Displaying Windows on a hdtv

DirksDiggler

I recently put together quite a nice HTPC and was eagerly anticipating having an entertainment hub in my front room. Problem is however that everything looks horrible on my Bravia W4000.

Displaying Windows through the VGA cable I can only go up to something like 1360 x 768. If I attempt to go over the screen blacks out and I have to hook my monitor up to the htpc to revert to a lower resolution. Even at the aforementioned resolution though, the screen is rather blurry no matter how much I try to calibrate it.

Using a HDMI cable I can go up to 1920 x 1080p but the display is really bad. Overly sharp which produces horrible ghosting and an abundance of grain.

Is this normal when using a PC with a HDTV?

Auvers

what GFX card do you have? what OS?

DirksDiggler

HTPC - XP & an ATI 4650
Desktop (which I sometimes hook up to the hdtv) Vista 64 UE & an ATI 4850

Both look awful

Rsaeire

DirksDiggler wrote: »

HTPC - XP & an ATI 4650
Desktop (which I sometimes hook up to the hdtv) Vista 64 UE & an ATI 4850

Both look awful

I have my PC with an AMD 3650 connected via HDMI to my Sony 32W4000 and find the quality at 1080p excellent. I use the picture settings from HDTVTest, the settings are for the 40W4000 but they work fine on my 32W4000, and have "Full Pixel" mode selected within the TV's picture settings. Once "Full Pixel" mode is selected, you will probably find your PC’s image centred and not quite fitting the entire screen. What you need to do next is open up Catalyst Control Center and use the overscaling option to increase the image size until it fits perfectly.

If you haven't tried the above, then I thoroughly recommend doing so to get the most out of your TV. Also, the above settings link has a review of the 40W4000, so you can read how changing the picture settings makes a difference to the overall picture quality.

DirksDiggler

Quite a handful of info on that site. Thanks for the link, I'll give it a whirl at the weekend.