I have a new media center PC and as far as i know i have all the proper
updates and drivers installed (via windows update, gateway bigfix). OS is
windows media center, AMD X2 3800+, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce integrated
graphics. Out of the box I've had problems with video playback- web content
playing in a media player window, as well as some weird behavior of the media
center interface. I think the two are related. What happens in video playback
is the top part of the screen is normal but a bit squashed vertically, and
the bottom part looks smeared downward in perfectly vertical lines. I have
screenshots to email someone if need be. Now when I click on the media center
icon from the start menu it opens but the welcome screen, or any screen for
that matter, are garbled or disjointed- like it was printed on a glass panel
that was broken and then put back together wrong. Everything is all askew and
i can barely make out enough of it to close the screen and get back to my
desktop. One time i tried to navigate half blind through the media center
setup wizard and when the sample video played it was the same thing- the
video looked beautiful other than the fact that the bottom half was cut off
and smeared downward. It made peoples necks look 4 ft long. I tried different
resolutions and everything else works fine on this computer so far. I can try
windows phone support and gateway support but from experience these things
are so time consuming and unreliable- I have had better luck in newsgroups
and forums. One thing: when i reduce the hardware acceleration in my display
properties to the level where directx and direct 3D are disabled everything
works but i get an error message when i start the media center something like
my video card or drivers are not compatible with media center then it starts
normally despite the message. And when I try to play any sample or
calibration videos from within media center i get a message that the files
needed to display video are not installed or working correctly. please
restart media center or your computer. I know its only integrated video
without discrete memory but i have directx 9c and ran the dxdiag tests and it
shows everything is fine (although the spinning directx cube in the tests
shows kind of disjointed and choppy like the media center screen when i have
the hardware acceleration at full), but with 2GB of RAM and the nVidia
Geforce 6100 (should be pretty good as far as integrated graphics go) basic
video and 3D graphics should in my mind play smoothly. Any suggestions?
P.S. sry for the 2x post but i realized i may have posted the original in
the wrong group

There are media center specific display drivers available at NVidia's
website : http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxpmce_93.71.html

That's a pretty new release of driver, I'd download it and install,
then see if it fixes you up there. You'll need to make sure all
options are ticked, in particular any GART drivers which are listed in
the package installer.


HTH
Cheers - Neil

On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:07:02 -0800, Darren
<Darren@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I have a new media center PC and as far as i know i have all the proper
>updates and drivers installed (via windows update, gateway bigfix). OS is
>windows media center, AMD X2 3800+, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce integrated
>graphics. Out of the box I've had problems with video playback- web content
>playing in a media player window, as well as some weird behavior of the media
>center interface. I think the two are related. What happens in video playback
>is the top part of the screen is normal but a bit squashed vertically, and
>the bottom part looks smeared downward in perfectly vertical lines. I have
>screenshots to email someone if need be. Now when I click on the media center
>icon from the start menu it opens but the welcome screen, or any screen for
>that matter, are garbled or disjointed- like it was printed on a glass panel
>that was broken and then put back together wrong. Everything is all askew and
>i can barely make out enough of it to close the screen and get back to my
>desktop. One time i tried to navigate half blind through the media center
>setup wizard and when the sample video played it was the same thing- the
>video looked beautiful other than the fact that the bottom half was cut off
>and smeared downward. It made peoples necks look 4 ft long. I tried different
>resolutions and everything else works fine on this computer so far. I can try
>windows phone support and gateway support but from experience these things
>are so time consuming and unreliable- I have had better luck in newsgroups
>and forums. One thing: when i reduce the hardware acceleration in my display
>properties to the level where directx and direct 3D are disabled everything
>works but i get an error message when i start the media center something like
>my video card or drivers are not compatible with media center then it starts
>normally despite the message. And when I try to play any sample or
>calibration videos from within media center i get a message that the files
>needed to display video are not installed or working correctly. please
>restart media center or your computer. I know its only integrated video
>without discrete memory but i have directx 9c and ran the dxdiag tests and it
>shows everything is fine (although the spinning directx cube in the tests
>shows kind of disjointed and choppy like the media center screen when i have
>the hardware acceleration at full), but with 2GB of RAM and the nVidia
>Geforce 6100 (should be pretty good as far as integrated graphics go) basic
>video and 3D graphics should in my mind play smoothly. Any suggestions?
>P.S. sry for the 2x post but i realized i may have posted the original in
>the wrong group
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2007
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs

Thanks Neil,
I tried this and paid special attention to the install hints on the nvidia
site- disabled the AV and uninstalled existing drivers before installing the
new ones- but after the install and reboot things were pretty much the same,
with the addition of a green bar on some web videos i tried that play using
WMP11, and the media center screen still all wacky. On your note (You'll need
to make sure all options are ticked, in particular any GART drivers which are
listed in the package installer) I'm not sure what you mean there but it
sounded like some options i would have an opportunity to select during the
install process but i did not encounter any such thing. I'm open to any more
suggestions

"Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]" wrote:

> There are media center specific display drivers available at NVidia's
> website : http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxpmce_93.71.html
>
> That's a pretty new release of driver, I'd download it and install,
> then see if it fixes you up there. You'll need to make sure all
> options are ticked, in particular any GART drivers which are listed in
> the package installer.
>
>
> HTH
> Cheers - Neil
>
> On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:07:02 -0800, Darren
> <Darren@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >I have a new media center PC and as far as i know i have all the proper
> >updates and drivers installed (via windows update, gateway bigfix). OS is
> >windows media center, AMD X2 3800+, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce integrated
> >graphics. Out of the box I've had problems with video playback- web content
> >playing in a media player window, as well as some weird behavior of the media
> >center interface. I think the two are related. What happens in video playback
> >is the top part of the screen is normal but a bit squashed vertically, and
> >the bottom part looks smeared downward in perfectly vertical lines. I have
> >screenshots to email someone if need be. Now when I click on the media center
> >icon from the start menu it opens but the welcome screen, or any screen for
> >that matter, are garbled or disjointed- like it was printed on a glass panel
> >that was broken and then put back together wrong. Everything is all askew and
> >i can barely make out enough of it to close the screen and get back to my
> >desktop. One time i tried to navigate half blind through the media center
> >setup wizard and when the sample video played it was the same thing- the
> >video looked beautiful other than the fact that the bottom half was cut off
> >and smeared downward. It made peoples necks look 4 ft long. I tried different
> >resolutions and everything else works fine on this computer so far. I can try
> >windows phone support and gateway support but from experience these things
> >are so time consuming and unreliable- I have had better luck in newsgroups
> >and forums. One thing: when i reduce the hardware acceleration in my display
> >properties to the level where directx and direct 3D are disabled everything
> >works but i get an error message when i start the media center something like
> >my video card or drivers are not compatible with media center then it starts
> >normally despite the message. And when I try to play any sample or
> >calibration videos from within media center i get a message that the files
> >needed to display video are not installed or working correctly. please
> >restart media center or your computer. I know its only integrated video
> >without discrete memory but i have directx 9c and ran the dxdiag tests and it
> >shows everything is fine (although the spinning directx cube in the tests
> >shows kind of disjointed and choppy like the media center screen when i have
> >the hardware acceleration at full), but with 2GB of RAM and the nVidia
> >Geforce 6100 (should be pretty good as far as integrated graphics go) basic
> >video and 3D graphics should in my mind play smoothly. Any suggestions?
> >P.S. sry for the 2x post but i realized i may have posted the original in
> >the wrong group
> ------------------------------------------------
> Digital Media MVP : 2004-2007
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs
>

Hmm I don't know anything much else to try - I'm not really up on
media center. You might have some success asking in the media center
newsgroup instead : It's at microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter and
is accessible using a newsreader or through the web interface at
microsoft.

HTH
Cheers - Neil


On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:03:00 -0800, Darren
<Darren@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Thanks Neil,
>I tried this and paid special attention to the install hints on the nvidia
>site- disabled the AV and uninstalled existing drivers before installing the
>new ones- but after the install and reboot things were pretty much the same,
>with the addition of a green bar on some web videos i tried that play using
>WMP11, and the media center screen still all wacky. On your note (You'll need
>to make sure all options are ticked, in particular any GART drivers which are
>listed in the package installer) I'm not sure what you mean there but it
>sounded like some options i would have an opportunity to select during the
>install process but i did not encounter any such thing. I'm open to any more
>suggestions
>
>"Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]" wrote:
>
>> There are media center specific display drivers available at NVidia's
>> website : http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxpmce_93.71.html
>>
>> That's a pretty new release of driver, I'd download it and install,
>> then see if it fixes you up there. You'll need to make sure all
>> options are ticked, in particular any GART drivers which are listed in
>> the package installer.
>>
>>
>> HTH
>> Cheers - Neil
>>
>> On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:07:02 -0800, Darren
>> <Darren@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> >I have a new media center PC and as far as i know i have all the proper
>> >updates and drivers installed (via windows update, gateway bigfix). OS is
>> >windows media center, AMD X2 3800+, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce integrated
>> >graphics. Out of the box I've had problems with video playback- web content
>> >playing in a media player window, as well as some weird behavior of the media
>> >center interface. I think the two are related. What happens in video playback
>> >is the top part of the screen is normal but a bit squashed vertically, and
>> >the bottom part looks smeared downward in perfectly vertical lines. I have
>> >screenshots to email someone if need be. Now when I click on the media center
>> >icon from the start menu it opens but the welcome screen, or any screen for
>> >that matter, are garbled or disjointed- like it was printed on a glass panel
>> >that was broken and then put back together wrong. Everything is all askew and
>> >i can barely make out enough of it to close the screen and get back to my
>> >desktop. One time i tried to navigate half blind through the media center
>> >setup wizard and when the sample video played it was the same thing- the
>> >video looked beautiful other than the fact that the bottom half was cut off
>> >and smeared downward. It made peoples necks look 4 ft long. I tried different
>> >resolutions and everything else works fine on this computer so far. I can try
>> >windows phone support and gateway support but from experience these things
>> >are so time consuming and unreliable- I have had better luck in newsgroups
>> >and forums. One thing: when i reduce the hardware acceleration in my display
>> >properties to the level where directx and direct 3D are disabled everything
>> >works but i get an error message when i start the media center something like
>> >my video card or drivers are not compatible with media center then it starts
>> >normally despite the message. And when I try to play any sample or
>> >calibration videos from within media center i get a message that the files
>> >needed to display video are not installed or working correctly. please
>> >restart media center or your computer. I know its only integrated video
>> >without discrete memory but i have directx 9c and ran the dxdiag tests and it
>> >shows everything is fine (although the spinning directx cube in the tests
>> >shows kind of disjointed and choppy like the media center screen when i have
>> >the hardware acceleration at full), but with 2GB of RAM and the nVidia
>> >Geforce 6100 (should be pretty good as far as integrated graphics go) basic
>> >video and 3D graphics should in my mind play smoothly. Any suggestions?
>> >P.S. sry for the 2x post but i realized i may have posted the original in
>> >the wrong group
>> ------------------------------------------------
>> Digital Media MVP : 2004-2007
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs
>>
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2007
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs