Need Help with HDTV & NVidia Drivers

Hey all, I've been futzing with this thing for most of today and can not get the optimal combination- so I'm hoping someone on here had the same issue and can help me out.

I'm trying to run BluRay onto my HDTV in 1080p 120hz from my Sony Vaio.

I had installed some new nvidia drivers from laptop2go, but they were not signed and would not allow BluRay to work. However, it allowed me to resize my desktop to fit properly on my HDTV.

I then installed the regular Sony drivers and everything works fine- except the edges of the computer are off the HDTV and I can not resize them.

I have loaded the 8400 and 8800 desktop drivers from Nvidia through the Have Disk method. They both would only allow screen refresh of 24hz, not the 60hz the default drivers have.

So- long story short...

Does anyone know a driver I can use, that will allow me to play BluRay and Resize my desktop as well as get 60hz?

I owe someone a couple beers if they can figure this out for me. Thanks.

 

It could well be an option available on your TV. Look for things in the TV options menu having to do with overscan or 1:1 pixel ratio. Also, look at the different "widescreen" options. They often will scale the image in different ways so that the entire image will show. Could you provide your TV make and model too?

 

Quick Reply- My model number is
hl61a650c1fxza

I'll look for an option, but have not found one yet on it.

 

Ok, page 28 of your manual. Try setting your screen format to Just Scan and your computer to 1920X1080 resolution. I think that may work for you.

 

I'm using an HDMI cable and have my computer set to 1920x1080 at 60hz.
I tried this a couple times because you think it would work, lol... it's about 1/4" off on the right, top and bottom and probably 1/2" off the left. Which basically cuts off some important stuff, lol.

Thanks for trying to help. I'm open to any more thoughts!

 

I also tried the position function and while this works a little, i think the image is bigger than it should be. I need an over-ride on the Just Size!

 

Just to see what it would do, what happens when you put the laptop at 1280X800 or something (lower in both dimensions than 1920X1080 is the point) and set the TV to Just Scan?

 

hehe, i tried that. it put a green box around the excess screen. It fit and all-but not quite what i want

 

Yeah, but it is good to see what it would do, just to get a feel for what the TV might actually be doing. What is weird is that you are getting screen positioning options even though you are using HDMI. Those adjustments are generally only for VGA signals. What happens if you use higher than 1920X1080? Does it even work? Or 1920X1200?

 

Good luck ! - I don't have a blu-ray drive, so unfortunately, I can't recommend a driver, but I always have the same experience with 1920 x 1080 output onto a HD TV, using HDMI. The image always stretches off the screen because of pixel size ratio, and some Nvidia drivers incorporate the "Resize Desktop" utility but others don't, but the image always runs of the screen in both X and Y (On all 3 of my HDTV's anyway) and different drivers allow different output frequencies.

 

The max res is 1920x1080.

I tried a couple more drivers, but none of the resize desktop features are actually working.

The only driver that worked well for this, was one from laptop2go for Sony- except that it was not signed so I could not play my BluRay. If I could get the signed version of this driver from Nvidia somehow, I think life would be dandy... I think it is 167.43

 

I know it sounds kind of lame, but have you tried just playing the blu-ray in a non-maximized window so that everything gets on the screen? Yeah you will probably lose some fidelity, but at least everything will show up. Stopgap method until you find a real solution.

 

yeah, Bluray is fine and i'm not worried about it- at this point, i'm looking for the real solution.

 

I blame your TV. See if customer service will be able to help at all? The TV really is to blame if you can't get a 1920X1080 signal to display at 1:1.

 

You you tried to create a "custom resolution"? There is a option for it in Nvidia Control Panel (does seem to work right on the 169 series tho). I know you aren't having a issue sending it 1920x1080, but you SHOULD be able to force the refresh rate using that option.

 

I may try customer service, but at the moment I have it setup in such a way that it is 'working'...as for the NVidia control panel, the drivers that came with my laptop that I am now using have next to nothing in the panel. When I install better/newer drives, I have many options and can even resize the desktop.

Problem is though, these drivers are not digitally signed so I can not play my BluRay.

 

This is known as overscan. It's a common practice with all TVs, got nothing to do with video driver. Some newer model have an option to turn it off and do 1:1 pixel. Read page 47 to 49 of your user manual.

 

Wiz, Just Scan would seem to be the way to avoid overscan loss, but it didn't work.

 

Correct. Just Scan doesn't help.

I had a video driver that allowed me to fix the overscan, but unfortunately it wasn't signed.

At this point, I've just readjusted my desktop and apps to fit on screen, for the most part...and I'm living with it.

