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TV as monitor won't display at full resolution

I've tried Googling this, with no success.

In addition to my monitor, I have a TV hooked up to my PC via HDMI, both to serve as a second monitor and for watching movies and shows. Both the TV and the monitor have advertised resolutions of 1920x1080. My computer detects the TV's max (and recommended) resolution as 1920x1080, and that's what I have it set to display at, but the *actual* resolution is considerably less. Windows and text are bigger on the TV than they should be, even accounting for the larger size of the screen. Using a pixel ruler utility confirms this.

The lower resolution is fine for streaming TV shows (which I can't normally stream in HD anyway), and as far as I can tell the TV resolution is as advertised when using my Blu-Ray/DVD player. It's only when the input is from the TV that the resolution is lowered.

Oddly enough, my desktop wallpaper is correctly downsized for the TV screen.

I've tried making sure my graphics drivers are up to date (they are), changing the resolution to something else and back, doing the same but restarting after each change, and designating the TV as my "primary" monitor. Nothing makes a difference.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Posts

  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    Calica wrote: »
    I've tried Googling this, with no success.

    In addition to my monitor, I have a TV hooked up to my PC via HDMI, both to serve as a second monitor and for watching movies and shows. Both the TV and the monitor have advertised resolutions of 1920x1080. My computer detects the TV's max (and recommended) resolution as 1920x1080, and that's what I have it set to display at, but the *actual* resolution is considerably less. Windows and text are bigger on the TV than they should be, even accounting for the larger size of the screen. Using a pixel ruler utility confirms this.

    The lower resolution is fine for streaming TV shows (which I can't normally stream in HD anyway), and as far as I can tell the TV resolution is as advertised when using my Blu-Ray/DVD player. It's only when the input is from the TV that the resolution is lowered.

    Oddly enough, my desktop wallpaper is correctly downsized for the TV screen.

    I've tried making sure my graphics drivers are up to date (they are), changing the resolution to something else and back, doing the same but restarting after each change, and designating the TV as my "primary" monitor. Nothing makes a difference.

    Does anyone have any ideas?

    Does your TV have a "PC" or "Overscan" or other setting? I had the same issue when I upgraded my media center. The old PC worked fine on the monitor, but the new one wouldn't display at the correct resolution until I discovered that setting.

  • TNTrooperTNTrooper Registered User regular
    Changing the name of the port on the input/display/source list to HDMI PC or DVI PC adjusted the overscan on my TV when I hooked up my PC.

    steam_sig.png
  • darren66darren66 Registered User regular
    Why is overscan still a thing?

    Wii U sucks, but my NNID is da66en. Steam is route66. 3DS is 2938-8099-8160.
    Neo Geo Big Red owners club.
    2009 PAX Puzzle Quest Champion
    I have beat Rygar on the NES and many of you have not.
  • LD50LD50 Registered User regular
    Because tvs are dumb.

  • darren66darren66 Registered User regular
    LD50 wrote: »
    Because tvs are dumb.

    Tube TVs, yes. LCDs are not, they have fixed dimensions.

    Wii U sucks, but my NNID is da66en. Steam is route66. 3DS is 2938-8099-8160.
    Neo Geo Big Red owners club.
    2009 PAX Puzzle Quest Champion
    I have beat Rygar on the NES and many of you have not.
  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    It also seems to be pretty random in terms of when you need to activate them. I had a 2008 Mac Mini hooked to my TV, and it worked fine. When I upgraded to a 2014 Mac Mini, I need to change the overscan settings for it to display correctly.

  • CalicaCalica Registered User regular
    Welp. In case this helps anyone else, it turns out that the problem in my case was a Windows 10 setting: Start Menu -> Settings -> System -> Display. There's a slider for how to scale apps, text, etc. on each monitor, and it was automatically set to 150% for the TV; so the background displayed at 1920 by 1080, but windows and other things displayed at 1280 by 720. Moving the slider to 100% fixed it.

    It's definitely a useful setting to have if I want to use my TV for things other than streaming video, though!

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