My Emerson TV won't work as a monitor with LMDE2

[explodingbee]

Hi everyone,

I have an Emerson TV model # LC32OEM2.

I have been using it as a monitor for my laptop computer. I am using it with the Windows 7 Professional operating system on my laptop computer. (My computer is an HP Elitebook 8540w.) And that works fine. However, I would like to change to LMDE2. (I have a dual boot system right now, so I can start the laptop computer in Windows 7 or with LMDE2.)

But when I use the TV as a monitor with my laptop computer using the LMDE2 operating system, the monitor doesn't work right. It just gives a plain desktop view, without any of the items on the desktop and the pointer doesn't seem to work right. The view on the TV/monitor is different from the view on my laptop computer screen. I have tried to change the screen resolution within the Linux operating system but that doesn't seem to help. So I think I may need some driver(s) or something. Please tell me what I can do to get the TV to work as a monitor with my laptop computer using LMDE2.

Thanks in advance,

Vincent

[darethehair]

Perhaps what you want is to set your display as 'mirror' (both screens look the same), rather than 'extended' (what you seem to describe it as)?

[explodingbee]

HI,

That sounds like a possibility. How do I do it?

Vincent

[darethehair]

HI,

That sounds like a possibility. How do I do it?

Vincent

In the same LMDE2 app as you were setting the 'resolution' -- the 'Display' app -- is a checkbox on the right side for 'Mirror displays'.

[explodingbee]

Ok. Thanks I will try that.

[explodingbee]

Well I set up the Emerson TV/monitor with the mirror setting checked in LMDE2. It changed things so that they were somewhat better. But now the situation is that the left and right edges of the image on the Emerson screen are cut off. An inch or so (maybe less) on each side. The image is otherwise not distorted on the Emerson but now the image is stretched width-wise on my laptop screen (which is ok, I suppose, since I am using the Emerson screen in this scenario and not the laptop screen). Having the edges of the image on the Emerson screen cut off is not good.

Any other ideas?

[darethehair]

Well I set up the Emerson TV/monitor with the mirror setting checked in LMDE2. It changed things so that they were somewhat better. But now the situation is that the left and right edges of the image on the Emerson screen are cut off. An inch or so (maybe less) on each side. The image is otherwise not distorted on the Emerson but now the image is stretched width-wise on my laptop screen (which is ok, I suppose, since I am using the Emerson screen in this scenario and not the laptop screen). Having the edges of the image on the Emerson screen cut off is not good.

Any other ideas?

Sorry, I don't have a lot of further experience or knowledge to share with you. However, I suggest that the first place you look for a solution is the TV itself i.e. look for options on how the TV processes the HDMI input that it receives i.e. I think by default it wants to 'overscan' what it receives, and you have to look for a way to counteract that. If the TV lacks the ability to tweak stuff like that, the next step would be to try a few CLI commands to improve the situation. Here is a YouTube video I just found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBHOYq3 ... e=youtu.be