video artifacts - need assistance please

[corleydad]

Noob - first time poster - I just picked up a used ibm server with an E6700 core 2 duo and nvidia quadro FX 3500 video card for use as a HTPC - I am running a dual link DVI cable to my Mitsubishi 57" DLP tv. Resolution is set at 1920x1080 and I am seeing red artifacts/wavy lines when watching shows streamed either directly from broadcast websites or through hulu, etc. Computer is hardwired ethernet to Comcast cable modem. Any body have possible solution? Do I need to get a different video card? Thanks for any input!

 

[fseal]

Well I would try playing something local of good quality and see if the artifacts are still there. Net streamed video tends to be of pretty poor quality and seeing complression artifacts is to be expected in most cases.

So try playing a good quality video from your HD or even play a DVD from the computer directly to see if it's the net streamed video or if it happens with everything, even quality video files.

 

[thefabe]

Welcome to SevenForums: Could just be heat related.
You could try using some canned air to blow out the heatsink and fan, or even opening up the case and use a household fan to blow air into the case to see if it fixes the issue.

I like to monitor my cards heat by using Evga Precision (it works on all nvidia cards). You can download it here and check the temp.|MG| EVGA Precision 2.0.0 Download

Please post back with your temps then we can go from their. Thanks. Fabe

 

[corleydad]

ok, will try to check things out tonite and let you know about temps and also quality playing a dvd on the system. Thanks!

 

[Rik55]

Some other things to try
update video driver
NVIDIA DRIVERS 259.57 WHQL for Quadro FX3500
update Flash to Flash Player10.1
Adobe - Adobe Flash Player

 

[corleydad]

okay - i have the latest drivers and adobe flash is also up to date. I tried playing a dvd to see if the artifacts show up there. Same result. I opened up the computer and the graphic card is clean and the cooling fan is operating normally.

GPU temp is 52C

 

[Lordbob75]

Try running the stability tester in Techpowerup's GPUz here, and see if it returns errors (I expect it will).
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/79448-graphics-card-overclock.html

~Lordbob

 

[corleydad]

I'll give it a try tonite. Thank you!

 

[fseal]

If you can take a pic of the screen and post it it would clear things up. And you do NOT get the artifacts at any time other than when playing a media file or DVD? Desktop, IE explorer etc all look fine?

 

[corleydad]

that is correct. i will try to get a screenshot

 

[corleydad]

i have attached 2 files of screenshots taken running gpu-z gpu stability test - hopefully you can see red edges in the video

 

[corleydad]

ok - now here is a screenshot from the same connection to a 22" monitor. no red artifacts! Everything was left the same I merely unhooked the dvi cable from the tv and plugged it into the monitor. I guess the tv is doing somrthing to the incoming signal but I don't know why.

 

[fseal]

Well a couple of things about "TV"s..

1) By default all consumer TVs have a large amount of what it called "Red Push" which means that the red channel is overdrivin. TV manufacturers seem to think (and they may be right) that "most" customers enjoy a warmer picture. A lot of us though hate it and on some sets, it's not possible to compensade for the red push without getting into the service mode setup on the tv.

2) I have had poor luck using the DVI input on my 52in plasma. The component input and (more recently) the use of the HDMI input from my video card produces a much less "hot" image and overall a much better looking one (red push aside).

So it /may/ be that the TV is merely highlighing artifacting that is already in the video by pushing the red to much higher levels than they really are and thus now much more noticeable than when put on a normal monitor.

Another possibility is that the TV is telling the computer something odd thgough the DVI mode query that is putting your card into a mode that is not quite actually compatible with the TV or something.

Upshot is, if you have the ability, use the compunent out or HDMI out on your video card instead of the DVI and it may work a lot better...

 

[fseal]

P.S. I actually can't see a difference between the two screen shots. Can you be more descriptive of where to look for the problem?

I actually wouldn't think there would be a difference by taking a screen shot since that takes the data out of the video card buffer directly even if there was no screen attached at all

Was thinking you would have to take a photograph of your TV with a camera to really see the artifacting.

 

[corleydad]

Thanks for the information. The red "edging" type artifacts seem to be very random and don't just appear in red areas of the screen. It's like it has a problem where there are color shifts in the image. While the video card only has dvi outputs I can get a dvi to hdmi adapter and see if that eliminates the tv issue since it wouldn't "think" it is receiving a computer signal. Does that make any sense?

 

[Lordbob75]

He received no video card artifacts. The problem lies with his TV.
Can you try another cable or type of cable?

~Lordbob

 

[corleydad]

update - bought a dvi to hdmi adapter and plugged it into the tv - NO ARTIFACTS! However the 1920x1080 1080p resolution is too big for the screen - must really overscan! I had to set the screen resolution to 1768x992 to fit it on the screen

 

[fseal]

Cool!

And yeah in HDMI or component mode it overscans :/

Another good thing about using the hdmi I found is that FINALLY you can use a TV as a secondary monitor and if you turn it off and reboot your machine the Windows 7 doesn;t rearrange your desktop Something it does in DVI mode with nvidia and ATI. (Unless it was actually a super recent driver fix from nvidia that coincided with my swap to HDMI)

 

[corleydad]

Thanks to everyone for all the help and suggestions. A secondary benefit of the hdmi use is that I can do a split screen and have both my HTPC screen and the Antenna feed for tv at the same time!

 

[Keiichi25]

For future reference, when trying to show artifacting, never use a screen shot.

The computer is the one taking a screenshot, so it will take a picture of what it will be outputting to the user. The problem is, what it believes it is outputting and what the user sees is going to be different due to many factors, thus, we will not tell the difference from what you posted from one way or the other, cause it looks the same.

You should take an external reference picture, IE: Use an actual camera. That way, we can see what you see versus just what the computer thinks it is doing.