Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H and HDMI

[gaby]

Well it seems that I've found out the hard way about the crappy HDMI support on the 780g chipset. We splashed out over the weekend on a lovely 37" Toshiba XV, a cracking set that's really impressing me. The problem is the HTPC refuses to drive the display at 1080p.

When I plug my MacBook Pro in using the DVI/HDMI cable the panel it brings the panel up at 1920x1080 no problems. When running it out from the HTPC I simply can't get it running at anything over 800x600. Turns out I'm not alone, there are loads of people experiencing HDMI problems with the 780g chips, some even have identical rigs to me (Toshiba 37XV555DB). Firmware updates don't help, driver updates don't help, southbridge updates don't help. I've wasted about 14 hours researching, trying drivers, tweaks, cables, all to no avail.

So I caved and ordered an Asus M3A78-EM. This has GeForce 8300 IGP and will accept all my existing components so it should be a straight swap. Yes, it means that I have to faff around swapping the mobo out but the benefit is that I get working HDMI that carries 1080p and audio on one cable with no additional cards, heat or power consumption in the case.

Yay.

[teookie]

Maybe I'm lucky? Mine works just fine and has from the first time I plugged it in. I'm running 780g on a foxconn A7GM-S out to a Panasonic plasma via HDMI. I get 1920x1080 resolution which fits perfectly on my screen. This works w/ onboard graphics alone, and/or in crossfire with discrete HD3450.

So does your catalyst control center just not have the option to go any higher? Mine tops out at 1920x1080 but must have 13-15 lower resolutions I can set as well.

Is your TV correctly identified by CCC? Mine shows display one as "panasonic TV"...

I understand that you have a hardware fix for your problem coming in the mail already, I'm just throwing this stuff out as food for thought.

Oh yea, and I get sound over HDMI too. I prefer spdif out to my reciever though so I'm not using this capability.

[gaby]

I have the option to take it up to full 1080p in a variety of refresh rates, all of which are supported by the TV. When I switch to the higher res I just get no signal on the TV at all, the only ones I can get any signal at are 800x600 and lower.

Sound over HDMI was working fine too but if you're not getting HD on the TV then it's not the same.

CCC shows the tv as "TOSHIBA-TV", apparently correctly detects that it does 1920x1080@75Hz but that's about it. I'm not alone with this problem, I've read plenty of forums, web pages and tried nearly every hint and tip that has been suggested. I just hope that getting an nVidia based board will solve the problem.

My current workaround is to use the VGA connector, at least I can get 1380x700-ish out (can't recall the exact res) which is better but I still have to use a separate cable for the audio which I wanted to avoid.

[pBS]

have you tried a dvi-hdmi adapter? includes audio if you get a real ati one..
i know the dvi port is slightly different than the hdmi out, but offers same capabilities..
even a generic adapt. will work, just won't have audio..
just a thought...that's a nice board...i might get one...

[gaby]

Yup, tried that too. DVI/HDMI into the TV still only works at 800x600 but couldn't get any audio. Looking forward to my new board arriving (hopefully tomorrow) so I can get glorious 1080p.

If you want you can have my board, I'll be putting it on eBay if all goes to plan

[gazoo]

That's why I use VGA, didn't want to even bother.

[gaby]

Weeeeeell, I figure that this HDMI lark is supposed to do it all over one cable, it's surely not unreasonable to expect that a bit of kit that was made inside of the last 18 months should work.

Oh how wrong I was...

[gaby]

New board arrived to day, swapped it into the case and I now have the TV doing full 1080p using component colour of the HDMI cable with audio.

Problem now is that I have installed/uninstalled so many ATI/nVidia drivers, codecs and general bits of crap that I seem to have b0rked DVD playback, the one thing that was working fine from the outset.

I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet (again, lots of bullet biting this week) and just do a clean install of everything to start from scratch. The screen looks fantastic at full res, just a shame I can't get any nice looking DVD playback on it...

[Pob]

Wish I had seen the original post sooner - I had already had the same fun and games trying to get a Toshiba TV working over HDMI with ANY ATI card - not just the 780G chipset:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/8750936-post144.html
ATI blame LCD manufacturers for not having correct EDID information, but the bottom line is that on several TV models Nvidia cards work, ATI cards do not...