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General discussion

LN40A550 Picture Size problem with a PC

Mar 7, 2009 7:07AM PST

I have a PC hooked up through the analog VGA port to the Samsung, and I want the TV to automatically change it's own resolution to whatever resolution is on the PC.

The problem is that the TV only has two display settings - 4:3 and 16:9 - and keeps the aspect ratio no matter what resolution is on the PC. I want to be able to watch movies on 16:9 and play video games on 4:3 without having to adjust the remote.

For instance, the desktop display is 1360 x 768 (about 16:9), which looks fine for widescreen movies. If I boot up MAME, it switches the PC resolution to like 800 x 600, and the TV stretches the display to 16:9. This doesn't make any sense when dealing with a computer, since the resolution is given to the TV (it shows at the top left of the screen).

How do I make the TV just run whatever resolution I got on the PC and not try to force aspect ratio?

Discussion is locked

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Look in advanced settings of your video card.
Mar 8, 2009 6:18AM PDT

I have an ATI card. If I go into the "Catalyst Control Center", then select the monitor (DTV (DVI)), go to Attributes, there is an option for "Image Scaling". If you select "Maintain aspect ratio", it should do what you want.

You might want to add what OS you are using, and what graphics card you have. Good luck!

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PC Mode
Mar 8, 2009 9:21AM PDT

dhinge,

You might also enable PC Mode on the television. That information is on page 23 of the manual.

The television will always upconvert the resolution to the native resolution of the actual panel, so you also have to check the manual to make sure that your resolution is a supported resolution. That can be found on page 42.

--HDTech

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black bars showing on normal monitor but not TV
Mar 15, 2009 5:01AM PDT

I'm using Windows XP Professional with an Intel G33/G31 Express integrated graphics card.

All of the resolutions in Display Properties work with the TV, and I found "maintain aspect ratio" in advanced settings, but the TV stretches no matter what. If I plug the PC into a normal monitor, the picture gets the black bars on the top/bottom or sides. I don't know why the TV is not showing the black bars.

What about this TV is different than a normal monitor?

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Not sure, few more things to check.
Mar 15, 2009 11:22AM PDT

As I don't have experience with that graphics card, I can't test it myself. As HD_Tech suggested, your TV is scaling what ever video it gets to the full resolution of your monitor which might stretch the picture. The "internal scaling" options I suggested available to my ATI card might not be available with your graphics card and might have to look at the application

You are going to have to configure each application to tell it you have a 16:9 screen. For MAME, go to "Options" -> Default game options. Go to Display, and check "Enforce Aspect Ratio". Then go to the Screen Tab, and make sure Aspect ratio is 16x9. If not, uncheck the auto detect and set it to 16x9. You can also force the resolution to that of your TV.

Here is the link where I got this information:

http://strategywiki.org/wiki/MAME/Configure

You will also have to adjust the settings inside the preference for your DVD player application.

The main difference between a normal monitor and a HDTV is that the HDTV is 16:9 where a normal monitor is 4:3. Most programs have been written in the 4:3 days and are setup to produce 4:3 graphics. A LCD screen can only display 1 resolution (the native resolution). If the LCD receives any other resolution, it must be scaled. If you had a "16x9" CRT monitor, I would expect you would have the same issue.

I would also recommend you upgrade your graphics card to one that supports DVI. I have the 32 inch version of your monitor and I am using DVI and it looks really good. Plus, a newer graphics card should be able to "scale" the video format for you so it is always displaying 1920x1080. But, until then, you are going to have to adjust the application settings to correct your issue.

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setting MAME to 16:9 forced aspect ratio worked
Mar 17, 2009 12:32AM PDT

Thanks Pickle! I tried forcing aspect ratio in MAME to 16:9 and it worked!!! Will remember that for any other programs I run.