Tips For Using A PC On A TV

meths

meths

meths

Soldato
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12 Mar 2005
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I've moved my PC downstairs and have it plugged into my TV to use as a Steambox, media PC and anything else the iPad and Playstation is no use for.

My main problem just now is that on the desktop some fonts are unreadable from where I sit so I'm having to trawl through the options in Windows to try and resize things, make them bold or sit right in front of the TV which kind of defeats the purpose.

I'm using Windows 8.1 and it's fine for the most part as I'm finally getting use out of the start menu but is there an easier way to get the desktop right that I don't know about?

Any other tips would be appreciated. :)
 
right click desktop>screen resolution. from there, you can set the text to be larger. you might find tinkering with this breaks some applications not coded to handle it. you may find some dialogs with text/buttons you can't see properly.
 
Few things to do:

Go to your graphics card settings and adjust the over / under scan to 0%
Then go to the TV and make sure the picture size is set to Actual (i.e. it isn't adjusting it) just go through different ones if it isn't called that
Make sure your resolution matches the TV panel

There's also the clear text as people mention above but I think one of those first things are likely to be the problem.
 
tribz said:
Depending on the brand, this can help also. On the TV, rename the input to PC.
Click to expand...
Just read that thought,, gotta be joking/trolling what a muppet,, quick google and it seems its a real thing in some TVs (definately a lot of samsungs). Ill try on my Regza tonight.
 
Thanks for the input guys but I think I'm going to abandon this idea for now because:

-Changing the DPI scaling breaks Steam in Big Picture mode, which was the whole point of using it on the TV in the first place.
-I can't alter the text on Metro tiles to a custom size, only default or 'larger' which is still too small.
-When opening and closing programs it seems to dump me back onto the desktop and not put me back into metro. There may be an option to change this but I haven't found it yet.
-I can't alter the UI size in the games I use the PC for.
 
Meths said:
Thanks for the input guys but I think I'm going to abandon this idea for now because:

-Changing the DPI scaling breaks Steam in Big Picture mode, which was the whole point of using it on the TV in the first place.
Click to expand...
You can opt certain programs out of DPI changes. Right click short cut/program and properties -> compatibility and tick disable display scaling on high dpi settings.
 
I have just done the same, made my gaming/studio rig in to a HTPC.

My TV accepts 1080p signal and resolutions but downscales to 720p. It is quite hard to read at 1920x1080 as the TV is about 5-6 metres from where I am sat. So I have the resoltuion at 1400x900 or something like that, with large icons (125dpi) so everything is readable on desktop however my issue now is browsing online. I can icnrease decrease font sizes in Chrome hwoever the way things are laid out on a webpage such as BBC Football it is all screwed up.

Time to get a new TV I think haha
 
Liquid_Entity said:
I have just done the same, made my gaming/studio rig in to a HTPC.

My TV accepts 1080p signal and resolutions but downscales to 720p. It is quite hard to read at 1920x1080 as the TV is about 5-6 metres from where I am sat. So I have the resoltuion at 1400x900 or something like that, with large icons (125dpi) so everything is readable on desktop however my issue now is browsing online. I can icnrease decrease font sizes in Chrome hwoever the way things are laid out on a webpage such as BBC Football it is all screwed up.

Time to get a new TV I think haha
Click to expand...

Sounds like the same issues I'm having as I sit about 5-6 metres away as well, although my TV doesn't downscale the 1080p and is set to game mode.

I'm going to experiment with opting programs out of the DPI changes and just noticed from a quick search that the new version of Google Chrome should be able to launch directly from Metro and not drop you back into the desktop.

The solution might be to buy a beanbag so I can sit closer when playing certain games.
 
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The way I have it setup is easily manageable. Films/games all open at 1920 x 1080 but desktop set to lower resolution. As said my only gripe is some website layouts look a mess however can be messed about with on the fly with ctrl+mousewheel etc

Still want a new TV though haha so any excuse !
 
Meths said:
-When opening and closing programs it seems to dump me back onto the desktop and not put me back into metro. There may be an option to change this but I haven't found it yet.
Click to expand...

This is the one thing that I'm looking for for my HTPC - of course the common search terms you might want to use for this only ever shows people who want to do the exact opposite - that is to never show the Metro screen!

The Metro screen actually works well with my MCE remote control, and I want it to act like a launcher would on Android, and that you're always returned to it.


Other than that, as I very rarely ever use the desktop or use it for web browsing, the font size thing just isn't an issue for me.

Most of the times it's running XBMC, and other than that, it's Steam.
 
When I had my living room gaming PC, I used this software to create 2 x desktop icons, 1 for 720p bigger text for surfing etc and 1 for 1080p for gaming. Changing res was a simple as clicking which icon you wanted.
 
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