TVs as Monitors

[Deleted]

Since my monitor is only 17" and isn't widescreen, I wanted to start using my 22" TV instead, but when I plugged it in the picture just seemed stretched. It works fine to play videos through but desktop, wow and the internet etc don't work very well.
Is this just because it's a TV and it's not supposed to work well or is it more likely something wrong with my setting up?

Using an ATI6850 card, the TV is a Toshiba 22" BV500B and it's not working with either HDMI or VGA inputs.

[Skelly]

Post TV and Video card Models. Also what kind of cable are you connecting them with?

[Alex1996P]

I use a 42" hd tv, and somebody told me there were drawbacks to using a tv. So, I'm just sticking with a monitor

[Deleted]

Post TV and Video card Models. Also what kind of cable are you connecting them with?

derp -.-
Video card is an ATI 6850, I'll go look up the TV in a second and I'm using a HDMI cable.

[bals]

Probably need to change your resolution to fit the tv. Also make sure you don't have any picture stretching modes enabled on your tv

[vesseblah]

Since my monitor is only 17" and isn't widescreen, I wanted to start using my 22" TV instead, but when I plugged it in the picture just seemed stretched. It works fine to play videos through but desktop, wow and the internet etc don't work very well.
Is this just because it's a TV and it's not supposed to work well or is it more likely something wrong with my setting up?

Cheers.

Probably wrong resolution set for the screen. If your TV is "FullHD" or "1080p" set windows desktop and all games to 1920x1080 resolution. If the TV is "HD Ready" or "720p" instead you need to set the desktop to 1280x720 or 1344x768 or some other size the TV actually uses. TV's manual should have "native resolution" listed somewhere if it's LCD.

If it's old 4:3 CRT TV you need to set the resolution to some 4:3 size like 1024x768 for example.

[Deleted]

Yeah I've made sure the resolution is at 1920x1080 etc, but it's still not working properly. However, when I use the VGA it works fine, although it can only go up to 1600x1200 then.
I'll try another HDMI port incase that's the problem.

[vesseblah]

Yeah I've made sure the resolution is at 1920x1080 etc, but it's still not working properly. However, when I use the VGA it works fine,

Make sure to turn "overscan" off from the video driver settings in computer. Also if the TV is going into some special computer mode, turn that off and tell it to use HDMI as normal.

[Deleted]

The only issue i had when I started using my TV was I wasn't able to use the 1920x1080, I had to create a custom res within the nvidia drivers its something like 1814x1075 or something silly, any solutions? - GTX460, Sony Bravia KDL-40W4500

[Deleted]

Still not working Some suggestions would be great please.