1366x768 LCD TV native resolution

[Joony]

So I just got that black friday 26" Syntax LCD TV (LT26HVX) at Circuit City the other day, it's native resolution is 1366x768.

The problem is, 1366 is not divisible by 8, so video cards cannot output such an 'odd' resolution.

The even bigger problem is, my LCD TV has no option to turn off scaling, so the only other resolution I have avaliable is, 1360 or 1368. So it would be scaling 6 or 2 pixels, which makes text look not as sharp. I'd rather just have 2 pixels overscan or lose 6 whole pixels to get 1:1 pixel mapping.

HD videos played off a HTPC look great when viewing from a distance, you don't notice the scaling, but just the text annoys me.

I suppose those are the problems with going for '2nd tier' brands, limited scaling options, and the remote also has a horrible button layout.

What are my options?

Is there anything in the whole world that can output 1366x768 at a reasonable cost.

Is the divisible by 8 a physical limitation of video cards? If Powerstrip can't force 1366x768, I doubt new drivers can do it.

I must say that 1366x768 is a retarded resolution, why would LCD makers ever use it? 1280x720 seems more reasonable, to match 720P content, and allow TVs to use it.

Some 1366x768 stuff:

Pioneer PDP-614MX
Viewsonic N3250W
Syntax Olevia LT26HVX
Sony HS20 Projector
Sharp LD-23SH1U
Samsung LN-R408D

 

[Rage187]

never heard of 1366, my 32" Westinghouse does 1360x768.

that sucks.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: Rage187
never heard of 1366, my 32" Westinghouse does 1360x768.

that sucks.

1366 X 768 is very common in the consumer LCD-TV market. Even so, the difference between 1366 X 768 & 1280 X 768 is very minimal. So, I would not mind that amount of stretching... You are not talking about a huge difference. Secondly, depending on the video card you have, you CAN disabling scaling within the nForce control panels (If you have an nVidia GPU).

 

[Marcdaddy]

Just use a program like POWERSTRIP, you can make custom resolutions to prevent overscan, Its what i use it very easy.

 

[Dman877]

Thanks for the heads up, I was seriously contemplating that viewsonic you listed. That's pretty annoying. Now my options are 37 inches at 1920x1080 or 30 inches at 1280x720? I thought I read a thread on here recently about someone running that res though...

 

[Joony]

ArchAngel777, the LCD TV is what's doing the scaling. I am not aware of any sort of software that can disable scaling within the TV itself.

Marcdaddy, powerstrip will not do horizontal resolutions that are not in multiples of 8, setting to 1366 will round it to 1368. So the TV will automatically scale for those 2 pixels over the entire screen.

Dman877, that 1080p screen is nice. I would imagine going 1080p now will be more futureproof.

 

[kylebisme]

The TV should have picture position/size settings that will alow you to get a 1:1 mapping by either leaving a few pixels overscan or some underscan instead. Those options might be in hidden in the service menu but all the same they should be there. I have to do the same thing to get 1:1 mapping with my plasma as it is 852x480.

 

[Dman877]

There are laptops with 1366x768 resolution screens though, do they have to overscan too? That doesn't make sense...

 

[Zstream]

You got a bum TV, my current 32 inch LCD TV also has that exact resolution but it has a VGA input along with DVI. My TV then goes to 1280* 1024 and looks great. I never had any issues like this before, text looks as good as my 17 inch viewsonic monitor.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Zstream
You got a bum TV, my current 32 inch LCD TV also has that exact resolution but it has a VGA input along with DVI. My TV then goes to 1280* 1024 and looks great. I never had any issues like this before, text looks as good as my 17 inch viewsonic monitor.

You, good sir, are either a liar or blind. 1280x1024 scaled to 1366x768 would look hideous, never mind being entirely the wrong aspect ratio.

Buried somewhere in the menus should be the option for scaling. Look for any of: Bypass, 1:1, PC Mode, Normal, None - hopefully one of them exists and will disable scaling. I then suggest using 1368x768 and losing a pixel on each side.

- M4H

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Zstream
You got a bum TV, my current 32 inch LCD TV also has that exact resolution but it has a VGA input along with DVI. My TV then goes to 1280* 1024 and looks great. I never had any issues like this before, text looks as good as my 17 inch viewsonic monitor.

You, good sir, are either a liar or blind. 1280x1024 scaled to 1366x768 would look hideous, never mind being entirely the wrong aspect ratio.

Buried somewhere in the menus should be the option for scaling. Look for any of: Bypass, 1:1, PC Mode, Normal, None - hopefully one of them exists and will disable scaling. I then suggest using 1368x768 and losing a pixel on each side.

- M4H

If I am blind then my whole family and friends are blind also. I will take pictures then to prove you wrong.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: Joony
ArchAngel777, the LCD TV is what's doing the scaling. I am not aware of any sort of software that can disable scaling within the TV itself.

Marcdaddy, powerstrip will not do horizontal resolutions that are not in multiples of 8, setting to 1366 will round it to 1368. So the TV will automatically scale for those 2 pixels over the entire screen.

Dman877, that 1080p screen is nice. I would imagine going 1080p now will be more futureproof.

I am not familiar with yoru model, but if you are using a DVI port, the TV will listen to the video card. If you are using VGA, then you are right, not much can be done, except through the TV controls.

My Dell W3000 allows me to disable scaling in the control panel. I can also just forget about that and set my video card properties to use 1:1 pixel mapping. Either way it works fine, but then again, I am using DVI.

Sounds like a bummer for you, but those are the only solutions.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Zstream

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Zstream
You got a bum TV, my current 32 inch LCD TV also has that exact resolution but it has a VGA input along with DVI. My TV then goes to 1280* 1024 and looks great. I never had any issues like this before, text looks as good as my 17 inch viewsonic monitor.

You, good sir, are either a liar or blind. 1280x1024 scaled to 1366x768 would look hideous, never mind being entirely the wrong aspect ratio.

Buried somewhere in the menus should be the option for scaling. Look for any of: Bypass, 1:1, PC Mode, Normal, None - hopefully one of them exists and will disable scaling. I then suggest using 1368x768 and losing a pixel on each side.

- M4H

If I am blind then my whole family and friends are blind also. I will take pictures then to prove you wrong.

Still eagerly awaiting you proving that 1280x1024 = 1366x768

- M4H

 

[edplayer]

first thing I would have done is head over to avsforum and searched for your model tv

 

[edplayer]

Originally posted by: Joony
I suppose those are the problems with going for '2nd tier' brands, limited scaling options, and the remote also has a horrible button layout.

What are my options?

I don't think it has anything to do with 2nd tier brands. I got a LT26HVE that has 1280x768 and it worked fine from day one. I got lucky because I didn't research it before I bought it. There are people using lcds from companies like Sharp that are having problems getting 1:1 pixel mapping over at avsforum.

 

[Joony]

edplayer, yes, I have done some searching on avsforum, people there are having the same problem. I was just posting here to see if maybe some more computer oriented people might have a better idea.

I considered the LT26HVE for $400 after rebate @ Microcenter, but some of the specs all turned me down, response rate, viewing angle. Turns out that model had the good PC compatible resolution of 1280x768. Bad mistake Even the Westinghouse 26" for $500 at Best Buy had 1280x720!

this is the manual. I've looked high and low in the menus for a option to disable scaling. I just hope there is some hidden menu to access. Or maybe even the service port in the rear might be useful.

Dman877, I'm not aware of any laptop screens with 1366x768!

 

[Joony]

New info, finally found a useful thread here at the forums of the makers of powerstrip

A common question among, e.g., plasma owners, is why horizontal timings cannot be specified in terms of individual pixels - i.e., why 848x480 instead of an optimal 852x480, or 1368x768 instead of the native 1366x768?

The reason is that graphics cards almost invariably do horizontal timing in terms of character clocks of 8 pixels, rather than in terms of individual pixels - a legacy of the original Motorola 6845 CRT controller. At the hardware register level, 848x480 is actually programmed as 106 character clocks x 480 lines - 106 characters of 8 pixels each equals 848 total pixels. Likewise, 1366 pixels isn't possible - the closest possible values are 1368 (171 character clocks) or 1360 (170 character clocks).

Hence a horizontal resolution that isn't evenly divisible by an 8 pixel character clock is not possible on display hardware that claims compatibility with VGA (and pre-VGA) standards. You either live with a couple of pixels of overscan, or settle for a couple of pixels blank border.

One exception to this horizontal timing rule is ATI new X1K and Matrox's Parhelia and P-series, which use pixels rather than character clocks to generate horizontal timings.

