Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:07:01 -0800, Markkk
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
>> How do I display normal screen widths on a wide-screen monitor? I replaced a
>> normal-width monitor with a wide-screen monitor, and now everything is
>> stretched abnormally wide. How do I simulate a normal-width screen on this
>> wide-screen monitor, so that stuff looks normal again?
>
>
> Here's the reason everything is abnormal:
>
> The wide screen monitor has a different aspect ration (Horizontal:
> Vertical) than the old monitors had. To use a wide-screen monitor
> properly you need to set your video card resolution to an appropriate
> aspect ratio for your monitor.
>
> For example, if your monitor is set to 1024x768 (a typical old monitor
> resolution), everything will be stretched. You need to set it to a
> wide-screen resolution. So my wide-screen monitors are set for the
> wide-screen resolution 1920x1080.
>
> You need to change your resolution to a wide-screen one, but it's
> possible that if you have a new side-screen monitor and an older video
> card that doesn't support such resolutions, you might also need to
> replace your video card.
>
But some video sources, have the older 4:3 or 5:4 resolutions, and
the hardware manufacturer didn't bother with 16:10 or 16:9 or the like.
In at least one case, there is a big gap, like using 1280x1024 or 1920x1080,
with nothing in between (no 1440 or 1680).
In some cases, a different driver might fix it, or if the computer
has room for add-in hardware, a new video card might be required.
ATI and Nvidia may have a "custom resolution dialog box". Of the two, I think
one of those was obvious as to how you get to it, and the other, less so.
An application like Powerstrip is another alternative - it taps into
the API from those two GPU makers, and can be used to set a custom
resolution. By if you had something like an Intel chipset laptop from many
years ago, and wished to connect a wide screen external monitor,
in some cases there, the options would be pretty limited. Powerstrip
has limitations on the kinds of hardware it supports.
"Custom resolution primer"
http://forums.entechtaiwan.com/index.php?topic=24.0
There are some examples at the bottom here, of solving the
problem without Powerstrip, using the ATI or Nvidia control panels.
http://www.playtool.com/pages/dvicompat/dvi.html
There may also be an option somewhere in the control panel, something
to do with "preserve aspect ratio". I was expecting that to place
black bars around the active area of the screen. But what I got instead
from my monitor, was "out of range". The settings should allow 15 seconds
for you to confirm, and you wouldn't want to confirm a setting like that
which was busted. Just wait 15 seconds until the original setting was
restored again.
Paul
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