Creative TVCoder Common Questions and Answers ============================================= This file contains some common problems faced and the solutions to those problems. Please read the sections below when you encounter a problem, and call our Technical Support when you cannot find an answer in this file. All the questions and their replies are separated with a long dashed line to make it easier for you to locate them. The following questions are addressed in this file: 1. INSTALLATION PROBLEMS Q1. The default Creative TVCoder port address clashes with one of my peripheral cards. Q2. There is no image on TV or PC monitor. Q3. The cables supplied with Creative TVCoder cannot fit into my TV. 2. ALIGNMENT/SETUP PROBLEMS Q4. There is no color on the TV output. Q5. TV output is horizontally off-center. Q6. TV output is vertically off-center. Q7. VGA output does not fit into the TV output. Q8. VGA output is stable but the TV output is jerky. Q9. VGA output is horizontally off-center. Q10. Diagonal bands are running across the TV output. Q11. TV output still does not have color, although the TV standard (PAL or NTSC) is set correctly and color is enabled. Q12. TV output is clear but seems to vibrate. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1. INSTALLATION PROBLEMS Q1. The default Creative TVCoder port address clashes with one of my peripheral cards. A1. Creative TVCoder uses 5 port addresses beginning with one of the specified addresses. For example, if the hardware jumper is set to 220H, Creative TVCoder uses addresses from 220H to 224H. Either change the port address of the other peripheral card, or change the port address of the Creative TVCoder card. You can find a list of available port addresses in Appendix C of the manual. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q2. There is no image on TV or PC monitor. A2. Check that the following is in order: a) The port address jumper is set correctly. b) The TVDRIVER.EXE entry in the CONFIG.SYS file is changed to reflect the correct port address. c) The cables connections between Creative TVCoder and your VGA card is set correctly. d) The cable connections are tightly secured. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q3. The cables supplied with Creative TVCoder cannot fit into my TV. A3. The cables supplied with the Creative TVCoder card are S-Video cables and composite RCA cables. Check that your TV can accept input from at least an RCA cable. (Most modern TV's will have such a connection.) If your TV does not have the RCA input, then you will have to hook up the output of the Creative TVCoder card via a VCR. Connect the output (either RCA or S-Video) of the TVCoder to the input of your VCR, and connect a separate cable from the RF output of your VCR to the RF input of your TV. Consult your TV technician for more details on these cable connections. ===================================================================== 2. ALIGNMENT/SETUP PROBLEMS Q4. There is no color on the TV output, or there is very bad display on the TV output. A4. a) Check that the Video Standard setting matches your TV. b) Check that the color output is enabled (use TVPanel and look at the Toggles box). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q5. TV output is horizontally off-center. A5. Use the Horizontal Pan setting in TVPanel or TVAdjust to shift the display to the correct position. (Refer to the manual for more complete details.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q6. TV output is vertically off-center. A6. Use the Vertical Pan setting in TVPanel or TVAdjust to shift the display to the correct position. (Refer to the manual for more complete details.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q7. VGA output does not fit into the TV output. A7. This may happen particularly with NTSC-M output (or the 60-Hz output formats). Not all of the VGA output may be put onto the TV. Use the vertical and horizontal pans to fit as much of the important areas to be seen. Alternatively, try to tweak the size of your output such that it will always be visible on the TV output. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q8. VGA output is stable but the TV output is jerky. A8. You might have switched to a new VGA mode which the Creative TVCoder card cannot yet lock onto. Use the Vertical Alignment setting in TVPanel or TVAdjust to align the TV output. Refer to the manual (or the TVPanel on-line help) for more complete details on how to perform this critical alignment. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q9. VGA output is horizontally off-center. A9. The VGA output is off-skew and you will need to use the Horizontal Alignment setting in TVPanel or TVAdjust to re-align the display. Refer to the manual (or the TVPanel on-line help) for more complete details on how to perform this critical alignment. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q10. Diagonal bands are running across the TV output. A10. This sometimes becomes obvious when using RCA output. Use the Color-run Frequency adjustment in TVPanel or TVAdjust to fine-tune the TVCoder card and minimize the effect of the diagonal bands. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q11. TV output still does not have color, although the TV standard (PAL or NTSC) is set correctly and color is enabled. A11. The Color-run Frequency value may be out of bounds. Twiddle with the Color-run Frequency adjustment in TVPanel or TVAdjust to re-align the Color-run Frequency. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q12. TV output is clear but seems to vibrate. A12. The Color-run Frequency value may be out of bounds. Twiddle with the Color-run Frequency adjustment in TVPanel or TVAdjust to re-align the Color-run Frequency. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ******** End of TVCCQA.TXT ********