ATI Video Card: Adjust Screen Position?

[Peter.Steele]

I've got my desktop computer hooked up to an older Philips 720p DLP TV which has no adjustment settings for screen position. The video card setup is a pair of 4870's in crossfire, and I'm still running Catalyst 12.4. (Yes, I know, it's out of date. How much refinement are they making for 4870's these days?)

Problem is, my screen position seems shifted to the right by probably 50-80px or so. The adjustments available in CCC seem to only help for picture size, not picture position. As mentioned above, my TV doesn't have any adjustment settings for picture position.

Anyone know an easy fix for this? Right now the only thing I can seem to do is set overscan to -15%, and then I get the image lined up on the right edge of the screen, but then I've got black bars on the other three sides and I've lost a big chunk of screen real estate.

Yes, I've googled. I spent a couple of hours googling. I found absolutely nothing helpful.

[bigbearbear]

Have you tried to set the resolution on the card manually to 1280x720 and also set the frequency to 60Hz?

I'm thinking perhaps the TV isn't recognized by the OS as a plug-and-play monitor and it causes the video card to use wrong settings.

[Peter.Steele]

No, the TV is correctly recognized as "Philips HDTV," and it's correctly setting the resolution to 1280 X 720 60hz.

(ETA - yes, I've tried manually messing with the resolution and frequency. No joy.)

[bigbearbear]

I saw some forum users mentioning setting the TV to "Just Scan" mode or something like that, perhaps that might help?
http://superuser.com/questions/84886...ome-theater-pc

[Peter.Steele]

Originally Posted by bigbearbear

I saw some forum users mentioning setting the TV to "Just Scan" mode or something like that, perhaps that might help?
http://superuser.com/questions/84886...ome-theater-pc

No such option on my TV.

[Medics197]

it's ati and you're still surprised it has issues? i used ati cards for years and was always been disappointed by their lack luster performance. now i use nvidia and will only use nvidia from now on. from what i've seen from googling a lot of people have the same issue you're talking about but no good fixes. i would imagine you have the latest software for it, might just have to wait til the next round of updates

[Peter.Steele]

Originally Posted by Medics197

it's ati and you're still surprised it has issues? i used ati cards for years and was always been disappointed by their lack luster performance. now i use nvidia and will only use nvidia from now on. from what i've seen from googling a lot of people have the same issue you're talking about but no good fixes. i would imagine you have the latest software for it, might just have to wait til the next round of updates

I do have the latest software for it ... now. I got the 13.1 driver set this morning, but it looks like that very well may be the last driver update for this card.

This computer is really just about ready to get rebuilt anyway. It's a first-gen Phenom processor with Radeon HD 4870's. Last major upgrade to it was in 2008. I haven't really used it for much in the past few years, but needed it for something this morning. It's looking, however, like in spite of the screen-size differential, I need to just suck it up and use my i7 laptop instead of this dinosaur ... thought the 9850+ would have enough horsepower for what I needed, but it turns out I may have been wildly optimistic about that.

[Peter.Steele]

Welp, looks like I'm just hosed all around here. My laptop has an i7-2630QM and a 1GB nVidia card, and guess what? It HATES AutoCAD!. But my 5-year-old desktop does great with it. Gah.

[dynamomark80]

I would first check the refresh rate setting for that display and put it to 60hz in the display properties on your PC

on the display there should be some sort of "auto adjust" setting on it in the menu. try that also.

oh and make sure the resolution setting on your PC for that specific display is set at 1280x720

let me know if this helps

[Peter.Steele]

Originally Posted by dynamomark80

I would first check the refresh rate setting for that display and put it to 60hz in the display properties on your PC

Did that already.

on the display there should be some sort of "auto adjust" setting on it in the menu. try that also.

There isn't.

oh and make sure the resolution setting on your PC for that specific display is set at 1280x720

Already did that too.

let me know if this helps

Nope. I'm guessing that I just need to get my actual monitor back from the guy I loaned it to, and / or just upgrade the damn computer. Probably both.

[AregularGuy]

Have you tried inputting another device to that same input, like your laptop? If it "fits" the screen then the problem is with the desktop video card output. If it has the same problem, not lining up with the edge of the T.V. then it is the T.V. set that is misaligned. It could be due to the inherent nature of most rear projection t.v.'s and old CRT sets for that matter, to overscan 5-10%. In which case you would not notice the misalignment when watching regular T.V. broadcasts since the picture is projected 5-10% over the edge of the screen. If the DLP chip is slightly misaligned and you do not overscan, such as with your desktop, then the resulting image may appear to be off-center when projected to the screen. Just my thoughts.

[dynamomark80]

what happens when you lower the resolution in catalyst control?

[Peter.Steele]

Originally Posted by AregularGuy

Have you tried inputting another device to that same input, like your laptop? If it "fits" the screen then the problem is with the desktop video card output. If it has the same problem, not lining up with the edge of the T.V. then it is the T.V. set that is misaligned. It could be due to the inherent nature of most rear projection t.v.'s and old CRT sets for that matter, to overscan 5-10%. In which case you would not notice the misalignment when watching regular T.V. broadcasts since the picture is projected 5-10% over the edge of the screen. If the DLP chip is slightly misaligned and you do not overscan, such as with your desktop, then the resulting image may appear to be off-center when projected to the screen. Just my thoughts.

