# 921 Dvi Image Not Filling Screen



## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

As a new owner of a 921 (2 weeks) I was wondering if anyone else was having this problem? I just bought a DVI-D cable to connect my 921 to my HDLP50W-151 RCA DLP TV. Hookup went fine, and PQ is great and much improved over the component connection. The problem is, I have approximately 2 inches around the entire screen that is now a blank space. This didn't occur with the component, S-Video, or composite connection. Scrolling through the format screens yields no difference in Zoom, Normal, or Stretch modes. Gray bars yields gray all the way around image in the center of the screen with gray all the way out to the edges on all four sides. Could this be normal? Bug? My TV?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.


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## Golfer (Mar 3, 2004)

Are you sure that you have the aspect ratio of your receiver set to 116x9 and tv set to 1080i?


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

I have a Mitsubishi DLP TV using the DVI output from the 921 to an HDMI input on the TV and have not seen this. I'm using 720p though?


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## markcollins (Jan 27, 2004)

I believe the issue is with your television,Componet will accept 16x9 or 4x3 digital or analog.DVI is digital and looking at a pure signal.You need to tell your television what to look for at the DVI input.My Sony I have to set it to normal 4x3 and stretch anything through the 921 to fill screen for 4x3 material.The 921 outputs 16x9 when content is brodcast that way and my TV then senses it and goes full screen non-stretched.Hope this helps.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I don't believe there is a way to tell the TV what to look for on the DVI input. It is native 1080i for all digital inputs and I have the 921 set for 16:9 and 1080i output. As I understand it, the RCA is supposed to auto detect and display accordingly what it sees at the DVI input. I have even been into the service mode settings and can find nothing that will change the DVI input settings. RCA tech support is brain dead on anything more technical than turning it on and off.

This is a minor annoyance at the most, but I just thought it might be something that someone else had seen. My guess was it was some quirk with the TV, as this isn't the only one it has.

Thanks again for your thoughts. Hopefully, someone will chime in who has an RCA DLP and a 921 so we can compare notes


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## wfhuber (Oct 6, 2002)

Have you tried to look at the picture using a different tuning source? IE OTA antenna and not using the 921. I just found that my RCA has reduced vertical sweep through the 921 and full vertical sweep when I don't get the signal from the 921. I don't recall this prior to the latest 211 upgrade. 
Just a thought-Bill


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## tibbyjr (May 18, 2003)

Rotrykt
211 changed my RCA 61" dlp to a 58", was fine before software update. 
Got a black 1.5" bar on the sides and top and bottom.
I think it's the new video driver.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Rotryrkt said:


> As a new owner of a 921 (2 weeks) I was wondering if anyone else was having this problem? I just bought a DVI-D cable to connect my 921 to my HDLP50W-151 RCA DLP TV. Hookup went fine, and PQ is great and much improved over the component connection. The problem is, I have approximately 2 inches around the entire screen that is now a blank space. This didn't occur with the component, S-Video, or composite connection. Scrolling through the format screens yields no difference in Zoom, Normal, or Stretch modes. Gray bars yields gray all the way around image in the center of the screen with gray all the way out to the edges on all four sides. Could this be normal? Bug? My TV?
> 
> Any thoughts would be much appreciated.


"dlp" is 720p. Usually the DLP monitors can up convert or down convert 1089i or 480p. If you use 1080i on your 921 the PQ is not going to be as good as it should. The 921 should be set to 720p with a DLP when using the DVI.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

boylehome said:


> "dlp" is 720p. Usually the DLP monitors can up convert or down convert 1089i or 480p. If you use 1080i on your 921 the PQ is not going to be as good as it should. The 921 should be set to 720p with a DLP when using the DVI.


Sorry, boylehome, but the RCA DLP's are native 1080i and will not receive anything but 1080i and 480p over the component or DVI inputs. This is THE major gripe I have with the RCA DLP. Through it's built in OTA tuner, it receives and displays 720p with no problems, but through the inputs, no go. When I send it 720p from the 921, it displays "unusable signal" on a blank screen.

I looked at the Samsungs when I bought this set, and decided I could live with the 1080i native as a tradeoff for it's built in tuner and MUCH lower cost, with no discernable difference in PQ.

Sounds to me from the two previous posts to yours that other folks with RCA's are seeing similar problems with the L211 upgrade as well. Sounds like the RCA's don't like the new video driver. Maybe this should be posted as a bug? How about it Mark?


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Rotryrkt said:


> Sorry, boylehome, but the RCA DLP's are native 1080i and will not receive anything but 1080i and 480p over the component or DVI inputs. This is THE major gripe I have with the RCA DLP. Through it's built in OTA tuner, it receives and displays 720p with no problems, but through the inputs, no go. When I send it 720p from the 921, it displays "unusable signal" on a blank screen.


