I would like to get other people's feedback on something which has been a bit of an irritation over the past few months.

Why can't I find monitors/TVs with HDMI slots and speakers that work correctly with PCs?

Here are some of the problems I've encountered:

- Picture won't scale correctly
- Picture scales but text is now unreadable and blurred
- Sound doesn't work over HDMI
- Monitor refuses 1080p input when it states 1080p compatible, shows black screen

I've now bought and returned 3 monitors because of this problem. I thought that HDMI would be the way forward and it would be very handy to have sound and vision through one cable and one device.

Unfortunately, it feels like this simply isn't going to happen, or maybe I have been the victim of either bad decisions/luck?

What are your experiences in this area?

Some video card drivers (certainly ATi's offerings) allow you to add HDTV-compatible modes to the display properties, which could be worth investigating. I'm a big fan of PowerStrip as it lets you precisely configure video timing (including custom resolutions).

That's a useful tool I wasn't aware of, thank you.

It might be worth mentioning that I have a GeForce GT 330M with an HDMI out.

Does anyone own, or can they recommend a monitor that is confirmed to work well with both the sound and vision through HDMI?

Strange I saw a few HDMI monitors and they worked great with PC. Your video card is well capable. I though maybe the sound part of the video card was not attached to the motherboard, but since it's mobile (laptop) it should already be ok.

I don't understand your problem.. why scale picture? You just set 1920x1080 resolution in Windows and no scaling should take place at all. Of course text will always be a bit blurred if you don't set the monitor native resolution and it scale.

As for the black screen in 1080p, check your refresh rate (Hz) to be sure the monitor supports it, and install the latest nvidia drivers.

Quote: Original post by Dunge
I don't understand your problem.. why scale picture? You just set 1920x1080 resolution in Windows and no scaling should take place at all. Of course text will always be a bit blurred if you don't set the monitor native resolution and it scale.

The picture doesn't fit the screen at 1920x1080, even though the monitor states Full HD 1080p PC compatible. It is a weird bug/affliction with some monitors, I'm hoping to find one that just works.

I've also got the latest drivers for my card. The Sony Vaio laptop automatically downloads and installs them for me, which is handy.

Doesn't fit? Image too large or too small? Maybe the monitor state 1080p on the box for marketing reason, but what does it say about native (maximum supported) resolution? Maybe it's simply using a 16:10 aspect ratio and you should use 1920x1200 instead, my friend monitor is like that, but it have a DVI plug with no speakers, not HDMI.

Trust me when I say it is 100% 16:9 with 1080p native resolution. I double checked for all my monitors, I even asked questions and nagged store owners.

Still can't find a decent working monitor though

I've never had problems using HDMI monitors with my computer. Now I'm using a de-branded HP monitor and it works fine.

A few tips from someone who has had to deal with HDMI on a driver implementation level, and has cursed at length about issues related to that wonderful standard:

Your monitor may be set to some weird HDMI mode that scales the picture. It's a common problem. Try setting it to "just scan" or something similar to deal with the incorrect scaling.

Picture being blurred sounds very much like the PC is sending a picture at one resolution but the monitor is set to another, forcing the monitor to scale the image which they often do horribly. Another possibility is that you're watching an interlaced picture (1080i, for example).

Your monitor may be able to handle 1080p25Hz, but perhaps not 50Hz or 60Hz. Try setting the refresh rate lower.

You may be using a long HDMI cable. HDMI is only certified to work with cables shorter than 1.5m. Make sure your cable is HDMI certified.

Sound may not work because your computer or your monitor is set to DVI mode. How to change such a setting depends on your software and/or your monitor, but DVI is essentially HDMI without sound.

When you say "doesn't fit" do you mean its cut off at the edges, or its just plain wrong -- Any TV that uses any form of rear projection (DLP or laser-based products, or CRTs -- basically anything that's not LCD or plasma) simply isn't going to show the entire picture due to overscan.

Other displays may have wierd issues, but shouldn't be insurmountable -- try playing around with different output settings from the computer, and if you can, try a different source to make sure there's nothing wrong with the computer itself.

Finally, if you require audio, make sure your computer supports audio pass-thru -- not all older/cheaper models support this.