TV Monitor and Me

gsteinb88 · 10-29-04, 11:42 PM

I have an old All-in-wonder 7500 (first mistake...). Basically, i have it hooked up to the cable line in my room and would like to hook that up to my tv. So far, i have been able to get it to extend my desktop onto that, but that does me no good as i cannot drag the ati TV utility...the only part that i really want to use. ATI's manual/help page tells me to go to control panel>display and click on the all in wonder tab or something like that. If im using 98 it tells me to go to advanced then the all in wonder displays tab or whatever it is (i think its the second one), and click on something that basically refelects my monitor onto the tv. Problem is, this tab does not exist. Can anyone help? Im running windows xp pro SP1. Thanks
-g

star882 · 10-30-04, 08:52 AM

Forget about the TV; the quality is no good.

gsteinb88 · 10-30-04, 09:44 PM

Anyone want to give helpful advice? I know what i want especially concerning quality. Thanks
-g

The_Doug · 10-30-04, 10:32 PM

back in the day(about 4 months ago) i had a AIW 9800 pro so I will try to remember what i did to get my card to output to my tv.

first thing i did was plug my video card into my tv using an svideo cable while my computer was turned off. Then i would power up the system. Most of the time when i turned my computer on it would display a cloned screen of my primary monitor. If your isnt cloned then go into your display properties and make sure your second display(tv) is set to clone your primary monitor.

I dont know if this will help you at all but though i would post what i could. And i may have left something out, cant remember as its been a while since i used an aiw card

BTW Star882, the picture is virtually indestiguishable when displayed on a tv screen, only when on a higher resolution screen will the quality be degraded

gsteinb88 · 10-30-04, 10:46 PM

2 problems: 1- I dont use S-Video, i have to use composite, my tv is that old (thats why i dont care about quality, its from 1988). The other problem is, i cant find where in the settings to set it to mirror. The only thing i can find is to extend my screen. Want to help me find this? Thanks a bunch
-g
EDIT: The composite part doesnt matter btw, i just need help fidning the setting, and ill try booting it with it plugged in

gsteinb88 · 10-31-04, 10:21 AM

Update: When i boot my computer, it mirrors the screen, until i log in, at which point it stops. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks
-g

deftech · 10-31-04, 06:43 PM

I'm trying to understand why exactly you're trying to do this???

This is the way I'm understanding it, so feel free to correct me anywhere I'm confused...

You're wanting to use the TV tuner on your PC, hook it up to your TV, and use it to watch cable TV. Why not just hook the cable straight into the TV in the first place? Why even use the PC for this?

I'm sure you have reasons, but I'm just not seeing them listed in this thread. If I knew what you were trying to do, I might be able to offer some advice to help you accomplish it. :)

gsteinb88 · 10-31-04, 10:31 PM

Basically 3 reasons. 1- I dont have an extra cable box 2- when i plug the cable line into the vcr it only gets the first 12 channels or so, and i want things like comedy central. 3- When i extend the screen, it wont let me drag my ati multimedia center applications over, most importantly the TV viewer. Thus, i am stuck with watching only the first 12 channels or recording and watching later in something like windows media player. The only cool thing i have done so far with extended desktop is move itunes over, control it with my remote control. It was like having a multimedia center without having one. But i would like to have a mirrored screen instead. Thanks
-g

akerr · 11-01-04, 07:39 AM

Ok. First thing is you can easily get an S-Video to Composite Adapter. I'm using one to connect my TV to my 9600 XT. Anyways, connect the TV to your Video Card.

Make sure you are running the latest Catalyst drivers, blah blah.

- Right click on your Desktop, select 'properties'
- Select the "Settings Tab"
- You should see two boxes in the center of your screen, each with a number (1 and 2). These represent your two monitors. If not, click on 'Advanced' and go to the 'displays' tab. You should then be able to activate the TV.

Box #1 should be your primary monitor (your PC Monitor) and #2 should be your TV.

Click on Box #2 (it should be highlighted, and #2 should now be faded). Directly underneath it, you should now be able to "check off" the option "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor". ('till now, it was shaded and could not be selected). Click Apply. You can also select the resolution and colour settings of your TV.

If everything worked correctly, your TV should show the same wallpaper as your Desktop, but not the icons. It is now an "extension" of your PC monitor, not a mirror. You can now move icons and stuff from one monitor to the next, simply by dragging them.

For me, I use the TV to watch movies, tv shows and stuff, while I surf the Internet.

I hope I explained this correctly, but I'm working on 4 hours sleep at this point :rolling:

Good Luck! :approve:

deftech · 11-01-04, 11:58 AM

Not sure about your VCR..... but generally there is an "Antenna" setting in the menu screens somewhere. By default this usually gets set to "Air" (or "Antenna" or something along those lines). In that mode, it will only pick up generally channels 2-13 or so on cable. You can change this to the other modes (usually like "Cable", "Cable-STD", etc.) and pick up all of your cable channels.

gsteinb88 · 11-01-04, 03:32 PM

2 things: 1-akerr, thanks but thats exactly what im doing now. I would like to see exactly what i normally see on my primary monitor, and as it changes on my primary monitor i would like it to change on my tv, i.e. if i have applications open on it they are mirrored as well. 2-My vcr has that function (its a switch on the back) but i can only get up to about channel 48 then it jumps to 99, and then the next channel is 1 again. I know this sounds picky, but i really want the channels between there, they are the channels that i watch most (fox news, comedy central etc.) Basically, if i could just get the mirroring working i would be delighted. Oh and my vcr is from about 1988 just so you know.
-g

The_Doug · 11-01-04, 04:19 PM

have you tried this:

go to your display properties, settings, advanced, click the display tab if you arent running the Catalyst Control Center (or if you are using the CCC, click view->advanced, then find the display manager/options and play with those settings)

akerr · 11-01-04, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by gsteinb88

2 things: 1-akerr, thanks but thats exactly what im doing now. I would like to see exactly what i normally see on my primary monitor, and as it changes on my primary monitor i would like it to change on my tv, i.e. if i have applications open on it they are mirrored as well.

Oh.

Simple :approve:

Right Click on Desktop -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Displays.

You should have 4 squares (pictures of monitors). The TV is the one in the lower left hand corner. click on the Red Button/Corner thingy (indicated by the Black Arrow in the pic below). Hit "Apply" and this will enable your TV to be a mirror of your display.

Make sure that the TV is set to be your Secondary Display (as shown in the red circle in the pic below).

EDIT: Of course, I don't have an AIW card, so your control panel might look different then mine. Should work the same way however

gsteinb88 · 11-01-04, 08:28 PM

Here are the pictures for my properties screen (right) and my advanced screen (left). As you can see, i have no monitors/displays tab or anything like that, and CCC doesnt work with my card. I have all the drivers installed correctly. Thanks

-g
EDIT: here is the monitor tab, doesnt have much:

akerr · 11-01-04, 09:12 PM

http://apps.ati.com/ATIcompare/result.asp

That compares your 7500 AIW to my 9600XT. I noticed that under "Dual Monitor Display", it says "N/A" for the AIW and marks it as available for the 9600XT.

I suppose that means the 7500 AIW cannot perform the function you are looking for. I guess that having a desktop mirrored over 2 monitors is a recent enhancement. I would send an Email to ATI Tech support about it.

Sorry I couldn't be more help