Intel HD 2000 and HDMI connection to LCD TV - Display Size Messed Up

[metroplex]

I just bought a new Dell Inspiron 620 with the Core i3 CPU and Intel's HD 2000 graphics adapter. When plugged into my Samsung 40" LCD TV, the screen size is TOO BIG in the BIOS mode and in Windows 7. I cannot set a resolution that fills the TV properly, it is always TOO BIG.

I used my Dell Studio 15 laptop with its HDMI port, and the resolution is just fine (Radeon HD 3450) on the same TV.

Obviously this is not a driver issue, or else the BIOS would display properly.

Is this a known problem with the HD 2000?

Is there any benefit to using the HDMI cable versus the VGA D-Sub cable? My Samsung TV has a VGA port that I have used in the past with my older Dell HTPC.

 

[Schmide]

I have the latest drivers so, Obviously this is not a driver issue...

Fixed? The only thing that would make this true is if you prefaced it with the BOLD above.

 

[metroplex]

Fixed? The only thing that would make this true is if you prefaced it with the BOLD above.

The BIOS does not display properly, the screen is too big (goes beyond the edges of the screen) just like the Windows display. This rules out the drivers since you're not even in the OS when this problem occurs. There is no way to adjust my Samsung LCD TV either, and I tried all of the resolutions in W7 to no avail.

 

[Ventanni]

I had a similar issue setting up my RCA 46" LCD TV on my laptop (Asus N53S w/ Core i7-2630QM/HD3000 + Geforce 540m), which I use as a glorified, ridiculously overpowered HTPC. Before I begin, I have it set so my laptop sees my TV as the only display once plugged in. This is how I was able to fix it:

1. Once logged into Windows 7, right click the desktop and select Graphics Properties. You want to get to the blue Intel driver menu, and not the Windows driver menu.

2. Under General Settings, you should see your TV as the display, and near the bottom you should see the option called "Scaling". I selected, "Customize Aspect Ratio".

3. There should be some slider bars labeled that pop up, labelled "Horizontal" and "Vertical". Mine are set to 60 and 60 for each, but you can easily muck with it. That allowed me to customize the desktop to fit precisely into the screen, without anything being displayed off screen.

I hope this helps. From what you're describing, it's exactly the same issue I had, but is easily fixable in the drivers.

 

[Schmide]

The BIOS does not display properly, the screen is too big (goes beyond the edges of the screen) just like the Windows display. This rules out the drivers since you're not even in the OS when this problem occurs. There is no way to adjust my Samsung LCD TV either, and I tried all of the resolutions in W7 to no avail.

This is absolutely the wrong conclusion.

Nothing rules out the latest drivers except the latest drivers. Why are you trying to justify not getting the latest drivers???

BIOS and simple resolutions are often troubles for TVs as they wish to run at higher frequencies.

 

[Jocelyn84]

FWIW, when I hook my Macbook pro up to the TV, the television adjusts to the right resolution, but I just tested out the HD2000 and I had to adjust it via the TV built in res options. Have you tried this?

 

[nenforcer]

The are a couple of options you can choose for a digital HDMI connection in the Samsung TV itself.

It's recommended you choose the "Just Scan" for the picture size / aspect ratio instead of forcing 16:9 or 16:10.

 

[metroplex]

Unfortunately, there are no options in my Samsung LN-S4051D for Just Scan or for adjusting the position/resolution/aspect ratio with the HDMI connection. I snooped around and couldn't find it. It must be in the newer TVs, this was from early 2007 (probably a 2006 design). The only options I have are 16:9 and 4:3, even the Zoom1 and Zoom2 options are grayed out.

Ventanni: The Custom Resolution/Aspect Ratio seems to be only available for the display attached to the VGA port. When the TV is connected via HDMI, the HD 2000 does not give me the option for adjusting a ratio for the "Digital Samsung Television" that it detects. I played with the Underscan option and custom resolutions, but they all overscanned and bled over the edges.

