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[CountryBumkin]

I have a problem with screen size when starting MC for the first time after sitting idle (sitting overnight).

Here's the situation. I do not shut of computer (sleep set to never. Hard rive and Display set to never turn off). I just turn off AV receiver and TV when I'm done with it. Computer stays running. The next time I want to use MC (usually the next day) when I turn on the TV and AV Receiver, all I see on the screen is the MC background piture (no buttons - Audio, Video, Gadgets, Exit). I can not get MC to do anything. So this time I hit the Windows Key and now can see the taskbar at bottom. The MC icon is shown. I tried clicking on it and right/left clicking to get something going. Eventually I saw the MC "Exit" screen (Exit Theater View, Standby/Hibernate &More, Cancel) bu the window was so large I could only see the word EXIT the rest was off screen.
Now I realize that the MC backgound is at like 200%. That's why I can't see the action buttons (Audio, Video, ...) they are there but "off" the screen.

This descrption (above) is probably enough to get some help - but there is one more thing that might be important.
A week ago, the problem was that when I turn on TV/Reciever to use MC, the MC program was like 25% of the size it should be (it was just a small box in the top left corner instead of filling screen. I went into Event View to see if any relevant errors were logged and there were alot abpout Windows Media Center screwing up. So then I went into control panel programs>features and uninstalled the Windows Media Center Program (beacuse I don't use the program anymore). Now the screen size is to big. Maybe not related to the uninstall.

This is a Gigabtye GA-E7AU-DS2h motherboard with a Core 2 Duo E8400 (4GB memory) and a GTS450 nVidia card. I run Win7 32bit. Latest version of MC16 is installed. But it did this before the MC update too.

[fitbrit]

Are you using the HDMI output from the HTPC?

This sounds like an EDID or HDMI handshake issue. When you turn off the receiver and/or TV, the whole "smart" HDMI chain gets a little screwed up. When you turn on again, I think the PC thinks the connected devices are much lower res (probably 640x480 or 800x600). MC may be getting this info at that point too. Then, when the PC resyncs, perhaps MC isn't doing so.
The most reliable way to fix this (if it is what I suspect) is to get an HDMI Detective from Gefen.

Here's an Amazon review:

I was hesitant to buy this part mostly because of the price. As it is, building my Blu-ray HD HTPC ended up costing me about 3 times what I had originally anticipated! Here's yet another $100+ dollars ... "will it work and will it be worth it?" I wondered. Bottom line, I'm very happy I purchased this item because it does exactly what it is supposed to do.

I was having problems with my HTPC setup. I run HDMI carrying audio and video from my HTPC's motherboard to a A/V Receiver. Then, another HDMI cord goes from the Receiver to my HDTV. Before installing the HDMI Detective, the problem would occur whenever (a) my HTPC would go to sleep/standby and then I would wake it up; or (b) I would turn off my Receiver or HDTV and then turn them back on. In these scenarios, once I woke up the PC or turned on the Receiver/TV I would no longer have a video or audio signal via my HDMI cords. One solution was to do a hard restart on the HTPC, which isn't horrible, but certainly is a pain in the butt. The other solution was to leave all three components running 24/7, which I quickly ruled out as an option since cumulatively they consume about 1000 watts and we all know electricity isn't free.

So, I purchased the HDMI Detective and installed it between my HTPC and the Receiver. Plugging in the Detective was easy and the initial programing took about 5 minutes. This is a very easy-to-use device.

With the HDMI Detective in place between my HTPC and Receiver, now everything works more like a traditional PC. I can put my HTPC to sleep and when I wake it up the Receiver instantly sees the HDMI connection and sends the subsequent signal on to the HDTV. Also, when I turn off and turn back on my Receiver or HDTV, everything picks up on the HDMI signal as if nothing were the matter.

In conclusion, the HDMI Detective is an expensive item that you likely didn't anticipate needing to buy for your setup. But since you're reading this review you must be having HDMI problems. The HDMI Detective is 100% worth the price. I did some hefty research and I could not find any other items on the market that do the same thing that the HDMI Detective does, so that makes it even more worth the price. It is compact, easy to use, and most importantly, works perfectly.

Stop stressing, buy the HDMI Detective. It will solve your HDMI HARDWARE problems. Solving SOFTWARE problems is another story for another time.

In the case of the review, resuming from sleep resulted in no video or audio, rather than being at the wrong resolution, which I believe is your case.
It's $91 at Amazon. I believe Monoprice sells the equivalent called the DVI Doctor; supposedly using DVI to HDMI cables in and out of the DVI Doctor gives you the same thing, including audio from what I've read. The DVI Doctor is about half the price of the HDMI Detective.

Alternatively
Maybe one of the JRiver staff will look into why the application doesn't resume to the same resolution as the screen upon wake up?

[kensn]

Are the Display settings set to Desktop resolution? If so I would try to set the resolution there to a fixed one .. Might stick.. I don't know...

Ken

[fitbrit]

Are the Display settings set to Desktop resolution? If so I would try to set the resolution there to a fixed one .. Might stick.. I don't know...

Ken

LOL... that might be a better/easier solution than my expensive guesswork!

[jmone]

+1 on the issue being the "lost monitor" HDMI issue.....  I have the DVI Detective Plus in the chain for years now, so now idea if the modern GPU's still have this issues (but it sounds like it!)

[CountryBumkin]

Are the Display settings set to Desktop resolution? If so I would try to set the resolution there to a fixed one .. Might stick.. I don't know...

