Okay, so the goal would be to get the display to pump out 1280X768 for
the HDTV rather than 1024X768 and just let the HDTV deal with the
720vs768 difference.
No, the goal would be to exactly match whatever the HDTV's native resolution is. If viewing full-screen, 1280 X 768 will be pixellated, and 1024 X 768 will be pixellated also. (pixellated is not good)
I know my video card puts out that resolution,
so if it's not happening automatically in clone mode then I guess I'd
be looking at a different monitor driver? Or else there must be a way
in my display properties to adjust the output resolution for clone
mode. I'll check it out, but let me know if I'm missing anything.
Thanks again to you Dave, and the group for help.
OK, you are dealing with three different pieces of hardware.
1) Video card. It may or may not support 1280 X 720. But it won't give you that option if both your monitors don't fully support that resolution. You might be able to set a custom resolution, but I don't recommend that. You can damage your PC monitor (see 2 below)
2) Regular PC monitor. 1280 X 720 is probably not supported natively for this monitor. But this resolution -could- be OK if and only if the maximum resolution of your monitor is higher in BOTH numbers. For example, if your regular PC monitor has a native resolution or maximum resolution of 1280 X 1024 (pretty common), then it should be able to handle 1280 X 720. But if this is an older tube style CRT monitor, watch the refresh rate! You could damage your monitor trying to tweak your video card to output a resolution that your monitor doesn't support!
3) HDTV. This should be driven at exactly 1280 X 720, if that is the monitor's native resolution. Anything other than that will look terrible, and could be the reason that you posted asking about how to improve picture quality. For example, 1024 X 768 will look awful on your HDTV, no matter how the signal gets from the PC to the HDTV.
Your best bet to get everything working nicely together is to update to the latest drivers for both the video card and the regular PC monitor. DISconnect the HDTV until you get the video card and PC monitor playing nice at exact resolution of 1280 X 720, if possible WITHOUT setting a custom resolution for the video card. If you can get that far, then connect your HDTV and set your video card to clone the output to the TV. -Dave