[MarkyUK]

Hey all,

All day today I've been playing with my new toy... the N40L HP Microserver

I've put Windows 7 on it, and have been playing around with XBMC on it for a while as I plan to also use it as a Media center as well as a server for my files...

I'm slowly customizing it so that it is my own - however, I have a question with regards to the resolution to use.

I am using an ATI Radeon HD6450 1GB card, and connecting via HDMI to my TV which is 32". I currently have the resolution set as 1366x768, but it isn't fully fullscreen - It has small vertical bars down the sides and very tiny horizontal bars at the top and bottom.

So my question is... Am I using the right resolution for the perfect picture quality? Most of the stuff I plan to watch through XBMC will be 720p, but some will be 1080p.

Thanks,

Marky

[Diggs]

Welcome to the XBMC forums.

This will likely get moved to the hardware section since its not really XBMC related, but I have had a similar issue and fixed it using the AMD catalyst drivers. I am not near my setup at the moment, but I THINK it is under digital displays/scaling. The screen has a slider on it and you can either apply overscan or underscan (again from memory, and I am getting old) but that will decrease and increase the size of the image so you can fill your TV with the image.

Another thing you want to confirm is your refresh rate. You can change those settings within the catalyst driver application, and can effect the size of the image. And I am assuming this happens within Windows as well as XBMC? If it is only XBMC, then you probably need to play with the video settings. There is a setting within XBMC that allows you to match the refresh rate of your display, which may or may not help. Sorry, none of that is a solid fix, but it's a good place to start.

I have the N40L myself and love it, but it is running Unraid and is just a media server. Curious how well it plays back 1080P content with the ATI card you added.

Good Luck!

[MarkyUK]

Welcome to the XBMC forums.

This will likely get moved to the hardware section since its not really XBMC related, but I have had a similar issue and fixed it using the AMD catalyst drivers. I am not near my setup at the moment, but I THINK it is under digital displays/scaling. The screen has a slider on it and you can either apply overscan or underscan (again from memory, and I am getting old) but that will decrease and increase the size of the image so you can fill your TV with the image.

Another thing you want to confirm is your refresh rate. You can change those settings within the catalyst driver application, and can effect the size of the image. And I am assuming this happens within Windows as well as XBMC? If it is only XBMC, then you probably need to play with the video settings. There is a setting within XBMC that allows you to match the refresh rate of your display, which may or may not help. Sorry, none of that is a solid fix, but it's a good place to start.

I have the N40L myself and love it, but it is running Unraid and is just a media server. Curious how well it plays back 1080P content with the ATI card you added.

Good Luck!

Thanks bud
Ah okay, I wasn't 100% sure where to post this
I have the latest ATI drivers for the card, but I haven't played around with its setting yet, so maybe I'll give it a shot... However, when I am on the desktop it uses the full screen, the black bars don't show until I use XBMC, so not sure if it would be...

I wonder if it might be a refresh rate problem, because the interface doesn't feel like its fully HD - It's a little bit fuzzy...

If anyone could tell me where to find the setting to match the refresh rate with my screen I would appreciate it!

Yeah, from what I've seen, I'm very impressed! It's nice and speedy I was worried it wouldn't be able to run some of the more intense skins, but I have it running Aeon MQ4 and it's nice and smooth I've not run 1080p on it yet, but it runs 720p without a hitch

[wsnipex]

what you see is called underscan and sadly its enabled by default in the catalyst drivers. The pain with windows iirc is, that you must adjust underscan for _each_ resolution you are planning to use. On linux disabling/adjusting underscan is just a single command.

So: in CCC set the desired resolution and refreshrate, adjust underscan, save. Set another resolution/refreshrate combo, adjust underscan, save.
Rinse and repeat for all resolutions you need.

btw, if you TV supports 1080p, you should probably set that in Xbmc

[Diggs]

Just curious if you were able to solve this and what corrected it. I thought you were having the problem with both desktop and xbmc, sounds like wsnipex leaded you to the right place.

[MarkyUK]

Well I went into CCC and currently have the resolution set to 1280x720 and I adjusted the underscan to fill as much of the screen as possible.

It's removed the black bars to the left and right - there is still a small slither of black bar at the top and bottom (Maybe half a fingernails worth ) - but that won't bother me too much

Thanks for the advice