HDMI, non-HDTV resolutions

GrimReaper

Alright, here's the deal. I just built myself a shiny new HTPC. I'll be buying a big 1080p widescreen soon enough, however until then i've got a smaller 22" tv that has a 1680x1050 resolution.

Is it possible to force it to use 1680x1050, currently with it connected up via HDMI all it gives me are HDTV resolutions and some not so HDTV resolutions. I've just tried powerstrip and created the 1680x1050 resolution but the tv picks it up at 1080i and it looks a bit weird. (big black vertical bars on either side)

The motherboard/graphics chipset in use is a 780G mobo which uses a HD3200 graphics chipset.

I'd much rather run at the tv's native resolution and let any image resizing be carried out that way. (plus 1280x720 is murdering my eyes.. horrible blurry windows desktop)

Should I, for the time being dig out a DVI cable and use the audio out on the back of the pc instead, until I get my shiny big tv anyway.

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Scrublet

The TVs going to call it 1080i regardless, simply because it doesn't know any better. For instance, on both my RCA DLP (that could only do 1080i) and my Pioneer Kuro, it will report 1080p (or 'i' in the DLP) for resolutions close to it. I underscan slightly because the computer displays 1920x1080 as a bigger image than the TV screen, so my actual resolution is closer to 1848x1020. It still posts as 1080p. This may be something you need to fix in your drivers, and not the TV.

GrimReaper

Just been experimenting, no matter what I do through HDMI in regards to setting the desktop resolution it's like the graphics chipset or tv resizes to 1080i. So I end up with something pretty blurry.

I just experimented with a VGA cable (couldn't find a spare DVI cable) and I'd say the clearest the display was, was at 1280x768. Looks like the manufacturer lied about the resolution.

EDIT: It's actually really quite strange, with it under HDMI with the 1280x768 resolution it's blurry to feck. If I use VGA it's clear as day. I think the blame probably lies with the tv, it is a bit of a cheapo one.

My guess is that whoever wrote the firmware for the tv never thought that it might have resolutions other than 720p etc input through HDMI and instead decides to resize everything that's received.