Monitor lower than TV resolution issue

[X01JP]

My pc monitor is 1440x900, my TV is 1080p.
With these resolution settings in place in I am unable to change the resolution above my max monitor resolution in most games.
Also, Steam Link is displaying my games by cropping off the sides.
I can only solve this by changing the Steam Link resolution to 720p.
The option in steam to automatically change the pc host resolution to match Steam Link also does not work when selected.

Does this really mean that I have to create a custom (and unsupported) resolution of 1080p on my desktop and keep having to manually change it every single time I want to use Steam Link?

Is there no other workaround?

Thank you.

[_I_]

if you have an nvidia gpu, you can add a custom res of 1920x1080
when streaming set game res to that

[X01JP]

ok well Im on ATI.
I tried to make a custom resolution in Radeon settings but it said it was not compatible with my display. I then tried to use a custom resolution utility to make one but my monitor was out of rage once activated. Seems this is not going to be easy.

[_I_]

might be time for a 1080p monitor
they are not that expensive

[Balderick]

Sounds more like time for a newer gpu?


What is the gpu you are using?

[X01JP]

Originally posted by _I_:

might be time for a 1080p monitor
they are not that expensive

I was thinking the same thing

[Xjph]

Originally posted by X01JP:

ok well Im on ATI.
I tried to make a custom resolution in Radeon settings but it said it was not compatible with my display. I then tried to use a custom resolution utility to make one but my monitor was out of rage once activated. Seems this is not going to be easy.

Try setting a custom resolution again, but enable the "GPU scaling" option in Radeon settings. This should scale it to your monitor's native resolution prior to output, but retain the higher resolution for streaming.

Also, kind of hoping your use of "ATI" instead of "AMD" was just old habit, and you're not actually using an HD 5000 series or older.

[Balderick]

Originally posted by X01JP:

Originally posted by _I_:

might be time for a 1080p monitor
they are not that expensive

I was thinking the same thing

IHS should have no problem streaming 1080 p to TV regardless of what resolution is being used by host pc for the monitor connected too host pc. I think a 1080p monitor will not help at all and a newer or stronger GPU is required for host PC so that it can stream too Steam Link with 1080p stream.

We do not know which GPU is currently being used, my guess is an older than radeon 6 or 7 thousand series because these push 1080p no problem.

A new higher resolution monitor would increase the need for a newer gpu.

[X01JP]

Originally posted by Vithigar:

Originally posted by X01JP:

ok well Im on ATI.
I tried to make a custom resolution in Radeon settings but it said it was not compatible with my display. I then tried to use a custom resolution utility to make one but my monitor was out of rage once activated. Seems this is not going to be easy.

Try setting a custom resolution again, but enable the "GPU scaling" option in Radeon settings. This should scale it to your monitor's native resolution prior to output, but retain the higher resolution for streaming.

Also, kind of hoping your use of "ATI" instead of "AMD" was just old habit, and you're not actually using an HD 5000 series or older.

Tried that. Didn't work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong not sure. The Radeon settings won't even let me save a custom resolution as it says it's not compatible with my display.

[X01JP]

Originally posted by Balderick:

Originally posted by X01JP:

I was thinking the same thing

IHS should have no problem streaming 1080 p to TV regardless of what resolution is being used by host pc for the monitor connected too host pc. I think a 1080p monitor will not help at all and a newer or stronger GPU is required for host PC so that it can stream too Steam Link with 1080p stream.

We do not know which GPU is currently being used, my guess is an older than radeon 6 or 7 thousand series because these push 1080p no problem.

A new higher resolution monitor would increase the need for a newer gpu.

specs are:
Phenom ii X4 955
R9 270x
8gb ram

[Balderick]

Ahh those specs are more than good for delivering 1080p stream to Steam Link.

It been long time since I used Radeon gpu but your card should support super sampling, which should help you out. Nvidia call this DSR but not sure of AMD equivalent. Will see if I can find anything that will help you out.

Might be worth checking In Home Streaming settings in Steam client too as you should not need super sampling to help out.

Something seems to be telling IHS to use your monitor res for stream res instead of TV res.

Your monitor is not capable of 1080p which why you get the "out of range" though this could be related to old monitor using 16:10 format and not 16:9 format which is what 1920 x 1080 is.

This https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution lists 16:10 format (purple) supported resolutions which could help you set higher res on monitor.



Is both your host pc and steam link connected to hub/router using Ethernet?
Try this to help exclude networking/WiFi issues causing stream to drop too 720p

[X01JP]

Thanks.

Oddly it started working breifly but only after restarting the PC, then changing the Steam Link resolution setting to 720p then back to 1080p again. This then put my PC monitor out of range and gave me a window size of 1920x1080 and active resolution of 1920x1080 on the Steam Link.
Now I'm back to a window size of 1440x900 active resolution 1440x810 again for some reason.

I tested it further and I can get the correct resolution with this work around, but need to change the resolution back and forth every single time I connect to the PC in Steam Link (which may get more annoying than just playing in the wrong resolution.)

But more worryingly this caused my system to lock up a couple of times. So this is definitely not an ideal way.



I'm using an Ethernet connection, so it can't be a streaming issue.

(Edit* PC just locked up again after trying to change an in game resolution setting)

[Balderick]

What you seem to be describing there seems to indicate Steam Link App and IHS are having a hard time with your monitor using 16:10 ratio (1440 x 900) streaming too TV with 16:9 ratio (1440 x 810)


Just a suggestion but you could try using a HDMI (or DP) 4K dummy display dongle to setup your pc as headless server. This let's you use remote desktop apps to remote control your pc and supports a far wider range of resolutions than your monitor does. This could be a possible workaround for you until Valve optimise Steam Link App for wider scope of hardware configs.

For less cost you could also setup a cloud gaming VM (paperspace P5000, Liquidsky etc etc) which could also workaround the issues you are seeing.

Now, is definitely a good time to check out latest gaming tech served from the cloud. This removes the need to own a gaming spec pc to enjoy the best of what pc gaming has too offer.



Is your TV an android TV or are you using android device connected too TV?

Try searching play store with "cloud gaming" search tags on your android device to see what apps are available.

Paperspace vms can be accessed with anything that has display and internet connection and even more easily if you can access a web browser but you will not see in play store, just go to paperspace.com/gaming to learn more.

[X01JP]

Ok don't know why I didn't try this before, but I just needed to turn on virtual super resolution in the Radeon settings. Now it works perfectly (although have to change desktop resolution every time.) Maybe I can set hot keys to change it quicker.

Thanks for all that offered help.

[Balderick]

Glad you worked out super sampling for your gpu.