Phoenix setup help

[jaizon]

I just got it today. I have a Macbock. Installed Bootcamp. Installed windows XP. Loaded the extra stuff from my Leopard disk. Installed Phoenix. Crash. Crash. Crash.
Repeat whole procedure. Same. Driving me nuts. I also tried installing it on my daughter's pc laptop with XP. Same thing. Crash. Says on the box XP!!!

Can anyone help??? :(:(:(

Preston

[TheBum]

Where did you buy it? If it wasn't directly from the publisher, have you gone to the Phoenix website and downloaded and installed the updates? Also, have you run all the updates on the Mac? There was a Boot Camp update that addressed problems with XP SP3.

[HFG]

Install the latest drivers for you video card this is the cause 99.999% of the time.

[Big Fil]

I installed bootcamp, windows, and phoenix on a macbook pro a couple of weeks ago with no problems other than some ugly operating system now hitching a ride on my computer.

[jaizon]

I bought the program directly from Phoenix. Their service was excellent. Arrived in about four days from England to the U.S.!!!! My Macbook is only a few months old but thanks for the call on the latest Bootcamp update, Bum. I have run all available updates through the apple site and in general the computer works fine. Unfortunately all of the updates didn't fix anything yet. HFG -- I'm not sure how to find/check my video drivers (computer challenged). This is all very frustrating as it has been too windy to fly for the past five days with T-storms scheduled for today.

[jaizon]

Okay!!!!! A big thanks to HFG and everyone else. I finally found a driver that worked but I had to load it into the XP program, not on the apple side. Who knew? Anyway -- that did the trick and I'm flying. Great program. Can't wait to port it to my 61" HD. Happy flying.

[raylepper]

... Can't wait to port it to my 61" HD. Happy flying.

I've got Phoenix running pixel perfect 1080p from the DVI output on my MacBook Pro to a Sony XBR4 LCD (the VGA input on the Sony accepts 1080p. I was not able to get a really good image on several other monitors because they would only accept 1080 on their HDMI input. I was all over the place with windows drivers and the nvidia thing. It was a pain until I got the Sony.

I'd be interested to know if people are finding other setups to getting Phoenix on an HD set without a lot of scaling.

[gmohr]

I have it playing through the PC port on my 40 Sony Bravia LCD TV at 1080p from my Dell XPS home theatre PC. Phoenix blows away G3.5 in every aspect. I finally feel like flying the sim will help me improve and move to the next level. Oh and surround sound doesn't hurt either. :-))

[raylepper]

Yep, the Bravias are sweet. (I bought mine as an upgrade for the family room, but for some reason I haven't got around to installing it in there. It's still on a table opposite my work bench, where I was 'testing' it. My wife is being nice enough not to ask questions.)

[jaizon]

Raylepper,

I was planning on using a mini DVI to s-video into the Samsung 1080p rear projection HDTV. Is there a better way to do it???

[raylepper]

What's the model number on your Samsung? With that I can make a suggestion. Meanwhile, s-video will not be what you're looking for. It's not a hi-res signal—it'll be like watching an analog channel instead of an HD channel on your TV.

[jaizon]

The model is HL61A750. It is a new model (2008 I guess). I tried using a mini DVI to DVI then connected that to a DVI to HDMI into the television (into the outlet called HDMI/DVI). The television read NO SIGNAL. I unplugged and plugged several times but to no avail. Are there different quality HDMI cables, i.e., some not rated for computers? The television manual says this should work. Thanks.

[raylepper]

The model is HL61A750. It is a new model (2008 I guess). I tried using a mini DVI to DVI then connected that to a DVI to HDMI into the television (into the outlet called HDMI/DVI). The television read NO SIGNAL. I unplugged and plugged several times but to no avail. Are there different quality HDMI cables, i.e., some not rated for computers? The television manual says this should work. Thanks.

On page 49 (in the pdf I have of the manual for your set) there's a table showing a 1920 x 1080RB resolution available on the D-Sub input on your TV. You can use the DVI-to-VGA adapter that came with your Mac and a VGA cable. I'd try this one first, just using the Mac OS and 'detect displays' button on the displays item in System Preferences.

I have not been successful getting my MacBook Pro to talk properly to a monitor over HDMI. Let me know if it works.

Yeah, there are definite differences in quality of cables but I don't think that's what's going on here at all. I think the output from the mac is not at all what the TV expects on its HDMI port.

[jaizon]

Okay. I got the Samsung to read the Macbook -- but in OSX only!!! When I switch to Windows it does not see the cable. What gives?? Did you have a similar problem?

[raylepper]

Okay. I got the Samsung to read the Macbook -- but in OSX only!!! When I switch to Windows it does not see the cable. What gives?? Did you have a similar problem?

Here's what I did:
While in Windows, go to the control panels and there should be an NVIDIA control panel. Open it. With your TV connected to the laptop you should be able to use the 'multiple display wizard.' I was able to see both my TV and my laptop screens as choices to configure and I found and set a TV resolution for 1920 x 1080. I hit apply and it worked.

There is a profile manager (or something like that) that let me I save that 'profile' so I can recall it. I put a sortcut on the desktop to the control panel so after I start up windows, I go right to the NVIDIA control panel, select profiels, and load the saved profile.

There was one tricky part. The control panel lets you decide how the multiple monitors work (mirroring, one large desktop, etc.) Because I want Phoenix to run full screen, I set the NVIDIA control panel to ONLY send video to the TV. This made Phoenix (and I set the Phoenix program settings to display full screen, 1920 x 1080) open up on the TV (since it's not the only monitor in the profile). Otherwise Phoenix would open up on my laptop and leave me trying to slide a window over to the TV. That's NOT going to nail the 1920 by 1080 resolution.

I think this will do it. I wouldn't get into loading updated NVIDIA drivers from download sites. I think Apple includes the one you ought to use with Boot Camp updates. I went on a long wild goose chase before coming to that conclusion. Probably a serious Wintel geek could do more and better with customizing video drivers, but that ain't me.

Hope it helps.;)

[jaizon]

Ray,

Thanks so much. I didn't have the same icon in my control panel, but I did find one that allowed me to make the necessary adjustments. Ported to my 61" HD television at full screen and full resolution. All I can say is AWESOME!!!!! It feels like I'm flying at the field.
Can't get the sound to work. Connected from the audio out on the Mac to the PC audio in on the tv but nothing yet. I'll keep futzing.
Preston

[raylepper]

Ray,

Thanks so much. I didn't have the same icon in my control panel, but I did find one that allowed me to make the necessary adjustments. Ported to my 61" HD television at full screen and full resolution. All I can say is AWESOME!!!!! It feels like I'm flying at the field.
Can't get the sound to work. Connected from the audio out on the Mac to the PC audio in on the tv but nothing yet. I'll keep futzing.
Preston

Glad it helped. Yeah it is an awesome picture (thanks to Phoenix for such good source).
Re the sound, on my laptop there are two min-stereo ports. I often mistakenly plug the lead into the mic jack instead of the headphones jack. (old eyeballs I guess).

[jaizon]

Are you saying I'm supposed to plug into the headphones jack then to the pc???

[TheBum]

Are you saying I'm supposed to plug into the headphones jack then to the pc???
No, you had it right in your earlier post. The headphone output from the Mac should go into some sort of line input on the TV or stereo system. What raylepper was pointing out is that it's easy to accidentally plug into the line input on the Mac rather than the headphone output.

[raylepper]

Exactly. I use a mini-stereo to RCA adapter. The RCA adapter then feeds a plain old stereo audio cable connected to the TV.