Gaming Bad HDMI or...?

TheTwoR's · Aug 24, 2010

Hey all,
If you've read one of my older threads, then you probably know I have recently bought a new Sony Bravia EX500.
I was excited to play WoW on a big screen so I went ahead and borrowed my brother's VGA cable.
Connecting my laptop to the Bravia with the VGA worked like a charm. Then my brother wanted his cable back.
I bought my self 2 HDMI cables that are exactly the same and thought maybe HDMI is better than VGA.
I connected my laptop and it turned out to be a total fail.
The image just won't fill the screen! I have it set to the right resolution and all but there's like approx 1.5 unused inches of pure black from each side. It's not filling the screen

I checked all the settings. Nothing works. It's always like this.
Also, the colors are so darn messed up. The fox in Mozilla Firefox is like red. It's way too sharp. Not to mention how unclear everything looks. Text is very pixely and bendy in some kind of way and it's like black text (the way it's supposed to be) with like gray shadows all around the text. It's so annoying! I can hardly read!
Also, if I heard correctly, HDMI cables are supposed to let the sounds come out of the TV, not the laptop.
Yeah that didn't work either. The sounds still come from the laptop.
What do you think the problem is. How can I fix it? Do you think it's simply just a bad cable? Let me know please. Thanks.

(btw I also tried the other cable and I still get the same results.)

Pimpmynintendo · Aug 24, 2010

TheTwoR's said:
Hey all,
If you've read one of my older threads, then you probably know I have recently bought a new Sony Bravia EX500.
I was excited to play WoW on a big screen so I went ahead and borrowed my brother's VGA cable.
Connecting my laptop to the Bravia with the VGA worked like a charm. Then my brother wanted his cable back.
I bought my self 2 HDMI cables that are exactly the same and thought maybe HDMI is better than VGA.
I connected my laptop and it turned out to be a total fail.
The image just won't fill the screen! I have it set to the right resolution and all but there's like approx 1.5 unused inches of pure black from each side. It's not filling the screen

I checked all the settings. Nothing works. It's always like this.
Also, the colors are so darn messed up. The fox in Mozilla Firefox is like red. It's way too sharp. Not to mention how unclear everything looks. Text is very pixely and bendy in some kind of way and it's like black text (the way it's supposed to be) with like gray shadows all around the text. It's so annoying! I can hardly read!
Also, if I heard correctly, HDMI cables are supposed to let the sounds come out of the TV, not the laptop.
Yeah that didn't work either. The sounds still come from the laptop.
What do you think the problem is. How can I fix it? Do you think it's simply just a bad cable? Let me know please. Thanks.

(btw I also tried the other cable and I still get the same results.)

The sharpness and everything else will need to be changed in the tv settings.
The screen size of your tv might be a tiny bit off and not to exact resolution although you might be able to stretch it.
and the hdmi cable is from your graphics card so you wouldnt get any audio

Jamstruth · Aug 24, 2010

HDMI=Digital cable. Your TV either recieves the signal or it doesn't. You'll need to fiddle with your graphics card and TV settings to get it working correctly.

TheTwoR's · Aug 24, 2010

Pimpmynintendo said:
The sharpness and everything else will need to be changed in the tv settings.
The screen size of your tv might be a tiny bit off and not to exact resolution although you might be able to stretch it.
and the hdmi cable is from your graphics card so you wouldnt get any audio

Nope. Nothing helped.
Thanks for trying to help though

Pimpmynintendo · Aug 24, 2010

Oh and if you have an ATI card you need to use the catalyst control center to fill screen

TheTwoR's · Aug 24, 2010

Jamstruth said:
HDMI=Digital cable. Your TV either recieves the signal or it doesn't. You'll need to fiddle with your graphics card and TV settings to get it working correctly.

Tried. Believe me. No good...

QUOTE(Pimpmynintendo @ Aug 24 2010, 08:19 PM) Oh and if you have an ATI card you need to use the catalyst control center to fill screen

Yeah I was just doing that. According to the control center AND windows settings, it's supposed to show in full screen with out leaving any black borders.
Weird how the VGA cable was better.
By the way I'm still having color, clarity and sharpness issues. Not fixable through TV or laptop settings.

MelodieOctavia · Aug 24, 2010

Jamstruth said:
HDMI=Digital cable. Your TV either recieves the signal or it doesn't. You'll need to fiddle with your graphics card and TV settings to get it working correctly.

This.

That is why buying HDMI Monster cables are such a ripoff.

Jamstruth · Aug 24, 2010

TheTwoR's said:
Pimpmynintendo said:

Oh and if you have an ATI card you need to use the catalyst control center to fill screen

Click to expand...

