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Issue mirroring two monitors

M

mike2874

Junior Member
Got my son a Dell XPS 8700 (Windows 7 Pro) for Xmas and started setting everything up but I ran into an issue I can't figure out. He had his computer monitor and his HDTV (720P) mirrored on his old computer so I figured this would be a snap on his new one. His HDTV is connected via an DVI (PC) to HDMI (TV) cable and that connection works fine. The 8700 came with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 720 1GB DDR3.

His monitor is an older Dell E197FP and highest resolution I can set it to is 1280 x 1024 (native) and it is connected via VGA. This same monitor has worked with the same HDTV with same cable hookup when he was using his older Dell desktop.

When I change the setting on my computer display setting I can't seem to get the HDTV to mirror the computer monitor. If I change multiple display setting to Extend or Duplicate it will briefly display on the TV and then revert back to the computer monitor after saying invalid format.

Now this same setup worked with his 6 year old Dell and a cheap video card so this has got me stumped. If I disconnect the computer monitor it will display on his TV with no issues. What do you make if this?

Could not using a regular HDMI cable instead of DVI to HDMI to connect the HDTV somehow be causing the issue even though it worked fine with his old computer?
 
Last edited:
inachu said:
invalid format might refer to the resolution that the tv can not support.
Click to expand...

But why will it support it if I unplug the computer monitor? With just the HDTV plugged in it displays perfectly from the computer.

And why doesn't it work now when it always did with the same HDTV and monitor plugged in together?
 
"To adjust the resolution, so that the display area of the monitors are the same size in the Display Settings window, select a monitor and slide the resolution slide bar. Click OK to save the setting and exit.
The computer is now ready to display the same screen on all output devices"

Windows detects the TV & sets 1280x720 for it, but when you try to mirror with the monitor, the TV can't do 1280X1024.
 
Well the resolution setting is blanked out on the tv setting so I can't set it but I can lower the resolution on the monitor so what should it be?
 
I guess I do have a couple more questions. When I lowered the resolution on the monitor to 1280x720 to match the tv, the monitor screen is now letter boxed. Also now when the tv displays my computer's desktop the icons on the side of the screen are halfway off the screen. With my son's old computer this didn't happen everything looked normal any idea why it's different now?

Do I understand correctly that no matter how my tv displays anything from the computer, when playing a movie via Netflix from the computer the resolution will be correct/normal on the tv?
 
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