Acer 5920 Laptop via HDMI

elrasho

elrasho

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Im connecting my Acer Aspire 5920G laptop to a Toshiba 42Z3030D HDTV via HDMI. Now the picture does come up on the HDTV but its streatched. I can only see half of the Vista start button.... it appears to be stretched around all 4 sides.

Ive tried lowering the reolution from 1028*764 (I think thats the one.... its the highest the laptop goes to), but its still stretched. I dont know if its a setting on the laptop or the TV I need to change.

Also, HDMI carries sound right? Because I cant get any sound out of the TV speakers. I run the Raeltek test sounds but they dont come out the laptop speakers nor the TV.

Please help... I really want to watch HD movies via the Laptop

Thanks
 
It seems strange that your laptop would only support resolutions up to 1028*764 if it's been designed as a media center notebook with HDMI in mind. On my laptop (not an Acer) the resolution automatically downsized from 1680x1050 to 1440x900. Maybe you need to look for something that would add the option to select unsupported resolutions...? I have no idea.

As for the sound - HDMI does carry sound, but usually you need to change something in the sound settings, eg. changing output from Speakers to Realtek Digital Output on my laptop.

Check your laptop manual, since I wouldn't have known about changing the sound settings on mine if not for the manual. Also keep checking the Acer forums at notebookreview since they're often quite helpful (on the other boards at least).
 
Yeah ive posted in notebookreview too... 53 views and not one reply. Apparently nVidia cards dont support sound over HDMI.... thats pants!

Guess Im gonna have to get a fully fledged media centre costing ?400 so I can watch HD .mkv files in 1080P and 5.1 surround sound
 
What video card is inside? What resolution is your TV?

My guess is your TV is 720p, so you will need to set your resolution to 1280x720. You should see that resolution under the display settings or inside the control panel for your video card.

Most computer video cards don't support audio through HDMI, you will want to get a "Y RCA Cable" that has the stereo jack that plugs in to your computer on one end and a red/white (sometimes black) RCA connection. If your video card does support audio over HDMI you should be able to enable it in the video card's control panel.
 
How do I know what res my TV is running at? My Xbox 360 is plugged in using VGA and displays at 1360x768. The TV can do 1080P but I dont think the GeForce 8600M GS can do that resolution.

I was hoping to somehow get 5.1 surround sound from my laptop using an Optical cable too
 
Start off with 1280x720 . Even if your TV can do 1080P 720p will look fine. Do you see the resolution 1280x720 in your display settings?

1360x768 is a resolution that many TV manufacturers tried to market as 1080i, it really is just 720p (1280x720).
 
1280x720 still looks stretched on my TV. Apparently theres something called 'Exact Scan' which copies pixel for pixel from the Laptop to the HDTV, thing is I cant find the setting in the TV
 
BTW it's not accurate that nVidia cards don't support sound over HDMI. Mine does, although it is a more recent 9800M.

It's entirely possible that the 8600m GS doesn't support sound over HDMI, but if I were you I'd check that out thoroughly first and not give up just on the basis that someone told you nVidia cards can't do it. There's a chance you might be overlooking something in the audio setup.
 
I'll have a look into it, worse case scenario is it doesnt and im stuck with crappy 2 channel stereo
 
Apparently the 8x00 series is meant to support audio over HDMI, but that probably refers to desktop chipsets. I'm not sure which desktop chipset the 8600m GS is based on (the naming convention is usually completely misleading).
 
I can't give you exact instructions since I'm not on my home PC which has an nvidia card but in the nvidia control panel you should see HDTV options. Play around with those. For 720p your resolution will be 1280x720 @60hz and for 1080p your resolution will be 1920x1080 @ 60hz. What is the model of your TV? I have an old ati 1650XT computer hooked up to my living room TV using DVI->HDMI cable and it looks perfect.

You should see audio options in the nvidia control panel if it has audio support over HDMI.
 
No Limit said:
You should see audio options in the nvidia control panel if it has audio support over HDMI.
Click to expand...
That's possible but as I say, in order to do that on my laptop I need to go to Control Panel > Sound and change the playback device. My nVidia control panel doesn't have any audio options.
 
Laivasse said:
That's possible but as I say, in order to do that on my laptop I need to go to Control Panel > Sound and change the playback device. My nVidia control panel doesn't have any audio options.
Click to expand...

Then I'm probably wrong on this, never used HDMI with nvidia. Just taking a guess since something like this should be in the nvidia control panel. Changing it in your audio control panel does make sense.
 
Could be due to some dodgy jury-rigging by laptop manufacturers in their OEM stuff.
 
GOt it working.... well kinda.

Had to select Single ouput pointing to the Toshiba 42Z HDTV, as soon as I did this it showed 1080P on screen :-).... but the picture doesnt fit :-(

All the icons are not stretched anymore but all four sides of the display dont fit on the screen.

Anyway I cant get true 5.1 surround sound from my Laptop, even though I now get audio (had to select HDMI Output in Sound settings), its not 5.1 so after all the effort Im gonna resort to getting a media centre PC.

Any ideas where I can get a pre built one for around ?300?
 
elrasho said:
1280x720 still looks stretched on my TV. Apparently theres something called 'Exact Scan' which copies pixel for pixel from the Laptop to the HDTV, thing is I cant find the setting in the TV
Click to expand...
Yep. It's just overscan. Have to have the right resolution set on the GPU and probably with overscan disabled (if it is an option). And 1:1 pixel mapping on the HDTV. For the toshiba check under HDMI or TV setup, don't let it auto format. I know with my Sony TV depending on the settings it will not show the 1:1 pixel setting at all unless all the other settings are correct.

here is a thread about HDMI audio on the 5920G laptop.
 
I cant find 1:1 exact scan anywhere in my Toshiba
 
I couldn't find a place to download the manual online. From either the US or UK site toshiba site. Does its how pictures of the menu in the manual?
 
I cant find the manual lol, im pretty sure the TV has Exact Scan 1:1 so ill have to mess around with the control, hopefully that will fix the overscan problem.

Now is there any way I can get 5.1 audio from all this? Does my laptop have SPDIF? I dont know what hat is
 
Could you make anything out of that thread I linked to above? Xp vs Vista sound driver etc.
 
The reason you are not getting 5.1 sound through your HDMI is probably because you don't have a 5.1 dolby digital source. If you are watching a movie that isn't encoded in 5.1 you won't get 5.1 output. Do you have anything on your computer that has 5.1 sound that you can try? Sometimes your sound card will encode games in 5.1 so you can try that, but a lot of times it wont so you will only get 2 channels unless that game specifically has dolby digital built in.
 
Hi guys,

I now have 1080P on my Tosh. All I had to do was select the Tosh as the single output video source from within the nVidia control apnel and it instantly went to 1080P on the TV. Then selected 'Exact Scan' using the TOsh's remote and its all good.

AS for 5.1 sound this is what I've done:

Ive plugged in an Optical cable from the back of the TOsh to my reciever. Now when I select 'Optical' on the reciever I pickup ound from the in built Freeview Digital channels. To overcome this I selected [Menu] > [Setup] > [AV Connection] > [ and made sure HDMI1 audio was set to 'Digital' (Im ssuming this is the Optical out selection). After doing this still no sound through my 5.1 speakers :-(

So then I put in the two regular AUX cables from PC/HDMI port in the back of the Tosh into the AUX ports of the reciever, but I stil dont get any sound through the reciever when I select AUX.

Looks to me the TOsh cant select sound from HDMI and run it through the Optical nor the AUX ports in the back.

What can I do to overcome this? I really want 5.1 surround sound when watching HD movies

PS: The HD movie does have 5.1 sound and the 5.1 sound option is selected in VLC Media Player
 
Ive seen this in the properties of the HDMI Audio:

SPDIF.jpg


What is 'HDMI Digital Jack' ?

Ive also seen 'Realtek Digital Output(Optical)', what is this? I dont have an optical out on my Laptop... akk I have is three regular audio ports (nlue, pink and red)

opticalrealtek.jpg
 
If you get nothing on your 5.1 receiver the problem is with the signal between your TV and your receiver, not your laptop. Even if you aren't watching a 5.1 show your receiver should have 2 channels outputting sound. Just to confirm, you have sound on the antenna channels? How about on your other inputs? Do you have a dvd player or anything else hooked up to this TV that you can try this out on?

What is your TV model?
 
You mentioned a receiver. What model? Are you running your Acer to the receiver and then up to the TV (all HDMI) OR from your Acer to the TV and back to the receiver (optical)?

So the Realtek HDMI Output is what you are using from the Sound panel, right?
 
Heres the setup:

Laptop > [HDMI] > HDTV

then

HDTV > [Optical] > Acoustic Soultions 5.1 Surround Sound system (not sure of model)

The Laptop is not connected to the reciever at all. Is it possible to use this: http://www.amazon.com/Toslink-To-Op...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1225959039&sr=8-11 to connect my laptop to the reciever via Optical cable? Will this get 5.1 surround sound?I've got an option for 'Realtek Digital Output(Optical)' on the Laptop so Im sure I can
 
Good news guys,

Connected the Toslink cable I got from Currys using the adapors that came with it and I now have 5.1 Audio

Im using VLC Media player to watch thh .mkv HD movies. I select 5.1 from the Audio menu and hey preston, 5.1 audio!

So after all that I've got a working HTPC/Laptop.... only thing now is to customis the TV cabinet to allow me to connect the laptop when needed.

Thank you to everyone who helped me get this working.
 
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