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Confused ~ HDMI and VGA
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Maydot
Posts: 203 Forumite

in Techie Stuff
My pc has a GTX 650 gpu with DVI/HDMI/VGA ports.
My lovely DH wanted to suprise me so went out and bought a Toshiba 32w1333b HD TV so I could make use of the HDMI output from my graphics card.
Unfortunately linking the gpu to the tv using the hdmi cables gave a horrible grainy, blurry image and no amount of tweaking has fixed it. After days of googling and trying possible fixes it seems that this is a common problem when using some hd tv's as monitors.
I have now resorted to linking pc to tv using a VGA cable as the tv has no dvi connection (I also tried hdmi (to tv)/dvi (to gpu) cable but that was just as bad as the hdmi/hdmi picture). At least the screen and text are now readable (but enormous!) and I have a half decent image in games but it seems a shame that, not only has DH wasted his money, but I'm using a hd tv with a vga connection to my pc.
I have now read something about dvi to vga converters (look like a little black box) and I was wondering if one of these might work or if anyone had any experience of using one to good effect.
I feel so bad for hubby and would love for him to see the picture as it should look - he also uses the pc for some picture editing using photoshop so its not just for me. I just don't want to spend even more money buying one of these converters if they are not going to improve the image quality.
Can anyone advise?
My lovely DH wanted to suprise me so went out and bought a Toshiba 32w1333b HD TV so I could make use of the HDMI output from my graphics card.
Unfortunately linking the gpu to the tv using the hdmi cables gave a horrible grainy, blurry image and no amount of tweaking has fixed it. After days of googling and trying possible fixes it seems that this is a common problem when using some hd tv's as monitors.
I have now resorted to linking pc to tv using a VGA cable as the tv has no dvi connection (I also tried hdmi (to tv)/dvi (to gpu) cable but that was just as bad as the hdmi/hdmi picture). At least the screen and text are now readable (but enormous!) and I have a half decent image in games but it seems a shame that, not only has DH wasted his money, but I'm using a hd tv with a vga connection to my pc.
I have now read something about dvi to vga converters (look like a little black box) and I was wondering if one of these might work or if anyone had any experience of using one to good effect.
I feel so bad for hubby and would love for him to see the picture as it should look - he also uses the pc for some picture editing using photoshop so its not just for me. I just don't want to spend even more money buying one of these converters if they are not going to improve the image quality.
Can anyone advise?
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Comments
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First thing to check is the screen resolution it should be set to either :
1920x1080
or
1280x720
It might be that the default size is smaller than the 2 above that's why the screen looks terrible.
plug it in using HDMI and then right click on the desktop and select "screen resolution"
set it to 1080 or 720 and see if the screen looks better.
You might see that the bottom sides and top are off the edge of the screen, this is to be expected in TV's used as a monitor.
Depending on your graphic card maker (Intel / AMD / Nvidia) their should be a settings program that was installed with the card.
if you know the make of the card we can give you the correct steps to get the desktop to fit the TV screen...Laters
Sol
"Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"0 -
See if you can find the NVIDIA control panel:
NVIDIA Control Panel provides control of NVIDIA graphics driver settings as well as other NVIDIA utilities that you might have installed on your system.0 -
Thanks for the replies.
Screen res is set to 1920/1080 when hooked up via hdmi cable - this is the recommended res in display settings. The screen fits but text is blurry and barely readable and graphics are grainy.
I have the tv source on "hdmi1" and display setting set to "full" (16:9 looks out of focus and does not fit screen.)
If i connect using the VGA cable and set the source to "VGA/PC" then i have to use a screen resolution of 1360x768 as the tv's native res of 1366x768 looks terrible too.
I have tried all screen res display settings and I think every setting in the Nvidia control panel over the past week to the point where I can't remember what combinations I've tried and...my brain hurts!.
My card is Nvidia Geforce GTX 650 and all the drivers are up to date.
I just wish we had kept all the packaging for this tv and I would take it back and swap for a HD monitor0 -
Thanks for the replies.
