I have my laptop connected to a 40` sony smart TV. Its great to see everything big like this, however my color and resolution look awful. When the lid of my laptop is up, the screen resolution seems to be fine, but when I close the lid, the Resolution changes: The colors are washed out, the greys look awful, I can barely look at the screen. Can anyone suggest a setting or tip that will help my TV look much clearer? I'm using Win 7 64 and a HP Elitebook 8460p with 8GB Ram, i5 and 512 SSD. Connected by HDMI cable. Thanks so much, Edward
The trick might be to set the TV screen resolution to the same native resolution as the laptop uses.
I'm not sure how that's achieved on your setup, but you can find the native resolution through the one that's marked as 'recommended'.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Thanks so much for your prompt response! Yes, I did check that and the setting has been set as your screenshot indicates.
I can see the screen, and while its not blurry in any way, it look "Off", not sure how to better describe it. The worst is the Grey borders of menus its so washed out I can hardly make it out. I'm sure its not the TV, because it looks great on other inputs.
I'm wondering if maybe I don't have the right driver for my Laptop? I went to the HP site and there are several, I don't know which one to use? Thanks again, Edward
Good luck Edward, I must admit being slightly confused with what's causing this when you quoted:
"When the lid of my laptop is up, the screen resolution seems to be fine, but when I close the lid, the Resolution changes: The colors are washed out, the greys look awful, I can barely look at the screen."
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
On your TV remote you have a menu for color settings, it sounds like the contrast, brightness or saturation is up too high or low, you should have settings like Vivid Standard or User/Custom.
I had a similar issue with my ASUS notebook monitor and a 45" TV. When both the notebook monitor and TV were on at the same time the TV looked all washed out. My solution was with the notebook. It had three monitor settings: notebook monitor, external monitor or both. When I choose the external monitor only the TV looked fine. The problem was when both was chosen. This may or may not be your problem but it is worth a try.
Good luck.
Back in my day the only time we started panic buying was when the bartender shouted "last call"!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
A long time ago, Windows used Function + F5 to cycle through the laptop, external, or both displays on. This little guide shows some newer possibilities:
What Mario is saying rings true, in the settings you can set in to Extended Desktop that works a 2 separate monitors or you can get it to mirror so you have the same desktop on both monitors, you can set monitor 2 the TV a the Primary and mirror. Try different settings and see how you go.
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