using lcd as a monitor

winmob

I have just bought a cable to connect my laptop to lcd and it works good apart from i cannot get it to go full screen. I have tryed changing the resolution and have tryed changing the settings on the lcd but still wont go full screen can anyone help thanks

clarkeyi

Do you know waht the max resolution the monitor goes to?. It may just be a restriction on the monitor.

winmob

Its a 42 inch lcd 1080i

marble

Hi,
What make and model is it? Does your TV say what resolution it is running in (mine says in the top corner when I change resolution).

In what way isn't it full screen? Black borders around the top/bottom or sides ... or both?

Al

winmob

Its a toshiba. It has big black lines at each side of the screen

if i open up a webpage i cannot see the full page i have got to use my mouse to move the page right and left

marble

What resolution have you set your laptop to? Sounds like it needs to be at 1920x1080 ... does the laptop allow this? Another important thing is the model number ... my TV claims to do 1080i, but in reality it does scaling to fit to its native resolution of 1366x768. If you let me know the model number I can check for you.

Al

winmob

when i bought the tv i was told it was a 1366x768 but when i play my ps3 on it it comes up 1080i. it a toshiba 42c3035d regza

winmob

The same happens when i watch the built in freeview most of the channels are ok but some have black lines at each side. but if i turn on my sky every channel is in full screen

marble

It looks like your TV has a native resolution of 1366x768 (it may do 1080i, but this is a scaled image ... the best image quality will be at its native resolution).

The first thing I'd do is to download the latest drivers for your graphics card. Many manufacturers are coming round to the fact that lots of TVs run at this resolution. Supposedly Nvidia now support this resolution with their latest drivers ... perhaps ATI do too, but I have no experience of them.

Try setting you TV to 1366x768 (or a close relative ... 1368x768 is pretty good, though you lose one pixel either side ... not a big problem).

Check your graphics card options to see whether it allows custom resolutions ... it may have an option for 1080i or it may allow you to do 1366x768.

After that, try Powerstrip ... it's an amazing little tool and solved my issues for me (though it's quite technical). There's a basic guide here (http://pixelmapping.wikispaces.com/Guide+to+1366x768) though you may want to spend some time googling for powerstrip and 1366x768.

The problem lies with the fact that most TVs transmit the wrong information to the computer about what resolutions they support (EDID). 1368x768 is about as good as you get in Windows ... just turn off the scaling support in your TV/graphics card options.

Al

marble

The freeview issue is probably slightly different. Most channels will broadcast in 16x9 (widescreen) format. Some programs transmit in 4x3 format (older programs and some channels). A good TV, such as yours, notices this and displays the picture so that nothing is 'squished'. Lower quality TVs tend to just squish the picture and make people look fat.

I notice this most when watching sport on the BBC ... the black bars are annoying but maintain the correct aspect ratio. I believe there is a way of turning this off in most TVs but not sure about yours.

Al

winmob

Thanks for your help mate i will give it a try:beer: