Be Excellent To Each Other

Okay so I have a sony Bravia KDL-32s3000 and I've just got a vga cable for connecting to it from the PC. However I can't seem to run in the full res of the TV. I've tried 1280*720 and get an out of range error. It will work in 1396*768 but that's a funny ratio and doesn't fill the full screen. It will also run in square screen modes.

I have a Geforce 7300GS in my PC, is that the trouble?

Tried ensuring the refresh rate is set to the panels native refresh rate?

Check the manual but an annoying portion of widescreen HDTVs will only take portrait through VGA, including both of mine.

Hmm. I can do 1280*768 which fills most of the screen but has black borders. Still I can always stretch it a bit with the controls. Screen doesn't look terribly sharp though. I'm getting a little bit of ghosting.

Ah! It seems a lot better now that I have taken off the extension cable I was using. Turns out I didn't really need it. Looks pretty good now.

Further to this, any idea how I can get my TV to display my PC's BIOS screen? It's out of range as far as the screen is concerned.

I wondered if connecting a composite connection or SVideo or something could do it. Do PCs use their TV-out mode outside of windows?

Any video output that your PC has that your TV accepts will let you do this. SVideo-Scart adapters are easy to get hold of. Not sure what you mean by TV-Out mode - it just uses the TV as its primary display.

I havent got a vga cable on my laptop, but I think its got an s-video connection, now im clueless abotu these sort of cables but is there a s-video to s-video cable so I can hook my laptop to my telly?

Yup. Maplin or Comet usually have them, or go online to not get charged a fortune.

I just ordered one of these (although you may need a longer one).
Cheaper than I could find in Maplin, and turned up in a couple of days.
I haven't actually used it yet though, so it might be rubbish.

excellent shitty streams of boring as fuck newcastle matches in which we lose, overstretched to fit a 32 inch telly for me.

Cables at Maplin are very overpriced. Some are priced OK and I do buy some stuff from them (generally because I've just put in a bulk order with some other kit).

Well I was just wondering if the graphics card would only output an s-video (or other) signal to the TV when in windows mode. I know from the past that I've had to activate tv out on graphics cards to get them to be seen on composite.

I don't think that's the case for the last few years - whether it's the cards that have changed or Windows, I don't know. My Media Centre PC happily outputs everything to the TV over SVideo.

My 26in Bravia has a 1366x768 native resolution but lists 1280x768 as the maximum in the manual. It does seem to actually do 1360x768 though - it calls it 1280x768, but the 360 thinks it's 1360x768, and I've fucked up the actual 1280x768 settings somehow, it goes all squiffy. It lists 1366x768 for HDMI though.

My 46in Bravia (like AceAceBaby, a W4000) has a 1920x1080 native resolution and accepts that over VGA, component and HDMI. Between the TVs' releases, MS released the HDMI 360s (and enabled 1080p over component). Coincidence?

Ok, just chipping in.

I gots a Toshiba 32" 1080p set. It will only take up to 13**x768 over VGA. *

Using an ATI card (HDMI or VGA) there's no bios displayed. An nvidia will display BIOS over both connections.

* forgot the exact number