Dell Optiplex GX620, Link and Cutoff Display

[CDale]

My holiday project this year is to setup a Dell Optiplex GX620 as a BTV link machine for a Sony rear projection 50 inch HD TV. This is my first attempt at using both link and a HD tuner (Santa Clause left a HD HomeRun under the tree). The GX620 was purchased from Ebay. Upon receiving the GX620, XP was re-installed from scratch (all XP updates applied).

To test all the components, the link box was initially setup to use a Dell 24 inch monitor via a DVI cable. Resolution on the link box was set at 1920x1080. Everything worked great.

Now the problem … When the link box was connected to the Sony HD TV via a DVI to HDMI cable, the top and bottom portion of the screen is not displayed. Missing top portion of the screen includes BTV control bar at top of screen. Missing bottom portion of the screen includes Windows task bar. The problem occurs in BTV and Windows desktop.

One more thing that is strange … When the link box is connected to the HD TV, Windows will only allow the resolution to be set at 640x480 or 720x480. A quick lookup in the Sony manual (if I read this correct) states that all video is rendered at 1368x768. If that is true, shouldn’t the Windows resolution be set at 1368x768?

Specs in my signature are out of date.

Beyond TV 4.7.1

Link Box Specs
-------------------
Dell Optiplex GX620 Specs
2.8 ghz
2 gig ram
Intel onboard video (82945G ?)
Windows XP

HDTV
--------
Sony 50 inch LCD - Model KDF-50WE655

TV Manual URL http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/mod...mdl=KDF50WE655


Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

CDale

[tscales]

That's normal on DVI-HDMI. It's overscan. The GX620 drivers don't have a solution, so you fix it in BTV.

Go into Settings, Playback settings and at the bottom you can adjust the display.

[tscales]

P.S.

VGA solves it, if your TV supports it.

[CDale]

Originally Posted by tscales

That's normal on DVI-HDMI. It's overscan. The GX620 drivers don't have a solution, so you fix it in BTV.

Go into Settings, Playback settings and at the bottom you can adjust the display.

tscales,

That did the trick! Thanks ...

The TV only supports component and HDMI inputs. Is there a way to convert DVI to component? Or is it not worth the trouble?

CDale

[tscales]

Nope. Some cards support it, but the Intel integrated graphics doesn't.

[CDale]

Originally Posted by CDale

When the link box is connected to the HD TV, Windows will only allow the resolution to be set at 640x480 or 720x480. A quick lookup in the Sony manual (if I read this correct) states that all video is rendered at 1368x768. If that is true, shouldn’t the Windows resolution be set at 1368x768?

I am curious as to what is the cause of the resolution limitation? Driver? TV? DVI to HDMI cable? When the GX620 was connected to a Dell 24 inch monitor the resolution can be changed to 1920x1080.

[tscales]

The solution is actually quite simple. Powerstrip.

The problem is that the TV is not correctly reporting its capabilities to the driver. Therefore, the driver is forced to make bad assumptions.

Install Powerstrip and define a monitor file with 1366x768. Save it and install it as the driver for the TV. The TV may, oddly, show in Device manager as many as three times. Install it for all of them.

Reboot.

1366x768 will then be an available resolution.

Just did this last week on a GX620 connected to a Vizio 32" TV.

[CDale]

tscales,

Thanks for the reply. I'll take a look at Powerstrip.

[CDale]

Looks like you need to know what you are doing with Powerstrip. A couple quick questions.


1) Does anybody know of a good Powerstrip "How To" guide, preferably for a Sony KDF-50WE655 HDTV.

2) Will I gain anything by setting Windows desktop to 1366x768? The Optiplex is only used as a link machine and a GUI to play music.

3) TV Manual stated that "This TV displays all format types of picture in a resolution of 1,368 dots x 768 lines." I noticed that in tscales' reply he stated 1368 rather than 1368. Does 1368x768 sound correct?


Thanks

CDale

[tscales]

My TV is 1366. Yours could be 1368. Use what they say.

Think about an LCD monitor and how nice it is at the proper resolution and how ugly it is at a different resolution.

Same here. Run it native if you can.