HDTV as a monitor (DVI/HDMI)

[Millenwagon]

Hi, I am running my pc through a samsung 32" 1080p TV, and it has a hdmi socket with (dvi) labelled on it, which when i plug into this everything looks really crisp but the resolution is only 1360 x 768, and the colours aren't as bright as when i plug it into the standard hdmi socket. Also if i play a game and put it into any resolution other than 1360x768 it goes a tad blurry. Im confused as to which i should use, because everything looks a little less crisp in 720p on the desktop, but the colours are bright and the blacks are really dark.

I don't get it, my friend has a benq 24" 1080p monitor and it looks amazing, why cant my tv look that good?

thanks

[OilSheikh]

1.HDMI > DVI.
2. It depends on the graphics card as well. Perhaps your fried has a better one than you?

[Millenwagon]

oh nah, its nothing to do with the graphics card, its the TV. I have a gtx 470, he has my old GTS 450, even with his older 9800 GT it was nicer looking. Maybe my TV isn't true 1080p...

[mrt9888]

On my Samsung I had to rename the HDMI port to DVI/PC by pressing the Source button on the remote the selecting the HDMI port (which is labelled DVI on the back of the TV) then press Tools on the remote and change the name to DVI/PC.

[mightymouse]

go into resolution settings and change the tv resolution to 1080p, see if that helps. Mine seems to be alright but i dont usually play games on my hdtv. I tend to get motion sickness if I do. Not sure why

[Blaineoliver]

Is the cable an HDMI to DVI cable? Because my friend bought one, and it worked one way round perfectly, but if you had it DVI to HDMI way round you couldnt get right resolution or anything. Wierd problem, might be what you are having?

[directhex]

Sounds like faulty EDID.

Plug 'n' Play Monitors work by sending some data, called an EDID table, over the video cable - your computer can decode it to detect the monitor's capabilities such as resolutions and refresh rates.

It is *VERY* common with HDTVs for the EDID data to be completely wrong (e.g. they reused the firmware from a different model of TV, which supports different resolutions & has a different EDID). When used as normal HDTVs they get around it, because HDMI has a new way of querying resolutions (and the device can just send "720p" or "1080i" without needing to know the specifics). But when used in VESA compatibility mode, i.e. via a DVI adapter, the faulty EDID can prevent your OS from correctly seeing the available resolutions.

Check your graphics card control panel - you may be able to force Windows to use HDMI modes over DVI. With ATI, it looks like this:

[Millenwagon]

thanks for the help guys. I tried re naming but it did nothing, and i tried everything in the nvidia control panel, even setting up a custom resolution. Nothing made it crystal clear. The actual hdmi port on the back of the TV says dvi, but only on one input. This is the one that looks crystal clear like a monitor should (but only on 1360 x 768). If i turn it to any other resolution then it looks a little blurry, not crystal clear 1080p which you would expect. Secondly, if i put connect to one of the other HDMI inputs then nothing looks as crisp as when i plug it into the HDMI port labelled dvi. It's really weird, and it sucks. I may have to get rid of the TV and get an actual monitor, but id be dropping to 22 - 24" from 32

[Blaineoliver]

can you try a different cable? could be anything from cable, to adaptors any of it slightly faulty