Schmide: The drivers are only used in the Windows 7 environment. If I boot into the BIOS, the drivers are not used! What drivers would you update for the screens that display right before the BIOS POST shows up? This stretched out image is the same as it boots into Windows 7, suggesting the underlying issue is not a W7 driver's issue as it occurs prior to the OS.

I did some more digging and it looks like I might be SOL with this particular TV. It was interesting that my Radeon HD 3450 in the Dell Studio 15 laptop did not have this problem using the same TV. The problem appears to be an overscan issue and the lack of a 1:1 ratio setting for the TV.

More research shows that Intel's lousy drivers don't keep the settings either, so assuming I fix the overscan in W7, it will keep coming back after each reboot. The permanent fix is to probably get a real video card from AMD or Nvidia. So much for the budget HTPC.

 

[metroplex]

I fixed the problem. Ventanni is right on the money.

The problem was that the custom aspect ratio option appears only for certain resolutions, at least with my HD 2000 and Samsung TV combination. 1280x720 is the only HD resolution with the custom aspect ratio option.

I set it to 50 for horizontal and 40 for vertical to get the maximum usable display size, and it looks perfect. I have HDMI audio as well, so it is rocking at 720p. My TV is only capable of 720p/1080i and I did not see the custom aspect ratio for 1920x1080 for some reason.

If I reboot, the settings stay put so it looks like I don't need to buy a discrete board.

 

[Ventanni]

Now that's what I like to hear, Metroplex! Glad I could help!

 

[metroplex]

Yes, thank you!

The BIOS and bootup screens are still overscanned, but I suppose they are not as important.

 

[iCyborg]

Schmide: The drivers are only used in the Windows 7 environment. If I boot into the BIOS, the drivers are not used! What drivers would you update for the screens that display right before the BIOS POST shows up? This stretched out image is the same as it boots into Windows 7, suggesting the underlying issue is not a W7 driver's issue as it occurs prior to the OS.

You're right: drivers are not used for BIOS POST, you can even take out the HDD/SDD and it will show. It's run by the Video BIOS in the GPU. But I don't think he's saying otherwise. What (I think) he's saying is that some TVs don't play nice with the basic VGA resolution over HDMI, but the drivers should allow you to use its native resolution. And this is how you fixed your issue too - i's ok in Win 7, but BIOS screens are still not working correctly.
As for working with ATI 3450, its VBIOS probably knows how to handle HDMI/TV better.

 

[Schmide]

Dude?

I will explain something. When a video source and a display link up using EDID, they try and negotiate what resolutions are used. Many early drivers did not have proper tables for displaying such resolutions and would default to ones that were less than adequate for your viewing pleasure.

But no don't* take 5 min to download it and maybe fix your system and run at 1080i?

*Notice the double negative above

 

[nenforcer]

I believe computer monitors since even the old days (post monochrome monitors) have always been considered "progressive scan" for eye quality and refresh rate purposes.

I'm guessing for a interlaced resolution you can set seperate horizonal or vertical scan rates which I believe is what you are doing.

Since you TV doesn't support 1080P you probably can't expect to get the screen to look correctly at 1080i, only at 720P and 480P.

 

[metroplex]

I updated to the latest Intel drivers and it did what I expected it to do: absolutely nothing, because the problem exists at the hardware level since it shows up during BIOS/POST and bootup well before the drivers are even loaded.

After adjusting the H and V scan using 1280x720 resolution, it works. However, watching MotoGP races in 720p (this is MotoGP's 720p setting) will cause sections of the screen to go blotchy like the textures in a game are being corrupted. Watching the same race on my laptop with the Radeon HD 3450 does not show that corrupt texture screen. Weird.

It would be great if Intel made their embedded graphics chips 300x more user friendly. I don't have this problem with my Dell laptop and the HDMI port. I am contemplating buying a Radeon HD 6450 for this Inspiron 620.