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    TV as monitor - headaches! Urgent assistance!

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Mieklol, Apr 11, 2009.

  1. Mieklol

    Mieklol Notebook Enthusiast

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    My laptop is an Acer Aspire 5920 and I bought this television:

    http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5294330/c_1/1|category_root|Home+entertainment+and+sat+nav|12108813/c_2/2|cat_12108813|Televisions|12108983/c_3/3|cat_12108983|14+inch+to+24+inch+LCD+TVs|12108998.htm

    You can see that it states its default resolution as 1680x1050. I have tried this resolution with an HDMI cable and a VGA cable. The HDMI cable returned a VERY fuzzy image, and the VGA cable is like, you know when you use a resolution that's too small or too big for a certain LCD screen? So the aspect ratio is there, but the pixels look a bit squashed, you know what I mean? Like if I move a window, the window border might disappear in a vertical row of pixels, and instead be ghosted either side, like two rows of pixels are trying to compensate for the lost one. This leads me to believe that the resolution is wrong.

    Please can someone assist?
     
    Mieklol, Apr 11, 2009
    #1
  2. JCMS

    JCMS Notebook Prophet

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    Try updating you're video drivers. laptopvideo2go.com
     
    JCMS, Apr 11, 2009
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  3. Mieklol

    Mieklol Notebook Enthusiast

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    Already up to date.
     
    Mieklol, Apr 11, 2009
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  4. Ayle

    Ayle Trailblazer

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    Have you tried a custom resolution? Your tv might be overscanning.
     
    Ayle, Apr 12, 2009
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  5. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    What display mode are you using? If you are cloning the display so it is both ion the notebook and the external screen then the TV will be getting whatever your 5920's resolution is. A 1680 x 1050 screen receiving a 1280 x 800 picture will look fuzzy.

    If you go into the display properties (settings > advanced > monitor) you can deselect the option to Hide modes that the screen cannot display. You can then manually increase the resolution to 1680 x 1050 which will match the TV. Your internal display will only see a window on the bigger desktop.

    Alternatively, you can extend your desktop on the external display, which allows both displays to operate at their proper resolutions.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Apr 12, 2009
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  6. Mieklol

    Mieklol Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yep, done both of those things, it's running at 1680x1050 and is very blurry. I was running XP on it and even installed Vista to see if that would do anything, and it didn't. HDMI is still fuzzy and out of focus and Vista now won't let me add custom resolutions on VGA.
     
    Mieklol, Apr 12, 2009
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  7. Mieklol

    Mieklol Notebook Enthusiast

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    Please, I need this to work!
     
    Mieklol, Apr 13, 2009
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  8. stevezachtech

    stevezachtech Notebook Evangelist

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    Are you sure that you are not lacking any other adapters in order for your TV to work properly with your laptop?
     
    stevezachtech, Apr 14, 2009
    #8