Overscan? On HDTV used as monitor

[Preston Hagar]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 7:04 AM, Pete S <peter.smout at o2.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a 32" HDTV to use as a monitor on my pc, unfortunately the tv
> overscans (when the desktop is too big for the screen). I have framed the
> desktop with toolbars to reduce the overall size of the usable desktop,
> however would like a more elegant solution!
>
> I believe this is possible using custom modelines in my xorg.conf file,
> but have no idea what they should be! Prior to experimenting on my own I
> thought I would ask if anyone else had encountered similar problems, and
> if so how to overcome them!
>
> On xp the graphics card driver (nvidia 6600) has a 'underscan' option but
> I can find nothing similar in Ubuntu? Is this going to be added in Lucid?
> if it is then I will wait for a few days!
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks in Advance
>
> Pete
>
>

I have a Hardy box connected to a Westinghouse 32" HDTV (SK-32H240s)
via VGA cable.  I am using the NVIDIA x86 190.42 driver (from NVIDIA)
that I downloaded an installed manually.  I currently run fullscreen
freevo on it (no window managers like GNOME or KDE) at 1280x1024.  The
tv should support 1366x768, but I could never get it to work.
1280x1024 worked reliably, fills the screen properly, and looks great
to me (not as good as my HD Dish Network, but better than a DVD).

Anyway, I fought it out with the TV for a long time to try to get the
optimal/full resolution.  I tried Modelines, IgnoreEDID, DPMS, and
other options I found throughout the Internet.  Eventually I decided
that maybe it was just a cheap TV and gave up and settled with a
slighly lower resolution that worked well.

Strangely enough, I have a 26" Westinghouse that is pretty much the
same that is also hooked up to a Hardy machine (again running Freevo).
 It is using the 71.86 "legacy" driver (because it has an older card
in it), yet it can run freevo at 1360x768 with no issue.  My xorg.conf
is the same, except the 1280x1024 is replaced with 1360x768.

Anyway, hopefully this might help out some.

Below are the relevant sections of my xorg.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    RgbPath         "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Monitor"
        VendorName      "Westinghouse"
        ModelName       "SK-32H240S"
        DisplaySize     710     401
        HorizSync       30 - 49
        VertRefresh     50 - 75
EndSection
Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1280x1024"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Preston