HDTV Plasma for PC monitor

[qubit]

It should work without resizing from the driver. Resizing must in fact must be turned off, or it will destroy 1:1 pixel mapping. Setting the driver to no scaling and the TV to Full/Just as apprpriate should give a proper picture. By the sound of it though, you've tried this and it didn't work.

 

[2Charlie]

It should work without resizing from the driver. Resizing must in fact must be turned off, or it will destroy 1:1 pixel mapping. Setting the driver to no scaling and the TV to Full/Just as apprpriate should give a proper picture. By the sound of it though, you've tried this and it didn't work.

Yes, I've tried that and it didn't work...thus, what I've shown in the picture above is my last resort.

Another thing with my Panasonic HDTV plasma, it changes the brightness if I've launched an application, window, or anything that has a white background and then TV will slowly brighten up to normal again. Is there a way to turn this off?

 

[Aquinus]

Yes, I've tried that and it didn't work...thus, what I've shown in the picture above is my last resort.

Another thing with my Panasonic HDTV plasma, it changes the brightness if I've launched an application, window, or anything that has a white background and then TV will slowly brighten up to normal again. Is there a way to turn this off?

Yeah, that's the dynamic contrast feature. It's kind of annoying.

 

[qubit]

Yes, I've tried that and it didn't work...thus, what I've shown in the picture above is my last resort.

Another thing with my Panasonic HDTV plasma, it changes the brightness if I've launched an application, window, or anything that has a white background and then TV will slowly brighten up to normal again. Is there a way to turn this off?

That sounds like automatic brightness level control at work there. If there's no override in the options, then no, there's no way to turn it off. Try lowering the overall brightness by say, 30% and see if you still get this. If not, keep turning it up bit by bit until you start seeing this effect again and then back off slightly.

I'm surprised that this TV is giving you so much trouble. I've got two friends with Panasonic plasmas and they don't have any problem with them.

 

[2Charlie]

Yeah, that's the dynamic contrast feature. It's kind of annoying.

Yeah, so, is there a way to turn it off? You're right, it's annoying. I have a plasma Samsung hdtv that does that too depending on brightness of the room.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Feature? Sounds just like the well known bug the models had from last year, but that should have been fixed by now. Mine does it but it's far less noticeable on the 42" models.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

It's worked on my Panny TV ever since I stumbled on that workaround via trial and error through several driver updates and it works even on my friend's Dynex, despite his skepticism that it would.

Make sure when you do it that you apply the resize (vs just resizing) and go back to the res selector to make sure it shows as a slightly downsized res. Then and only then reset it to 1080p.

Also, before you do anything make sure your TV is set to it's AR mode that's 1:1 pixel mapping. For a Panny that would probably be the one that says "Full", accessed via the Format button on the remote.

Part of what made my friend skeptical is his lack of faith in W7, but it was also that he wasn't taking the proper steps in doing the resizing as I'd instructed him.

As for the other problem, what was said about either auto contrast or brightness is likely it. As far as I know though, Panny always has a way in their menu to turn off such features.

I worried about it last year when narrowing down my choices to a Panny set I was considering, then in my relief I found it could be turned off. I'm sure even if by some slim chance they've changed it so you can't turn it off, it could likely still be shut off via the service menu.

I'll check for the manual of that model and have a look and get back to you...

...moments later.

Yes, that set has C.A.T.S. (Contrast Automatic Tracking System). You turn it off simply by accessing Menu\Picture, and then scroll down to C.A.T.S. and set it to Off. Note that C.A.T.S. automatically adjusts contrast AND brightness, which can indeed cause a subtle flashing effect. Most don't seem to like it, I don't know why they bother putting it in every year. Maybe just keeping up with the Joneses in offering it perhaps. At least you can turn it off.

 

[2Charlie]

Make sure when you do it that you apply the resize (vs just resizing) and go back to the res selector to make sure it shows as a slightly downsized res. Then and only then reset it to 1080p.

