Who Has Ze Widescreen Monitorz?

TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
edited January 2007 in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">And can I stop ze stretching?</div>So my family caved and bought a freaking huge 22" widescreen display. I enjoy it. Is there any program, though, that I can install so I can run it at, say, 1024x768 (or whatever) with black bars on either side? This would be nice when I'm playing old games or something so they don't get all stretchy. It's a Samsung monitor in case this is actually built in and I just can't find it in the menu.

And if you're wondering about a widescreen yourself, this one is very nice. No ghosting or anything and a nice contrast ratio and all that jazz. It's a SyncMaster 225BW and it costs exactly as much as a 19" normal aspect ratio flatscreen cost 2 years ago (only this one includes a DVI cable which the other one didn't), whatever that was. Progress!

Edit: I could also use a nice desktop image. My old one is awful and pixelly now.
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Comments

  • [WHO]Them[WHO]Them You can call me Dave Join Date: 2002-12-11 Member: 10593Members, Constellation
    You'll have to look for something in the monitor manual or the video card drivers. I remember that for my 30" Dell monitor I had to run without SLI or Antialiasing (can't remember which) to get odd resolutions to do anything but run in the upper left corner.

    On a related note, Dell monitors are freaking sweet. They're good quality with none of that ghosting/trailing crap. And usually have USB ports and various memory card readers built into the side.
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  • QuaunautQuaunaut The longest seven days in history... Join Date: 2003-03-21 Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    I'm currently using a ViewSonic VX2025wm, 20.1" widescreen(16:10 ratio, not 9).

    I love it.

    I don't have a solution for your problem, but my monitor was "expressly made for gaming purposes": I've never once seen ghosting, trails, or anything, it has a huge color range(it can pull off pitch black), and has a 2-4ms update time. <3
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  • Iced_EagleIced_Eagle Borg Engineer Join Date: 2003-03-02 Member: 14218Members
    Not sure if there's any software fix you can get, but I would look online for the documentation for the games that you wish to run. Usually you can pass resolutions as a run-time argument that will allow it to run in widescreen res. Just curious, which games are you trying to run that are getting stretched?

    Also, T_h_e_m is totally right in saying that Dell monitors rock. Now if only I could afford one (even with a student discount they are way too expensive)

    <a href="http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=222-0863" target="_blank">http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/product...mp;sku=222-0863</a>
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    To be 100% honest, I actually haven't played a game yet (don't have a lot of free time at this moment). I just figure that stuff like TIE Fighter or Arcanum will just stretch out, because when I set the monitor to, say, 640x480, everything stretches out.
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  • CokeCoke Join Date: 2003-06-20 Member: 17533Members, Constellation
    If you have an nvidia card, the option is available in the drivers in the flat panel scaling section (newer driver setup) or digital flat panel settings (older look). I'm assuming ATI has something similar, but I wouldn't know where it is. If you are using some sort of integrated graphics, you may be sol.

    Also, my monitor (a dell) can do scaling itself. It has options for 1:1, aspect and fill (although aspect doesn't work so well for infrequently used resolutions, but 1024x768 is fine). It is possible yours may have the same.

    I don't know of any 3rd-party software that can do it, so your video drivers are your best bet.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    I did a little research and although nVidia has this thing wrapped up, ATi managed to remove it from their drivers somewhere around 6.4 or 6.5. So now it's gone. Forever.

    On the plus side I realized that games don't look bad at all stretched across the monitor. The effect is subtle at best even in text-heavy RPGs like Arcanum. And most of the games have some sort of fix. I still hope for a day when ATi realizes that they were idiots for taking the fixed aspect scaling out, but hey, they're ATi. I'm just happy my next 3d card's gonna be an nVidia. I'm getting tired of ATi's silly crap.
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  • Iced_EagleIced_Eagle Borg Engineer Join Date: 2003-03-02 Member: 14218Members
    I would suggest checking out <a href="http://guru3d.com/" target="_blank">http://guru3d.com/</a> and seeing if there is any custom drivers on their site that have the option you are looking for. At the least check out their forums since someone has probably posted a problem like this before.


    BTW, you have any pics of it sitting on your desk? I wanna see it!
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    edited January 2007
    <a href="http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=208736" target="_blank">As this thread so readily indicates</a>, ATi knows full well how to do the bars on the side thing, and used to include it for laptops and desktops and stuff. Stupid ATi.

    The following picture is slightly less impressive when you realize the computer has a Radeon 9600 inside and not some sort of awesome 3d card.

    <img src="http://home.comcast.net/~ronnaround/Widescreen.JPG" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
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  • ZupiCoZupiCo Custom titles rule&#33; Join Date: 2003-03-22 Member: 14792Members
    I think <a href="http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm" target="_blank">PowerStrip</a> allows you to display a "resolution-within-a-resolution", so you could feed the monitor with the proper resolution and the actual game would be placed in the middle of that resolution, although 640*480 would be tiny on high-res monitors.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    Right, the idea is to stretch it out as much as possible except still maintain the aspect ratio.
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  • ThaldarinThaldarin Alonzi&#33; Join Date: 2003-07-15 Member: 18173Members, Constellation
    Your mousepad and keyboard are ugly. