pc dvd output to tv

[justin_sane]

i tried hooking up my tv to my pc to watch dvd movies using my graphics card's (nvidia geforce 400mx) tv output and powerdvd. there was a picture but it was not full screen and video hardware acceleration could not be activated. any suggestions?

[setarip]

Try TVTool...

(Do a Googlesearch)

[Qyd]

TV-tool allows you to send full video frame to tv by faking the screen resolution (it's a great tool, but the shareware version only allows 10 min TV-out at a time)
If you want the entire sceen on TV using NVidia's 'clone' mode, set screen resolution to 800x600.

[Comberman]

I have a Leadtek nvidia G4ce 440 MMX AGP8x and with any luck your nvidia settings may be the same as mine.
Right click on Desktop and select Properties.
Select Advanced Settings.
Select nView Display Mode
Select Gamma Correction (may not be necessary but its worth checking:
Set Digital Vibrance to Off
Set Brightness, Contrast and Gamma to Centre Positions.
Click on Device Selection.
Click Detect Displays.
Click on Device Adjustments. This will bring up the Screen Adjustment panel for the Selected (TV) device.

As a matter of interest if you adjust your refresh rate on your PC monitor (the nvidia software will let you know how high you will be able to go with your particular monitor) and you have a 17" screen, you should be able to get a virtually perfect picture, better than you'll ever get with any 405 or 625 line TV. Because of the nature of interlacing you will always get a "soft" pic, but on your 17" monitor cranked up to a refresh rate of 85+ you will get a brilliant, pencil-sharp picture.
Cheers!

[justin_sane]

ok. used nvidia's nview mode and managed to get a full screen on the tv using a 800x600 resolution. however, still can't get hardware acceleration on the dvd playback. should i try turning off the monitor and just using the tv as the only output device?

[Comberman]

<however, still can't get hardware acceleration on the dvd playback. should i try turning off the monitor and just using the tv as the only output device?>

You're not trying to do two things at once - are you? I'm not sure about the "hardware acceleration" bit. I normally just directed the signal to the TV and away it went. What is happening to your TV picture that makes you want hardware acceleration - or believe that it will make any difference? Don't forget that the principles and/or protocols of delivering images to a PC monitor and a TV are completely different. What you see on the TV is Interlaced Video and once the signal leaves the PC output (either by SCART/SVS/UHF) it has gone beyond the control or influence of "Hardware Acceleration".
If there is something wrong with your TV pic and you suspect that it has something to do with Hardware Acceleration you could check DirectX by running "dxdiag".
Select Run.
Enter: "dxdiag" (without the quotes)
Select the Display Tab and carry out the tests. Dxdiag will perform its tests in line with your set up. It will advise if your DirectX is at optimal. You could tweak your OpenGL settings, but as far as I know Hardware Acceleration (whatever form it takes: OpenGL, DirectDraw, etc) is associated ONLY with display adaptors.
I have a niggling suspicion that I may not have taken you up correctly and that all this may be like "teaching Granny to suck eggs", maybe you could come back with some more info.

[justin_sane]

the actual dvd playback is stuttering without hardware acceleration. however, this could be due to me trying to output a signal to both my monitor and tv at the same time. will try to do a single output and see what happens. dxdiag tests performed fine.