Yeah I was just doing that. According to the control center AND windows settings, it's supposed to show in full screen with out leaving any black borders.
Weird how the VGA cable was better.
By the way I'm still having color, clarity and sharpness issues. Not fixable through TV or laptop settings.

Have you even attempted fiddling with color correction in the Control Centre? HDMI is slightly different to VGA (what your computer outputs to your LCD already). Your control center may have a monitor setup wizard for you to go through and change color settings etc.

Pimpmynintendo · Aug 24, 2010

Jamstruth said:
TheTwoR's said:

Pimpmynintendo said:

Oh and if you have an ATI card you need to use the catalyst control center to fill screen

Click to expand...

Yeah I was just doing that. According to the control center AND windows settings, it's supposed to show in full screen with out leaving any black borders.
Weird how the VGA cable was better.
By the way I'm still having color, clarity and sharpness issues. Not fixable through TV or laptop settings.

Click to expand...

Have you even attempted fiddling with color correction in the Control Centre? HDMI is slightly different to VGA (what your computer outputs to your LCD already). Your control center may have a monitor setup wizard for you to go through and change color settings etc.

the big question is does he even have an ati card in his laptop

TheTwoR's · Aug 24, 2010

Jamstruth said:
Have you even attempted fiddling with color correction in the Control Centre? HDMI is slightly different to VGA (what your computer outputs to your LCD already). Your control center may have a monitor setup wizard for you to go through and change color settings etc.

Yeah yeah I'm telling you I tried all that might relate to these problems. Nothing helps.

Pimpmynintendo said:

Jamstruth said:

TheTwoR's said:

QUOTE(Pimpmynintendo @ Aug 24 2010, 08:19 PM) Oh and if you have an ATI card you need to use the catalyst control center to fill screen

Click to expand...

Yeah I was just doing that. According to the control center AND windows settings, it's supposed to show in full screen with out leaving any black borders.
Weird how the VGA cable was better.
By the way I'm still having color, clarity and sharpness issues. Not fixable through TV or laptop settings.

Click to expand...

Have you even attempted fiddling with color correction in the Control Centre? HDMI is slightly different to VGA (what your computer outputs to your LCD already). Your control center may have a monitor setup wizard for you to go through and change color settings etc.

Click to expand...

the big question is does he even have an ati card in his laptop

Yes I do. How would I access the Control Center if I don't use ATI

moose3 · Aug 24, 2010

I am guessing you are using windows 7? I am also guessing you don't have the TV on and connected first when you boot the laptop?

HDMI only carries sound if the video card has it's own integrated sound processor, and I have experienced in win 7 at least that if the TV is not on first, win7 disables the sound through HDMI, but will show video.

If you right click on the volume control icon, you should see the playback devices in properties. If you don't see HDMI audio in there somewhere, your laptop's vid card does not have it. If it's got a red X in a circle, it has it but it was disabled due to the TV not being on first. If it's green with a check but not set as default, select that and you get sound from HDMI.

Windows 7 also will detect that you have an HDMI connection to the TV and tends to adjust the overscan to work on the TV when the TV is on and hooked up first before the laptop is turned on. In some cases, like yours, it should make it fit correctly, for others (like me) we have to use the overscan feature in the vid card properties to shrink back the image to normal size or turn the TV on after the comp has booted.

If the image looks fugly, you can also check and see what the native resolution of your TV is 1080p is 1920x1080 and 720p is 1280x720 for a 16:9 widescreen. make sure your laptop is using that resolution for best results, or some similar ratio.

I also remember older laptops having something on their function keys that would screw with how things looked on screen, see if there is something other than crt/lcd/hdmi which would cycle through the video output is still there on a newer laptop.

You can also fiddle with windows dpi settings and other display settings to try and make things better.

Good luck.

Gaz777 · Aug 24, 2010

I have a Sony Bravia, connected to my pc with a HDMI cable. ATI card as well.

When I first connected it up I had the problem of it not filling the whole screen even though it stated it was at 1920x1080.

To Fix:
Open up CCC, go to Desktops & Displays,
Right click the picture of the TV at the bottom and select Configure...

Finally go to the Scaling Options Tab, and there you'll probably want to put Overscan to 0%.

As I said that's what I did to fix my problem.

As for the colours, if you think the TV & laptop colour setting are right, I'm not sure what it is
It could be that the wrong Pixel Format is set? Again same as above except instead of Scaling Options try Pixel Format and try changing that.

Now for the sound, it could be that your graphics doesn't support it but to check...
This is for Win 7, can't remember for others think it's kind of the same.

Right click the Sound icon, then Playback Devices

When I want to play sound from TV I select 'ATI HDMI Output' then press set default.

If you don't see something like this it could be disabled, right click white space and make sure Show Disabled Devices is checked.

If you do have something like 'ATI HDMI Output' but its disable try right clicking and enable.

