Using a TV as a Monitor in Linux

10/22/2008

I’ve connected both a Syntax Olevia and an LG TV to my openSUSE desktop.  Neither have worked well because they caused the default font size to be unusably large.  I’m talking gigantically huge, like only a few letters on the screen at any one time.  The solution is to modify your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. OpenSUSE 11.2 no longer uses an xorg.conf file by default, so you will need to create one by running sax2.

Because these TVs apparently lie to the operating system about their dimensions, in the Monitor Section you need to add the following:

Option "UseEDIDDPI" "FALSE"

Then change the DisplaySize using the following formula:

DisplaySize = (pixels/desiredDPI)*25.4

So, if I want to run at 110 DPI and 1366×768 resolution then I would set the following in my xorg.conf:

DisplaySize 315 177
Be Sociable, Share!