These days, many people are starting to combine technology with entertainment. With the advent of such media rich entertainment, many people find they're being weighed down with 'boxes' like their satellite box, mp3 player, blu ray player etc. This is why several people opt for use of Windows Media Center which combines all of the features of popular formats of media as well as allowing full screen, streaming HD content direct from the Internet.

In our opinion, one of the best TV ranges for use with such as  set up is the Panasonic Viera. This article uses the TH42PH60 (42" plasma) for illustration purposes.

One of the major problems when connecting a PC to a TV is that the dimensions of the image signal differ, the PC expects standard screen dimensions but the PC only expects an incoming signal in 4:3 ratio, not the usual Wide-screen TV format.

For that reason, you need to ensure that your graphic card allows both custom resolutions as well as over and under-scanning of the TV signal, which allows you to shrink or expand the image to ensure the image files the screen.

To do this, using an AMD/ATI Radeon 4600  graphics card on a Vista Media Center:

1. Open the ATI Control Centre
2. Ensure you use the advanced Control Panel
3. Change the resolution to the closest which matches 1248 x 700 using the list of standard, supported formats
4. Click 'Apply Format'
5. Click 'Add' to add a custom resolution
6. One the custom adjustment screen, alter the dimensions to 1248 wide by 700 high
7. Click Apply
8. Select the new format in the list and click 'Apply Format'
9. The screen will now adjust and be a perfect fit for the display panel

Every screen is different and has different input resolutions and output dimensions so check the user manual for supported dimensions. The above instructions will also vary depending on the graphics card however they are a good starting point for most Media Center set ups.