another black border problem

Hey guys, for the first time last night I tried to connect my nvidia 9600GSO card to my 42" Philips using component cables. Regardless of the resolution I choose (I would prefer 1920x1080), I still get a 2 inch black border around it. I've spent the entire night reading about the overscan/underscan problem but I have not been able to fix it.

Could you please tell me what to do, what drivers to use (I've tried 4-5 forceware drivers) I've tried the "resolution within a resolution" feature in powerstrip (and it won't allow me to select the whole thing), I just don't know what to do anymore! Please help!

The model is 42TA648BX. When I try the resize feature of the Nvidia Control Panel, it can only shrink the image and implicitly increase the black border.

Also, the image is not sharp, behind the windows and text there's like a shade towards the right. Thank you!!!

Also, what could be the reason for the shade behind all text, windows, icons etc? Thank you for all your suggestions!

I don't want to use all three at the same time, but I would like to have both monitors and the TV plugged in at the same time (without having to buy another card and have them in SLI mode). This is because it it pretty hard to get to the back of the pc, especially for my wife. I will be switching from 2 monitors to 1 monitor + 1 tv via software.


The TV is 1080i and I am sending 1080i. So given the fact that the nVidia people are too lazy to address this issue, you're saying that there's no way to overscan? Would switching from component to HDMI resolve this problem.

I mean all the people on this area of the forum connect their HTPCs to their HDTVs, and let's say 50% have nvidia cards. Under what circumstances do you get a fully stretched image on your TV?

Thank you! This shouldn't be this hard

@walford, Bigbird999,rockytt

I'm going to say this one more time: I have two monitors connected via DVI and one 1080p HDTV connected via component. Only two can run at the same time:either both monitors @1440x900 OR one monitor @1440x900 and the TV at 1920x1080. At all times, regardless of the two that are running, the 3rd one is OFF. Also, at all times I am using DUALVIEW (which allows different resolutions, different wallpapers different everything) and NOT CLONE.

When I play with the resolution on the TV, I can see that the resolution changes and the width of the border also changes.

I also have an older ATI card which I've just tried. The same thing happens via component. Wouldn't it be easier if you guys told me what you did to conect your HTPCs to your TVs? I know I'm not the only person with this problem, I've found a bunch of posts on numerous forums and no straight solution.

Ok, if I cannot get rid of the border, at least tell me why I'm getting the shading! I get the shading from the second I plug the TV in, before playing with the resolution or doing anything. Can it be because of the cable? I would hate to buy a 53 foot HDMI cable to find out I get the same effect.

ok, thank you so much for your time. just like on all the other forums that I read, nobody seems to know or those that do don't post. I was under the impression that on this forum, people sometimes help each other. My mistake. I hope you will never run into a problem and have someone (i wanted to use another word) say to you what you said to me. I guess when it's quick and simple, everyone can answer, but when the problem requires some thinking, it's easier to say FY. Thank you! No more help necessary. I will eventually figure this out on my own.

First of all, I fixed it, read below.




For other people that come across this topic and have the same problem: When it didn't work, I had the latest nVidia drivers installed, 181.20. So last night I started trying older versions, one by one, moving backwards in time. When I got to 175.19 IT WORKED. No frame, no shading, no nothing, perfect clear image. This is happening with the other two monitors connected at the same time as described above. I understand that not having the latest drivers might hurt a computer's gaming performance for those that care, but 175.19 is not that old. Also, the new 185.20 beta drivers do not solve the problem.

Also, this computer is my wife's computer and it sits in the basement. She wanted a TV there so I got her a decently priced one. We do have two other HDTV (a 50" in the living room and a 42" in the master bedroom adjacent to the living room) connected to an HTPC via 2HDMI cables (the longer one goes through a wall) at the same time and there have been no problems. Also the video card is an ATI. So I did know how to connect a TV (or 2) to an HTPC. Now that I know it works in the basement I will buy another graphics card, connect them in SLI and thus have 4 DVI outputs and then buy a long HDMI cable.

It is a shame that nVidia doesn't address this problem. There is no doubt in my mind that this was a driver problem. With so many people building HTPCs and with so many HDTVs on the market, they should spend a little bit of time on fixing this problem. With some drivers it works, with some drivers it doesn't.

Thank you to all those that posted, I appreciate your help and my apologies for losing my composure last night, but I thought I had tried everything and I was getting really upset. Thank you!