Screen res is set to 1920/1080 when hooked up via hdmi cable - this is the recommended res in display settings. The screen fits but text is blurry and barely readable and graphics are grainy.
I have the tv source on "hdmi1" and display setting set to "full" (16:9 looks out of focus and does not fit screen.)
If i connect using the VGA cable and set the source to "VGA/PC" then i have to use a screen resolution of 1360x768 as the tv's native res of 1366x768 looks terrible too.
I have tried all screen res display settings and I think every setting in the Nvidia control panel over the past week to the point where I can't remember what combinations I've tried and...my brain hurts!.
My card is Nvidia Geforce GTX 650 and all the drivers are up to date.
I just wish we had kept all the packaging for this tv and I would take it back and swap for a HD monitor4.8kWp 12x400W Longhi 9.6 kWh battery Giv-hy 5.0 Inverter, WSW facing Essex . Aint no sunshine ☀️ Octopus gas fixed dec 24 @ 5.74 tracker again+ Octopus Intelligent Flux leccy0 -
debitcardmayhem wrote: »have you got more than one hdmi port on the telly? on my samsung one says pc input
It has 2 but I have tried both.
To be honest I just don't think this tv is up to the job and hubby was badly advised in store. I could be wrong - it could be me missing something obvious.
My son is using a hd tv as a monitor and the picture is amazing, but it's a different make. He has tried to replicate his settings too but still nothing.0 -
Your TV is 720P not 1080P.
This means any attepmpt to display 1080P/I (1920*1080) will have to be scaled down. This does not look to bad for outpur form your bluray/sky box but when it is your pc the missing bits count and the result is not good.
1360*768 is the rightresolution to select on your PC (LCD panels are 768P really, not 720P). However this should be selectable though HDMI as well, even ifit does try to set to 1080I at first.
One of your HDMI inputs may be labeled DVI as well. HDMI is just DVI with sound. So DVI needs a seperate sound input. Tv's Usually have one HDMI that will input sound though a seperate cable and label them HDMI/DVI. Buit you obviiously need a DVI to HDMI cable (and a sperate sound one). However it makes no difference as you will still get 1360*768.
HDMI/DVI should look better than VGA though. But only if you are the sort of person who notices fine detail.0 -
Yep, it's 1366x768 resolution native.
Have you tried hooking it to the TV aerial and checking it works as TV and the panel isn't faulty?0 -
Thanks again for replies.
I think I was more or less resigned to admitting defeat on this one - I didn't think the tv native resolution seemed right for hd. DH thought if it said hd on the box then it was what was needed but I think there is a difference between hd ready and full hd - correct me if I'm wrong
I will check it as a tv over the weekend but I think it's probably going to work fine as a tv because that's primarily what it is. (would love it to be faulty though - could take it back!!)0 -
You've got your answer I think - if you want to use a TV as a monitor, resolution is really important. You want full HD, 1920x1080, and you want to set the computer to this resolution, and you also want to make sure that the TV AND the computer have overscan switched off, this can be buried quite well in the settings of both devices.
If you were advised by a salesperson that it would make a good monitor or anything you should be quite happy to take it back for a better model as you were given bad advice.0 -
You've got your answer I think - if you want to use a TV as a monitor, resolution is really important. You want full HD, 1920x1080, and you want to set the computer to this resolution, and you also want to make sure that the TV AND the computer have overscan switched off, this can be buried quite well in the settings of both devices.
If you were advised by a salesperson that it would make a good monitor or anything you should be quite happy to take it back for a better model as you were given bad advice.
I found the overscan on/off in the nvidia control panel but couldn't find anything on the tv itself (and I think I must have tried every single setting!). The tv looks fine as a "tv" so no problem with that.
Have gone back to my old trusty monitor as the new one was literally making my eyes hurt.
I would love to take the tv back just because DH was so badly advised but I don't think it would be easy as we don't have the original packaging, and it would literally be our word against theirs. It has turned out to be an expensive mistake.0
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