Also, before you do anything make sure your TV is set to it's AR mode that's 1:1 pixel mapping. For a Panny that would probably be the one that says "Full", accessed via the Format button on the remote.

I think that's what I did in my screen grabbed above. The screen seems to be fine under Windows 7 Screen Resolution, it's on 1920x1080 now although in Nvidia's Size tab, it's still under the resize resolution.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I think that's what I did in my screen grabbed above. The screen seems to be fine under Windows 7 Screen Resolution, it's on 1920x1080 now although in Nvidia's Size tab, it's still under the resize resolution.

Thinking is not necessarily knowing my friend. I would double check to make sure. Also, if the res selection method via the W7 res slider doesn't work, try using the res selection option in NCP, where all standard and newly resized res options are shown. I think the latter is the way we had to do it with my friend's Dynex.

If this way doesn't work...

..try this way.

 

[2Charlie]

Yes, both windows resolution selection and nvidia control panel shows 1920x1080 @ 60hz.

 

[Mussels]

Yes, both windows resolution selection and nvidia control panel shows 1920x1080 @ 60hz.

thats just the max supported res. doesnt mean its native.

 

[2Charlie]

Another thing I noticed from this 50" Panasonic HDTV is the fuzziness and unsharp texts and images but especially texts. Is this all normal of all big plasma hdtv for computer monitor? Are there ways to minimize this effect?

 

[Mussels]

Another thing I noticed from this 50" Panasonic HDTV is the fuzziness and unsharp texts and images but especially texts. Is this all normal of all big plasma hdtv for computer monitor? Are there ways to minimize this effect?

in my experience, there are two kinds of HDTV's.


cheap crap that never looks good.
expensive stuff that looks good if set right.



i've got a 1360x768 old LED screen that looks better than most cheap, modern 1080p screens (text is FAR clearer).

i've also seen 42" plasma TV's sold that only do 1024x768 as their native resolution, and they just stretch the image to be '1080p compatible'


my advice is: set overscan in your video card software to 0%, set the TV to 'just scan" or 1:1 pixel mapping (whatever its called) and on ALL your HDMI inputs* (test them ALL! try VGA if the HDMI doesnt work!) try the following resolutions:

1024x768
1360x768
1366x760
1920x1080 (30Hz/60Hz interlaced)
1920x1080 (60Hz)


*on my samsung, only one of its three HDMI ports supports 1360x768. the others only do 720p and 1080i, and while they work fine for game consoles and movie playback, they look like arse with a PC.

 

[qubit]

i've also seen 42" plasma TV's sold that only do 1024x768 as their native resolution, and they just stretch the image to be '1080p compatible'

Yeah, those are a crock all right. More of an insult to sell them than anything.

 

[2Charlie]

my advice is: set overscan in your video card software to 0%, set the TV to 'just scan" or 1:1 pixel mapping (whatever its called) and on ALL your HDMI inputs* (test them ALL! try VGA if the HDMI doesnt work!) try the following resolutions:

1024x768
1360x768
1366x760
1920x1080 (30Hz/60Hz interlaced)
1920x1080 (60Hz)


*on my samsung, only one of its three HDMI ports supports 1360x768. the others only do 720p and 1080i, and while they work fine for game consoles and movie playback, they look like arse with a PC.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a try. As it was shown above in my pictures, the HDMI connection does work and it does show 1920x1080; but the texts just like fuzzy/unsharp compare to my dead Sony Bravia KDL-40SL140 has been. The Panasonic HDTV I have right now is already set to 1:1 (Full). I did try overscan and underscan but didn't really noticed anything significant change. I change this under the Nvidia control panel, correct?

