DVD playback not sharp

curious if you got an answer?? i have similar concern

Hi!

I'm not getting any assistance from Customer support- was on the phone for over an hour
with some fellows who just follow a script.Another fellow told me to read the manual -I have read it but it doesn't seem to mention this issue. Dell service is definitely not what it used to be.

I'm going to try using a VGA cable, although I highly doubt this is the problem.
There may be a setting on the video card that is causing this.
There may be two video input ports and I'll try both to see if I can bypass the NVIDIA card to see if the card is causing this.

The NVIDIA card doesn't have a clearly marked sharpness setting - there may be one,
but it isn't marked as such, although there are many technical settings that may affect this.

Another possibility is that the screen is so big, you will get a grainier picture unless
you shrink the screen size.

I'll keep you posted if I figure anything out.

How do you have the cable hooked up to the computer?? The out of the box simple instructs seemed to show 2 ways 1) Connect your pc to the catv box with rcas or s video cables, or as I simply did 2) split the tv cable before the modem and run one cable to the pc and one to the model. I was wondering if the degradation was occuring due to adding a splitter and running a"cheap" old cable into the pc (i assume thats the tv tuner I'm plugging the coax into).....

My tv quality is "ok" (especially as you move back from the screen),,,but not terrific (especially compared to the tv I have in the room running off a different run of the same cable). I have pumped up the resolution to 1900 v 1200....which seems to have no impact.

i have an xps 410 with nvidia geforce 7900

Are you having any of these banding problems discussed on other dell forums?

It's begginning to seem like there is a setting with the Nvidia software that has to be changed.
Another thought is that with the higher resolution, one exposes the lower resolution
of the original recording in greater detail, although one would have thought the Nvidia
card would adjust for that.

I was a bit busy today and will play with the software tomorrow and speak to a computer
guru on Wednesday so hopefully we will have some answers later in the week.

I am having the same problem and the default picture is dark.



Updated all the drivers, including the 24" flat panel screen driver ( 2405FPW )
I like 1600 x 1200 res, although does not get any better at higher res. I run 2 SLi 7900GS video cards.

Updated windows Media etc... including downloading the NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder which works very well along with all the updated decoders, divx etc...


Why I know there is something wrong, I play a 1920x1088 HDTV 9GB file video, on my old computer D8200 with a ATI 800XT 256mb, it runs, looks and plays flawless.... with the same programs I use above.


On the XPS700 > Nvidia it looks dark, grainy and it looks terrible.......


Does anyone have any idea of what it would be, even when i view pictures it does not look right.....

Any help would be great....

I just spoke to Dell customer service in the US and they told me that by using the VGA cord instead of the DVI cord, one will then be able to adjust the sharpness settings
from the monitor.

Another way to adjust the sharpness settings is to move the resolution from 1920x1200 down one setting to 1680x1050 or less and then the system will allow you to control
the sharpness and color settings from your monitor.Obviously, not the optimal fix.

I'm still trying to figure out how to show a DVD movie in full screen without the black
bars.

I've spoken to my computer guru and he said that alot depends on the signal
being sent to the monitor - if the signal was recorded in a lower resolution
than the monitor, you will get digital artifacts when the picture is displayed
on a bigger screen.

An interesting website with instructions on setting your computer is:

http://www.lcdtvbuyingguide.com/lcdtv/lcd-tv-calibration.html

Hope this helps.

i have 2007 monitor which is giving me problems so i switched out the dvi cable for the vga cable just to see what would happen.  guess what i couldn't tell any difference in overall picture quality.  i did notice that the monitor didn't have any streaking or glitching white stuff when loading up windows like the dvi cable does.  i have dual 7900gs on xps600.  i believe i could adjust sharpness on the monitor with the vga cable hooked up.  i believe this will probably fix your issue.  also i have learned the hard way not to ever split a cable.  you will definitely loose quality that way.  what dvd program u using?  Hope this helps.

i forgot to say one thing.  you need to make sure that you have vertical sync turned to on in the nvidia display manager.  one other thing that will help you is to turn off sli or put it into single gpu rendering in advanced settings.  this will help you tremendously.  it has for me.  personally i really think the whole problem every one is having is related to the overall picture quality of the dell monitor

Hello slmshade1974:

Thanks for the info. I will change the settings and see what happens.

I think you are right - this is the first time I've had to fiddle so much
to get a good picture from a DVD.

I'm using Windows Media Player - which is not allowing me to show a movie
in fullscreen. Do you recommend another media/DVD playback program?

Thanks,

XPS 400

windows media player is ok, but i prefer using powerdvd or windvd.  if i were you i would not buy any software until i found out exactly what the issue is.  i have heard lots of bad things about picture quality of these dell monitors.  i have 2007wfp and i thought my picture was good because i have never had anything this nice to play on, but now that i look at it it does appear to have dvi issues and when i update my drivers for my dual 7900gs to any 9 version it puts my monitor in power save mode and i can do nothing.  if i use the dell drivers 84.40 on resource cd i don't have the power save issue.  i am still trying to figure out the problem.  my monitor does appear to be branding a little on picture quality.  when i load windows i get some glitching looking white lines on my screen with the dvi connection.  if i use vga this is cleared up but it don't fix the graphic driver issues.  i think you said you have 7900gs duals.  have you tried any updates on your cards, benchmarks, etc.  Nvidia has a new driver 91.47 out that is for the 7900gs is supported.  but it appears to work on mine till i reboot my machine then i get the power save issue.  i am really concerned about the quality of the monitor, dvi connector on monitor, and the dvi cable itself.  i will figure it out though.  search the forums for more info on dell monitor branding problems and dvi and u will see why i am concerned.  hope this helps.  if you do a driver update please let me know if you have any problems.

Just a quick question - where is the sli setting/single gpu rendering.
I looked around last night for it on the NVidia window and didn't see a setting for that.

Thanks very much for your help.

if you don't have dual cards in sli mode you will not have that setting.  just look for the vsync and make sure it is enabled