 

It has everything to do with the videocard/driver....

A computer is just a "source" just like a TV/DVD/Blu-Ray/PS3/360 etc....... It sends out a video signal period.

You need to be able to setup your computer to send out the correct resolution/refresh or you will get overscan issues. Yes better TV's can help. But if you cannot configure your source to exactlly what your tv needs you will have these problems.

 

It's got NOTHING to do with the video driver. It's a problem of most TV. Most TV overscan the signal as there are usually a little noise at the top or bottom of a TV picture. A lot of TV manufacturer was slow to realize that a lot of people will be using HTPC on their HDTV and they did not provide a option to turn off the overscan. In that case, the only way to to get around it is to get a utilities that will allow custom resolution change down to each pixel and reduce your desktop to fit inside the TV. but it's a imperfect way of doing thing as you won't get true native resolution.

Fortunately, most newer HDTV now have a PC mode that turns off overscan and give you native 1920x1080 full screen support.

 

Wiz.... Again a computer is a source.... Send the TV the proper resolution and refresh there will be no over/underscan. There is nothing "special" or "different" about the signal a computer sends out. I didn't mean for my post to "attack" you or anything. But you did read where the OP said that he got it to work perfect with a certain driver didn't you? And his question is which driver is digitally signed, along with allowing him to send his TV the proper spec.

OP have you tried the latest WHQL driver?

 

He got around it by using a reduced desktop area. Which you would not have to if the HDTV properly support PC input. Basically, instead of a 1920x1080 desktop, he got something like a 18?? X 10?? res. The problem is that while this work to display the full desktop, any Blu-ray DVD will not be playing at native res, it will be squeezing a 1920x1080 picture into a smaller area. Not the best image quality (not bad but not the best). A HDTV need the proper option to accept PC display to avoid that.

 

Wiz, while I agree with you that it is probably at least majority the fault of the TV, you are wrong as to why Blu-Ray is a problem. Without a digitally signed driver, there will be HDCP validation issues, and thus Blu-Ray will not play at all. It has nothing to do with reduced image quality do to scaling.

 

This is my problem. Since it is a laptop, the only WHQL driver is the original one from Sony. There are updated drivers for nVidia cards, but none of the ones I tried worked the best. Some let me fix the overscan, but only gave me 30hz, etc... these were some desktop drivers I found.

If anyone knows of a good driver to use that would work- I'm all ears.

Also, for my fix, to clarify- I did not resize my desktop. Merely I moved icons around, moved the start bar to the top and then moved the entire screen via the TV... now I see most of the TV and nothing is much hanging off... so when I watch BRay it's brilliant...

obviously though, I'd love either a driver or utility someone could point me too that can get this working better.

 

Arggg again NOT a TV issue. Man if I could only show people this. Maybe I will do a Youtube video or something lol. I do this every single day. I can take any laptop with DVI or HDMI out and hook it up to any TV is DVI or HDMI in. With no overscan/underscan issues. It really all comes down to the proper res and refresh. Lets say in a perfect world all TV's have the same resolution for 1080p (and actually most do, it is 720p that there are a few different resolutions used, even though true 720p res is 1280x720). As long as you can set your output from your computer to 1920x1080 (most of the later Nvidia drivers allow custom resolutions, and even have a option "treat as HDTV"), and the proper refresh (which is the the one that can give you issues, some TV's might be 60hz, some might be 59.97/96. Sorry to threadjack But name what makes the digital output of a laptop different then that of a Blu-ray/360/PS3 etc.... Other then that a computer is much more configurable. And might not be so "plug and play". And then tell me that why if my personal 50" 1080p Plasma does not have a "PC" mode, yet my desktop is perfect? Or when some of the first Sony RPTV HD TV's came out, it took alot of tweaking of the computer to get the proper screen size? That almost everyone had to use Powerstrip because 1366x728 was not a common resolution. Anyways, I am stopping the rant. If you would like it explained more, just PM me.

Back to the OP, there are many WHQL drivers on laptopvideo2go. I even think the latest 175.80's are? Each driver (in the forums) of LV2G's site had a green check mark, or a red X saying if they are WHQL or not. Also I would suggest using a driver that has a "original inf" folder. And finding which one of those INF's you need to use. I have always had issues using the "modified driver" from them when using a second display. As in getting overscan after a reboot.

 

I spent months working with HDTVs and various computer outputs to them. I know perfectly well that many many of these problems are TV-side. No, not all of them, but very many. If an HDTV supports a given resolution, it will scale it to fit however many physical pixels it has. No amount of tweaking the output from the computer will change this fundemental fact. If the computer is sending a 1920X1080 signal at 30 or 60 Hz and the TV supports that resolution and refresh, it will scale it to that many physical pixels. If you have to tweak your output more than setting it to 1280X720/1920X1080@30/59/60 Hz, then you should probably return your TV. All other tweaks should be TV-side.

