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resolution issue


Swynol
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Swynol

hi, wondering if anyone has come across the same issue that i have

 

my setup

 

MBT on HTPC > hdmi out to hdmi in on > Onkyo nr626 > hdmi out > tv

 

the issue is, if MBT is already running on my htpc while all other equipment is off and then i go to turn my amp and tv on and to the correct channels, for a split second my onkyo amp makes my PC change its resolution to 800x640 and then it picks up the correct hdcp id and the res goes back to 1080p. 

 

however MBT gets stuck at 800x640 in the top corner of the screen and the rest of the screen i can see the desktop. MBT still works but if i try to make it full screen it crashes, i then have to force close it and re open it for MBT to fill the screen. its a right pain because i cant force close it with the remote so i have to go to the cupboard to use the keyboard and mouse to fix it.

 

i have tried adding a hdmi splitter, one output goes to the amp and the second output to a 1080p monitor. this stops the amp from changing the resolution so MBT looks fine, but because the hdcp reports that the monitor doesnt support HD audio formats, my files fail to play because of it. 

 

any ideas?

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Koleckai Silvestri

The resizing is a limitation of Windows being told what the display size is. It will shrink apps to fit the smaller resolution but doesn't increase them if the resolution improves. One of the reasons that I believe all HTPC machines need a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse or track pad.

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Swynol

ah ok, was wondering if there was anyway to force the PC to stay at 1080p and ignore the HDMI handshake.

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A8HTPC

I had a similar problem with my AMD setup. I had to disable the secondary video display port in the BIOS. Though my issue was turning off my TV would drop my resolution to 800x600 and everything would stay that way even after turning the TV on a res. at 1920x1080

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Swynol

i will take a look. i wonder if Nvidia cards have the same issue? 

 

annoyingly my old AVR didnt change the res when i turned it on.

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Ghostm

ah ok, was wondering if there was anyway to force the PC to stay at 1080p and ignore the HDMI handshake.

 

I use gefen hdmi detective, bit pricey. 

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psykix

I use gefen hdmi detective, bit pricey. 

 

Ditto here - I went through so many issues with Windows 7 and Mediaportal crashing when the amp was switched off that I bought a Gefen HDMI Detective too.

 

I don't have it connected at the moment though, and MBT/Windows 8.1 doesn't appear to have the same issue any more?

 

There were also some workarounds for the issue, see here :-

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/windows-7-movesresizes-windows-on-monitor-power/1653aafb-848b-464a-8c69-1a68fbd106aa?auth=1

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Swynol

thanks for the info, i will give it a go. 

 

may have to give 8.1 a go but i had issues transcoding with 8.1

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Swynol

ive done the reg changes so time will tell.

 

media centre pc is always on as its my server aswell

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Ghostm

Ditto here - I went through so many issues with Windows 7 and Mediaportal crashing when the amp was switched off that I bought a Gefen HDMI Detective too.

 

I don't have it connected at the moment though, and MBT/Windows 8.1 doesn't appear to have the same issue any more?

 

There were also some workarounds for the issue, see here :-

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/windows-7-movesresizes-windows-on-monitor-power/1653aafb-848b-464a-8c69-1a68fbd106aa?auth=1

 

I have windows 7, wonder if windows 8 is different or my yamaha amp and an amd card. The only thing I find with mbt is when i have mbt/htpc fired up before the avr is on mbt seems to go into a window and then i have to maximize it. 

 

Does not crash however which is nice.  Xbmc also used to crash for me, or give me an error saying cannot produce gui. 

Edited by Ghostm
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psykix

I have windows 7, wonder if windows 8 is different or my yamaha amp and an amd card. The only thing I find with mbt is when i have mbt/htpc fired up before the avr is on mbt seems to go into a window and then i have to maximize it. 

 

Does not crash however which is nice.  Xbmc also used to crash for me, or give me an error saying cannot produce gui. 

 

Well, I have taken my HDMI Detective off since moving to Windows 8 and no longer have that issue. My HTPC stays on all the time, and since I added Steam launcher to MBT then I just leave the HTPC permanently in MBT. I've kept hold of the HDMI Detective just in case though!

 

I have also changed my graphics card though - I was using the HD4000 and recently added a GTX760.

 

Mediaportal introduced a fix for the issue - there's a 53 page thread about it if you want to read up on what causes it and how changes were made to Mediaportal to fix the issue.

 

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/windows-7-half-fullscreen.71785/

 

Some report that Windows 8 fixes it for them, whilst others don't!

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A8HTPC

When you bring up "screen Resolution" in windows, do you see multiple monitors? If so, your graphics card software might be able to "force" the other make believe monitor to 1920x1080p. I had to do this on mine to. for some reason it switched to this other make believe monitor but after forcing it to the same resolution, it wouldn't mess anything up after switching back and forth. If not, do you have a VGA cable you can plug into the VGA output of your computer? this would trigger windows into thinking there is another monitor and have a bit more control over forcing the resolution. Otherwise...windows defaults to "Display device on: VGA" when nothing is plugged into it and you have little to no control over this. pretty stupid.

