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UER Mobile > Private Boards Index > Tech Talk > LCD TV as Monitor (Viewed 2033 times)

post by trent

I'm Trent! Get Bent!

LCD TV as Monitor
< on 1/6/2010 7:50 PM >

I recently got a 26" Dynex LCD TV which supports 1366x768 native resolution. It's not a huge resolution, but just big enough to work nicely when hooked up to the monitor. My video card is an old Radeon 9600 or something.

The TV has HDMI in and my computer's video card has DVI-D out. I bought a single cable that had the DVI at one end and HDMI at the other. Looking good so far.

I can hook it up and it looks great. But, every now and then the screen flickers/goes black for a second, re-appears again, and then tells me the resolution it's on and it's input source. It seems like it's rescanning for some reason.

I think that reason might be because my video card output has a setting for 1360x768 @ 60 Hz, but the TV is meant to run at 1366x768 @ 60Hz. It's centering the picture with 3 unused pixels on each side of the picture.

I've tried downloading and running a recommended program called Powerstrip which lets you tweak or force resolution settings. I tried to create a 1366x768 resolution and force it upon my video card, but it didn't work, and my video card would not seem to allow it, so I can't even select it. I'm stuck at picking the 1360x768 resolution setting on my computer.

My guess is this resolution mis-match causing my re-scanning. Would you agree?

Sometimes it will go hours without scanning. Sometimes it will do it once now and then. Other times it will do it like 10 consecutive times in 15 seconds which is ridiculous.

Can anyone think of any other possible solutions to this?

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post by trent

I'm Trent! Get Bent!

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 1 on 1/6/2010 7:56 PM >

And a second part to this question....

Before receiving my HDMI cable I ordered, I was using a low-quality S-Video cable to connect the TV to my video card. It worked okay, but the quality was shit.

In windows I set the power settings to turn off my monitor after 15 minutes of inactivity (note this is just shutting down the monitor, not Standby mode).

While on svideo, it worked great. Also worked great on my old CRT monitor. But on HDMI after the 15 minutes hits and the output to the monitor/tv is shutdown, that works okay, but when I attempt to 'wake it up' by jiggling the mouse, the picture won't reappear on the TV even though the computer is up and running. I have to unplug the HDMI to the TV and plug it back it for windows to re-detect the TV and then display the picture.

Any solutions on why this power down the monitor settings works great with a VGA monitor, S-video to TV, but not HDMI to TV?

Thanks.
-t

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post by MrMusik

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 2 on 1/6/2010 7:59 PM >

I think you are on the right path with the resolution issues. I am not familiar with that particular video card, but a newer card with an HDMI output connector may help. I highly doubt you will be able to convince the card to give you those 6 extra pixels of resolution.

Also, Dynex is teh suxors. buy a better TV. Samsung is my current favorite.

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post by MrMusik

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 3 on 1/6/2010 8:04 PM >

Posted by trent
Any solutions on why this power down the monitor settings works great with a VGA monitor, S-video to TV, but not HDMI to TV?

Thanks.
-t

This is the fault of the TV. As I mentioned above, Dynex = crap.

I'm sure your PC is functioning correctly, The TV doesn't realize it should wake up since it isn't watching the HDMI input.

Can you wake up the TV with the power button on the TV?

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post by trent

I'm Trent! Get Bent!

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 4 on 1/6/2010 8:11 PM >

Posted by MrMusik
I think you are on the right path with the resolution issues. I am not familiar with that particular video card, but a newer card with an HDMI output connector may help. I highly doubt you will be able to convince the card to give you those 6 extra pixels of resolution.

Also, Dynex is teh suxors. buy a better TV. Samsung is my current favorite.

Thanks for a quick response. I really don't have the space cash to buy a new video card, even a cheap one. And still if it's a pixel mismatch issue, I'm afraid that may still not solve it as 1360x768 is a common resolution while the TV's 1366x768 is a little more odd.

I could see straight HDMI <--> HDMI *maybe* being beneficial, but in my research I was seeing that HDMI are the same and use the same protocol and carry the same resolutions, just HDMI additionally carries audio as well.