 

[Mussels]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a try. As it was shown above in my pictures, the HDMI connection does work and it does show 1920x1080; but the texts just like fuzzy/unsharp compare to my dead Sony Bravia KDL-40SL140 has been. The Panasonic HDTV I have right now is already set to 1:1 (Full). I did try overscan and underscan but didn't really noticed anything significant change. I change this under the Nvidia control panel, correct?

i've got ATI, so i'm not sure how nvidia does it.

just make sure you try all the inputs, and all the resolutions.


Modern HDTV's can have inputs that dont match up to their panel. the reason its blurry is because you're missing pixels. (1920x1080 input on a 1024x768 plasma is going to have to cut out some data to fit)

we wont know for sure if thats the case until you manage to test the resolutions and inputs.

 

[2Charlie]

Could the texts fuzziness/unsharp be due to this?

I've increased to 125% because the texts was so small I barely see it.

 

[Mussels]

shouldnt be related, but it wont hurt to change it around while testing.

 

[qubit]

Could the texts fuzziness/unsharp be due to this?

http://i336.photobucket.com/albums/n334/justLor/textResolution.jpg

I've increased to 125% because the texts was so small I barely see it.

If the desktop isn't fitting on the screen with 1:1 pixel mapping then this won't change things much. You need to fix that core problem first.

 

[2Charlie]

Okay, here's another thing. I use remote desktop connection to my computer from another computer that uses Dell Ultrapsharp monitor. The screen grab in my previous post is still looking not as sharp as it should even viewing through my Dell monitor. Thus, it leads me to believe that perhaps it's not the HDTV's fault regarding the texts image quality.

 

[theJesus]

Is it just text that's blurry/fuzzy? Try adjusting cleartype

 

[2Charlie]

Is it just text that's blurry/fuzzy? Try adjusting cleartype

I think it's everything. Here's a comparison:

The top screen grab is from my computer with zoom up to 120% and the ones with the panaonic hdtv plasma; however in this case, the TV is turned off and I used windows remote desktop connection to view and screen capture it. The bottom screen grab is from my local computer. Do you see the slight in fuzziness/blurriness in the top screen grab? I start to believe this is not due to my plasma hdtv.

 

[qubit]

I think it's everything. Here's a comparison:

http://i336.photobucket.com/albums/n334/justLor/VS2010Tabs.jpg

The top screen grab is from my computer with zoom up to 120% and the ones with the panaonic hdtv plasma; however in this case, the TV is turned off and I used windows remote desktop connection to view and screen capture it. The bottom screen grab is from my local computer. Do you see the slight in fuzziness/blurriness in the top screen grab? I start to believe this is not due to my plasma hdtv.

The top picture is showing scaled up characters rendered without antialiasing, while the bottom one is showing characters at normal size, with antialising. Hence the bottom picture looks better. Nothing to do with the monitor or TV, just a Windows setting.

But did you resolve that 1:1 pixel mapping? Without that your picture will always look crap, regardless of anything else you do.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea looks like the same issue i had with my Samsung T24A350,

in which VGA looked better than HDMI , required about 6-7 hours of messing with various settings till i got it fixed, 1 to 1 mode didnt fix it required alot of messing around finally uninstalled the Samsung EDID info replaced with generic and viola worked, not sure that will help the OP, but it fixed all my Samsung woes. also allowed for better color calibration as my samsung liked to look more sepia than correct lol

 

[2Charlie]

In Nvidia control panel, the resolution/apply the following settings is set to 1080p, 1920x1080.
Windows Resolution is also set to 1920x1080 although in Nvidia control panel the Adjust desktop size and position/Size tab, the "Enable desktop resizing" is checked and "Resize..." is set to slightly lower than 1920x1080 so that all sides are not extended over the edge of my TV.

My HDTV plasma is set to "Full" and the screen looks right. I'm not sure if that means 1:1 pixel mapping.

But my point is that, I'm not even using the hdtv plasma and the screen still looks kinda crap via remote desktop connection.

Okay, so if it's Windows that's causing this fuzziness, how/where do I set the "Antialiasing"?