Vista - No Full Screen on HDMI to TV

I got a Sharp TV, 32" LC32GP3U-B (1080p full). I connected an hdmi cable from my laptop (1080p certified) to the TV.

MAIN PROBLEM

I do not get the full screen output on my TV when connected via HDMI. This is very frustrating. The TV itself works fine in full screen (1080p, 720p, 480p, etc). I DO get full screen output on any Linux o/s I test it with, via hdmi. However, I prefer to use Vista instead in order to use MCE and the plugins I have (Netflix, Joost, etc plus MCE remote). I duplicatedt this before and after upgrading to Vista SP1. I've duplicated this with many WHQL certified NVidia drivers as well. Literally at least 5-10 different driver versions for my 8400M GT card. I cannot figure out why it is not showing full screen output, but I can confirm this happens in Vista only, not Linux (did not and will not test in XP). My index score in Vista is 5.0. It was actually 5.3 at one time, then dropped to 5.1 and 5.0 over few months span.

Nvidia panel shows proper 1920x1080 resolution.

Some drivers I've tried and duplicated the same problem:

174.93
175.12
167.43

Also, my TV settings are certainly proper since I do get full screen output in Linux and general TV viewing. I did try several new HDMI cables too, but thats irrelevent since it works fine in Linux.

Other MCE Related Issues

Another strange problem, when configuring Media Center, I chose TV as output. Now the color, contrast, gamma, etc is perfect on the TV itself and Media Center interface. However, when viewing the test videos to adjust the settings, the video is nearly black, dim, yet the interface to Media Center is perfect, so is viewing regular TV mode (w/o hdmi to the laptop) and even when HDMI is plugged in, quality is superb when using programs displayed on the TV. I did choose hdmi as connection type in MC, but why is the video so dim?

Another issue with Media Center is, no tv output at all. During TV signal scan, it says no signal detected. However, cable is connected and my hdmi > hdmi (laptop > tv) is connected as I'm viewing the MC interface on the TV itself.

Sony VGN-FZ290 laptop w/ HDMI port.
4GB Memory
Nvidia 256MB Dedicated 8400M GT (up to 2560x1200 resolution), fully 1080p Nvidia capable/certified.
Nvidia Driver: (tried several, currently using 7.15.11.7493)
Vista 64 Ultimate with SP1

i had a similar problem with no full display my tv would not accept certain settings and my graphics would not lock to a higher resolution i ended up going through all the available resolutions and setting them with the tv bizare i know but it worked i also had a scaling issue where it was setting itself at 10% loss which although easy to see now was really annoying at the time as i kept missing it but could never set it right.

anyway i hope this maybe gives you some idea's on how to reslove your problem good luck

Can anyone else please help? This is getting very frustrating.

i can only suggest looking at other drivers from my view point only obviously if you are running the latest graphics drivers then you may want to try an older version, i know sounds silly but can sometimes resolve problems like this, anyway hope you get it sorted as i know how irritating that can be !!

I've tried so many drivers its ridiculous. New and old, tried at least 7 - 10 of them.

Can someone please help me out on this? Thanks.