G1S-A1 to HDTV via HDMI

I have a G1S-A1 on the way. I am going to want to hook it up to my HDTV (Samsung 1080p DLP) via the HDMI port. The connection would be into an A/V receiver that has an HDMI passthrough (so it will decode and seperate the audio for me to my 5.1 sound system and then sent just the video to the TV). What I am worried about is possibly damaging my HDTV. What settings should my video card be on? Stock? Do I need to be worrying or am I just paranoid. I am fairly tech savvy but I have never done this before so I figured it would be REALLY smart to ask you guys.

 

You need to find out what resolutions your DLP will accept, and what resolutions your card will output. For me, I output a VGA<->VGA to my Samsung 32" LCD @ 1360x768 on the TV, although I think the card outputs at 1366x768. So there is a slight loss of pixels, but hardly noticible. To view your full resolution I think your TV and card have to be able to run 1900x1080 if I'm not mistaken?

 

Other than that, I'm good?

 

Looks like from nVidia's website, the 8600GT can output 1080p. Link.

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure that you won't be getting a 5.1 signal out of the HDMI port on the G1S. I'm assuming it's just a port attached to the video card, and that the card has no means of grabbing digital 5.1 audio streams and passing them through to the HDMI out.

 

1. Having the wrong resolution won't damage your HDTV, it will either not display or pan or resize.
2. So far the HDMI port on Asus laptops do not carry audio so you will probably want to use the SPDIF out.

Do we know if Asus has started to include HDCP on any models yet?

 

I'm not sure about the audio path. HDMI is SUPPOSED to be an combined signal so I would assume it could carry audio as well. If it does, the only question remaining is if it is a stereo or surround sound signal. Since most laptops w/ HDMI are touted as being "multimedia" laptops, I'd assume it could output to 5.1.

But yeah, just be careful testing, and make friends with the "esc" key. If you are testing resolutions and you get a black screen, hit the "esc" key and it'll undo the changes. You may also want to consider a more advanced program for controlling your output (e.g. coolbits, powerstrip, etc). That will give you options for fine-tuning color, screen size, resolution, overclocking, etc.

Are you looking to do gaming on your DLP or just want to do your basic computing?

 

My first thought was movies but I might try gaming. Audio through the HDMI would be great but if not that is fine too.

This is why I asked in the first place, to see if anyone had any experience with the HDMI port and so far I just want to thank you guys for your time.

 

oh, so g1s cant do audio from HDMI ? argh, been looking for ages over last few days trying to figure out why audio wasnt going :/ .

 

This weekend, I hooked up my G1S to my flatmates Pioneer HDTV, which supports resolutions up to 1024x768. It hooked up fine and the picture quality on stills was great - but one issue that really bugged me watching movies was that I saw this very noticeable 'tearing' on the HDTV that was not apparent on the G1S' own LCD screen.

The tearing looked a bit like what you see when VSync is off in games, and it really distracted from watching my 'trailers'.. The media viewer I used was VLC.

Do you guys have any experience of this, or has your HDMI connection on your G1S been fine for watching movies? I'm not sure whether the problem is the G1S, the HDMI cable I'm using (its the same one that we use to connect our Sky HD satellite box to the TV, which has always worked fine for regular HDTV), or the settings I have in VLC/Vista (default settings)?

Any hints/tips would be great!

Thanks,

Petrov.

 

You're probably right about the VSync. What do you have the refresh rate set to for the HDMI out?

 

I think its 60Hz, would have to check - can you turn vsync on/off for HDMI output (I'm using VLC as the media player)? The screen isnt flickering like a low-Hz refresh, its tearing, particularly visible in scenes involving lots of moving images (as opposed to scenes with few moving images/parts)?

Petrov.

 

Petrov, the phenomenon you report sounds like the well-known size limitation in refreshing large LCDs. I bet you don't see the tearing on a smaller LCD.

 

Sorry for asking, but what is tearing and why does it happen?

 

You can read about vsync and tearing here.

 

Ok, Ill have to remember that. BTW storm, I took a look at that link just to check it out and it was really good. Nice find.

 

Awesome write up, thanks for that!

 

Interesting, I wasn't aware of it - and given this 40" HDTV (it may be plasma actually...?) is quite old now (prob >2-3 yrs), that might be it. I will try it on my 22" Viewsonic LCD and see how it goes.

Do you know if this phenomenon of tearing in refreshing large LCDs also occurs with plasma screens?

Thanks as always!

Petrov.

 

You just have to select the high definition audio output to output audio via HDMI on the asus g1s

 

The HDMI post on the G1S can do audio. I've done it on mine to my HDTV. You just have to be sure to change your settings in the RealTek HD Audio Manager to digital out.