Windows 10 on an HDTV... WTF am I missing here?

deadite_9

deadite_9

time for go to bed
Why in the world does MS think that I want my HDTV to be something other than a second monitor?

It makes all of my icons bigger, it rearranges all of my windows, and apparently it just assumes that I want to listen to the godawful speakers in the TV because I'm using an HDMI cable. Never mind that I normally use the optical out on the soundcard for 5.1 audio. I also don't see a way to scale anything down as far as the icons go (the scaling options are greyed out on the TV).

Does anybody know a way to make this not suck? I know that my TV is inferior to my monitor, but most of the time I just want to relax on the couch and play some games (which is much more comfy than my chair due to a bad back). All I really want is for the TV to be treated the same as any other monitor, which is something that worked perfectly well with Windows 7. :mad:

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Pretty damn pissed right about now, and really don't understand why they don't seem to give you any options here... actually hoping that I'm just being stupid and missing something painfully obvious. There's gotta be some way to make this work like I want it to, and if there's not-- well then that's just asinine.

(Just to clarify, I'm not trying to use both the monitor and TV at the same time... I display on one or the other, and just switch back and forth with Win+P. Like I said, this always worked without any problems in Win7.)
 
1. (Right Click Desktop > Display Settings) Make sure your desktop monitor is set as the primary. Alternatively, just have the TV mirror the primary monitor instead of extending?

2. Check your scaling settings. You'll probably want everything at 100% for both displays. If it's too small, increase to desired size. (Same window).

3. Click on speaker icon, select audio output device you want to use from drop-down.

If you're unplugging the HDMI to the TV and replugging only when you use it, try having them both plugged in, go into playback devices and set your sound card as default.

EDIT: Desktop icons scale just just like a browser. Just hold down Ctrl and scroll up or down to get them at the size you want.
 
t3hl33td4rg0n said:
1. (Right Click Desktop > Display Settings) Make sure your desktop monitor is set as the primary. Alternatively, just have the TV mirror the primary monitor instead of extending?

2. Check your scaling settings. You'll probably want everything at 100% for both displays. If it's too small, increase to desired size. (Same window).

3. Click on speaker icon, select audio output device you want to use from drop-down.

If you're unplugging the HDMI to the TV and replugging only when you use it, try having them both plugged in, go into playback devices and set your sound card as default.

EDIT: Desktop icons scale just just like a browser. Just hold down Ctrl and scroll up or down to get them at the size you want.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. This seems to be a case of MS thinking they know better, and Windows 10 is trying to make my HDTV experience as "friction-free" as possible by making assumptions... only it doesn't know what I'm wanting and it's only making it worse.

Anyway, scaling options cannot be changed on the TV for some reason. The slider is grayed out. I can adjust scaling on the monitor, but it's already at 100% (all the way to the left). I can resize the icons like you mentioned, but unfortunately that doesn't help with the ones I keep on the taskbar.

The monitor is set as the primary display (I've chosen "show only on 1" in the settings, which changes to "show only on 2" when I switch to the HDTV). I'm not mirroring or extending the display; I'm only displaying on one or the other.

As for the audio, I think I've got that sorted. I've disabled the HD audio out from the TV in the control panel, and made the sound card the default. It was already set that way (and reverted back to the sound card when I switched back to the monitor), but like I said, Win10 seems to be assuming that I wanted to use the TV speakers instead.

The HDMI cable has been connected to the GPU since I set everything up a couple of weeks ago. It's never been disconnected, but tonight's the first time that I tried using the TV.

There is apparently a hidden setting or registry key that enables this HDTV mode. And Windows definitely acts a little differently when it's enabled; everything is resized so that it can be seen with less effort from across the room (and I agree that that sounds great on paper and would be what most folks want, but it's useless to people like me if it can't be disabled).

Grrrrrrr.
 
Hmmm... looks like if I mirror the displays, then I get exactly what I'm looking for on the HDTV. That's great, except for the fact that I'm not wanting to mirror them.

Oh well, I guess it's at least some sort of progress. :bleh:
 
I'd say that might be your best option. If the TV's off, you wont notice a difference, and when you want to game or watch something you wont have to do anything special, mess with or readjust anything.
 
Unfortunately, that's not really an option either. Not gonna leave both on since the monitor is literally two feet away from the TV, and having both running is distracting (especially since the monitor is 144Hz vs. the TV @ 60Hz). Not gonna get in the habit of just turning off the monitor, either (which I'll admit is just me being hard-headed). Besides, Win10 is probably smart enough to know that I've turned it off and it'll just re-enable scaling on the HDTV. :rolleyes:

Guess I'm just gonna have to learn to live with it unless I can find some other workaround. What I've gathered from searching is that the scaling actually works as intended now (mostly), whereas it was basically broken in Win8 and practically non-existent in Win7. Still just boggles my mind that there's no way to disable it, or just completely override it. They had to consider that there would be edge cases like mine where I didn't want it auto-scaling.

Probably shouldn't be surprised that MS is basically being tone-deaf, though. :bleh2:
 
Alright, I seem to have fixed the window resizing/re-positioning (and blurry text, etc.) by disabling the high DPI scaling for Steam, so I guess it's kinda-sorta tolerable now. Still think the scaling makes Windows look all silly and Fisher Price, but whatever... at least it's not rearranging my stuff now.

Also, I've found another wonderful little side effect from switching to the HDTV: it drastically lowers the resolution on my system tray icons for some stupid reason. It's only cosmetic, but switching back to the monitor makes it even more noticeable, and rebooting seems to be the only fix for that one.

Not sure why MS hates me so much, but I swear to god, I just can't win. Seriously considering going back to Win7 and letting DX12 rot in hell. :evil:
 
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