Help - connecting HDTV to PC

General Questions
#1

Hi,
I have just purchased a PC with Asus Motherboard and AMD Sempron processor and have installed Windows XP on it. I a trying to connect it to my HDTV.
The motherboard has a HDMI output which I have connected to the HDTV (a 32 inch VU TV - the manual says it supports 1920 X 1080 resolution).
When I connect the PC to the TV, I am facing the following problems:

  1. The screen gets cut on the edges effectively using only the centre part of the TV (I have tried this at resolution 1920 X 1080 and all the other resolutions provided on the PC).
  2. I tried changing the TV’s overscan mode - it has 100% and another which is manual setting for Horizontal & Vertical, on a scale of 1 to 10. I am using 100% and tried fiddling with the manual as well, but to no avail)
  3. I am unable to get audio to the TV. When I restarted the machine, I got some audio, but its gone blank again.

Please Help

Regards

Ashish

#2

What other inputs does your TV have ? Is there a miniplug input next to one of the HDMI inputs ? Is there a DVI input or a VGA input ? I would google your TV model number + overscan problems and see if there is a solution -if your resolution is 1920x1080 and your TV is overscanning it, you might not be able to do anything about it on that input, if you have tried whatever overscanning options you have in the menus, PLUS made sure the wide/aspect mode is set right, should be a button on the remote.
Sometimes, however, the TV will display some inputs without overscan, like a VGA or DVI input.
For the audio, if it worked after a reboot it probably is the computer, and not the TV. The easiest way to handle it is if your TV has an HDMI input with a miniplug jack next to it, run a cable from the sound card to the TV and find the option in the TV menu to use that input for sound.
Checking on the computer itself, how is the sound getting into the HDMI cable ? Is there a patch cable from your sound card to the video card (if so check the connection). If it is handled internally update your drivers and check to make sure the volume sliders are turned up.
If this is a new PC with newer components the XP drivers might be junk too - it could be designed for Windows 7 and it might work better with that installed.

#3

Thanks Jacob.
The screen size is now fine - it stretches to the entire screen. There were some overlacing / underlacing settings on the PC that I dragged to make it fit the whole TV.
The other problem with audio remains - I don’t get audio from the HDMI cable to the TV. There is no external patching of the audio signal, I understand the motherboard supports HDMI output which includes audio and video. Please tell me if I am wrong. The motherboard model for your reference is ASUS M4A78LT-M. A software called “VIA Audio Deck” is installed on the PC - part of the drivers I presume. It has an S/PDIF tab, where I have checked on the ‘Enable HDMI’ option, but to no use.
On the PC, I have an Audio In socket, but that can be used with the VGA only, which means, I won’t be able to get HD output. In fact, I bought this costlier machine just to get HD output for the TV. Otherwise, I would’ve probably just bought a cheaper Atom machine.
Can you or someone guide me on the audio please.
Thanks again.
Ashish