Odd Laptop Ati 'TV-Out' problem

[Tony]

I've got an HP N5420L Pavilion Laptop, WinME (came installed and I've
been to lazy to change OS) and an S3 Graphics Inc. Savage/IX video
adaptor.

Up until now, I have been able to plug the tv-out on the laptop into
my tv and watch encoded videos in the usual forms AVI,MPG,WMV etc,
encoded in various codecs.

All the sudden when I switch to TV display, it auto-switches to
640x480 resolution and the desktop fits correctly on the screen..

But when I play a video, either in Windows Media Player, or in Power
DVD, It shows on the TV as the top 2/3rds or so of the picture
-stretched- to fill the screen. I look on the laptop screen (which
always before showed the exact same image as on the tv) and it shows
the video in it's proper format.

I've tried every setting I know of and stopped short of uninstalling
the vid drivers and as many codecs as possible and then reinstalling
everything from scratch..

Figured I'd ask first if anyone has had a similiar problem and maybe
find a quicker fix ?

Thanks,

Tony!

 

[Ben Pope]

I've got an HP N5420L Pavilion Laptop, WinME (came installed and I've
been to lazy to change OS) and an S3 Graphics Inc. Savage/IX video
adaptor.

Come along now... is it S3 or ATI?

Up until now, I have been able to plug the tv-out on the laptop into
my tv and watch encoded videos in the usual forms AVI,MPG,WMV etc,
encoded in various codecs.

All the sudden when I switch to TV display, it auto-switches to
640x480 resolution and the desktop fits correctly on the screen..

But when I play a video, either in Windows Media Player, or in Power
DVD, It shows on the TV as the top 2/3rds or so of the picture
-stretched- to fill the screen. I look on the laptop screen (which
always before showed the exact same image as on the tv) and it shows
the video in it's proper format.

I've tried every setting I know of and stopped short of uninstalling
the vid drivers and as many codecs as possible and then reinstalling
everything from scratch..

Figured I'd ask first if anyone has had a similiar problem and maybe
find a quicker fix ?

Is the Windows Media Player window larger than 640x480? I.e., it's not
maximised, but defaults to opening larger than the screen size?

What happens if you make it full-screen or open the Widows Media PLayer
window, whrink it right down in size, then switch over to TV?

It's not a virtual desktop problem... where the desktop is larger than the
display size and you scroll around?

Just some thoughts.

Ben