Remove Black Bars on HDMI Output

rchrdcrg said:

So I've discovered that a simple terminal command fixes the black bars on the left and right when outputting through HDMI. It's caused by the tablet outputting a 1280x800 display to a 1280x720 signal. This is easily fixed by changing the device's resolution with the following command:

wm size 720x1280

To revert to the tablet's original resolution, use:

wm size reset

You may need to run the "su" command first for these commands to work, and you do need to be rooted in order for it to work. This will cause some things to get wonky, like the nav buttons disappearing in landscape orientation or the status bar being hard to pull down (perhaps solvable with a change to the DPI), but if you're planning to use this trick for gaming (which was my reason), using something like Smart Launcher 2 with a controller makes this a non-issue. If you want a quick and easy way to switch back and forth, try QuickTerminal on the Play Store and set up both terminal commands as "Quick Commands", or at least that's how I've done it. Now, the picture on your TV will fill the screen. This is as close to Console Mode as we'll probably ever see on this device, so I thought this might help a few people out!

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I've been doing something similar with the NOM Resolution Changer app but I can't get the DPI settings right to match the 720x1280 res. It gets a bit tricky getting back into settings etc after changing the res as my app drawer is inaccessible after doing so. I always just resort back to default with the fail safe timer, I really don't want to get stuck in a resolution which i can't get back out of.

rchrdcrg said:

I haven't had that probably making the change manually, and I do believe I tried the app you mention and had the same issue, so you might wanna try testing the terminal command out; if it messes up, you can always reboot the tablet and everything will properly reformat for the lower resolution and then you should be able to change it back with "wm size reset".

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Thanks rchrdcrg, yeah I'll give it a whirl that way. It is really annoying having those black end sections on the output!!

I've got a chromecast and been trying to get the 'cast screen' option to work using r3pwn's method here http://xdaforums.com/hardware-hacking/chromecast/experimental-enable-mirroring-device-t2812193/page167#post55119152

I thought that might be worth a shot to see if the output res remains at 1200 x 800 for the mirror but I can't get a picture to display, only sound, when it connects and tries to cast screen. I'm thinking it probably won't make a difference though as I have just bought a miracast ezcast m2 dongle too and that still displays at the 1200 x 800 resolution when miracast is used. It probably is just a rom limitation at the moment.

try vlc beta off the play store

here's a sort of rant and with a video playback only solution. Not sure how to hide the rant part. I don't forum anything much.

I bought a Belkin miracast adapter off amazon, and have had trouble getting videos playing properly in full screen. It would mirror the 1280x800 with videos played with regular video apps ( MX player, Archos player, stock) which would be 16:10, and would have those bars on either side on both my 1080p insignia tv and our pseudo 720p panasonic (actual res was 1024x768, but at 16:9, which should be illegal to market as a hdtv). I know from previous experience with my galaxy s4, which the samsung video app would mirror only the video at the correct tv resolution, leaving the phone as the remote. You could also use other apps while any video was playing through the samsung watchon (video) app. So randomly downloaded the vlc beta off the play store. It works for the tegra note 7 the same way samsung set up theirs, minus the multitasking(so far). It took me weeks on and off being frustrated with apps that wouldn't recognise that mirroring was enabled to take advantage of the external display. It's kinda whatever now seeing how much time I spent trying to get the video to play properly by itself, for my s4 I tried mhl cables, chromecast, dlna. this works a lot better

So if you just want videos to play, use the vlc player beta. you can use miracast or hdmi. works the same with both. Only if I could miracast surround sound. that would be nice.

I've just started using my tablet and a HDMI cable to run XBMC. This tip has saved me much frustration.

I already use Tasker which can send terminal commands as an action to make it easier. Tasker does have a HDMI plugged state which should allow this to be automated but for some reason tasker doesn't seem to detect it, not sure why yet.

So I've been fiddling a bit more to optimiser the HDMI experience. I've discovered an app called second screen that let's you sert display profiles and launch then the HDMI is plugged in. Thee app sets the size, resolution, dims the screen and force closes the UI to make sure the new settings actually come into effect. It will also revert the changes when the cable is removed. Does need to run on a rooted device but mine is already.