[RESOLVED] 10.04 AV wizard display resolution misaligned 1080p

[WSabey]

RESOLVED: It turns out my TV doesn't actually support 1920x1080 on the VGA port; I enabled the 1360x768 it actually takes as documented in Custom Display Resolutions, and it seems to be working fine so far.

ORIGINAL POST:
So far, I've installed Kubuntu 10.04, downloaded and run the MCE installer script, and rebooted. Now I'm having issues with the AV wizard. When I select VGA 1080p 60Hz (which my TV is), the display appears too far to the right, slightly off the edge of the screen. I noticed in the AV wizard wiki page that 1080i/p has issues with some nVidia cards, but I'm not sure if that's my problem or not, since it's been crossed out, and I'm using an intel chipset anyway.

Does anyone better versed in this than me have an opinion re: Is this a general problem with 1080p, or is it something I can fix? I checked the forums but couldn't find any threads that look related. (I admittedly went off thread titles rather than opening every "Problemz plz hlp!!!" thread to see if it applied)

EDIT: I forgot to mention, I've set it to 720p which is working fine for now.

[mardibloke]

I thought in the AV Wizard (after choosing resolution) there is a later screen where you can resize/reposition the image on the screen - did you not get to that screen?

[l3mce]

This is my doing. I am guessing you are not using HDMI for video... or we just cannot read the EDID from the specific display.

If you just press the corresponding number to your output (probably 3) at the FIRST screen which displays funky, it will fix itself. I am working to fix it. If you have an xorg.conf and it presents any issues at screen three (or what should be screen three) sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf     and reboot.

I am working to get around this. What is happening, is that it is putting out output on everything, but only trying to read EDID information from the HDMI connection. If there is no EDID data, it blows up to ginormous size at what I believe is 640x480 on screens 1 and 2.

[pigdog]

Hi,

Hooking a laptop or PC to the VGA port on a TV can lead to a lot of weird issues.

Things like, when you go back to your high def cable or sat your picture is whacked because some TV's auto swap the screen size to try to accommodate to the input signal, but, they then don't swap back.

Start by making sure your graphic card resolution on your PC or laptop can do 1920x1080.

I've even seen junk with graphic card settings on PC VGA out ports being bizarre because the graphic card was set higher to a higher resolution than the max TV resolution - 1080p.

Cheers

[WSabey]

This is my doing. I am guessing you are not using HDMI for video... or we just cannot read the EDID from the specific display.

No, I'm using VGA, I don't have an HDMI out.

If you just press the corresponding number to your output (probably 3) at the FIRST screen which displays funky, it will fix itself. I am working to fix it. If you have an xorg.conf and it presents any issues at screen three (or what should be screen three) sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf     and reboot.

I'm afraid that didn't help; the number keys don't seem to do anything at all in fact. (The first screen is the one with the 15s countdown, is that correct?) Removing xorg.conf and rebooting didn't seem to make any difference either.

I am working to get around this. What is happening, is that it is putting out output on everything, but only trying to read EDID information from the HDMI connection. If there is no EDID data, it blows up to ginormous size at what I believe is 640x480 on screens 1 and 2.

That doesn't sound quite right; it's a little bigger than it should be, but only the very right-most edge is actually off the screen, whereas 640px is less than a third of the 1920 it should be. Assuming I'm interpreting you correctly and you mean I would be getting the leftmost 640 of the 1920 screen, anyway.

Oh, and just checking, it is OK to rerun the AV wizard for this, right? Like, by pressing shift at boot time? That won't affect it as opposed to running it at first boot?

Start by making sure your graphic card resolution on your PC or laptop can do 1920x1080.

I'm not really sure how to do that, I've just been assuming that if it can't handle it it'll just fail to output anything. If you know another way to test it I'd like to hear it, so I can either rule out or confirm that it's a hardware problem.