This is surprising to hear. This is unusual for a DLP chip. I can see the component inputs to the monitor working just fine for 1080i and 480p but not having 720 for DVI? I'll have to research and see what DLP process they are using. I've tried the 921 1080i on my Sammy DLP and it is definitely worse than L188 or lower.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

boylehome said:


> This is surprising to hear. This is unusual for a DLP chip. I can see the component inputs to the monitor working just fine for 1080i and 480p but not having 720 for DVI? I'll have to research and see what DLP process they are using. I've tried the 921 1080i on my Sammy DLP and it is definitely worse than L188 or lower.


Yes, that is a little weird of RCA/Thomson, but they are French, so I suppose that explains some of it. It is my understanding that they use the TI "Mustang II" second generation DLP chip, but no one seems to know why they don't allow 720p inputs.

My problem is that I did not have a DVI cable until after L211, so I can't compare before and after. My 1080i PQ is still acceptable, after L211, it's just sucked in on all four sides about 2 inches which is somewhat annoying. Thanks again for your response.


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## Guest (Dec 13, 2004)

Are you sure the RCA doesn't have a scaling feature to change the screen size? My Sammy DLP has aspect ratio controls for DVI, either Wide (TV) or Wide (PC). Wide PC shrinks the picture size to eliminate any overscan.


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## Rick Garrison (Dec 13, 2004)

I have a 61" RCA DLP and I am having the exact same problem. I am connected via DVI as well and before the 211 upgrade the image would be full screen on SD channels. I am also seeing a single 'broken' flashing line at the top of the image. The 911 has to be set to 1080i in that even though these sets are native 720p, it will not except a native 720p through DVI. HD signals works fine. I am also having that weird format lock problem on SD channels as well which requires a sift reboot to fix. I guess I could switch over to component but don't want to sacrifice any image quality on HD channels.. so I'll just deal with it. My guess would be that this is related to the video driver on the 921.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Rotryrkt said:


> Yes, that is a little weird of RCA/Thomson, but they are French, so I suppose that explains some of it. It is my understanding that they use the TI "Mustang II" second generation DLP chip, but no one seems to know why they don't allow 720p inputs.
> 
> My problem is that I did not have a DVI cable until after L211, so I can't compare before and after. My 1080i PQ is still acceptable, after L211, it's just sucked in on all four sides about 2 inches which is somewhat annoying. Thanks again for your response.


If your video aspect problem isn't resolved by helpful advise from here, then it may be worthwhile to talk to a RCA tech. rep. to see if they can help. What I found it that the DLP chip in your monitor used the same DLP chip that is in my monitor and it is native 720. Also, it seems that the video driver in the 921 isn't perfected yet. The previous driver worked quite well when I would set the 921 to 1080i or 480p. I now suffer from video jitter now and then and at times the 921 aspect ratios don't change on command.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Rick Garrison said:


> I have a 61" RCA DLP and I am having the exact same problem. I am connected via DVI as well and before the 211 upgrade the image would be full screen on SD channels. I am also seeing a single 'broken' flashing line at the top of the image. The 911 has to be set to 1080i in that even though these sets are native 720p, it will not except a native 720p through DVI. HD signals works fine. I am also having that weird format lock problem on SD channels as well which requires a sift reboot to fix. I guess I could switch over to component but don't want to sacrifice any image quality on HD channels.. so I'll just deal with it. My guess would be that this is related to the video driver on the 921.


My Sammy is working well with the 921 set to 720p. I do notice occasionally that there is a hash line at the top of the screen on some transmissions (CBSHD being one of them) but this has been present from L186 to L211. On my SD channels, I have the letter boxes on the right and left sides in normal 4:3. If I change the aspects, the screen fills fully. One thing that the Sammy has is the, "TV" and "PC" aspect in DVI. Is yours set to PC? It would be nice if they added a feature where the actual video picture is movable to specific locations like that provided in the model 6000.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Definitely report this as a bug, if you haven't done so already (only one of you, please). And, make sure to use the proper format so that I don't have to edit it later.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Definitely report this as a bug, if you haven't done so already (only one of you, please). And, make sure to use the proper format so that I don't have to edit it later.


mraub has started a bug report thread on this.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=36269

All you RCA DLP owners go over there and weigh in please. Thanks again everyone for your help and suggestions. Looks like this may indeed be a problem with the L211 release.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Rotryrkt said:


> mraub has started a bug report thread on this.
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=36269
> 
> All you RCA DLP owners go over there and weigh in please. Thanks again everyone for your help and suggestions. Looks like this may indeed be a problem with the L211 release.


He has also posted that his RCA DLP is normal now. http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=338604&posted=1#post338604


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