How do I improve picture quality for PC plugged into a 26 inch LCD TV via VGA socket?

Question

I have a Vistron VIS026P 26" Widescreen LCD TV that I have plugged my Media Centre PC into via it's VGA socket. This is not an HD television, but it is reported to go up to resolutions of 1360x768.

I am able to reach that resolution at 60hz (with the TV set to 16:9 ratio), but I am getting some picture distortion that results in text looking occasionally blurred and broken up horizontally. At 1280x768 the image is similar to the above, and also at 1280x720 (which bizarrely is what the TV manual says it can reach)

However, at 1024x768 (with the TV set to 4:3 ratio) the image is perfect with clean and crisp text.

Does anybody have any idea what settings I need to change to get the image/text quality as good at the highest resolution? My old 19" LCD monitor had an 'Auto' button that sets the screen to the the correct timing and horizontal/vertical size, but this TV does not.

My PC has an nVidia 7600GT graphics card and I am using the latest official Forceware drivers (93.71).

Actually, at 1280x720 I do not get the same blurring/broken up text as at the other higher resolutions - the screen just looks slightly fuzzy, like when ,for example, you change an LCD monitor with native resolution of 1280x1024 down to 1024x768 resolution.

I think my problem is the horizontal timings but I'm not sure how to proceed. All advice appreciated. Ta!

Answer 1

I've had the same problems when running my pc on my tv. The only thing I have been able to do is the go into the graphics card's software and adjust the screen manually, it takes time and then if you want to switch back to you monitor you have to reset the changes. Not to mention it never looks as good as on the monitor. Tv's just can't handle what a pc monitor can. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

For optimum quality, use the 1024x768 setting, at 60Hz. I know you use less pixels that way, but it's regarded as the best native resolution at present. You could try an optimization program to set it up properly too. Aslo bear in mind that most PCs output video signals at high res anyway, so the only other thing I'd suggest is getting a higher quality TV- I have a Sony Bravia 20" and it shows perfect quality at any resolution.

Answer 3

This is not really my field, but your answers seem good.

All I can add, is to ensure good quality links and cables.

A poor quality cable can pick up unwanted interference from any magnetic field, and this will reduce the quality of any signal passed through it.

You seem a very knowledgeable person with regard to this question, but sometimes we miss the simple and obvious solutions to a problem.

Hope this helps you in some way.