[JaseP]

Does your monitor have an auto-adjust? Once when changing resolutions, I had a problem similar to this, and the auto-adjust fixed it (monitor timings were still set to the previous resolution apparently). Also,... If this is a TV with VGA in,... many of them are really just 1366 (or 1368) x 768 (or 766) native resolution, and the 1080p/i setting is just a virtual resolution (monitor scales down to its native resolution). In those cases, stick to a 720p setting, as it is the monitor's natural resolution anyway.

It's not normal to have overscan or underscan on a VGA port...

One more thing,... Some TVs with VGA inputs have a "double-secret" setup option that allows you to manually adjust overscan and underscan settings. Sometimes, you have to do something special to get to those settings, such as plug the TV in while holding down a button on the set or remote.

[l3mce]

No, I'm using VGA, I don't have an HDMI out.I'm afraid that didn't help; the number keys don't seem to do anything at all in fact. (The first screen is the one with the 15s countdown, is that correct?) Removing xorg.conf and rebooting didn't seem to make any difference either.That doesn't sound quite right; it's a little bigger than it should be, but only the very right-most edge is actually off the screen, whereas 640px is less than a third of the 1920 it should be. Assuming I'm interpreting you correctly and you mean I would be getting the leftmost 640 of the 1920 screen, anyway.

Oh, and just checking, it is OK to rerun the AV wizard for this, right? Like, by pressing shift at boot time? That won't affect it as opposed to running it at first boot?I'm not really sure how to do that, I've just been assuming that if it can't handle it it'll just fail to output anything. If you know another way to test it I'd like to hear it, so I can either rule out or confirm that it's a hardware problem.

It is ok to rerun avwizard... however we want to get rid of the errant xorg.conf which was the point of the move.
No, screen 1 is the very first screen screen you see (also tabs at the top tell you which screen is which), and the appropriate button would be number "1" for VGA out.
If your xorg.conf is missing, avwizard will start itself, and nothing will get tied to errant values... so... make sure you move/remove your xorg.conf, reboot, and press number 1 at the screen one, then continue as you normally do.

It is quite right, promise

[JaseP]

>Startby making sure your graphic card resolution on your PCor laptop can do 1920x1080.

I'm not really sure how to do that, I've just been assuming that if it can't handle it it'll just fail to output anything. If you know another way to test it I'd like to hear it, so I can either rule out or confirm that it's a hardware problem.

To check if it's capable,... Try booting the machine from a live DVD or USB stick with a Kubuntu 10.04 image. Check what comes up in terms of available resolutions, and whether they work. By default, I believe the live images pick the highest available resolution.

I'm guessing that this IS a hardware problem. The default xorg.conf files that l3me et al. defined are pretty standard in terms of mode lines, etc. ... nothing exotic from what I've seen,...

I'm betting that the TV/monitor doesn't have a true 1080p/i mode available to it on the VGA port and just "fakes it" even if it has native 1080 for TV. It wouldn't be the first time a manufacturer skimped on electronics in a TV.

[WSabey]

Yeah, it looks like that was the problem. Kubuntu is reporting VGA1 is 1360x768@60Hz. I guess if I want real 1080, I'll need to wait until I can get a machine with an HDMI output. I'm a little surprised, as I thought LG were supposed to be a fairly good brand.

[JaseP]

There are various adapters that can get you HDMI output through a DVI output on the PC... I've also seen some converters that will go VGA to HDMI, but I'm a little dubious as to the success at getting 1080 out of a converter...

A DVI to HDMI adapter shouldn't be more than about $25 US.

[WSabey]

Hah, I don't have a DVI out either. This is an old IBM ThinkCentre with onboard graphics; the only output I have is the VGA. I may look into an adapter later, but it seems to be running OK at 1360x768 so I may just leave it for now. One of my goals for this project is seeing just how little I can get this set up for, and the difference between 1360x768 and 1920x1080 isn't great enough to make it a priority upgrade.