Trying to adjust screen scaling on low dpi monitor, but xrandr breaks the entire display

Rinabow

4/14/24, 9:29 PM

So I'm running a PC on Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS, with 2 monitors, and I recently got gifted an old TV that I decided to set up as a third screen, but I'm having a massive headache trying to set it up. At the moment there are 2 main things I'm trying to solve:

The first issue is that the screen overscans by quite a considerable amount. I can address this using nvidia settings which can adjust the overscan, but the settings don't stay after a reboot, so I have to keep going back to change it again.

But the bigger and more bothersome issue is that the TV is about half the resolution of my other two screens, making it a pain to use since things just don't fit properly on the screen. Most places I look to say that xrandr should be able to adjust the screen scaling, but when I try it, my display just completely falls apart, and the screen gets ultra-zoomed in with no way to reset the change without resetting the PC. the screens also bleed into each other which is super weird. screenshots

So apparently, I can't use xrandr to scale my screens, so I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to adjust the scaling on the third screen, but I also just really want to know what's causing it to completely meltdown the moment I change the settings. Part of me feels like I'm maybe using the wrong display drivers, or something along those lines, but I'm genuinely stumped as to why this is happening.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

0 + 5

display

nvidia

multiple-monitors

display-resolution

Nmath

4/14/24, 9:46 PM

A few things: First, overscan is a feature of the TV and needs to be adjusted on the TV, not the OS. Second, we really need more information about your hardware to troubleshoot this. What is the make/model? What is the native screen resolution of the TV? How is it physically connected to your computer? What GPU do you have? Is this a desktop or a laptop? Finally, please don't post images of text and please change the language to English for troubleshooting and fact finding. Please add this information to your question and when you're finished editing your question, tag me @nmath in a comment

Rinabow

4/14/24, 10:31 PM

Hello. Sorry for any poor etiquette, but this is my first time posting here, so I'm really not used to how this place works. Bot to address the points you brought up, it's a desktop. I thought that this meant the same thing as PC, so it was just a poor choice of words on my part. I'm not entirely sure about the TV model but it seems to be branded Salora, and the PC reads it as Beko Elektronik A.S. 32". It's plugged into the HDMI, whilst the other two are connected to Display. Lastly, the TV doesn't have any overscan settings. If it did, I'd have tried that first since it'd be far easier.

Nmath

4/14/24, 11:11 PM

You need to know the native screen resolution and set the display to the native resolution. Knowing the physical screen size is unfortunately not helpful with this issue. If you don't know is the native resolution, then we need to know the exact make and model of the display so that we can look it up. Look at the back of the display for a model number or serial number because this is an essential detail. I also recommend going through *all* of the TV settings to find the setting for overscan. Many TVs have multiple sets of menus. Overscan might be called something else. Be thorough.

Nmath

4/14/24, 11:14 PM

Could it be possible that the TV simply does not have an acceptable resolution to use as a computer monitor? For example, if the TV resolution is 720p or less, it's going to look terrible for displaying UI elements and text. Unfortunately there's not really any solution to make it better if the display has a low resolution or low PPI density, because that would be a limitation of the hardware. Arguably, even 1080p displays look pretty bad when stretched out to a 32" panel, but it's still a lot better than 720p.

David

4/15/24, 7:40 AM

The older the TV and you have not said how old the less likely does it make a good monitor especially in a multi monitor situation. I had the same issue was about a 10 year old JVC it simply can not be a monitor.

Elon Musk

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EN: Trying to adjust screen scaling on low dpi monitor, but xrandr breaks the entire display

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