Hi, trying to setup an extended desktop on a crt, to output my tuner card and for video editing. I'm using WinXP Pro sp2, DirectX 9.0c and a Saphire X550 PCI-E, with the pc-monitor on vga and the tv on s-vid.

The tv itself recieves a signal but the pictures distorted - theres these white choppy bands zigzagging across the whole screen. Here is a pic (taken with a camera-phone, sorry) of the extended desktop in windows...


Now the weird thing is while i get the above in windows, the tv gets a perfect signal when the pc is booting, ie the POST information shows up fine...


I'm confused why when windows kicks in i get the distortion. Tried messing around with refresh rates, different profiles, etc but no joy. I also tried the following with no success:

- tried the 5.11 catalyst drivers
- tried the 5.13 catalyst drivers
- tried the omega drivers
- tried tweaking with ati tools

Any idea's, ive spent weeks on this problem and its driving me insane. Any info/help appreciated.

Is the TV actually set for S-Video input and not composite?

The tv doesnt actually have a s-video input. The s-vid from the card is connected to a scart block which goes into the TV.

After a bit of messing around i was able to get a clear signal on the tv within windows but this was with no drivers installed (?), so i know for sure its a software issue now.

Noticed a new set of ati drivers out so i tried them with a fresh install of the .NET pack but no luck so far, still get a distorted image.

Its either a driver issue or one tiny little setting somewhere. Quest continues, any advice still welcome.

using tv like that will always do something of the sorts.. it just depends if your tv can handle it or not (its usualy a hi res image that the card is compressing for s-video output due to bandwith difference).. also might want to try setting it on a lower res, cloned mode and extended mode see what happens

when i connect my pc to the tv via svideo->composite adaptor->tv it turns out something similar, setting it to lowest 640xsomething and generic drivers (eg. what you see in post) usualy works.. although looking at it still gives me a headache (abit fuzzy).. the tv in the kitchen works better, but hte screen is too small for anything.. therefore i just used 2nd vga to a projector..

i'd suggest you get a crt monitor thats 21" should do the job for you or a tv that can take 15pin/vga connection (way better than svid), ohterwise if you got the wallspace invest in a projector