Outputting 1024x768 from Notebook with 1280x800 screen

[Guest]

I have a Gateway 675 with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9600. I would like to output PowerPoint as 1024x768 to a projector and keep my display as 1280x800 on the notebook. When I configure the settings this way, the image on the projector is distorted (looks like the 1280x800 is compressed into a 1024x768 space). This is also the case when I try to output to a regular monitor. Does anyone have experience with these wide screen notebooks that can tell me if what I'm trying to do is possible?

Thanks,

Amy

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Amy,

Notebooks with LCD screens are "set" at their native resolution. The only have so many pixels (in your case 1280 left to
right). You can tell the laptop to behave as if it's 1024....then it will either show you a small image in the middle of
your screen....or it will try and stretch a 1024 pixel image to fill 1280. Either way it looks horrible. LCD Projectors
work in the same way. So it's always best to get a match (laptop=1024x768 and 1024x768 projector)

It maybe great having a 1280x800 notebook to work on.....but not many projectors work at that resolution...most
1024x768.

Sometimes, on some laptops....you can say......"make that external/monitor port on this laptop....really work at
1024x768". The settings is normally hidden amongst the "bios" at startup...or within control
panel/monitor/settings/advanced.

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

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[TAJ Simmons]

Amy,

Be aware that some notebooks DO NOT have this facility.

TAJ

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Check the manufacturer's instrux for the laptop also.

My IttyBittyFujitsy has a widescreen ... um ... well, screen.
There are various functionkey tricks for kicking it into several modes, like
"Just spit it out the port and let the projector cope with it" (blech). But
it's possible to set it to 1024x768 instead of the default 1280x768 and put
black at either side; that works out well enough for the laptop and puts a
right-size image out to the projector.

I think it may have some other wonko trick where it sends a kind of movable
1024x768 window out but leaves the onboard display at its default and
autoscrolls somehow. TOo confusing to deal with while you're trying to speak
and mouse at the same time. ;-)

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Steve-

Stumbled upon the autoscroll wonko trick too. What we ended up doing was just outputting the distorted image and our engineer adjusted it in the switcher. Workaround for now anyway. Thanks for your response

Amy