watching stuff on TV

[k3n51mm]

When I moved into my house, I ran some serious S-video cabling to be able to watch anything I had in digital format on TV. It's been awhile since my first try at it, and I ran into trouble today, again, when I tried it again. I'm certainly not a video wizard, but I'm not a n00b either - I've been on the Net and a programmer since 1994. I'm just hoping some kind soul on this forum can shed some light on the issue.

My TV is a regular 27-inch NTSC Philips Magnavox vintage 2001. It's a heavy bastard, but nothing special.

I have problems on two different boxes. Here's the lowdown on both:

Machine 1
----------
Built: 2004
OS: win xp
DX: directx 9
Windows: all latest updates installed
System: Asus K8N-E/Athlon 64 3200+/1GB RAM/1TB HDD
Codecs: K-Lite Codec Pack installed with defaults
Video card: MSI Radeon 9250
Connection: s-video out to RCA CRF910 adapter to TV

Symptoms: When I tried hooking this box to the TV via S-video out from the Radeon 9250 (yes my secondary monitor is enabled in ATI Catalyst and selected as the TV), I see nothing on the TV screen except the Windows version on the desktop (I have this option enabled in Windows). No taskbar, no programs, nothing....except the Windows version shows clearly. What on earth could be wrong? Seems to me it should be all or nothing - it either shows the bloody desktop or it doesn't.

This is the box I'd really like to get working with TV video, since I built it just to be a multimedia box. I currently listen to mp3's thru my entertainment center via a patch from the sound card. There are no problems with this box otherwise, and it has been stable now for 18 months.

Machine 2
----------
Built: 2006
OS: win 2000
DX: directx 9
Windows: all latest updates installed
System: GA-K8N/Athlon 64 3200+/1GB/.6TB
Video card: GEForce 6200
Connection: s-video out to RCA CRF910 adapter to TV

Symptoms: I could see the desktop from this box (yay), but I couldn't see anything inside the video window of Media Player Classic on this box. Zoom Player (my backup non-MS player) also showed a black screen and nothing would display on the TV inside the video player's window. However, the rest of the desktop was still displayed. So, using Windows Media 9, I tried to play several files, but only one WMV file would work. Many codecs were missing also, so I installed K-Lite codec pack (I accepted defaults on installation).

After I installed K-Lite, everything stopped working, even on the one that worked before: I got a black screen in the video window again, but the rest of the desktop was still displayed.

So then, I uninstalled K-Lite, and the WMV file worked again. Since this was the only file that seemed to work right, I got its info in GSpot:

File Type: ASF (.WMA/.WMV)
Mime Type: Video/x-ms-asf

No other files would work, such as MPG, AVI, VOB, or anything else - yet they played fine on the computer itself as always. Meanwhile, the TV showed a black screen in the video player window, using the three apps mentioned above.

Now to me this seems to be some arcane, complex interaction between codecs, applications, and the adapter going to my TV - but the rules of logic quite escape me in this case, and I can't imagine what would result in such unpredictable and frustrating results. Other people seem to sail right through this with no problem, so I get the feeling I must be missing something fundamental - but I'm damned if I can figure it out.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks

[RFBurns]

Howdy!

Sounds like the setting for your video card/s secondary output is set wrong. Had the same problem with mine and it turned out to be the setting that makes the extra output, in this case the S-Video output either independant or cloned. I have mine set to clone so that everything on the primary display is identical on the S-Video output connection. I believe the setting your system is currently on is "dual" which means the two feeds of video will be different. One will show everything, the other will show only the desktop or background screensaver.

Look at the video cards advanced settings for properly setting up the extra output. It might be that all you would have to do is click on the 2nd monitor in your display properties window, and set that for "clone". It should properly display everything you see on the main monitor.

Hope that helps.

[celtic_druid]

Yep, case 1 sounds like an extended desktop. You should be able to move the mouse from one to the other (also drag windows over), but the taskbar, etc. is only on the primary display.

The 2nd case would be hardware overlay active for only the primary display. You could change the default output in MPC to VMR9. It shouldn't matter then what displays overlay is active for since it won't be used.

[k3n51mm]

thanks for the responses! a couple more questions...

I am intrigued by the possibility that Machine 2 has an extended desktop issue instead of anything else being wrong... but with that video card, I can't find how to make a choice between Clone mode and Extended desktop. That's an ATI Catalyst-controlled card, and there's no explicit Clone setting. That's as opposed to Machine 1, which has an NVidia interface.

By the way, Machine 1 is already set to Clone mode. Besides, I'm still not understanding how the video screen is black and the rest of the desktop (even the video player's window's borders, etc) shows up correctly. It's almost like my TV is saying HAHA! I'll show you everything off your computer EXCEPT what you want to see!

I'm afraid this part is over my head:
"The 2nd case would be hardware overlay active for only the primary display. You could change the default output in MPC to VMR9. It shouldn't matter then what displays overlay is active for since it won't be used." I have no idea what that stuff means...could I beg for clarification?

And finally, is there a possibility of a problem with the RCA adapter I'm using to connect to the TV? I had originally discounted that possibility since I could sort of see the desktops from both computers, but at this point I'm searching for answers. I have an S-video cable running from the secondary output of the computer(s) that hooks into this adapter box. The box has a light on it that comes on when it's receiving an input signal via the S-video cable, at which time it interrupts the incoming cable signal from the cable box, and shows the computer's desktop. Otherwise, it passes the signal through the regular cable input. Should I maybe replace this connection box with something else? Also, the S-video cable is rather long - around 80 feet from computer room to entertainment center. Could that be causing a problem?

THANK YOU FOR THE HELP!

[k3n51mm]

update

OK, just now I figured out how to use Clone mode on the ATI box (Machine 2 above)... and it now shows the desktop correctly. Thanks for the heads up.

Now, I have the same issue on both machines: video windows with black screens. Here are the applications I've tried on both boxes, which all have this problem:

Windows Media Player 9
Media Player Classic
Zoom Player Standard
DVDX Player


I hope this helps narrow down the issue. Thanks again for any advice I can get.

[anonymez]

Now, I have the same issue on both machines: video windows with black screens

for wmp: disable overlays in preferences
for media player classic: set vmr9 under settings-->output
for zoomplayer: settings-->filter control-->vmr9

prefer haali's renderer for mpc and zoomplayer though

[k3n51mm]

Thank You

Anon, I have most of my files working in MPC! Thanks, this has been a 2-year issue.

I only have one last thing to ask on this issue. I still get the black screen when I try to play anything formatted in MPEG-2; like VOB files, M2V, or even MPG's that have MPEG-2 encoding. Does anyone have any insight in this regard?

Thanks again!

[LT. Columbo]

do you have an mpeg-2 decoder?

[anonymez]

in mpc, click options-->internal filters and make sure mpeg2 video is checked. for vmr9 you'll need a dx9 graphics card, so "machine 1" is out, try vmr7

[k3n51mm]

Thank You Anonymez

Unreal. A couple of mouse clicks and it's all working. I can't thank you enough.