Media Center opens in resized window??

Post Reply
diggityDawg

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 10:54 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

Media Center opens in resized window??

#1

Post by diggityDawg » Thu Sep 08, 2011 5:37 pm

This is a relatively new issue, although the machine has been running WMC for four years, and Windows 7 MC for the past year... Not sure what triggered this, but about 60% of the time, when I turn the TV/Receiver on, Media Center is showing in the center of the screen, but it's as though it's in a resized window, about 30% of the screen, the outside of which is black. To fix this I have to manually minimize or maximize the window, which shows Media Center IN an actual window with the Windows desktop behind it, and then re-maximize the window to go back to normal. As I said, this happens quite frequently, but I can't figure out what is causing it or how to fix it... The only thing I can think of that I changed was to turn off many of the CPU-intensive screen candy, so that the UI looks more like XP, and uses a lot less CPU cycles.

Has anyone seen this before and perhaps know how to fix it for good? BTW, I am running my TV from the HDMI output of my Onkyo receiver, and my HTPC is one of the HDMI inputs on the receiver, if that helps at all...

Thanks for your help!
Eddie

User avatar
cw-kid

Posts: 707
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:53 pm
Location: United Kingdom

HTPC Specs: Show details

#2

Post by cw-kid » Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:18 pm

Have you got a screen shot of what it looks like?
Stuart

The Media Center Blog Tips Tricks & News!
The Digital Lifestyle

User avatar
STC

Posts: 6808
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:58 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#3

Post by STC » Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:03 pm

ATI videocard by any chance?
By the Community, for the Community. 100% Commercial Free.

Want decent guide data back? Check out EPG123

User avatar
CyberSimian

Posts: 516
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:52 pm
Location: Southampton, UK

HTPC Specs: Show details

#4

Post by CyberSimian » Fri Sep 09, 2011 9:00 am

Nvidia video card by any chance?

With my Nvidia 8600GTS connected via DVI output to HDMI input on the TV, the system would every so often "lose" the display configuration, and end up showing the desktop/Media Center with the screen set to 640x480 with 8-bit colour(!!!). I suspect that there may have been a particular set of circumstances or sequence of actions that caused this to happen, but I never spotted a pattern. I am reasonably sure that it was due to some quirk in the HDMI negotiation that occurs when the HDMI devices are first switched on.

I solved my problem by using the VGA connection instead of HDMI, which has the additional advantage of avoiding the "bing-bong" (or is it "bong-bing"?) every time the TV is powered on or off when the HTPC is already powered up. But this won't solve your problem. Sorry...

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

lithium630

Posts: 633
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:00 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#5

Post by lithium630 » Fri Sep 09, 2011 10:25 am

Funny you should mention it. That just started happening to my system this week. It was fine until I moved the PC to a different tv. I'm using the onboard i3 graphics connected by hdmi to a Samsung TV.

wyerd

Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2011 9:47 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#6

Post by wyerd » Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:45 pm

Sounds like the good old Onkyo HDMI handshaking issue. I get it with my ATI5xxx to TX-NR807 to Panny TH-20PF50 where Media Center gets resized to 640x480 but the desktop stays at 1920x1080. I looked at the Gefen HDMI Detective Plus http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8005, but at $129 + S&H to the UK, it was wayyyy to much. I use intelliremote to close Media Center when I turn off the TV/Amp via the remote and to launch it when I switch on. Works great!

diggityDawg

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 10:54 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#7

Post by diggityDawg » Fri Sep 09, 2011 2:48 pm

Sorry, didn't get a screenshot of it yet - didn't happen last night... It's an NVidia card, one of the Geforce 210 cards. I had used a 8600GTS for a couple years, but occasionally I would get no video and had to go through the painful process of connecting my desktop monitor to the HTPC to troubleshoot the issue. So finally I broke down and bought the lowest priced NVidia card I could find (tried a couple ATI cards and had a lot more issues) with HDMI out. That worked fine for quite a while until just a couple months ago when this started happening. It could be HDMI handshaking issue, not sure, but I like the idea of using intelliremote to close WMC when I turn off the TV and start it back up when I turn it on. I'll try it out, thanks for the tip!

ncarty97

Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2011 2:10 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#8

Post by ncarty97 » Sat Oct 01, 2011 2:18 pm

I'm having the same problem.



Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E5200
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
4GB Corsair DDR2 800
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Hooked up via HDMI to Epson 8350 projector.

Only seems to have started happening in the past couple of months.

Post Reply