Displaying normal screen widths on wide-screen monitor

[Markkk]

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?

 

[peter]

Stuff will not look normal until you adjust your video cards output
to match the native resolution of the widescreen monitor.

right click an empty spot on desktop/properties/settings
and then move the little slider till the numbers match you monitors
native resolution.
Is that better??

peter

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

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.

 

[Paul]

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

 

[Markkk]

Thank you, Peter and Ken. You both gave me good info that enabled me to fix
the problem.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thank you, Peter and Ken. You both gave me good info that enabled me to fix
the problem.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

But tell us all how you fixed it.

 

[Markkk]

Well, as Paul suggested, I dug out the specs for my monitor (which I’d been
putting up with for a while) and then adjusted the settings slider
accordingly. But that left the screen text too small for my poor eyesight, so
I went to the settings screen’s advance option and increased the dpi setting
to 120. So, with a combination of things and generally getting to know how
screen resolution and dpi work (here, Ken’s brief tutorial was helpful), my
screen’s in good shape.

Thanx again.

 

[Jose]

Well, as Paul suggested, I dug out the specs for my monitor (which I’d been
putting up with for a while) and then adjusted the settings slider
accordingly. But that left the screen text too small for my poor eyesight, so
I went to the settings screen’s advance option and increased the dpi setting
to 120. So, with a combination of things and generally getting to know how
screen resolution and dpi work (here, Ken’s brief tutorial was helpful), my
screen’s in good shape.

Thanx again.

On Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:53:01 -0800, Markkk

You're welcome. Glad to help.

But tell us all how you fixed it.

You are lucky, Markkk.

Sometimes folks buy a big new monitor only to find out later the
system hardware they have just does not support the new technology and
have to invoke less pleasant methods to get their system to work with
the new technology.

 

[JS]

Know this is a little late but I missposted to the wrong thread!

Check to see if you can change the resolution to 1280x800 as a starting
point. Most older video cards will support this resolution.