Vaio Blu-ray playback to HDTV issues

[blatheris]

I connect my Vaio VGN-AR630E to my Sharp Aquos LCD 1080p tv via hdmi, and it displays in 1080p on the tv screen. Then, when I start the windvd player, the movie starts, then the resolution on my sharp resizes itself to something much less than 1080p, something like 1024x768, 75hz, and it will not allow me to resize to full screen, says that my connection will not support it.

I am using nvidia 8400M GT. The versions of the software are 8.0.8.416 on the windvd program, 7.15.11.5655 on the nvidia. I tried to update to the 8.0.9.416 windvd, that did not help. after I updated the nvidia driver, windvd would not play anymore, crashed everytime i started it. I had to rollback just to get the movie to play on the laptop again.

sony support has not been able to assist beyond telling me to update the nvidia driver, which made the issue worse, it appears.

any assistance would be very appreciated, i bought this laptop to play movies, and I dont believe i will keep it if it will not -play properly to my tv. thanks very much.

[dadkins]

Fn + F7 - set to TV only.
On "Both" - it will likely choke.

[blatheris]

hello, I had the function + f7 thing already identified, windvd will not play the movie at all if I have the laptop and tv display enabled.

After troubleshooting for hours, if I start the program just right, and use a specific number of steps, I can now get the program to display on the tv, but only at 1024x768.

If I stop the player and return the mode to clone, on both screens at the same time, the tv returns to 1080p. As soon as I turn the screen over to my hdtv only, it resizes to 1024x768.

Is there something going on with my display clone settings that is not letting the computer output in 1080p when it is going to the tv only? any help is welcome. thanks.

Its really frustrating because I sense that this is partially due to draconian copyright protections that make it so hard to use their equipment.

[dadkins]

I have no experience with the Sharp TVs.
I have connected my AR190G to a Panasonic and it just worked.

Sorry I cannot be of more help.

[jtechbd]

you need to use "expanded" or "dual-view" (NOT CLONE) mode in your graphics card settings. You should be able to "Right Click" and find the Nvidia control panel, youll want to set it expanded or Dual view and use 1080p.

Depending on the display you may only get a laptop LCD resolution of 1280x800 native and for your second display (TV) 1920x1080 interlaced, native.

Also, the Vista "Performance Settings" (Properties of my computer) need to be set to basic, the bd player doesnt like the windows side bar or any vista bells and whistles. Also, you may want to type in "msconfig" at the cmd window and turn-off all of the useless pre-loaded crap software and drivers that Load into memory by default, this will help memory performance.

There will still be Blu-Rays you wont be able to play because of the encryption updates that are constantly being mastered on some of the new Blu rays and sony and corel dont update the oem often enough.

AnyDVDHD is a good bundle that distributes regular updates after purchase. Also, Cineplayer seems to work quite niceley as well and I've heard rumors that the new corel player works well too. You have to be careful with the Corel player though... make sure you completely uninstall the existing player (sony version of windvd) and that you have a back-up of the software, otherwise you will have install issues.

Good-Luck!

[CyberVisions]

Originally Posted by blatheris

I connect my Vaio VGN-AR630E to my Sharp Aquos LCD 1080p tv via hdmi, and it displays in 1080p on the tv screen. Then, when I start the windvd player, the movie starts, then the resolution on my sharp resizes itself to something much less than 1080p, something like 1024x768, 75hz, and it will not allow me to resize to full screen, says that my connection will not support it.

I am using nvidia 8400M GT. The versions of the software are 8.0.8.416 on the windvd program, 7.15.11.5655 on the nvidia. I tried to update to the 8.0.9.416 windvd, that did not help. after I updated the nvidia driver, windvd would not play anymore, crashed everytime i started it. I had to rollback just to get the movie to play on the laptop again.

sony support has not been able to assist beyond telling me to update the nvidia driver, which made the issue worse, it appears.

any assistance would be very appreciated, i bought this laptop to play movies, and I dont believe i will keep it if it will not -play properly to my tv. thanks very much.

What is it that no one can read the problem and understand it? Your problem isn't in your laptop - it's your Aquos setup.

You're the second person I've seen here with the same problem as others, yet no one seems to get what and where the problem is. It seems like everyone keeps focusing on the computer setups and not the HDTV's. They are NOT regular TV's - they're oversize monitors that have to be setup just like your computer monitor does. You're using it as an external computer monitor display, not as a standalone TV. Your PC GPU doesn't control the TV's internal settings, only the output signal of the Video it's currently generating, whether it be from a movie or anything else.

The problem you're having is that your Aquos Autoview mode isn't enabled for HDMI, so it's using the default resolution. Autoview detects the incoming video resolution from the various HD Video inputs (there are several different HD Video input types on an Aquos (HDMI, Component Video, S-Video, etc.).HDMI is the only input capable of transmitting 1080p.You can't just plug in the HDMI cable - you've got to enable the HDMI Autoview connection as well or it won't detect an incoming HDMI signal.

To Enable HDMI in Autoview: (this is for mine - I've got a 32" Aquos 1080p gaming unit, so yours might be a bit different. If it is, check your manual)

Using your Remote, push the Menu button, then go to Option, then HDMI. Click on Enable.

If you have problems with your screen positon, go to Setup on your Menu bar and click on Position - that allows you to adjust your Horizontal and Vertical Screen Position. If the picture is over the edge, make sure your remote doesn't have the picture set to Stretch or Super Stretch.

Before doing the next step, make sure your Aquos is on and is set to the input channel for your HDMI input, otherwise when you switch displays you won't see it. Remember you can't run both displays at the same time.


On your Vaio, open the NVIDIA Control Panel (Right click on your desktop, NVIDIA Control Panel) Open your 3D settings menu first. Click on "Manage 3D Settings", and in the resulting settings list, scroll down under the Global Settings tab until you find "Multi-Display/Mixed GPU Acceleration. Make sure it's set in the drop down menu to the right of it to "Multiple Display Performance Mode". It probably already is, but check it anyway.

After that, make sure your NVIDIA is set to output to an external display (Display Mode - Setup Multiple Displays) If your HDMI cable is connected okay it should automatically detect the Aquos and display it on the NVIDIA menu as a display to select in addition to your notebook display. Check it as the "Display you want to Use".

If it's output to your Aquos, go to your NVIDIA Display setting, select the external display and set your resolution and flat panel scaling to 1920x1080.

After it's set, plug in a BD and run it - if didn't have any software or firmware problems (the only thing that will cause a hang, not an external display) then you should be okay. Just remember to set your NVIDIA settings back to your notebook monitor when you're done.

Of course if you had a 20" WideScreen 1080p notebook display, you wouldn't have to deal with all of that - even though I do anyway with my 32". Bigger is better with Blu-Ray!

One other thing - if you have an Aquos with an internal gaming circuit like mine, you can set your OPC settings on the Menu bar as well. There is no specific setting for the circuit itself - it detects when it's hooked to a PS3 or other console. Definitely worth the extra $$ if you game online at all.