I'm on the third driver (and supposedly the most stable):

I'm using  Driver Version 290.53

When it starts doing that, if I close Windows Media Center, and then restart it, the problem temporarily goes away...  works for a day or so, then starts having the issue again.

Only does it on certain channels and sometimes just during the commercials.  Really random, but VERY annoying. 

Is there a version that will work??  Anything???   I'm just looking to keep my media server in Media Center and have it work, which seems IMPOSSIBLE.  Random error messages, flickering, HDCP issues.  I'm really getting tired of the glitches...    I've been trying desperately for 5 years to get a stable media center with ZERO issues. 

Has anyone been able to pinpoint the exact problem?  Anyone else having issues with the same driver?

I'm running 296.10 which is the latest WHQL Driver and a GT430 from EGVA and don't have that issue.

On what display are your haivng the issue on a monitor or a tv set?

I would guess that you have a monitor on DVI and another display on HDMI (I have a monitor on DVI and a projector on HDMI).

Download the latest driver directly from nVidia 296.10 and check custom and clean install---if you are not using 3D I'd suggest you not install those drivers, but its up to you.

With the clean install you MIGHT have to restart the machine (the last time I did it I had to restart twice) If the machine restarts without the new drivers installed don't start anything just let it shut down and restart and finish the install.

When you're done, right click on your desktop and open the nVidia Control panel, and go to resolutions. There check your displays and refresh rates. It almost sounds like your resolution/refresh isn't set to 1920x1080 59 progressive or maybe you display on HDMI doesn't support that, but check that with the latest driver and see what you get.

John

the new drivers (296.10) cause flickering on my setup and nothing would alleviate the problem.

My setup:

Intel E5200 2.5GHz

Intel DG33TL MB

EVGA GT430

Panasonic Plasma 42" (connected via DVI->HDMI cable)

Ceton InfiniTV4

OCZ 60GB Vertex2

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

this is exactly what i see with the new drivers:

(ignore the hardware listed in the video, its only to illustrate what im seeing)

i had to roll back to 275.33 and change the color settings in nVidia control panel from RGB to YCbCr. all flickering then stops. with the new drivers no setting change or combination of setting changes would fix it for me.

worth a shot.

John,

I tried the latest Stable 285.62 (reccomended) and the 295.51 Beta drivers and had issues with both.  With 285.62, I got NO PICTURE and only sound on any of my HD channels.  Seemed to work okay with standard def channels, however.  With 295.51, which was the latest Beta driver at the time, I was getting exactly what you saw above.  A whiteish flickering, but only occured on some HD channels, not all of them.  Mine might have even been worse than what you saw there.

With the 290.53 driver, (which I'm currently running) was what everyone by concensus told me had no issues, I'm getting random on/off flickering on certain HD channels.

Sometimes it's during shows, sometimes only with commercials. 

Oddly, I can temporarily fix the issue, by closing out of Windows Media Center, and then restarting the program a minute or two later.  Flicker gone.

I'm having a lot of other issues when I keep Media Center open.  Yesterday I got this message (see below) on every channel I went to. But, when I restarted Media Center, everything was good in the world again.  This is just an example of the error messages I get, and actually never seen this one before.  I do get the No TV Signal and other HDCP errors often thought.  I think these issues are unrelated, so I'll be posting those in another post to the forum.  I'm not sure why I can't seem to just keep Media Center open and trouble free.  Constant barage of error messages plague my user experience. 

If I catch a channel flickering, I'll try and record it and post it here so you can see what I'm experiencing. 

I recorded the Mad Men premiere the other night, and caught flicker through the comercials and opening credits....   fortunately no flicker the rest of the way through the show!  But, I should be able to post what's going on later today if need be. 

FYI...   I'm running a relatively new machine on Windows 7 64 bit with an NVIDIA GT430 video card, CETON InfiniTV USB Tuner.  My display is a new Panasonic Professional Plasma 1080P display. 

One thing to consider, when you use the DVI --> HDMI cable there is no feedback to the computer as to the display's capabilities and you need to set those manually.

That's why you need to open the nVidia Control panel with the TV connected and look at screen resolution and refresh rate.  You may find an error there. Does your display have handle 1920x1080 at 59.997? If so you'll need to manually set that on your video card. If it isn't shown as a choice you'll have to click on custom and make up a resolution that works.

Then you should open media center and go to setting and set-up the monitor in media center and make sure it is using that setting.

SerialKilla, please try the 275.33 drivers with the settings that i specified. we have very similar setups and both using panasonic plasmas. you dont HAVE to use the latest drivers and struggle with them if they are causing issues. Its best to use whatever drivers work best for your setup.

