Scaling Big Box on my TV

[Dawnrazor]

Hey folks! I'm hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. I'm a Premium Launchbox user and have been a user of Launchbox for several years now, but I am only just now trying to get BigBox up and running. I have been able to hook up my laptop PC to a TV via an HDMI port and extend the image to my TV monitor. However, I am facing an issue. It seems no matter what I do, the image appears to be too large for the TV display. The top and bottom as well as right and left sides of the image is cropped off. I'm attaching a picture of the Laptop screen and the TV screen so you can understand better how things are looking. The TV itself doesn't appear to have any advanced aspect ratio controls. I believe it just does this stuff automatically, so I have no control over it. Can anyone give me any steps to try and resolve this issue. I can't be the only one. By the way, I am not using any sort of advanced gaming laptop... so maybe therein lies the problem. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

For you information. Here are the pertinent specs:

Dell Inspiron 5584, Intel UHD Graphics 620, Windows 11, Display resolution at Recommended 1920X1080, Scale at Recommended 125%

TV: Emerson HDTV, Model #LC220EM1

*Pics have been updated

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:16 PM by Dawnrazor

[JoeViking245]

Look in your Windows Display Settings. Select the display # the tv is ("1" or "2", however Windows decided to label them).

You should be able to adjust the Scale and/or Display resolution to get it to where you need.

[Dawnrazor]

Thanks for responding! I tried to adjust those. I set them to the recommended settings which was 1280x720 and 100% scale. That didn't make any difference. I tried a couple other resolutions but they were way off. I see there is an option for setting a custom scale but it recommends not touching that because it would mess other things up. I feel like there may not be a solution here but if you have any other thoughts I'd appreciate it! 

[JoeViking245]

Hmmm...

Maybe try extend vs. duplicate (or the opposite of what you set).
Try the Format button on the tv remote and try different options in there?

(grasping at straws )

[Dawnrazor]

Yep... All things that I have poked at. I'm going to take a look at the Intel graphics command Center. I will of course update if anything works. Thanks again I really appreciate it!

[Dawnrazor]

Okay... so, Here's an update. I was able to download the Intel Graphics Command Center and manually adjust the sliders to fit the application to my screen perfectly! Now... If you could hep me get past this one more issue, I should be all set. I am able to navigate the games easily enough, but when I try to play a game, it opens on my laptop instead of on the TV. I'm stumped. Any idea? 

[JoeViking245]

Many emulators (don't remember specifically which ones) will open on the last monitor they were displayed on.

So you might be able to,
Launch a game [that opens on the laptop], press Win+Shift+Right (or Win+Shift+Left, depending on how your monitors are oriented) to move the emulator window to the other monitor (tv).  Don't worry about 'fullscreen' yet.  Exit the emulator/game as normal.  Launch it again.  You might get lucky and it starts upon the tv.

[Dawnrazor]

Hmmm. I was able to do what you said. But in that case it's not really opening up in big box is it? I'm basically just extending that screen from launchbox... And retroarch... I could do that without big box is my point I guess. I guess I have more poking around to do. I'll try more stuff and report back. By the way I did ask Gemini... Sometimes it has a point. It said something about setting up configurations for your PC and and the TV in retroarch. I don't know. 

[JoeViking245]

Standalone MAME is the only I recall [for sure] you need to edit any configurations.  And yeah, you should [also] be able to just open the emulator (e.g. double click the exe file, or right click a game in LB and open it from there) and do the screen-shift/close thing.

[skizzosjt]

that is "overscan" seeing how it's just a handful of pixels getting cropped off equally on all edges.  if it was an actual aspect ratio issue it would be totally whacked (stretched or compacted) and/or would have black bars on sides or top/bottom. your TV is 1366 x 768. If you set that as the output from your laptop and it is still cropped, then that confirms your TV is always doing some overscan routine and would in fact require you to resort to some extra tools on your laptop like what you landed on with the Intel iGPU software, in order to make it all fit (scale) onto the TV screen.   

with that said, don't extend the display. you should duplicate the display. it would eliminate any issue regarding stuff launching on the wrong display. 

 

[Dawnrazor]

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate your post comment. Just update I was able to download the graphics command Center for my graphics card and I was able to adjust it to get big box to fit onto my TV perfectly. Now I'm fixing some issues in the way that I have custom aspect ratio settings for my master system in Genesis games and the game image underneath my bezels is blown up or zoomed in if you will. I'm not sure how this is affecting NES, Atari, and Coleco games though. Well as I think about it I probably did a custom setting for retroarch and that's affecting it. 

[Dawnrazor]

I'll also just as a follow-up I didn't see the bottom part of your post. I thought about doing the duplicate... But if I do that I don't even really need big box do I? The point is to be able to use big box. Thoughts on that?

[skizzosjt]

hmm, I'm confused about a couple of your comments. I don't understand why you have said in general terms, "but I could do that without the frontend".

On 9/2/2026 at 7:56 PM, Dawnrazor said:

But in that case it's not really opening up in big box is it? I'm basically just extending that screen from launchbox... And retroarch... I could do that without big box is my point I guess.

 

18 hours ago, Dawnrazor said:

But if I do that I don't even really need big box do I? The point is to be able to use big box.

 

I'm not sure how you landed on those assumptions. Both LB/BB are going to function the same whether you have one, two, three displays, whether they are extended or duplicated. Using an extended or a duplicated display would not make using either LB or BB pointless.  

[Dawnrazor]

What I'm trying to say is... You could simply use retroarch or the emulator of your choice and duplicate your screen to another monitor. And BigBox really isn't necessary for that. Extending the screen seems to me the way that BB was intended to be used. I want to be able to browse or whatever while BigBox is open and on screen. Anyway, I'm working on it. 

[BrainyCabde]

Your best bet is to disable the monitor screen and use only the TV screen while your in BB. Use the windows key+P and select second screen.

[Dawnrazor]

So maybe that could be the best solution. I was hoping to have use of the laptop when BigBox is open, but maybe that's a good compromise. 

[BrainyCabde]

As a little side bonus, I use my Xbox controller's guide button to open Game Bar and change displays right there. That way you don't even need to use the keyboard at all. You can also enable joystick mouse control per app. I also enable Xbox mode and use the compact menu to keep everything tidy. Added LB/BB to the app menu here and that's how I play my games with very little hassle.

[Dawnrazor]

Cool tips! Thanks!