Thinkpads Forum

Hi all,

I'm trying to build an HTPC to go with my Samsung 46" C610 series TV. But before that, I'm testing out the PC-input capability of the TV, so I've attached my T400 w/ Radeon 3450 discrete graphics to the TV, but I'm having trouble getting the right resolution to display.

My TV supports 1080p, so I was expecting that the Radeon card would be able to project 1920x1080 on my TV, but when I try, the screen looks all garbled. Instead, when I only display on the TV (not on my laptop), it'll go as high as 1600x1200. This is what the TV reports, although i'm suspicious because everything looks widened, as if it's a 4:3 resolution being stretched to 16:10.

When I change the display settings to display on both TV and laptop, the highest resolution is 1650x1050, and I get the black bars on the top and bottom of my TV screen.

Please note that I'm actually only using a VGA cable for TV-out. Has anyone tried TVout with their Thinkpad/Radeon, and is this resolution issue a limitation of using the laptop as the source? If i was using a desktop video card, or DVI/HDMI, would it work properly? Does anyone else with my laptop have issues displaying 1080 on their HDTV?

I want to make sure the HTPC is going to work with my TV at the highest resolution, so I want to know if this resolution issue is unique to my T400.

Thanks!

I've had success plugging in an external monitor at 1920x1080 via VGA on the integrated card, although I didn't try the discrete card.

Are your drivers up to date?

thanks for your input!

i've gotten it to work now. i tried booting with the integrated graphics (winxp) and the intel drivers have better support for 1920x1080, worked right away, and works displaying this resolution on both my laptop and the tv at the same time.

then i went back and changed the drivers for my discrete ati card. i realized that i'd previously installed the omega driver pack, but installed the official lenovo drivers instead (duh, right?). fiddled around with allowing support for hdtv in the catalyst control panel, and managed to get it to display 1920x1080. unlike the intel card, however, it won't properly display both 1920x1080 on my tv and laptop at the same time. when i have them both going, i think it won't budge from 1440x900 on both, but when i turn off the display on the laptop, it'll let me use 1920x1080 on my tv.

at least i know it'll work now, if with vga, then i'm certain with dvi/hdmi on the htpc i'm building as well. i need to hurry and get a wireless keyboard, cause with the laptop screen off and only a 5 ft cable, looking up at the tv when i'm typing on the laptop is killing my neck

I'd probably go and put the ATI Catalyst 11.1a (http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-Catalys ... -2671.html) drivers on. It gave me a fair bit of boost in gaming, and is compatible with the switchable drivers (doesn't apply to XP, so...).