hdmi resolution issue with external monitor

[cjporacle]

I have a laptop and I have added an external monitor that I connect with the hdmi port.

The native resolution on the monitor is 1360x768. But I prefer 1920x1080. I can set the monitor to 1920x1080 and everything looks good. So far no problem.

When the monitor is turned off and turned back on or when the hdmi port disconnects due to sleep, etc. and the monitor is reconnected the picture looks horrible. The resolution is still 1920x1080 but now it looks very fuzzy. I have to reset the resolution to the native and then again reset it to 1920x1080 and everything looks good.

I hate having to do this every time I turn the monitor on or every time the laptop wakes up the display. Obviously the monitor can display 1920x1080 with no issues but seems to have issues when it first comes on for some reason.

My laptop display looks fine all the time. It is an HP Evny 17 running Windows 7. The monitor is a TCL 24".

The only monitor the OS is using is the Generic PnP. When I have the external monitor connected there are two Generic PnPs (one for the laptop and one for the monitor) in device manager.

I think that is the key to the problem but I'm not sure. I have read about folks having this problem on Linux and having to set "Hot plug" to false for the monitor. So PnP I think is the same as "hot plug" but I don't know how to use a different monitor type or disable the "hot plug" on Windows.

Anybody have any ideas on what might be happening here?

 

[burdenbound]

Setting a non native resolution shouldn't give a better picture. If your monitor doesn't have the pixels it can't show it no matter what resolution you set it at. You might want to invest in a new monitor, you can pick up a 1080p now for a pretty good price.

 

[cjporacle]

I'm not really expecting the non-native resolution to necessarily be better but it is actually very good. The problem is that when I disconnect the hdmi or it sleeps or I turn the monitor off then reconnect it for some reason the non-native resolution no longer looks good. But if I reset it to native and then reset it to 1920.x1080 it is fine again. I just don't want to have to reset it every time. There must be something that is causing this.

I wonder if it has something to do with "PC Mode" or the fact that this TV does not have "PC Mode". I have seen that fix some resolution and display issues with TVs. Come to think of it I didn't mention that this is actually a "TV" and not just a standard monitor.

It does have a VGA port that it normally expects to be used for PC connections. Unfortunately my laptop does not have VGA. I'm thinking of picking up an HDMI to VGA converter or a Display Port to VGA convertor since my laptop also has display ports and see if connecting to the VGA on the TV makes a difference.

Setting a non native resolution shouldn't give a better picture. If your monitor doesn't have the pixels it can't show it no matter what resolution you set it at. You might want to invest in a new monitor, you can pick up a 1080p now for a pretty good price.

 

[cjporacle]

Just an update in case someone else has the same issues. I did get a display port to vga adapter and now the external monitor works fine. It stays on the 1920x1080 resolution all the time even after turning it off and back on.

Furthermore, it doesn't stay asleep anymore. Another issue I was having is it would go to sleep mode when it was straight hdmi but would not wake up on its own if I moved the mouse. I'd have to use the TV remote to turn it back on even though it was only sleeping and that caused me to have the reset the resolution every time. Now on the vga port if it does go into sleep mode it will wake back up when I move the mouse. But I still power it off at night and even with that and powering back on it stays on 1920x1080.

So I guess it was sort of a "PC mode" type of thing where on the vga port it behaves more like a PC monitor and adheres to the settings set from the computer but on the hdmi port it behaves like a TV and resets to the native settings every time you reconnect. So problem solved with a cheap adapter.

FYI, the hdmi port native setting is 1360x768 but the vga port offers many resolutions including the 1920x1080. It even offers higher than that once my video card detected the monitor with the display port connected to the vga. But I keep it at 1920x1080 because that is what my laptop is set to. It looks fine. Might be a little bit sharper with 1360x768 but hardly a difference.