Laptop to LCD TV

gday i bought myself a new tv the other day and i didnt know it at the time but it doubles as a pc moniter so i got the vga cable and when i plug it into the laptop it works but it looks like the screen is on zoom i tried changing the tv screen but it doesnt work. is it my screen resolution or wot pls help
cheers


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I think you need to set the display resolution of your pc to same as the native resolution of your tv is. What is the make and model of your tv?


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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2007 09:58AM by villej.

Standard definition TVs can't use the comparatively massive resolutions that PCs can. A bog-standard definition TV in PAL mode uses a resolution of 720x576 (more accurately it uses 625 horizontal lines, but basically the signal arrives in 720x576). If you were to use a USB TV tuner on your laptop it would display an image at that resolution (unless resized of course).

Even the highest definition (1080i) newer TVs only operate at 1920x1080 (and with a standard definition signal, it will stretch the 720x576 to that full res), which for a the increasing number of users with 24" monitors, isn't enough (24" TFTs are usually 1920x1200).

In short, the TV isn't capable of operating at the resolution you or your laptop is asking of it, so it's showing a section of it at the resolution it can display. If you go to Display Properties, you can sometimes (graphics drivers dependent) change the resolution of the secondary monitor to something else, though of course, making it smaller will result in a smaller work area.

//edit: forgot to mention that the resolutions and lines mentioned above are specific to British PAL (PAL-I).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2007 10:13AM by gav.

Your best to use an hdmi cable.

I am getting my new tv later and my laptop supports hdmi so the way i understand this i can plug my laptop into the tv using this cable and not the vga cable

alright i sorta figured it out i can use the tv as the no1 moniter but to do this i have to not use the laptop screen so to switch it back onto the laptop screen i have to use system resotre which i dont want to do. it works when the monitor option is on with the laptop but i found out that it uses the screen no1 resolution settings even though it should be using the no2 resolution. it also doesnt show any tthing on the screen just the dektop, no taskbar or anything. help please
cheers


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