As for the TV, yah it's not an awesome brand. But it was a gift and I'm using it as a dedicated computer monitor, that's it. Don't need anything fancy.

Any other ideas on how to get my monitor to chill the eff out?

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post by trent

I'm Trent! Get Bent!

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 5 on 1/6/2010 8:13 PM >

Posted by MrMusik
Can you wake up the TV with the power button on the TV?

I can physically turn the TV back on, but it won't receive the picture from HDMI unless I reboot the computer or unplug/replug in the HDMI cable to the TV -- it just shows a nothingness black screen.

Edit: Oh, and MrMusik I just want to say I'm thankful for your advice. But if I'm not receptive to your advice, it's because buying a new TV or vid card is out of the question for any solution I could swing. I'm looking for something I might be able to try with my current setup.

[last edit 1/6/2010 8:25 PM by trent - edited 1 times]

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post by Washu

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 6 on 1/6/2010 9:39 PM >

Does the TV have a VGA input? Theoretically it is lower quality than HDMI, but on a non 1080P display you are very unlikely to notice any difference.

My TV doesn't respond to power save over HDMI at all, only VGA. If the computer on HDMI power saves it just sits there saying no input. If it is hooked up with VGA then power save works fine. The TV sleeps and wakes with the computer.

As for the resolution issue, your old ATI likely cannot display resolutions that are not divisible by 8, possibly even 16. The card simply can't do it, so you are stuck with 1360. My TV had no problem with my older card that had this issue, but that was on the VGA input.

You are right that HDMI and DVI use the same signaling. DVI can even have sound, it's just not very common.

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post by trent

I'm Trent! Get Bent!

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 7 on 1/6/2010 9:43 PM >

Ahh, good point about the DVI-->VGA, that should still be pretty good quality. Unfortunately I don't see my card supping 1366 px either. I was hoping to try and tackle it on the TV end. If I can display the picture just fine 99.9999% of the time, I wish I could set it to just never rescan unless changing video modes.

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post by MrMusik

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 8 on 1/7/2010 3:44 AM >

I understand about having to deal with what you have. Yes, DVI and HDMI are the same signals, however how the TV and how the video card each handle the digital video interface sound like if one doesn't see the other, they just shut off. Then to enable them again, you have to reinitialize them. Theoretically, this shit should all just work perfectly since it is all "digital" (don't you know "digital" will save the world?)... but... well... as you can see... not so much.

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post by trent

I'm Trent! Get Bent!

Re: LCD TV as Monitor
<Reply # 9 on 1/14/2010 9:55 PM >

Posted by trent
I recently got a 26" Dynex LCD TV which supports 1366x768 native resolution. It's not a huge resolution, but just big enough to work nicely when hooked up to the monitor. My video card is an old Radeon 9600 or something.

The TV has HDMI in and my computer's video card has DVI-D out. I bought a single cable that had the DVI at one end and HDMI at the other. Looking good so far.

I can hook it up and it looks great. But, every now and then the screen flickers/goes black for a second, re-appears again, and then tells me the resolution it's on and it's input source. It seems like it's rescanning for some reason.

I think that reason might be because my video card output has a setting for 1360x768 @ 60 Hz, but the TV is meant to run at 1366x768 @ 60Hz. It's centering the picture with 3 unused pixels on each side of the picture.

I've tried downloading and running a recommended program called Powerstrip which lets you tweak or force resolution settings. I tried to create a 1366x768 resolution and force it upon my video card, but it didn't work, and my video card would not seem to allow it, so I can't even select it. I'm stuck at picking the 1360x768 resolution setting on my computer.

My guess is this resolution mis-match causing my re-scanning. Would you agree?

Sometimes it will go hours without scanning. Sometimes it will do it once now and then. Other times it will do it like 10 consecutive times in 15 seconds which is ridiculous.

Can anyone think of any other possible solutions to this?

This has seemed to have resolved itself. I really haven't done anything and haven't had any flickering for about 3 days now. The only thing I can think of is maybe the cable was loose or maybe the tv has gotten used to the signal which I highly doubt.

Now time to work on shutting off the monitor while the computer is running and turning it back on again....

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