Ideal HTPC video card for 480p 4805 projector

willphelps · Post by **willphelps** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:34 am

I'm looking for the ideal HTPC graphics card to run a 480p InFocus SP 4805 projector with the following features:

1) Passively cooled
2) AGP 4x or 8x
3) Dual head, supporting different modes/resolutions on each connector; two DVI or one DVI / one VGA
4) 480p 60 Hz. mode available through DVI (with standard EDTV timings etc., not 848x480 "computer" mode)

While the first two or three items on my list are covered pretty well in other threads, Iâ€™m especially concerned about #4. I currently have a Stealth S80 with a 9200SE and it doesn't seem to support true 480p (projector switches to 640x480 when fed 848x480).

ultrachrome · Post by **ultrachrome** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:28 am

I had a 4805. That's a great little projector.

I would peruse http://AVSforum.com to see if anyone has a solution. They have a ton of info on the 4805 and HTPCs although you'll need to be willing to wade through it all.

I only achieved 848x480 as well. My nVidia cards forced me to use a factor of 8. I tried both 6000 and 7000 series cards which.

Ultimately, the frustration of trying to navigate windows for software install and config on a 480p display drove me to upgrade to a 720p projector mere weeks after setting up a HTPC.

willphelps · Post by **willphelps** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:40 am

I've spent hours cruising the gigantic commingled 4805 thread on avsforum. There is indeed a LOT of information there and I admit that I only covered a small part of it. But I did run a search on "480p". While I found some clues, I didn't find any real answers to the question

I finally posted my question there -- perhaps I will get a unique perspective from their members.

I only get 640x480 mode when my ATI card sends 848x480. So, with your nVidia cards, the projector did go into 480p mode when sending a 848x480 signal?

Did the missing 6 x 480 pixels display as 3-pixel-wide blank/black vertical bars?

ultrachrome · Post by **ultrachrome** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:59 am

You're not using the VGA cable are you?

You can only do 848x480 using DVI which of course requires InFocus' M1-DVI cable.

Stereodude · Post by **Stereodude** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:15 pm

Which input are you using on the projector?

willphelps · Post by **willphelps** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 5:41 pm

I'm using the M1 input on the projector. I'm using a Dell brand M1-DVI adapter (I did try VGA also just for the heck of it, but got the same 640x480 results).

Stereodude · Post by **Stereodude** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 5:43 pm

willphelps wrote:I'm using the M1 input on the projector. I'm using a Dell brand M1-DVI adapter (I did try VGA also just for the heck of it, but got the same 640x480 results).

Sounds like you need an nVidia card where you can tell it to treat the display as a HDTV and force the timings. Sounds like the EDID data is reporting the projector only supports 640x480.

ultrachrome · Post by **ultrachrome** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:01 pm

My memory is fuzzy but the nvidia settings in XP lets you spec custom resolutions pretty easy. What I can't remember is whether I had to do that to get 848x480 or if I only messed with it to try and get 854x480.

In any case I was easily able to get 848x480 using both Fedora Core 5 and Windows XP using onboard 6150 video.

In your initial post, you said you set it to 848x480 and it displayed 640x480. Where the sides chopped off or was the image squeezed to 640x480? I'm wondering if you are not somehow sending DVI-A by mistake.