HTPC questions

[blueonblack]

I'm currently playing with putting together an HTPC. I took my desktop out to the living room and hooked it to my plasma TV to test out the video tonight. It has ATI HD4200 integrated.

When I play a movie, either from the hard drive or directly from the disc, I get this ugly "ghosting" effect, especially around faces and certain textures. It's hard to describe, "ghosting" comes close, it also makes them look like water-colors sometimes, just not clear and sharp at all.

I noticed this phenomenon on a LOT of TVs on display before I bought this one but had no idea what caused it. I know it's not my TV because my dedicated DVD player plays movies perfectly, everything sharp as a razor.

I'm new to this PC-to-TV thing, am I missing something obvious? I'm connecting from the motherboard via built-in HDMI, but it also does the exact same thing coming off of my HD4870 video card with a DVI to HDMI adapter.

[Trace]

Check the refresh rate I think

[blueonblack]

Hmmmm, ok. Since the DVD player works a setting like that should be in the PC somewhere. I'm using Windows Media Center, I'll look around in there for a refresh-rate setting. Or would that be a video-properties issue outside Media Center?

Edit: I found that in Video Properties, it's set to 59 but has a 60 setting. Can I assume the TV is 60 from the factory?

[Airbozo]

set it to 60 and check


Also make sure you are using a good quality cable. I had an issue with a cheap hdmi cable I bought.

[blueonblack]

Ok, I tried 59 and 60 both, no improvement. I thought of the cable also, since it is a cheap one, but I hooked the dedicated DVD player to the TV with the same cable in the same HDMI slot on the TV and still get a perfect picture. $&*(#$#@*!!!

[Luke122]

Check in the catalyst control center to see if there are options for HD video output.. might just be a setting you can tweak.

[Luke122]

Oh also, check your color depth.

[Diamon]

Try another media player, I'd recommend Winamp for that purpose.

[diluzio91]

check overscan, and check that the card recognizes it as a TV, not a monitor (dumb i know, but still true), and last but not least try setting refresh and messing around with it... for some reason on my tv it ran best at 57....