Posts Tagged ‘TV’

hdmiOn – a solution to loss of DVI video EDID signal on HD TVs

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

The last few days I have been pulling my hair out over my new HD TV not working with my Home Theatre PC, specifically when switching from HDMI input to TV and back again. The HDMI signal is lost and can only be reset by either rebooting the PC or unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable.

This problem seems to affect ATI video cards only, with NVIDEA updating their drivers to fix this. ATI states that Catalyst drivers at version 7.3 or higher have fixed this problem, but that wasn’t the case for me. A Google search for ati hdmi edid shows a number of users with the same problem.

Hence, I present to you my solution; hdmiOn.
hdmiOn is a tiny program that turns the monitor off and on, which resends the EDID data bringing back the TV to life. Suggested usage is to assign the program to a function or hotkey.

Program was tested on my Sony BRAVIA KDL46X3100 with a ATI HD 2400 PRO.

Download hdmiOn.exe

As requested, source code is as follows.

#include <windows.h>

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
	// Turn off monitor
	SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, (LPARAM) 2);
	// Turn on monitor
	SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, (LPARAM) -1);

	return 0;
}

Integrating an LCD TV with the Videosphere

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

As I previously posted, I purchased a 8.4″ LCD TV for around $150.

Here is the last update for the year, going on holidays and won’t be back till mid January.

I have started to try to mount the LCD TV into the Videosphere. Firstly removed the LCD from the plastic housing
Removing the LCD from the plastic housing

This is a photo of the back of the LCD
Underside of the LCD

First fit test. You would not believe how close this panel is to not fitting. When choosing the TV I only was concerned about the LCD size fitting the hole, I did not think about the housing. Being a cheap quality LCD the housing protrudes a fair bit. You can observe that the housing isn’t quite flush and this is for two reasons, the LCD is slightly too big, and the hole is actually curved due to the curved screen of the original CRT.
Fit testing the LCD to the Videosphere

The way I solved the LCD size problem was grinding the corners down. This was fairly dangerous as it was easy to damage the LCD, I still haven’t tested the LCD to see if it still works. Before grinding I disassembled the metal housing, this was so that I could see where the glass was as you do not want to be grinding that.
Removing the metal housing from the LCD

Here is a photo of the ground corners of the metal housing; I will explain what the cardboard is for next.
Metal housing with corners ground down

This now solved the LCD not fitting problem. The next problem was the gaps caused by the curved hole. This was solved by using car body filler. First I made a cardboard template with the exact same size hole as the Videosphere.
You can observe the LCD metal housing on top of the cardboard below.
Cardboard template created from the metal housing

It was secured to the Videosphere with some tape.
Cardboard template secured with tape
Front of Videosphere with cardboard in place

Car body filler was applied liberally over the cardboard.
Car body filler applied to Videosphere hole

And the sanding process began.
Initial first phase of sanding

I decided to buy myself an early Christmas present to speed things up. $125 from Bunnings, includes the Flex Shaft and 55 accessories.
Dremel 300 boxed

This was the finished results after another layer of car body filler. It took me a while to get used to the Dremel as I was taking too much out of some areas and leaving indents.
Finished result after sanding

I am quite happy with the results so far. This will be painted black making any imperfections harder to see. Below is a photo of the LCD metal housing over the hole. The hole is slightly uneven and small and that will be fixed up next year.
Back of Videosphere with metal housing used for comparison

Related posts:

  1. Cleaning the Videosphere
  2. Start of new project, modding a JVC Videosphere into a computer (a Computersphere)