Cropped S-Video Out

Hello all,
I have an NP2090 outlined in my sig, and I have an S-Video cable that I use to hook up to TV's around my dorm for movies and the like. As convenient as it is, the image on the TV screen is actually cropped a bit on every side, no matter what resolution/refresh rate I select, nor how the monitors are set up (Cloned or Extended Desktop). I have used several TV's and all of them show this same problem.

I've googled the problem a bit, and I know S-Video is less than ideal for video outs, but not all the TV's I hook up to have a standard VGA input. I've also seen the term "application zoom" thrown around, does this mean anything?

I am running Vista Home Premium 32, and can't find any options for turning this "feature" off. I've tried updating/downgrading my ForceWare drivers twice, to no avail. Currently I am running 167.59.

Am I missing something, and/or is there a way to remedy this?

Thanks in advance!

 

If you already know this, then please ignore. Just making sure it's known, that's all.

Standard resolution for TV's is 800x600 and some I think were even 640x480. If running any other res, it will do what you are describing.

I have used S-Video outputs many times in XP, but never in Vista yet. All my TV's have HDMI/DVI so.. I can't help ya there. I know in XP you could adjust and tweak the image some to get it to fit the screen better. Have yet to play with Vista in that aspect.

 

Ok,so what you have to do is this: go into the Nvidia Control Panel and there is a setting there which allows you to change the signal type from the S-Video/HDMI input to the one corresponding to your country (PAL,DAL etc).
It only shows up after you have connected the external display. Choose the one corresponding to your country ad the image will stretch all over the TV.

 

^^^ good post was about to post the same thing...then i finished reading the whole thread

 

Thanks for the replies, all!

I've already tried messing with PAL/NTSC settings and changing the resolutions from 640x480 up to 1024x768 and swapping the refresh rate between 30 and 31 (or was it 29 and 30?) Hz. The only real difference any of those made was the resolution, which helped make things crisper (as expected) but the proportion that's cropped out is still there.

The TV image seems to be centered on one resolution lower, e.g. if i am using 1024x768 the center 800x600 stretches across the TV. If I go 640x480, 320x240 appears onscreen, etc... I found this out doing a fullscreen video. It just hates edges or something. I can move my mouse into the cropped edges which is what makes it annoying. Anything else I should try?

 

umm what are you using to play the movies? media player? have you checked to make sure when they are playing back on the laptop you have it set to full screen and not just like 200% or something like that?? seems stupid but worth a shot..

 

I use KM Player full screen usually (powerful thing, if you haven't tried it you should ), but regardless of what program I use--for anything, not just video playback-- the problem remains. It's the screen resolution, not the players/programs themselves. For example, if I set the second monitor setup to Clone, it will play fullscreen on the laptop but the center of the image is on the TV.

And I'm not sure if I said it before, but the VGA out works perfectly. S-Video is generally more convenient, though.

 

thats def a strange one ill try this on my 5791 when i get home but im pretty sure mine plays full screen

 

Thanks, zfactor

I'm not sure whether it did this under vista 64, I downgraded to 32 because of the slight audio lag in Flash and to play my 16 bit games a little while back (what better use of a dual core 8600M machine?). If I can't find a solution perhaps I'll put x64 back on once this semester's out.

 

I had the issue with mine and that`s why the thing popped up in my head, since I have a 720p HDTV with 1366x768 resolution and the thing would just cut some of my desktop at 1024x768 and after setting the signal to the one corresponding to my country`s the problem was solved.
One other thing,make sure the cable is well placed inside. I had mine hanging a few times and the image would either flicker a lot or worse,show weird artefacts.
And if you use Nvidia scaling in the control panel,disable it,or if you`re not, enable it.

 

If you are playing video files, try VLC player, its got some cropping options

 

The cables are connected fine, I've done a lot of the preliminary troubleshooting like messing with the connections and every nvidia option in the nvidia control panel I could find, scaling included, but it always has a zoomed in screen.

I can crop/extend the image however I want, but it's just annoying to have to do it in the first place. It also means I can't see the taskbar no matter where I position it.

I used VLC for a year or so, but then found KM Player is more compatible and powerful, and much more customizable (winamp plugin support ftw!)

Again, regardless of whether I use WMP, WMC, KMP, VLC, or any other 3 letter acronym player, the problem is still there. What media player I'm using is completely irrelevant.

 

hmm not sure mine displays full screen. and almost full screen when using my 65" widescreen. it only leaves just a tiny line down the sides that are black but it does play nearly full screen.. not sure what else to sugest. have youmade sure the dual monitor mode is working right...just a thought it may not be a issue.

what codec pack do you use??

have you tried turning down the resolution...what screen do you have? you may want to for the heck of it try changing to a different res setting?? these are just thoughts..

 

dtd00d, what kind of TV are you using? If you are using an older standard sized TV, then this most likey will not matter. If you are using a newer wide screen TV, then start checking the settings in the TV itself. My Aunt and Uncle had the same problem you are having, except it was with the normal cable. The TV itself can zoom and crop stuff improperly depending on it's settings.

 

Yea dtd00d is it a widescreen tv? or even an LCD or plasma. There are options on the TV itself to crop and zoom in and out.

 

Thanks again all for the replies!

Yeah, I've double/triple/obsessively checked everything and it's not as good as you describe, unfortunately. I've messed with the resolution to no end, too. Thanks for the suggestions though!

Hmmm I haven't played with the TV itself, but there are two kinds of TV's here in college, one type's fullscreen and one type's a widescreen HD. I have the zoomed in problem on both types. If I hook up via VGA cable to the HDTV, there is no zoom and it works perfectly. The fullscreen TV has no other type of input than component, HD component, and S-video.

I'll have to try S-Video on another TV in order to see how it behaves on that one.
Thanks again for the suggestions, all!

Edit: I think the HDTV's are plasma, just to clarify

 

try running to a radio shack and grab a s-video to rca converter and plug into the rca jacks on the tv.. this made my picture actually the full size..maybe due to a conflict with the s-video on the set

 

What a mess

The "problem" you are witnessing is called "overscan". Basically SD TV (the ones with no HDMI or DVI), some CRT HDTV and most plasmas always overscan the input.

I know that the NVIDIA Control Panel there are options to Zoom-in and Zoom-out, and rotate the output. In some driver versions the control panel shows underscan-overscan options.

There is another program you can try, Powerstrip to fill all your screen evenly.

Search the web for NVIDIA S-VIDEO Overscan and start tweeking.

Good luck.~
PS: ATI confuguration shines in this area.

Trance

 

ATI is another story.I had issues with S-Video and ATI more than I had with NVIDIA,same TV,same CABLE.
Ati will not even connect.

 

Yo man I just had the same problem on my 28" monitor and my 9262..
I found out that all the settings were right on my monitor and laptop BUT there is an option for "PC" mode. See if those TV's have something similar. I changed the mode from TV to PC and now the cropping went away.