HD HDMI output to LCD?

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Okay, I've connected my V1U to three different LCD computer monitors of at least 1200 lines of vertical resolution and they all adjust the HDMI signal to 720x480. My 20" 1600x1200 4:3 Samsung 204b monitor stretches the image vertically and the other monitors I tried were widescreen and kept the aspect ratio correct but still had low resolution.

While I am happy that my monitor and camera were able to communicate in some fashion, it would be much more useful if the output was HD. Does anyone know how HDMI might be working in SD instead of HD? I would love to have a 17"-19" widescreen LCD that can go noticeably higher than 720x480.

[Philip Williams]

Have you checked the menu to see if you can set the resolution of the output video? Might be choices like 1080i/720P/480i etc... Just a thought, haven't actually touched one of these cams.

[Boyd Ostroff]

That would also be my guess... on the Z1 you can choose to downconvert the component video to 480i or 480p. See if there's a similar menu for HDMI on the V1...

[Marcus Marchesseault]

I'm still working on the issue.

I went to BestBuy and Compusa today. I ran into a member of the former Vegas Video users group who was at CompUSA and he was familiar with the Z1 and found another setting that I overlooked. We connected to a widescreen Samsung monitor and it looked great! Unfortunately, my own monitor is still down-sampling but the vertical stretch is gone. I think I am going to test some more monitors tomorrow in case I was hallucinating that the one at CompUSA worked.

At BestBuy, I connected to a huge $8000 1080 plasma screen through HDMI. I must tell you that the V1 has amazing images. The guys at the store were impressed. The resolution and richness of color are top notch.

[Tony Tremble]

This sounds similar to the problems the PS3 is having scaling video on 720p set. If the set doesn't natively support 1080i/p the PS3 defaults to 480p.

I wonder if the V1 is doing something similar in your setup Marcus.

It's just a wild stab in the dark...

TT

[Philip Williams]

Originally Posted by Tony Tremble

This sounds similar to the problems the PS3 is having scaling video on 720p set. If the set doesn't natively support 1080i/p the PS3 defaults to 480p.
<snip>

Actually the PS3 ouputs only 720P or 1080P in HD. There is no 1080i output, so owners of 1080i sets (lots of CRT HD sets) are left with 480P. That's ridiculous, as Sony poo pooed 720P since day one and always touted 1080i. They sold countless 1080i sets I'm sure. And after telling everyone how great 1080i is, they've left 1080i owners in the cold with PS3. Not to go too far off topic here, but this is typical Sony.

That reminds me, my HD DVD drive should arrive today.

[Tony Tremble]

Originally Posted by Philip Williams

Actually the PS3 ouputs only 720P or 1080P in HD. There is no 1080i output, so owners of 1080i sets (lots of CRT HD sets) are left with 480P. That's ridiculous, as Sony poo pooed 720P since day one and always touted 1080i. They sold countless 1080i sets I'm sure. And after telling everyone how great 1080i is, they've left 1080i owners in the cold with PS3. Not to go too far off topic here, but this is typical Sony.

That reminds me, my HD DVD drive should arrive today.

I wasn't just shooting in the dark it was a blind shot as well! :)

And don't get me started on the Blu-ray v HD DVD thing........Aaaarrrrhhh.

TT

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Philip Williams

Actually the PS3 ouputs only 720P or 1080P in HD. There is no 1080i output, so owners of 1080i sets (lots of CRT HD sets) are left with 480P. That's ridiculous, as Sony poo pooed 720P since day one and always touted 1080i. They sold countless 1080i sets I'm sure. And after telling everyone how great 1080i is, they've left 1080i owners in the cold with PS3. Not to go too far off topic here, but this is typical Sony.

That reminds me, my HD DVD drive should arrive today.

Very, very, very few CRT HD sets out there, and none of them display all 1080 lines. By far and wide, and for the future, 1080p displays are in the home, office, and public viewing areas. The progressive output becomes interlaced at the display if the display doesn't have progressive input.

You're right, it's off-topic, and fairly irrelevant, as the PS3 plays just fine on an interlaced or progressive display, just as progressive movies do the same on a DVD, or interlaced media plays back fine on a progressive DVD and display device.

Marcus, the output from the camera is 1080, and is working correctly on all three displays we've got here, all of varied sizes ranging from 37" to 12' (projector). I'd suggest you've got something mis-set on the displays.

