Maximum PC

Specs:
Brand new (lower end) Dell Desktop (using recommended screen resolution settings)
Brand new Phillips 22" LED TV (with HDMI and VGA hook up) (1366x768 16:9)

I plug my PC into the TV via HDMI and I can barely read text (pixelated)

I plug my PC into the TV via VGA and it is crystal clear.

When I use the VGA hook up the TV (under settings) notices that I am connected to a PC so it allows me to edit the "PC" settings. When I use the HDMI hook up it doesn't. I have to change the screen to settings "Full" or else the picture will be too big for the screen.

Thoughts?

Hey 40alpha, welcome to the forums!

Sorry for the delay in post approval, we've been swamped! :/


If I were to guess, I'd say that besides the more obvious resolution settings that would cause this, I'd think about double-checking the display driver settings for that display.

If I were a betting man, I'd bet your using an AMD card. For some reason my AMD drivers always do some funky scaling on my larger display whenever I hook it up as a 2nd monitor.

The really odd part when it does this is that the scaling is not shown in the driver settings, the driver configuration shows it to be 100%, IE "normal", or unscaled.

However, as soon as I adjust it by 1%, it "jumps" to 99% scaling, from something much farther away, and then I set it to 100% again, and it's fine.

And yeah, interpolation or scaling usually does have a really adverse impact on quality.

Peace,
Dan O.

I have a similar problem with my tv.

I use the vga coord because I have no issues with it running at 1980x1020. When I hook it up using the HDMI I can "resize" my screen w/ the video card settings but I can't get it to fit just right at the resolution it's supposed to run at. The tv is a Seiki 40" 1080p 1980x1020 but it defaults to 1680x1050 w/ hdmi and fits the screen just right. If I try 1980x1020 it's in overscan or something and I can't get it to fit right. The picture quality looks better with HDMI (better contrast/color/blacks) but it irks me the wrong way to be in some adjusted resolution size that isn't quite right. Using 1680x1050 as default feels wrong because over such a large screen you can tell you're not in a high enough resolution.

I've tried a lot/googled a lot on it and never found a good solution so I just keep it hooked up with the vga cable.

Some TVs also have an option in their settings called Overscan, try turning this off if you can find it (usually under Picture or something similar) and see what happens.