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The old laptop has been consigned to iPlayer, 4OD and entirely-legally-acquired- honest-m'lud films and television series duties. It's sitting under the telly (32" Sony), connected via a HDMI cable, at what it and the telly say is the optimal resolution (can't remember what that is though, 1760*680 maybe?)
Now, when I switch the telly to the HDMI input from the laptop, there is nothing displayed on the outer inch or so of the screen. It's not a shrunken display, it's like the outer part of the image has been cropped off.
If I go into graphics properties on the laptop and select another resolution, the display obviously changes and I get a message saying that I've not selected the optimal resolution and do I want to switch back. If I select yes then, bingo, full screen display.
If I then flick to the other HDMI input (Sky) and back again, the outer portion of the display disappears again. Grr.
Any ideas why this is happening?
Anyone?
Can't really help but I can add that odd behaviour is 'normal' when connecting older or cheaper TVs and computers via HDMI. Firmware/driver updates might help. Is there another connection option (eg vga)?
It's called HDMI Overscan.
*some* graphics drivers allow you to change the overscan settings
http://hd.engadget.com/2010/05/27/hd-101-overscan-and-why-all-tvs-do-it/
[i]connecting older or cheaper TVs and computers via HDMI[/i]
Neither are that old or cheap though.
[i]It's called HDMI Overscan[/i]
A-ha, that's what it looks like. I'll have a play with the telly settings.
Depending on what TV/graphics drivers you have - it might be possible to correct HDMI Overscan.
Unfortunately for us at home, neither our laptop or TV have config options in regards to overscan.
The laptop graphics driver's a fairly standard Intel wotsit. Dunno what settings the telly has, but it's a reasonably nice new Sony so we'll see...
Our laptop is Intel too (2009 era), which has zero relevant settings.
It's called HDMI Overscan.
What's your thinking here; the TV is displaying native res (1:1) but the source is outputting a cropped picture expecting an overscan display?
Worth doing a driver check whilst you're at it. Probably won't make a difference but can't hurt to try.
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect
I don't really know much about Overscan, or why HDMI TV's seem to use it - but it fits the symptoms described by the OP.
I know when using my Raspberry Pi via HDMI to a TV, I need to play with the overscan config settings to make it fit nicely on the screen.
I don't know that much about it either; I ask because whilst it sounds similar, I can't immediately see why the source would be stripping the edge data.
You know, I'd be half tempted to try a different HDMI cable. Does it restore the picture if you unplug / reconnect the cable with the correct channels selected?
Good call, too. I really don't buy into this expensive cables for hi-fi guff but I bought a couple of cheap hdmi cables from ebay and they only worked with certain resolutions. Bought some from a local shop, still cheap but better than the originals, and everything was fine.I'd be half tempted to try a different HDMI cable
My Tesco Value cables haven't skipped a beat but, yes, agreed.
No, it's most likely the same result.
HDMI overscan is a problem for many people building HTPC (essentially what your laptop now is).
Some TV's have the ability to 'resize' the input picture to the 'correct' size, others (like mine) don't.
A £1.99 HDMI cable will do the same job (100% the same) as a £1,999 cable.
Don't forget there are different HDMI versions too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Versions
A £1.99 HDMI cable will do the same job (100% the same) as a £1,999 cable.
Whilst I would generally agree, I was wondering it there was some sort of control code it was failing to pass correctly.
Not saying it'll fix the problem, just suggesting it might be worth trying just to rule it out if you've got another cable to hand.
Okay, I'm back.
It was the telly. It has a number of 'Scene Selection' modes (Auto, general, sports, cinema etc). It was on Auto, so I changed it to General and the full screen was displayed (in fact it was on any of them other than Auto). There was also a 'screen size' (or similar) setting which was on 'Normal' which I set to 'Full 2'. Don't know what this actually does to be honest...
Anyway, all good now.
That's the theory but it isn't true in reality, I've just put two from ebay in the bin. It's also becomes more of an issue on longer cables.A £1.99 HDMI cable will do the same job (100% the same) as a £1,999 cable
Have you got that HDMI input set to "AUTO" ? My TV has stuff like "wide" , "native" , "auto" etc. IIRC I had to use something like "Actual" or something meaning the same thing
EDIT. A media hub is much neater than a laptop and you can transfer all your stuff over with wired or wireless. I got one of [url= http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/western-digital-tv-live-hub-digital-media-streamer-1tb-09520169-pdt.html?srcid=867&cmpid=comp~Google~~09520169&istCompanyId=9a35962d-802d-4e67-9721-0a3328ca1f02&istItemId=xirwwara&istBid=t ]these[/url] last year new for about 79 quid. There is nothing it wont play. I have ripped all our DVDs to iso format so we have access to them all. Menus and stuff all works and it even gets info off the net about the films
edit edit. I should really read all the previous posts before posting 😳
[i]Have you got that HDMI input set to "AUTO"[/i]
It was, it's not any more. It's now 'General', and is displaying properly.
For HDMI, cables can make one heck of a difference, especially with all the hand-shaking jiggery bollocks that BluRays do
Hijack!
Since installing the latest widoze updates (Vista), my TV only shows the background screen image. Non of the icons are visible and when I open a programme the background image remains. Watching the monitor and TV during the boot they both show the same until the icons appear at which point the TV no longer follows what's happening on the monitor. Any ideas?
Can you move the mouse onto the TV?
Sounds like 'extended desktop' as opposed to 'clone desktop'
Yes I can, Xiphon. You have correctly identified the problem, how big a Paypal gift do I have to send to solve it? 😉 My guess is I need to press an "F" key or "control F" or change a setting somewhere.
Right click on the desktop and select Properties then Settings.
Mess about to your heart's content in there until it's doing what you want it to.
Thank you very much gentlemen. My screens are now clones again.
Glad you're sorted 🙂
My pleasure chuck.