Black bar on left of desktop PC hooked up to HDTV through RGB

Tinie

Hi, I have my old dell desktop (3 or 4 years old, still runs fine though) to my LG 1080p 32 inch LCD TV. I have it connected through RGB on the back (or maybe its VGA, im not sure, it doesnt carry sound through the cable anyway) and the resolution automatically set to 1920 x 1080. I cant go any higher than that, and the display is fine and crisp, the only problem is there is a black bar down the left of the display, which is pushing the desktop off the screen on the right side of the tv.

The black bar isnt covering any of the desktop, its pushing it out, so the clock part of the taskbar is off the screen, yet I can still click it.

Any ideas whats wrong or how to fix this? Ive tried fiddling around in settings but no look, and dont want to lower the resolution to fix this. cheers.

SickBoy

Tinie wrote: »

Hi, I have my old dell desktop (3 or 4 years old, still runs fine though) to my LG 1080p 32 inch LCD TV. I have it connected through RGB on the back (or maybe its VGA, im not sure, it doesnt carry sound through the cable anyway) and the resolution automatically set to 1920 x 1080. I cant go any higher than that, and the display is fine and crisp, the only problem is there is a black bar down the left of the display, which is pushing the desktop off the screen on the right side of the tv.

The black bar isnt covering any of the desktop, its pushing it out, so the clock part of the taskbar is off the screen, yet I can still click it.

Any ideas whats wrong or how to fix this? Ive tried fiddling around in settings but no look, and dont want to lower the resolution to fix this. cheers.

This can also happen on monitors and there's usually a button on the screen to reset the image which will auto centre the image on the screen. Not sure where that option is on a TV though, might be something on the remote?

Tinie

No I cant seem to find anything on the remote or settings for that, I can only change the format to 4:3! Its a new TV also (2011 model) so this is very odd.

srsly78

There should be options in your video settings to center the image correctly. This problem happens with vga/hdmi + tv. Annoyingly needs to be recentred after every restart.

Tinie

Can I center the desktop through Windows itself, or just through the TV settings? Just so I can narrow it down.

Tinie

Also if I lower it down one section to the next resolution down, the picture is centered fine like normal, but its just not sharp enough really. Does this mean anything?

srsly78

Look for something called scaling, do not change resolution. If you have amd graphics card it's there in catalyst control center. Similar option exists for nvidia in their software. Similarly for intel integrated.

Sounds like you need to use the Auto Adjust function on the TV if it has one. Should be in the menus somewhere.

srsly78

You might need to use adjust on tv to center the image, then scaling settings on pc to make it properly fill the screen.

Tinie

srsly78 wrote: »

Look for something called scaling, do not change resolution. If you have amd graphics card it's there in catalyst control center. Similar option exists for nvidia in their software. Similarly for intel integrated.

The TV has settings like Just Scan and original which alter the pciture, and can be used when connected by HDMI, but it wont let me with RGB it seems. Its greyed out and cant be selected.

Gone through all settings in NVIDIA and the TV, and cant figure it out.

Going to order a DVI to HDMI connecter now and connect through the DVI cable and see if that fixes it.

srsly78

Convertor is waste of money, you will still be using hdmi.

The scaling options are in there somewhere, just cunningly hidden. I don't have an nvidia card so I can't find it for you.

Tinie

srsly78 wrote: »

Convertor is waste of money, you will still be using hdmi.

The scaling options are in there somewhere, just cunningly hidden. I don't have an nvidia card so I can't find it for you.

What do you mean?

Im currently connecting the desktop to the TV by a VGA cable, not HDMI. Ill have another look for scaling options, maybe I missed it.

srsly78

I had this scaling problem before using a hdmi cable, it won't fix things for you.

Take a closer look at the nvidia control panel stuff, scaling is in there somewhere.

srsly78

srsly78 wrote: »

I had this scaling problem before using a hdmi cable, it won't fix things for you.

Take a closer look at the nvidia control panel stuff, scaling is in there somewhere.

I can guarantee it will. What you're thinking of is HDMI overscan/underscan. The problem the OP is having is that the analogue VGA signal is out of sync.

srsly78

Ah right. OP try convertor, and if the image doesn't match the screen properly you will have to fiddle with scaling.