Several different devices, different results with each one. Tried 4 different laptops, all had completely different issues as far as where the screen is off-position. The PS3 is spot-on, the Roku is off a little high.

Originally Posted by dynamomark80

what happens when you lower the resolution in catalyst control?

The resolution changes.

[AregularGuy]

Hi. Do you have the model number for the set? You may have done this already but have you checked for a firmware update for the set (see link below)? Which input are you using, DVI or HDMI, or DVI to HDMI? Does the screen still get cut off on the side when you change the zoom setting on the tv itself when not overscanning through the video card, i.e. Picture Format function on some phillips sets can do 14:9, 16:9, 4:3?

From a Philllips manual (random DLP set):

"Select Picture format & Press FORMAT button to display a list of available display formats (depending on the receiving signal). This lets you choose the display format of your preference.
Press this button repeatedly to select a picture format: Automatic, Super Zoom, 4:3, Movie expand 14:9, Movie expand 16:9, 16:9 subtitle and Wide screen.
“ Stop when you come to the format that you want. From now on the TV will
display its picture in the format that you have selected until you select another format.
Picture Formats
Automatic picture expanded to fill the screen.
Super zoom removes the black bars on the sides of pictures in
conventional (4:3) mode.
Movie expand 14:9 make subtitles visible with the cursor up/down.
or
Movie expand 16:9
or
Super zoom
Note: With HD sources not all screen formats will be available."

http://www.support.philips.com/suppo...ONS_CA_US_CARE

[Peter.Steele]

Originally Posted by AregularGuy

Hi. Do you have the model number for the set?

50PL9126D/37

You may have done this already but have you checked for a firmware update for the set (see link below)?

Did that when I bought the TV, no new firmware released since ~2008 or 2009.

Which input are you using, DVI or HDMI, or DVI to HDMI?

Visiontek 4870 512MB has DVI output with a DVI-HDMI converter on it.

Does the screen still get cut off on the side when you change the zoom setting on the tv itself when not overscanning through the video card, i.e. Picture Format function on some phillips sets can do 14:9, 16:9, 4:3?

No, and it doesn't do it even with all computers. HDMI from the laptops, PS3 and Roku is all fine.

From a Philllips manual (random DLP set):

"Select Picture format & Press FORMAT button to display a list of available display formats (depending on the receiving signal). This lets you choose the display format of your preference.
Press this button repeatedly to select a picture format: Automatic, Super Zoom, 4:3, Movie expand 14:9, Movie expand 16:9, 16:9 subtitle and Wide screen.
“ Stop when you come to the format that you want. From now on the TV will
display its picture in the format that you have selected until you select another format.
Picture Formats
Automatic picture expanded to fill the screen.
Super zoom removes the black bars on the sides of pictures in
conventional (4:3) mode.
Movie expand 14:9 make subtitles visible with the cursor up/down.
or
Movie expand 16:9
or
Super zoom
Note: With HD sources not all screen formats will be available."

http://www.support.philips.com/suppo...ONS_CA_US_CARE

Doesn't matter. With HDMI input the only inputs are Automatic and Wide Screen, and they are the same thing.

[AregularGuy]

My other thoughts
Try alternate HDMI cable or dvi converter (I can send you a dvi converter if needed)
(Long shot) go to CCC, My digital flat panels, properties, image scaling, enable GPU scaling, use centered timings (or play with other settings here as well as enable/disable ITC settings.
I have an extra 4850 you can have if you want to try that, pm me if so.

[incredablehefey]

I had a similar problem with my Nvidia SLI setup and it turned out my 720p tv is native 1366 x 768, so after i manually configured the settings it magically worked, and it looked much better as well.

[Peter.Steele]

Originally Posted by AregularGuy

My other thoughts
Try alternate HDMI cable or dvi converter (I can send you a dvi converter if needed)

Been through 3 different converters and 4 different HDMI cables, no dice.

(Long shot) go to CCC, My digital flat panels, properties, image scaling, enable GPU scaling, use centered timings (or play with other settings here as well as enable/disable ITC settings.

Tried all of that.

I have an extra 4850 you can have if you want to try that, pm me if so.

Appreciate it, but if I change video cards it'll be just time to rebuild the whole thing anyway. One of these days I'll just throw everything inside that case up on eBay and then I'll probably go nVidia the next time around.

Originally Posted by incredablehefey

I had a similar problem with my Nvidia SLI setup and it turned out my 720p tv is native 1366 x 768, so after i manually configured the settings it magically worked, and it looked much better as well.

Tried different resolutions, doesn't change the viewable area on the TV.

[incredablehefey]

did you try the pre programed resolutions or did you try odd ones? The reason i ask is because the aspect ratio might be causing a conflict. Older tv's aren't very good at fixing (fixing is not the correct word but it is as good as it is going to get) differences in aspect ratio.

This might not even be your problem, but I spent weeks trying to figure out what the problem was for me and that was it.
worth a read if you would like to know more about aspect ratios and such

[Peter.Steele]

Welp, found the solution completely by accident.

Turns out that there's a left-right adjustment on my TV that is not documented. Yesterday I was trying to change the volume, and I hit the button above the vol+ by accident ... and found out that actually moves the image position to the left, and the corresponding button on the opposite side moves it to the right.

Hurray for random button pushing!