If you're in the Waikiki area, I'm willing to meet you at VideoLife this week or next to show you more about the cam if you wish.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

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[Marcus Marchesseault]

First, I am happy to hear about speculation. I know nothing about HDMI and DVI, so the tidbits that get swept in talking about somewhat off-topic shots in the dark don't bother me.

Spot, I tried sending you mail through dvinfo.net but didn't get a reply. I wasn't sure you were still coming to Hawaii. I'd be happy to meet at VideoLife, but I leave on Sunday so we would need to meet Thursday (today), Friday, or Saturday. I'll have to admit that I enjoy everything about the V1, but getting up to speed is overwhelming with so many features. When will you be at VideoLife?

[Keith Moreau]

I too am having problems getting my Sony HVR-V1U to output high definition to my Panasonic 50" plasma monitor with a DVI input.

I'm using a Monster HDMI to DVI cable. I've tested that the Panasonic DVI port can accept a 1080i HDMI signal from my Dish Network HD DVR, which outputs a 1080i signal via it's HDMI port. The signal quality is fantastic and is definitely "HD" 1080i. The Panasonic Plasma provides a some information about the signal it is receiving from its DVI port.

The Panasonic monitor indicates the Dish Network DVR DVI signal horizontal frequency is 33.8 kHz and the vertical frequency is 60 Hz (as to be expected). The Panasonic monitor indicates the Sony HVR-V1U HDMI horizontal frequency is 31.5 kHz and the vertical frequency is 59.9 Hz.

It also seems that the V1U's 'DOWN CONVERT" menu option controls the HDMI output to the Panasonic monitor. The squeeze setting will output the correct aspect ratio it is still in SD quality. This leads me to believe that the problem is in fact the output from the camera, rather than some incompatibility with the Monitor, but I suppose if the camera is detecting some setting from the DVI/HDMI cable feeding back from the monitor, this could possible be a problem. I suppose the monitor could be downsampling, but I doubt this is the problem, as I don't know if it knows how to downsample the HDMI/DVI digital signal, I think it presents what it gets.

I plan to try to attach the V1U to other DVI monitors to see if this makes a difference, but in the meantime, if anybody has a clue, I'd appreciate any advice.

Best Regards,

-Keith Moreau

[Keith Moreau]

More information:

I used the same HDMI to DVI cable to plug into my Samsung LCD Computer Monitor, which has a native resolution of 1600x1200. The image was still the same. The monitor reported the same vertical and horizontal frequencies, but also had additional information about the DVI input resolution, which it reported as 640x480.

I fiddled with the V1 menus again in an attempt to somehow reset the resolution to the HD value, no luck. I've used the component outs and they've worked fine, outputting 1080i.

I'm going to try some other systems and perhaps some other cables.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

-Keith

[Keith Moreau]

More info:

After more testing HDMI to HDMI works as expected, HDMI to DVI doesn't.

I tried the V1U on a neighbor's LCD monitor with a HDMI input, and the V1U does output 1080i with that connection. When connecting with either my HDMI to DVI cable or a HDMI to HDMI with a DVI adapter to a DVI input on his LCD monitor, it downrezed as it did on my Panasonic DVI connection. The monitor reported a 720x480 resolution with DVI and a 31kHz vertical and 60 Hz horizontal.

I think the Sony V1U HDMI output is somehow sensing that the connection is not an HDMI connection and engaging a copy protection scheme of down-rezing the picture to DV resolution, which it shouldn't but is. I'm wondering if this is a bug or a 'feature'. In any case it shouldn't be happening as pretty much every HDMI output device should be 100% compatible with a DVI device. If anybody has an idea of how to work around this without me having to get an HDMI interface to my Panasonic plasma I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm wondering if this is important enough to bring up to Sony, I think it is a flaw.

Regards,

-Keith

[Bob Grant]

I have a monitor (Dell 2407) with HDCP on it's DVI input, I should try that out with the appropraite cable. It 'should' work as the camera has no way of knowing otherwise.
We have an older HP 1080 24" monitor with no HDCP and I'm betting the camera will not work right with that.
However if the camera is insisting on a HDCP equiped device that sounds pretty strange to me.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Hadn't considered this at all until I read this thread;
I have one particular monitor that has both DVI and HDMI on it; nothing else I have has both.
Connecting HDMI input via two cables, one with a DVI adaptor, and one with no DVI adaptor, and alternatively plugging both cables into the V1, I can also see resolution differences.
I've emailed Sony Japan about why this would be, but in the meantime, I'll hazard a guess that the HDMI proc that they have in the V1 may already have an ICT control of some sort built in.