Developer Forum

MCE sets its own resolution and refresh rate independent of your system
settings. To configure this, go into the settings menu and select
"configure your displays". Answer the questions in here and you should
get the proper resolution and refresh rate. You may want to select
S-Video instead of component so that it sets the resolution to 720x480 @
60Hz, which is what your TV requires.

Pete

I've got MCE 2005 connected to a standard definition 4:3 TV. I'm using
a DVI to component adapter, and connecting to the component inputs on
my TV. I then set the windows resolution to 640X480 30hz interlaced,
and I get a beautiful desktop. If I start MCE in a window, it works
fine. BUT, as soon as I go to fullscreen, it loses synch with the TV.

I spent hours trying to figure this out, and I think I know what is
happening. When you go fullscreen, MCE seems to be changing the refresh
rate (and possibly resolution also) mo matter what you have set in
display properties. I tried a program called RefreshLock that will
force windows to stay at 30hz, and it seemed to fight with MCE for
about 10 seconds then it finally worked. Unfortunately it doesn't stay
working after a reboot and there were some other issues it was causing
outside of MCE.

So my question is- what is MCE doing in full screen mode? Why can't it
just follow what you have set in display properties? Is there any way
around this behavior? I find it hard to believe you can't run MCE at an
interlaced resolution, seeing how the majority of TV's out there right
now are 4:3 interlaced.

When MCE is in full screen mode it switches to DirectX Exclusive mode.
This allows MCE apps to draw directly to the screen and take advantage
of hardware acceleration. When changing to exclusive mode, DirectX
takes over your screen display so any resolution settings you have
setting in Windows is disregarded. As far as your actual problem of
losing synch with the TV, I would make sure that you have the latest
version of DirectX, or at least focus your troubleshooting on DirectX.

Thanks Dan, that makes sense. Now I guess my question is, is there
anyway to override the DirectX refresh rate changes? I found a "refresh
override" setting when running "dxdiag", but you can only choose a
setting between 40-120 Hz. (30Hz is needed for standard NTSC TV's).

Any other ideas? Is there any kind of reg hack for locking the refresh
rate?
Or is it posible to run in non-exclusive full screen?

Thanks for the reply Peter. I tried using the "s-video or composite"
setting, but it didn't help. It doesn't appear to have any effect on
the refresh rate, it just seems to change the layout of MCE a little
differently to compensate for overscan. I've also tried, VGA/DVI
setting, component, and also tried the "digital flat panel" display for
kicks. Nothing.

720X480 @ 60Hz won't work on a standard 4:3 non-HD display. Maybe on a
progressive display, but on interlaced TV's, only every other line is
drawn for each screen refresh, hence the 30Hz refresh rate.

It appears that the developers of MCE didn't think that anybody would
be outputting a component signal to a non-HD display. A pretty big
oversight in my opinion! I know I can use the s-video output on a video
card, which will just re-scale everything to standard NTSC signals, but
the s-video output is garbage in my opinion. Using VGA or DVI to
component, the image is crystal clear. My desktop looks great, I just
wish I could get MCE to keep the darn settings when going to
full-screen.