Mint 17.1 Mate thinks my TV is 42" when its really 32"

[specimen65]

Am trying to use my HP Pavillion D5 to stream via HDMI to my Toshiba 32a500 32". I've been trying to duplicate displays and it almost works.

The install of Mint went 100% and it detected the 1280x800 resolution perfectly. However when I try to duplicate this to the TV, the resolution changes to 1024x768, which isn't bad on the TV, but still less than ideal as its a bit stretched.

The issue with that is that although the TV is showing perfectly without any overscan etc, the notebook now has a screen resolution that's too small side-to-side (ie desktop/toolbar etc now doesn't fill the screen from side to side, only top-to-bottom)

One thing I found is that if I tried to set the resolution for the notebook and TV, I had no problem using the 1280x800 for the notebook, but every available option I tried for the TV didn't work. What happened is that the TV just showed the background wallpaper, but no toolbars or desktop icons etc. (and this is from a fresh install I did yesterday aft)

So, I am wondering - is this happening because Mint thinks my TV is 42" when its really 32"? If so, how can I tell it what the right screen size is?

Note: ideally I want the notebook to have 1280x800 resolution and the 32" flatscreen tv 1360

[roblm]

You need to post some information first. Use these commands in the Terminal:

1. inxi -Fx
2. xrandr

3. Check if there is an xorg.conf file by using this command, and post the contents:

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pluma /etc/X11/xorg.conf

4. Then use this command to open the “Xorg.0.log” file:

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pluma /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Press Ctrl+A to select the entire file contents. Right click on the screen and select “Copy”. Don't save it to a file. Open the Mint Forum reply window and select “Code”
in the menu. Paste the copied lines between the two code words. If you have problems posting that long file, then upload it to pastebin.com by using this command:

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pastebin /var/log/Xorg.0.log	

Post the URL link that displays in the Terminal window. For Mint 17 users, first install pastebinit with this command:

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sudo apt-get install pastebinit

Then upload the file with this command:

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pastebinit /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[Laugh2]

Specimen65, my system behaves like yours. I'm pretty sure there are 2 separate issues here:

1) LM17.1 identifies my Sony 32" as a Sony 72". I think this is because the manufacturer uses common components. Windows Vista identifies it as simply Sony TV. It's not a problem as the resolutions and everything else works fine.

2) Showing the same image in both monitors may only be possible at resolutions common to both screens. It is annoying when connecting to projectors for presentations or similar. I haven't found a way around this. Use extended desktop when using multiple monitors rather than the same image in both screens.