Vista Desktop Too Big for LCD TV

[Guest]

The Vista desktop is just too large for my LCD TV, I can only just see the
top corner of the Start button and its the same all round the four sides of
the screen. I am running the latest Vista build with patches up to 1 Aug 06.
My graphics card is a Radeon x300/x550 with the latest Nvidia driver for
Vista (7.7.9.0) and is connected via HDMI to my Panasonic 32" LCD TV. Any
suggestions please, do I need a different card or is there something else
wrong in my set-up? I have a JPEG image of the problem I can email if
required.

 

[mikeyhsd]

have you adjusted the DPI setting. if so, set it back to NORMAL.



(e-mail address removed)



The Vista desktop is just too large for my LCD TV, I can only just see the
top corner of the Start button and its the same all round the four sides of
the screen. I am running the latest Vista build with patches up to 1 Aug 06.
My graphics card is a Radeon x300/x550 with the latest Nvidia driver for
Vista (7.7.9.0) and is connected via HDMI to my Panasonic 32" LCD TV. Any
suggestions please, do I need a different card or is there something else
wrong in my set-up? I have a JPEG image of the problem I can email if
required.

 

[Richard Urban]

The Vista desktop is just too large for my LCD TV, I can only just see the
top corner of the Start button and its the same all round the four sides
of
the screen. I am running the latest Vista build with patches up to 1 Aug
06.
My graphics card is a Radeon x300/x550 with the latest Nvidia driver for
Vista (7.7.9.0) and is connected via HDMI to my Panasonic 32" LCD TV.

Why are you using an Nvidia driver for an ATI Radon video card?


--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[JW]

Have you adjusted the Overscan Compensation in your ATI dirvers to compensate for the Overscan being done by your HDTV in order for it to emulate a CRT TV?

have you adjusted the DPI setting. if so, set it back to NORMAL.



(e-mail address removed)



The Vista desktop is just too large for my LCD TV, I can only just see the
top corner of the Start button and its the same all round the four sides of
the screen. I am running the latest Vista build with patches up to 1 Aug 06.
My graphics card is a Radeon x300/x550 with the latest Nvidia driver for
Vista (7.7.9.0) and is connected via HDMI to my Panasonic 32" LCD TV. Any
suggestions please, do I need a different card or is there something else
wrong in my set-up? I have a JPEG image of the problem I can email if
required.

 

[Guest]

After several weeks searching for a new driver and any other solution to this
problem, I finally found that the solution is quite easy.

Just go to the Display Settings, and click the Advanced Settings... button,
which should display a dialog with a List All Modes... button. The resolution
that fits for my Samsung LCD-TV (720p) is actually 1176 x 664.

It's so nice to see the task bar, system tray and title bar of maximized
windows again! )

 

[Tom Scales]

Unfortunately, what you did is a work around. Your LCD is definately NOT
1176x664. It is most likely 1366x768.

When connected with a DVI->HDMI cable, the graphics card tries to emulate
being connected to a CRT. Since some of the CRT is 'hidden' behind the
bezel, it overscans and pushes some of the content off the screen.

You're wasting your LCD and resulting in a resolution that is fuzzy compared
to native.

Since you say you have the X300/X550, I assume you mean the ATI drivers, not
the nVidia drivers? Regardless, you need to go into the advanced settings
and correct the overscan to get to your native resolution.

Tom

 

[JW]

I think he has done exactly the right thing and it is good that his TV will
accept the overscan compensated resolution directly instead of haveing to
empbed a 1176x664 image within normal 720p output using overscan
compensation. The end result of either method is exactly the same since the
TV upscales the 1176x664 image to 1366x768 so there is no difference in
"bluriness" between them.

 

[Guest]

Tom Scales is right about the native resolution of my TV. It is 1366 x 768,
but I have never been able to use that resolution. In Windows XP Media
Center, the Nvidia driver let me enter a custom resolution, so I have tried
using the native resolution, but the picture gets so fuzzy that I can't see a
thing.

I remembered using a resolution less than native, and was disappointed to
have less space on the desktop than I was hoping for. I think it was 1176 x
664 that worked in Windows XP Media Center too.

The graphics driver in Vista don't let me enter custom resolutions, and 1366
x 768 isn't in the list of predefined resolutions, so I can't test that until
I get a better driver from Nvidia.

I'm looking forward to 1800p TVs are cheap enough to buy. I guess 1920 x
1080 is an easier resolution to use with Media Center PCs.

 

[JW]

I would think your best bet then would be to use 1360x768 over VGA if that
is available. Since to use an interface that overscans the input would
cause poo results since apparently you would have to use 720p output and
overscanning support in the driver or a 3rd party application like
PowerStrip to underscan the output.