I have been playing with this more last night and will do some today cause I'm curious why windows does this. I can see it happen when I remotely connect to my HTPC from my laptop via VNC Viewer or Team Viewer.

Edited by A8HTPC
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Swynol

tried the reg changes, some weird stuff happening now. instead of MBT being resized into the top left 1024x768 it now keeps it size of 1920x1080 but MBT is moved left so only see half of MBT but still crashes it. 

 

for now i have had to program my harmony remote to close MBT if i change activity or turn the TV off. 

 

one other idea i havent had a chance to try yet is to use HDMI pass-through on my amp to see if it changes still changes the res then

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  • Solution
A8HTPC

Found Solution (Workaround)

 

Problem: Windows changes resolution when shutting of TV or other HDMI equipment from 1920x1080 to other much lower resolutions.
Note: This does not stop windows from switching video sources or resolution, so this won't work for everyone. Only corrects the resolution of the "Display device on: VGA" Resolution which windows keeps reverting too, at least on my PC. I have also changed settings in my BIOS to force HDMI and Force internal video. and Oddly enough windows still tries to use VGA.

 

I tried looking in the registry for this "Display device on:VGA" and manually change the resolution in the reg since that would be much easier. But only found my TV profiles. I'll keep search though, not sure if I will find it.

 

You need to download either Teamviewer which is an internet based remote desktop application (slower user response) or RealVNC which is a local network based remote desktop application (faster user response) With RealVNC, install the server side onto your HTPC and the viewer on your other computer.

 

In the videos I used TeamViewer only to eliminate a possible problem with RealVNC. RealVNC installs a Mirror Video Adaptor which I was not sure or not if that was creating the problem. I later found out it was not. So you can use RealVNC.

 

**You may want to download the videos to watch them in higher quality and better FPS**

Video 1 shows the issue I am referring too.

During the video, my TV is ON. When the video screen goes blank and changes resolution, you can see windows uses "display device on:VGA" at 1024x768. Then after a few seconds with the TV still off, windows reverts back to the Panasonic TV profile, even though TV is OFF.

 

Resolution Problem.MKV

 

Video 2 shows how to change the resolution of display device on:VGA and how it works after.

You need to have quick hands. I only had a few seconds to change the resolution. This may not work for everyone.

During this video, I start out with my TV ON, bring up Screen Resolution, Center the window to my screen and turn the TV OFF and wait for windows to change video sources and resolution. I then quickly change the resolution from 1024x768 to 1920x1080 and click apply and then keep settigns. Afterwards, I turn the TV back on and you can see the screen flicker once when doing this. Then I turn the TV back off and you can watch windows revert to display device on: VGA with the resolution 1920x1080.

 

Resolution Solution.MKV

 

MBT now stays Full Screen when turning my TV off and back on.

Edited by A8HTPC
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A8HTPC

For a more permanent solution the gefen hdmi detective and other EDID learning hardware would be more effective

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Swynol

thanks, i will give this a go later. i use splashtop and when connected i do see the resolution changing. you must have super fast hands lol

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Swynol

omg, you are a genius. i cant thank you enough. 

 

i did it slightly different to what you did. i tried your way but when i was remotely connected to the htpc it was freeze for a second which didnt give me enough time to change the vga res to 1920x1080. 

 

i vaguely remembered seeing that display vga resolution before when you dont have any monitor connected to the htpc - what i did was remoted onto the HTPC, pulled the hdmi cable out of the back of the HTPC which made it change to the VGA setting, i then had all the time in the world to change it to 1920x1080 before plugging the hdmi cable back in.

 

 

its now perfect, it continues to play the video while the tv or avr is off, when i turn it back on all is good. - one of the reasons i wanted this was so i could use hdmi passthrough on my avr so i could still watch something on the tv with my wireless headset on.

 

thanks again

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  • 2 weeks later...
blublub

Hi

 

Just a small addition:

 

1)

For anyone with a decent AVR just make a HDMI EDID override by capturing your AVR's EDID and make a windows monitor-inf-file (merging TV and AVR makes only sense when the TV does support something the AVR doesn't).
You will definitely get rid of "no audio" (for bitsreaming - "normal" sound see below) and "no video" bug that's sure - given that you don't have a bad cable or HDMI plug.

 

2)
You will still have the half-screen issue with MP though. You can get around that one by configuring your HTPC to a monitor resolution of 1080p with NO hardware attached (meaning no TV no AVR - just unplug HDMI at the back of your HTPC).
You then should access your HTPC via remote/RDP connection such as VNC clients.

Set the resolution to 1080p. If it cannot be selected (greyed out or not available) set refresh rate to 30hz and look again - for ATI/AMD users it should the be available then. Once 1080p is set Windows will no longer re-size your desktop on HDMI connection loss/adding.

 

3) PIN 19 Mod

 

4) by a Gefen device

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A8HTPC

Forgot about pin 19 mod. Thanks for sharing. I'll have to look into the monitor inf file

Edited by A8HTPC
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