Question Inspiron 3050 - getting the HD Graphics to fill my TV screen.

Frooby

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Apr 21, 2016
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Hello again.

I bought this wee Celeron-powered PC to fulfil a simple role for which I assumed it would be perfect - sit in the cupboard under the TV and stream movies, whilst being super-quiet and low power. In these respects it would appear to be ideal except for one issue - I cannot get the HDMI -delivered image to fully fill the TV's screen.

Ever other pitiful PC I've owned, from a lowly Atom-'powered' beastie upwards, had the ability to fully customise the aspect ratio using sliders or similar - you could get the desktop image to fit right in to each corner of the TV screen. The 3050, however, has Intel(R) HD Graphics which I presume is the lowliest of the bunch and doesn't have this feature. All it has is a choice of set resolutions and from this list I currently I have it set to 1600x900 which at least means I can see the whole desktop, albeit with 2" black bars to either side, and 1" jobbies top and bottom. Setting it to the max 1920x1080 has the desktop too large so it 'overflows' the TV screen making certain icons and the taskbar unavailable.

I have updated everything - the video driver (...5069), BIOS, everything, and it's running Win 10 Home (latest 1903 version).

Seemingly, my TV - a 42" Panasonic Plasma - also doesn't have the ability to do anything about this at its end - for 'Aspect Ratio' it has Auto, 16:9, 14:9,4:3, and three zooms; none of these help - too big or too small.

Any suggestions? Is there any way to add the 'customise aspect ratio/resolution' feature to my wee PC?

On my other PC, also using this same TV as its monitor, I have full adjustment of the desktop size by moving 'sliders' under the graphics controller with the display showing guiding arrows for each corner, and when the image fills the TV's screen nigh-on perfectly, the resulting resolution turns out to be 1804x1026.

I don't have the option to tweak the output resolution to that degree on the 3050, only a limited choice from a set list of resolutions of which 1600x900 is the best compromise between max size and not losing any image over the 'edge'. The image doesn't fill the screen, tho'.

Thoughts?!

Many thanks.
 

Frooby

Distinguished
Apr 21, 2016
182
4
18,595
I've had to accept that this most basic of HD Graphics does not have the option of Customise Aspect Ratio, so if this PC is to be used with a TV as its monitor, then it has to be a TV model which can cope, eg with 1:1 aspect ratio option.

Summat like that anyways...