Ken

I have the desktop resolution set to 1080x1920. What do you mean by desktop resolution - isn't the desktop resolution whatever I set it to? Is there a specific setting in MC you're referring to - or just the video card desktop setting? I also have a custom resoultion set up in my nVidia GTS450 card (to get the holy grail 23.976 refresh rate). Maybe I need to switch this back to automatic.

First Step: My TV's native resolution is 1366x768 (720p), I can try setting desktop to the TV's native resoultion and see if that helps. I set it to 1080x1920 because it works better with my Directv setup, but I switch to native res and see if that fixes it.

Second Step: Revert nVidia card back to automatic settings, if step one doesn't help.

Thanks

[Sandy B Ridge]

A couple of things to try:

disable power saving on the monitor in the windows powersaving settings ie. Do not allow Windows to shut off the graphics card when idle. I found that with this on that I lost audio over HDMI when idling for the set time period. Very annoying!

try and remote desktop into your PC and change the 'idle' desktop resolution. I use 'splashtop' remote to log in from my iPad. When the PC was idling or with the amplifier off (Win thinks no monitor attached same as the turn display off after a set period scenario) I found that the desktop resolution was reset to something lower (I can't remember exactly what - something x 768 I think). Weird things would happen to the open application windows on resume with them sometimes being off screen.

The disable display sleep worked for me - I haven't needed to try the second suggestion.

I have a screensaver set (and not disabled in Theaterview) to protect the plasma screen. Sometimes after a resume from standby it doesn't seem to kick in so I wish Theaterview would have a 'sleep mode' with no bright text, or a Pseudo-screensaver in it to help with this quirk of Win7.

SBR

[CountryBumkin]

I don't have any power saving options turned on. No screen saver, no display sleep, everything set to stay on always. I don't know about the "graphics card idle setting". I have to look around for this.

Funny thing, a couple of posts up it was suggested I use/get the HDMI (DVI) Doctor. I bought one to fix a problem a few months ago - but it turned out to not be related to handshaking, so I didn't need/use it. I just sold it to another AVS member a week ago for half of what I paid. Figures

[Sandy B Ridge]

I don't have any power saving options turned on. No screen saver, no display sleep, everything set to stay on always. I don't know about the "graphics card idle setting". I have to look around for this.

Funny thing, a couple of posts up it was suggested I use/get the HDMI (DVI) Doctor. I bought one to fix a problem a few months ago - but it turned out to not be related to handshaking, so I didn't need/use it. I just sold it to another AVS member a week ago for half of what I paid. Figures

Oops, sorry! Should've read your OP thoroughly before chiming in! However, you say you turn off the receiver every night and the problem happens on resuming in the morning.   When I turn off the receiver on my setup whilst using 'splashtop' remote on the iPad, Windows thinks it has lost the monitor and resizes the desktop to a 'default' size (?? X 768 or so). This moves the application windows around and on turning on the receiver again the desktop resizes back to 1080p with windows in different positions.

HDMI detective will keep windows thinking that the receiver is still on, so it certainly is a solution. I'll test my second theory/suggestion later tonight or over the weekend. If you can fool Windows into using a 1080p resolution desktop for the default state with no active HDMI connection then the desktop should not need to resize. I'll give it a whirl.

I have a HDMI detective about to go up on eBay. I bought it because I wanted to be able to use MC16 as a front end to choose music, and then to be able to turn off the TV and keep the music playing. I was finding that turning the TV off was crashing the PC, presumably because it was losing HDCP or changing EDID or something. HDMI detective was working great, but I found a firmware update for my receiver that 'decoupled the sink from the source' for EDID and that fixed it for me. So I don't need it in the chain anymore.

SBR

[fitbrit]

I don't have any power saving options turned on. No screen saver, no display sleep, everything set to stay on always. I don't know about the "graphics card idle setting". I have to look around for this.

Funny thing, a couple of posts up it was suggested I use/get the HDMI (DVI) Doctor. I bought one to fix a problem a few months ago - but it turned out to not be related to handshaking, so I didn't need/use it. I just sold it to another AVS member a week ago for half of what I paid. Figures

If you get another one, and this current problem is unrelated to EDID issues, I'll definitely buy it for half what you paid for it. Thanks!

[CountryBumkin]

I'll keep you mind Fitbrit. Thanks for the offer. Hey, I have a bunch of junk I bought that didn't work like advertized - would you like to buy everything at half price 

[BryanC]

I've got this same problem. The newest nVidia drivers seem to help the problem (still occasionally borks, but not every time now).

[Sandy B Ridge]

OK, update:

I have 1920x1080 as desktop resolution normally on my HDMI connected TV via receiver.
Remoteing in from iPad, (so I can still see what's going on). Turning off the receiver changes desktop screen resolution to 1024x768 (windows says via VGA although I have nothing connected to the VGA output!). Any open application windows resize all over the place, including off screen. Turning receiver back on the window resize a bit randomly, not necessarily back to full screen as they were before.

Now, I can solve this behaviour by changing the so called 'VGA' desktop resolution (via iPad) whilst the receiver is off to 1920x1080. Now, when I toggle the receiver off and on none of the windows move or resize.

This may work for you. (has to be cheaper than a HDMI detective!)

SBR

[jmone]

Nice tip SBR

FYI - The other issue you may get when the HDMI connection is dropped is crashes if playing any Audio and you also tend to lose the HDMI Audio Driver on some setups.

[kensn]

I have the desktop resolution set to 1080x1920. What do you mean by desktop resolution - isn't the desktop resolution whatever I set it to? Is there a specific setting in MC you're referring to - or just the video card desktop setting? Thanks

I was talking about under OPTIONS - VIDEO - DISPLAY SETTINGS in MC.... Didn't know if setting those to a specific resolution instead of the default Desktop settings if may help.

Ken