Getting proper output to 720p tv

Hey, folks. I currently have a dell m1330 laptop hooked up to an old samsung 50" 720p tv. sorry if this isn't the best place to pose this question.

i use the nvidia desktop resizer to shrink the output down to fit the screen, and i believe its running natively at 1178x670. some games like counter-strike only will let me run at 1280x720 resolution which chops a fair amount of the screen off. is there anyway to force my desktop resized settings onto games, or anyway to make this work? i tried the under-scan and over-scan settings from the nvidia control panel and neither have any effect on games.

thanks for any suggestions!

a google search told me to type '-w 1178 -h 670' into launch properties in steam, but this changed the res to 640x480.

yeah, i tried the over-scan with no success. my windows resolution is 1178x670 and this fits my tv perfectly. and games that you let you play in this 'native' resolution work fine. but when ever 1280x720 is the only option, it chops a bunch of the screen off. i checked all my tv settings with no avail - it's a dinosaur.

thanks for the link. when i first plugged my laptop into the tv, parts of the desktop were chopped off. i used nvidia's 'desktop resize' option and it works perfectly - i think it changes my windows resolution to 1178x670 in the process. the problem is any game that only lets me choose 1280x720 as an option, it over-rides the desktop resize settings and everything is chopped off again.