Scaling problem from HTPC to Panasonic Plasma

[admin_exported]

Evening everyone

I've finally got round to hooking up my HTPC (built myself and using a Gigabyte motherboard with on board video) to my Panasonic TH42PZ85b. I was originally using a VGA cable and the picture fully filled the screen but when I used Media Center (Windows XP version) it was too large for the screen. I've now bought a HDMI cable, which I run from a dedicated HDMI port on the PC (not DVI adapter) and I assumed that since my TV is full HD, it would just be a simple case of choosing a 1920 x 1080 output from the graphics card and this would perfectly fit the screen. But it appears to be too large and the only image I can use is something like 1440 x 900 and produces an image which is a little smaller than the screen size.

Can anyone tell me if there is something obvious that I'm not doing?

Many thanks

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Steve,

In my experience of setting up HTPC on flatscreen there are a few of things that you can try.

1) Both NVidia and ATI have software that gets bundled with driver Catalist or ION(ForceWare) there should be a way of setting the output to 1080i or 720p. I do believe they can handle 1080p but I don't have a TV that can handle the signal.

2) In the media centre setup (I'm using Vista) under tasks > media centre set up > Configure display there is a wizard not completely unlike the THX config on the LucaFilm dvd's. One of the settings is screen resolution, change the resolution to 1080i/p. As a side point make sure you select flat panel and not TV as TV gets treated like an old CRT, you will get washed out colours and extra information outside of the viewing area.

Other possiblities.
Some TVs come with a "Direct Scan" capability which makes pixel for pixel, see if you have this and turn it on for the HTPC connection.

Back in the graphics driver software under TV confirguration adjust the scan to reduce the picture. This does bring down the resolution and you will not be getting full 1080 but you will get a full screen picture.

Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi John

Thanks for your reply. I am heading home shortly so will give your recommendations a try.

Cheers

Steve