Dual Monitors - Quick HDMI switch

[Hahaiah]

I have an LCD TV with HDMI I like to watch movies on from my laptop. It's got an ATI HD2600 card.

I had issues setting up dual screens, extended vs clone etc. I just wanted a quick an d easy plug in to watch the movie, unplug to compute again. But would always have to adjust resolution on the TV from 1650 to 1920 manually.


Best I could do was to hook up the HDMI, disable the laptop display and it would show 1920 on the TV and when I unplug the HDMI, the display would come back on and show it's 1650. This is the only way I've figured out so far that would switch to the right resolution automaically. Plugging the HDMI back in would kill the laptop monitor and show on the TV.

Anyone got a better way?

 

[r2l]

PLEASE fill out your system specs so WE have MORE info on YOU, since WE ARE NOT AT YOUR HOME.

either your laptop video card doesn't have enough power to deal with HDMI + laptop screen, or you need to keep messing with drivers. MEANING, try each version out for your card.

 

[Hahaiah]

Obviously Windows 7 (x64) and as stated above ATI HD2600 Video Card.
Your response doesn't make sense, thanks anyway.

 

[bobdynlan]

That attitude will not get you far...
Picture this: You go on a road trip and the car fails on you in the middle of nowhere. You make a call to the emergency road service:
- "My car broke down in the middle of nowhere. I've looked at it, and see that, well, part of that gray thing broke off, melted off more like it, and the belt wrapped around it. Can you send a tow truck, fast?"
Do you believe that the car's maker and model names are irrelevant? It's unlikely that they will dispatch a tow truck without knowing what you drive, what would happen if you drive a scool bus that the standard tow truck can't handle?

Back to the issue:
I.
Win+P (DisplaySwitch) -> Computer only = Laptop
Win+P (DisplaySwitch) -> Projector only = TV
(If it fails to display picture on both, press Win+P again, Left Arrow once, Enter. Repeat until it does.)

or II.
Install Qres. It has some nifty parameters like "device" "detach" "primary" that can help you do what you want. Here's some example to get you started:
In it's folder add "res1680.bat" and "res1920.bat"
Create shorcuts on desktop to them, and assign hotkeys in the lnk properties, too.
Note: Is it 1680x1050? or 1650x???? You believe that the screen resolution of the laptop is irrelevant, too?

@echo off
resswitch.exe /WIDTH:1680 /HEIGHT:1050 /FREQ:60 /DEPTH:32
exit

@echo off
resswitch.exe /WIDTH:1920 /HEIGHT:1080 /FREQ:60 /DEPTH:32
exit

In Qres help, you find some usage help, you need to run ResCopy (included in the same package) that will give you the required device id representing you TV. Then you only need one batch file with added /DEVICE switch and \\.\DISPLAYX parameter (replace X with the one found by ResCopy).

@echo off
 resswitch.exe /WIDTH:1920 /HEIGHT:1080 /FREQ:60 /DEPTH:32 /DEVICE:[COLOR=DarkRed]\\.\DISPLAY2[/COLOR]
 exit

or III.
Use a media player capable of switching fullscreen resolution, like Media Player Classic - Home Cinema. Go to Options->Playback->Change fullscreen resolution to->1920x1080 32bpp 60hz.
Note: Do you live in EU (PAL world, 50Hz power line) or US (NTSC, 60Hz power line)? You believe that this is irrelevant, too?

Why do you expect to get pertinent answers without providing relevant info? You would not like Dr. "Teeth" guessing when doing drills in your mouth.

 

[Hahaiah]

I appreciate the detailed answer and was just a little put off by the "We're not at your home" comment, thought it was sarcasm for the sake of sarcasm you see so often but that's what assuming gets you. Truce on that.

Anyway, My laptop is an HP HDX 9000 20" display 1680x1050, Running an ATI HD2600XT with HDMI out into a Vizio 42" LCD. I'm using the ATI w7 beta drivers v9.9

I haven't been back to test the settings, but when I do I'll post back the results.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[r2l]

let me spell this out, try versions 9.9, than if that fails try 9.8, if that fails try 9.7 if that fails try 9.6.

does that explain " MEANING, try each version out for your card."

good luck