Another exception is the old Kyro 2 - still used on special purpose graphics cards from some manufacturers. The Kyro 3 is also capable of pixel-perfect resolutions at the hardware level, but the generic drivers do not allow this.

Also: for digital (not analog) timing, NVidia cards have always used individual pixels rather than character clocks of 8 pixels, even though effective changes have tended to be in character clocks anyway. Again: this only applies to DVI-D/HDMI, not analog VGA or DVI-A connections.

Looks like i'll have to get ATI's X1k for my MCE machine. My Mac will still have the same problem though, bah, unless they make a X1k mac version

Damn you motorola! and TV without scaling options! :|

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: Joony
New info, finally found a useful thread here at the forums of the makers of powerstrip

A common question among, e.g., plasma owners, is why horizontal timings cannot be specified in terms of individual pixels - i.e., why 848x480 instead of an optimal 852x480, or 1368x768 instead of the native 1366x768?

The reason is that graphics cards almost invariably do horizontal timing in terms of character clocks of 8 pixels, rather than in terms of individual pixels - a legacy of the original Motorola 6845 CRT controller. At the hardware register level, 848x480 is actually programmed as 106 character clocks x 480 lines - 106 characters of 8 pixels each equals 848 total pixels. Likewise, 1366 pixels isn't possible - the closest possible values are 1368 (171 character clocks) or 1360 (170 character clocks).

Hence a horizontal resolution that isn't evenly divisible by an 8 pixel character clock is not possible on display hardware that claims compatibility with VGA (and pre-VGA) standards. You either live with a couple of pixels of overscan, or settle for a couple of pixels blank border.

One exception to this horizontal timing rule is ATI new X1K and Matrox's Parhelia and P-series, which use pixels rather than character clocks to generate horizontal timings.

Another exception is the old Kyro 2 - still used on special purpose graphics cards from some manufacturers. The Kyro 3 is also capable of pixel-perfect resolutions at the hardware level, but the generic drivers do not allow this.

Also: for digital (not analog) timing, NVidia cards have always used individual pixels rather than character clocks of 8 pixels, even though effective changes have tended to be in character clocks anyway. Again: this only applies to DVI-D/HDMI, not analog VGA or DVI-A connections.

Looks like i'll have to get ATI's X1k for my MCE machine. My Mac will still have the same problem though, bah, unless they make a X1k mac version

Damn you motorola! and TV without scaling options! :|

Think you hit it "One exception to this horizontal timing rule is ATI new X1K and Matrox's Parhelia and P-series, which use pixels rather than character clocks to generate horizontal timings." Using a x1800XL atm

 

[russki]

cant you just put a dvi to vga adapter on the dvi port and output using it?

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Zstream

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Zstream
You got a bum TV, my current 32 inch LCD TV also has that exact resolution but it has a VGA input along with DVI. My TV then goes to 1280* 1024 and looks great. I never had any issues like this before, text looks as good as my 17 inch viewsonic monitor.

You, good sir, are either a liar or blind. 1280x1024 scaled to 1366x768 would look hideous, never mind being entirely the wrong aspect ratio.

Buried somewhere in the menus should be the option for scaling. Look for any of: Bypass, 1:1, PC Mode, Normal, None - hopefully one of them exists and will disable scaling. I then suggest using 1368x768 and losing a pixel on each side.

- M4H

If I am blind then my whole family and friends are blind also. I will take pictures then to prove you wrong.

Still eagerly awaiting you proving that 1280x1024 = 1366x768

- M4H

I am waiting for it too... But it won't happen. Zstream has a history of saying things like that and never providing proof. Not to mention he already responded below this, but nothing in response to what we are looking for...

 

[ArchAngel777]

/Bump

ZStream, get around to taking those pictures yet?

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: russki
cant you just put a dvi to vga adapter on the dvi port and output using it?

That won't get you anywaywhere as it is still going to be limtied to factors of 8 on the horizontal resolution reguardless of if it though VGA or DVI.

 

[Joony]

new information, it seems that any recent Nvidia card with latest reference drivers will do horizontal resolutions using pixel clock rather than character clock through DVI only because of it's TDMS transmitter thingy. Powerstrip is still needed for timings and refresh rates.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/custom_resolutions.html

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Rage187
never heard of 1366, my 32" Westinghouse does 1360x768.

that sucks.

Thanks, I was just about to ask about my Westy 32"