Hope this makes sense and helps,

Any more questions and I'll try to answer

Gaz

TheTwoR's · Aug 25, 2010

moose3 said:
I am guessing you are using windows 7? I am also guessing you don't have the TV on and connected first when you boot the laptop?

HDMI only carries sound if the video card has it's own integrated sound processor, and I have experienced in win 7 at least that if the TV is not on first, win7 disables the sound through HDMI, but will show video.

If you right click on the volume control icon, you should see the playback devices in properties. If you don't see HDMI audio in there somewhere, your laptop's vid card does not have it. If it's got a red X in a circle, it has it but it was disabled due to the TV not being on first. If it's green with a check but not set as default, select that and you get sound from HDMI.

Windows 7 also will detect that you have an HDMI connection to the TV and tends to adjust the overscan to work on the TV when the TV is on and hooked up first before the laptop is turned on. In some cases, like yours, it should make it fit correctly, for others (like me) we have to use the overscan feature in the vid card properties to shrink back the image to normal size or turn the TV on after the comp has booted.

If the image looks fugly, you can also check and see what the native resolution of your TV is 1080p is 1920x1080 and 720p is 1280x720 for a 16:9 widescreen. make sure your laptop is using that resolution for best results, or some similar ratio.

I also remember older laptops having something on their function keys that would screw with how things looked on screen, see if there is something other than crt/lcd/hdmi which would cycle through the video output is still there on a newer laptop.

You can also fiddle with windows dpi settings and other display settings to try and make things better.

Good luck.

Yeah I checked all the settings and stuff. It is 1080p and that's what it's set to. Still no good.
Thanks for trying to help though

QUOTE(Gaz777 @ Aug 25 2010, 02:01 AM) I have a Sony Bravia, connected to my pc with a HDMI cable. ATI card as well.

When I first connected it up I had the problem of it not filling the whole screen even though it stated it was at 1920x1080.

To Fix:
Open up CCC, go to Desktops & Displays,
Right click the picture of the TV at the bottom and select Configure...

Finally go to the Scaling Options Tab, and there you'll probably want to put Overscan to 0%.

As I said that's what I did to fix my problem.

As for the colours, if you think the TV & laptop colour setting are right, I'm not sure what it is
It could be that the wrong Pixel Format is set? Again same as above except instead of Scaling Options try Pixel Format and try changing that.

Now for the sound, it could be that your graphics doesn't support it but to check...
This is for Win 7, can't remember for others think it's kind of the same.

Right click the Sound icon, then Playback Devices

When I want to play sound from TV I select 'ATI HDMI Output' then press set default.

If you don't see something like this it could be disabled, right click white space and make sure Show Disabled Devices is checked.

If you do have something like 'ATI HDMI Output' but its disable try right clicking and enable.

Hope this makes sense and helps,

Any more questions and I'll try to answer

Gaz

You seem like a helpful person

The audio thing was fixed and I REALLY appreciate your help. But for the video part, I opened CCC but I didn't find "Desktop and Displays" .
Mind explaining how I can get to that?

Thanks ALOT btw

EDIT:
Nvm I found it thanks ALOT!
It's perfect

Gaz777 · Aug 25, 2010

TheTwoR's said:
You seem like a helpful person

The audio thing was fixed and I REALLY appreciate your help. But for the video part, I opened CCC but I didn't find "Desktop and Displays" .
Mind explaining how I can get to that?

Thanks ALOT btw

EDIT:
Nvm I found it thanks ALOT!
It's perfect

No problem, I'm glad I could help.

Did that fix all your problems then?

If you have any other problems feel free to ask, I may be able to help.

Gaz

TheTwoR's · Aug 26, 2010

Gaz777 said:
TheTwoR's said:

You seem like a helpful person

The audio thing was fixed and I REALLY appreciate your help. But for the video part, I opened CCC but I didn't find "Desktop and Displays" .
Mind explaining how I can get to that?

Thanks ALOT btw

EDIT:
Nvm I found it thanks ALOT!
It's perfect

Click to expand...

No problem, I'm glad I could help.

Did that fix all your problems then?

If you have any other problems feel free to ask, I may be able to help.

Gaz

Yeah it did fix everything

Thanks.
I have a new thread, but I'm not sure you're the guy who can solve my new problem... You can check it out though

Matthew · Aug 26, 2010

In the control centers for your graphics card there should be a a resize option, I have a nvidia chip and to start with it had a black border but manualy resising fixed it. I dont know how to do it in ATI because I have not needed to but in nvidia theres an option which allows resizing when it knows its a HDMI cable and it connected to a TV.

You may need to search for an option such as cable type for it to work.

Also, if you haven't worked it out. To get sound, right click on the sound icon, playback devices, and disable the speakers and enable HDMI

Gaming Bad HDMI or...?

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