 

Just give AnyDVDHD a try. I don't pirate movies but the HDCP bypass is perfect for laptops in situation like this.

 

You still don't get it. Do you. The term "overscan" is used differently in the HDTV world than on PC monitors. In PC terms, A overscan is driving a display at a higher frequency that it can support thus not getting a picture on the screen. In HDTV terms, what it means is the TV will be displaying a slightly smaller picture than it received and you'll be missing anywhere from a few to 10s of pixels on each edge of the TV without the ability to turn off overscan.

Now, most people won't even realize it's happening. The only time you'll have a problem is if the overscan is bad enough that part of a icon on the screen edge actually disappear. The easiest way to see this is to move your mouse to the left or top edge of the screen. If you lose parts/all of it at the edge, you got overscan.

 

Still? Again.... A computer is a SOURCE. Just a source. Overscan is overscan, underscan is underscan. The way people "translate" it might be different from TV's and computers (even though this is the first time I have heard of this).

I do agree, that in this day if it does take this much tweaking to get a proper image from a source on your HDTV it should go back. But again it goes back to with enough tweaking you can always get a perfect picture.

 

Are you referring to the driver found here?-
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18824

If so, how can I tell it is digitally signed? Also, does this NOT have a modified ini?

I will try this when I get home in a couple of hours if you guys think it will be signed and allow both BluRay and a resize of my dekstop to fit.

If it does, I'm buying the beers.

 

This topic has just reminded me that I will be able to stream HD stuff from my laptop via HDMI to my TV.

Thanks!

I don't think I'll have any problems with that signed stuff because mine will all be MKV

 

No! You can't. If your TV is only giving you 1880x1040 (from a 1920x1080 source) on the screen due to overscan. There is nothing you can do to get a perfect picture. Go spend some time over at the Home Theater PC section at Avsforum and learn somethings before coming back here.

 

Yea, use the ones that has ODM/OEM on this list and give it a try. The Modded inf does not change the driver, it just trick the install into believe that your mobile GPU is supported.

 

Update: I've loaded the drivers and can now resize my desktop and have the overscan handled. In addition, I'm running in 1080 at 60hz.

BluRay: Unfortunately I do not have a disc with me, though the new ones should arrive tomorrow. However, I am not thinking this will work.

Perhaps I am doing something wrong, but I downloaded the .exe and unzipped it, then chose have disk when I was installing the driver. I selected the .ini file that was included (I did not download the modified ini file).
When I did this, for every card it said it supported- it said, This driver is not signed. Then it threw warnings while I was trying to install.

So- given that BluRay is picky, I'm not sure how this is WHQL and I doubt that BRay will work...

Tips?

 

You might be able to find a Blu-Ray player that will downscale the video when HDCP fails as that is a compliant behavior (or at least it was for HD-DVD), but most players choose to just not paly without HDCP. Other than that...

 

On a side note, I have a 8400M GT, but the driver only lists 8400M G and 8400M GS (in the 8400 series)- which should I choose?

sirmetman- what do you mean by downscale? Like, not play it in 1080p? That would defeat the entire purpose

 

Well, at least you would be able to watch them... but yeah, it would play them at 1/4 res, 960X540, if memory serves. The idea is that if your device can't guarantee content protection, you won't be able to get an HD signal. The player implementer (as long as they are being compliant) can either choose to downscale or just not play at all in the event no HDCP signal comes across.

 

I'd rather go with the OEM driver and watch BRay like I paid for and just move the icons on the desktop to compensate for the overscanning.

 

To get full res that way though, you'll probably have to do some funky res stuff. If you run your GPU at 1920X1080 and your TV has 1920X1080 physical pixels but you get overscan, you are still going to have scaling issues on the TV in that you effectively have less than 1920X1080 pixels displaying on 1920X1080 physical pixels. It will probably still look better than with downscaling, but it won't be optimal. I wonder what would happen if you put a reciever inbetween the TV and the laptop.

 

Give AnyDVDHD a try and it may fix your problem. (it should allow you to watch Blu-ray in full-res with non-signed drivers).

 

I loaded AnyDVDHD (restarted), then put in Casino Royal... WinDVD won't play it.

 

Any error message?

 

haha. I went to check on the error message and it magically works now...

Aside from having to spend a ton of money on this software, I think all the help on this thread has helped.

if anyone knows a cheaper solution though, I'd appreciate it