_l=hp.1.1.0l3j0i15.2776l11029l0l15225l18l12l0l6l6l0l156l1015l11j1l18l0.&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=799dc676f220bf41&biw=1023&bih=624

 

[PCgamer81]

Even with a 420w PSU you should be able to handle something mid-range from the 7xxx series which is very low on power requirements. Good luck. Sorry I can't help more.

 

[cale_afterearth]

to overclock my q6600 from 2.4 to 3.0 ghz, I basically copied a YouTube video,lol

only needed to change 4 options.
going any higher gets more complicated tho, but that was a 25% increase in 5 minutes.
3.2ghz is alittle harder... and I've given up on 3.6ghz (50%!!) Cos its just too hot.

also as retiredcheif said, mismatched ram may be the issue too, tho ddr2 is getting more expensive now!
I was gonna get an extra 4gb but its nearly £100($160) here!

 

[Overawed]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you but I was having communications with the makers of my EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX. Apparently it was the card itself. Not quite sure how to explain what was causing it as I was unable to clearly establish that even with the help of the tech support guys. Anyway long story short, just for giggles, I took a Radeon 4850 out of another machine I had and poof, everything worked perfectly. Replaced the 9800 GTX and had same problems again. Not sure what the deal was but in the end it is working fine now with the Radeon card in it.

Thanks for everything and I did overclock it as well and got a performance kick to boot! Yaay!

 

[RetiredChief]

Great ENJOY,

Did you also verify your ram is runing in daul channel Mode.
Can use Cpui-z and click on the memory tab at the top. DO NOT want to see single channel listed.

 

[Overawed]

Yup all good thanks again.

 

[RetiredChief]

Enjoy!!!

 

[Overawed]

Best answer selected by Overawed.