I agree, since you're using DVI --> HDMI the most important thing is setting your display resolution and refresh and making sure that Media Center is using the same settings that you set on your video card. Also since you're not using HDMI you can't feed sound along with video and at least with the driver I'm running the sound feed works very well (not sure about 275.33 since that was some time ago).

You'll have better luck with your display with HDMI since then the display properties will be sent to the computer.

sound works fine for me over DVI with 275.33. this driver isnt that old either, from less than a year ago.

interestingly, HDMI doesnt work at all. if i hook up an HDMI cable from the HDMI port to the TV, i get no picture.

You get sound with a single cable connection with 275.33? That's interesting indeed. When I ran DVI I had to run toslink for sound. If you got no picture with HDMI, did you look at screen resolution in the nVidia control panel (asuming you had two displays connected) to insure that scan rate and size were correct? That might be the problem the OP is having. You need to check it in the nVidia control panel and then run Media Center and make sure it is using the right size and scan rate. Some displays will only accept interlaced others progressive. Some won't accept 60hz, etc.

John

yes. with 275.33 i get sound via the single DVI->HDMI cable. i believe i was able to get sound with this with even older drivers. of course you have to have the nvidia HD sound driver installed with the video driver package for it to work.

when i hooked up the TV via a single HDMI cable, i had no picture at all. i cant remember if an external monitor even worked via HDMI. ill have to try it again and see. but it doesnt really make much difference. either DVI->HMDI or HDMI->HDMI is exactly the same. they both support HDCP and are passing the same exact signals.

Why would you want to run a DVI to HDMI cable?  My NVIDIA GT430 all have HDMI out.  Also, DVI is known to only pass video, not audio, which is why I'm surprised you said you get audio.  It was my understanding that was the advantage of running HDMI is that it can pass both audio and video via same connector.  

Few displays these days support DVI.

I am running straight HDMI out of the video card and into the TV.  No receiver in the middle.  I am running TOSLINK (SPDiF) out from my Windows server to the reciever.  

I have not tried that earlier driver, but will uninstall and re-install that one this weekend and try.  It only happens when I have Media Center open for a day or two.  If I close and re-open, the probelm seems to correct itself temporatily.  I also get other issues and all these warnings on cable if WMC stays open for too long.  All my problems really revolve around CableCard use, and I am even having a problem with the CETON USB tuner disconnecting and re-connecting momentarily which has FUBAR'd a few of my recordings randomly. 

Not real happy with all these random issues.

While trouble shooting a problem with my Ceton card,  the Tech support people at Ceton had me install the latest nVidia drivers and I started getting the flashing problem with the frame rate changing. I went back to 275.33 and the problem stopped as well for me.

I updated my drivers to 296.10 and also got the flicker problem.  This is on a HTPC using lowly GF8200 integrated graphics and straight HDMI cable to 1080p display.  Backing off to 295.73 seemed to fix that problem.  

[quote="SerialKilla"]Why would you want to run a DVI to HDMI cable?  My NVIDIA GT430 all have HDMI out.  Also, DVI is known to only pass video, not audio, which is why I'm surprised you said you get audio.  It was my understanding that was the advantage of running HDMI is that it can pass both audio and video via same connector.  

Few displays these days support DVI.[/quote]

as i said in my earlier post. a DVI connection is FULLY capable of passing audio if the video card is setup for it. and the GT430 is... the digital signals sent via DVI and HDMI are exactly the same. there is literally no difference other than the connector on the cable.

the only reason Im using a DVI-HDMI cable rather than an HDMI is because either the HDMI port on my video card doesnt work or there is some other setting that is preventing video output. but again it really doesnt make any difference.

Do this:

• Do NOT use the nvidia control panel settings to set dynamic range. Set it to application default (or whatever it's called). Using the nvidia setting exposes the flickering.
• Use the registry settings that instruct Media Center to implicitly set the nominal/dynamnic range:

16-235 uses this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Debug\ehPresenter.dll]
"NominalRange"=dword:2

0-255 use this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Debug\ehPresenter.dll]
"NominalRange"=dword:1

This should mask the change in brightness on the interlaced/progressive transition.

Bonus points for video fidelity nuts: configure your nvidia card to treat HDMI like DVI and avoid clipping blacks to get proper levels:

• Search for the file nv_disp.inf where the driver was extracted by the nvidia installer and open it.
• Search for the section [nv_miscBase_addreg__01]
• Under this section add the registry value:
• HKR,,SetDefaultFullRGBRangeOnHDMI,%REG_DWORD%,1
• Repeat this step for [nv_miscBase_addreg__02] and [nv_miscBase_addreg__03] and so on until all [nv_miscBase_addreg__xx" have the above registry value.
• Save this .inf with the changes.
• Re-install the driver.