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Intel N3700 HD Graphics - no correction for overscan in Windows 8.1

LoneWolf
Novice
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Until recently, I was using Intel HD 4000 (Core i3-3225, and then HD 4600 (Core i5-4590S) graphics to output to HDMI on my Panasonic TH-42PX75U plasma television at 720p. The television has overscan that I cannot easily disable, but Intel's graphics drivers at least had an advanced mode with sliders that let me resize the screen to fit within the borders.

Desiring to save energy, I switched to a Pentium 3700 Braswel processor setup, knowing these have been designed with a number of small-form-factor and HTPC/set-top box configurations in mind. My configuration is set up in Windows 8.1 using the latest 15.38.4.64.4234 driver package from the following link:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25235/Intel-HD-Graphics-Production-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-64-bit-N-Series- Download Intel® HD Graphics Production Driver for Windows* 7/8.1 64-bit (N-Series)

Once again, I experienced overscan, but this time, the sliders are unavailable in the Advanced section (next to the picture of the girl, I have previously seen horizontal and vertical sliders to adjust screen height and width). My understanding was that the Braswell line used graphics units comparable to Intel's Broadwell line of desktop processors; if this is so, why is this feature unavailable to me, especially with the knowledge that these processors are likely to be used in home entertainment scenarios? This makes no sense to me; I need to request that this feature be added, or if I am incorrect, that someone help me find it.

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LoneWolf
Novice
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To add to this: Here is a sample of what the older Intel iGPU control panel looked like. Notice the preview window on the side where there are sliders, and the option to "Customize Aspect Ratio" at the bottom center. On the new driver, I only have "Maintain Display Scaling" and "Center Image". No "Maintain Aspect Ratio", no "Scale Full Screen", and no "Customize Aspect Ratio, which enables those sliders. This is a pretty serious deficiency; if it is not resolved, I'm going to need to remove my N3700 mainboard and the RAM I purchased for it (since they are SO-DIMMS) and send it back to vendor, going back to my i5-4590S.

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IUman
Honored Contributor II
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Hello LoneWolf15,

Thank you for joining the Intel communities.

I really apologize for any inconvenience and we are aware of this problem and our engineering department is working to solve this problem, at this point we do not have an ETA to solve this problem but hopefully a new driver with these features will come up soon.

Best regards,

Ivan

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LoneWolf
Novice
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@ivanu_intel ,

I have now been waiting (along with others that have any Braswell platform) for eight months (a year for those who have Windows 10). There have been no driver updates for this GPU in 2016, as opposed to Intel desktop processors, which seem to get plenty of attention from Intel development. So I read this month with interest about the newest Intel HD 4600 drivers located here:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25978/Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-15-36-?product=81496 Download Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows 7*/8.1* [15.36]

In the Release Notes at https://downloadmirror.intel.com/25978/eng/ReleaseNotes_15.36.31.4414.pdf https://downloadmirror.intel.com/25978/eng/ReleaseNotes_15.36.31.4414.pdf I read the following below. It appears Intel is working to resolve scaling issues, but only in the markets it deems useful. Which is unfortunate, as the Bay Trail/Braswell/Apollo Lake family is of course, targeted at small-form-factor PCs, which are most likely to be part of set-top boxes, the Compute Stick market, and systems that will be plugged into televisions --PRECISELY those where overscan and scaling issues are the most important.

It has become very clear to me that Intel introduced Braswell processors, only to neglect their support. With this in mind, I would like to know why I should even consider any product based on Apollo Lake when it comes out? If there is any product I feel completely abandoned by Intel on, it is this one, and in the past 25 years, I've bought processors from the Intel i386 line on up.

---Notes from latest Haswell graphics drivers below---

Forced Application Scaling

The control panel also offers a new "forced application scaling" option where the user selected scaling option above for

desktop will also be applied for full screen applications (generally games or media players),

overriding whatever scaling

mode the application and/or DirectX runtime/Operating System specify. This is intended to allow users to force

"Stretch Full Screen" or "Maintain Aspect Ratio" scaling to address problems reported by users with games running in

"Centered" scaling mode

-

particularly DirectX10 and 11 games and/or on Windows 8/8.1. Centered mode gives a bad

user experience when running games as significantly lower than native resolution (e.g. to improve frame rate) on

displays with very high resolutions.

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LoneWolf
Novice
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ivanu_intel ,

This is still an issue. We are now nearly six months down the road since my post, but the truth is, this hasn't worked right since the Braswell processor release, now around a year old.

When does "We're aware of the problem, we plan on fixing it, but no ETA" become "Well, we really don't have time even with a company as large as Intel, and it's not a perceived value, so we really won't be fixing it"? Because at this point, I'm very frustrated, with a product that has never performed as expected, with a lack of faith that it ever will. The code for those two sliders was in other graphics drivers; how difficult would it be to re-add that code to what currently exists?

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IUman
Honored Contributor II
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Hi all,

Please be aware that this is a feature that has not been enabled yet for Win10. We have fixed this problem but we are still waiting for an update from Microsoft.

You can see more information at the following links:

Regards,

Ivan

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LoneWolf
Novice
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ivanu_intel : I am not running Windows 10. I am running Windows 8.1, as the subject line of this thread clearly indicates. The feature is not available there either.

This operating system, being older than Windows 10, has been out for quite awhile; in fact, I believe it has been out longer than the N3700 processor. Has Microsoft not provided you with a Windows 8.1 update either?

Additionally, if I install Windows 7 SP1 x64, will I be able to get this feature with existing drivers? If not, then I don't think this issue is a Windows 10 issue. It's relatively easy for me to back up my N3700 system and load 7 on it, assuming you tell me it will work; I don't wish to take the time unless you can confirm that.

Finally note --I went from a 720p Panasonic plasma to a newer 1080p Panasonic plasma TV; I experience the exact same issue at the 1080p resolution as I did at 720p.

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