Brightness and Resolution of TV Used as Monitor

I got my stuff moved to a new bedroom and now I'm no longer using my old CRT monitor. Instead I'm using my 26 inch plasma television to double as TV and monitor. Everything is nice and huge. Playing Halo on this would be nuts.

However I have encountered a situation which Google has not yet easily answered. For TV use, the brightness is just fine. But as a computer monitor, it is really bright. I could lower the brightness of the TV but that would also affect its usage as a stand-alone TV. Any help there?

Also, its default mode as a PC monitor is VGA - 800x600. I would like to get my resolution bumped up to at least 1024x768. Would having these different numbers cause issues?

Thank you once again.

Go to System Preferences > Displays > Color > Calibrate

If you're using Windows, I'm not sure. Right click on the desktop and go to display properties.

On windows, it's probably easiest to just use the software for controlling your video driver.

About the resolution problem, it depends on what your screen supports. Just try upping it to 1024x768, if it works click ok and be happy, if not just wait for 15 sec without clicking anything, and it'll automatically revert to the old option, no harm done. Or you could consult the manual for your TV, but what's the fun in that?!

I don't know where the user manual for this TV is... I wasn't the one who bought it.

And as for the resolution: when I would use 800x600 the TV would automatically detect it and say "VGA 800x600" when the computer would boot up. I switched to 1024x768 just now and it detected the change and said "VGA 1024x768" so apparently I shouldn't have much problem with that.

Just for fun I'm going to try Quake Live with this, see how it's different.

Good. You can explore some higher resolutions too, to find out what your TV's native resolution is. Using this will produce the sharpest picture by far. (You can probably find the manual online, though, if you just find the make and modell of it).

Also, did you figure out the brightness thing?

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Originally Posted by khh

Also, did you figure out the brightness thing?

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I have not. I read online that TVs and computer monitors use different gamma outputs and somehow that may need to be affected. But the problem there is: I don't know if/how I could make it so it would automatically adjust when switching from TV to monitor mode and vice versa. I think I could do it manually, if need be.

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Originally Posted by youssarian

I have not. I read online that TVs and computer monitors use different gamma outputs and somehow that may need to be affected. But the problem there is: I don't know if/how I could make it so it would automatically adjust when switching from TV to monitor mode and vice versa. I think I could do it manually, if need be.

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No, all you need to do is make the image your computer outputs to be less bright, and your problem is solved. As I said, this can be achieved by tinkering with your video driver settings.

Why can't I use resolutions like 1440x900 (my current monitor resolution) on my TV?

When I started using my plasma screen as a monitor I noticed images getting burned into the screen pretty quickly, so I stopped.

I took care of the brightness issue yay!

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Originally Posted by slayer

Why can't I use resolutions like 1440x900 (my current monitor resolution) on my TV?

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If it doens't work, it's because your TV doesn't have that many pixles. Old broadcasts on 4:3 were in 640x480 resolution, while 16:9 PAL 720/704×576 and NTSC 720/704×480. So a TVs didn't need to support high resolutions for their primary function, and since it is more expensive to support a higher resolution, they didn't.

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Originally Posted by youssarian

I took care of the brightness issue yay!

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Great.