I'm looking for some advice concerning some display problems that I'm having.

I just purchased an RCA 32" LCD HDTV (model: L32WD12; spec sheet here: http://tv.rca.com/NR/rdonlyres/8FE5C137-8504-4009-B6AA-9424D07BDBDD/0/L32WD12.pdf).

I've connected the TV to my PC's video card via the VGA ports on both devices. The video card is an ATI Radeon x850 XT Platinum Edition (256 MB RAM; specs sheet here: http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx850/radeonx850series/index.html).

The problem I'm having is that there is a bad shadowing affect on the TV when I'm using it as a PC monitor (television looks OK). I refer to the problem as "shadowing" instead of "ghosting", because it is always visible, even with still IMAGES such as the icons on the desktop. A good example that I can use to try to explain what I'm seeing is that when my mouse cursor is sitting still, I can see two more "dimmer" mouse cursors to the right of it. This same shadowing effect exists on all graphics, whether on the Windows Desktop, within games, etc. This results in the display quality being very poor.

I've spent a significant amount of TIME adjusting the display settings on the TV and the Video Card, to no avail. I was able to improve the display very slightly by increasing the contrast setting on the video card; however, I noticed that for all practical purposes, none of the adjustments that I make have any real affect on the shadows. I also updated my video card's drivers to the latest version, but that didn't have any NOTICEABLE affect.

So, with all of that being said, here are my questions:

1. Does anyone have any general advice on what might cause this and how I can correct it?

2. My video card has a DVI port, and the TV has an HDMI port - if I connect the video card to the TV using a DVI->HDMI cable, what are the chances that could correct the problem?

3. Someone told me that problems like this were usually related to signal strength. While I'm aware that is an important factor when dealing with coax cable and TV connections, but is the idea of "signal strength" applicable when dealing with a VGA connection? If so, what could I do to improve it?

Thanksuse 32' LCD TV as monitor, i'm going to do that also, hope u'll get yout answer.

your friend may b right, signal strengh problem,
try use different of video input connection, DVI -HDMI, or find something can boost up the signal.
try from the cheaper way
good luck
I broke down and bought a DVI-HDMI cable, and that solved the problem for me. There is no shadowing at all now, and the display looks really good. Admittedly, that was an expensive way to go, though - since I wanted the cable right away, I didn't look around online for a good deal. I just went to Circuit City and bought what they had - a 6' DVI-HDMI for...ouch...$129.

I've been told that perhaps my original problem was just due to a low quality VGA cable, so I might have been able to have gotten an acceptable display quality using another VGA cable. So, if you have any problems when you connect your PC to your 32" TV, it might be worthwhile to try a second VGA cable before you make the investment of the DVI-HDMI cable.wow!, that what i said when u told me that 6" DVI HDMI cable cost u $129. ouch... heart pain...
but it really solve your problem. thanks for the advice.
i'm not change my monitor to 32" yet. $ is the problem. plus i'm not think windows vista stable enough. at least wait for next services pack realease 1st. (my idea of getting 32" LCD as monitor is just bcoz 1:i wanna get a core 2 duo with SLi mode graphic.
2:vista user interface is suitable for this.wide SCREEN)

so the 1st thing already broke me down........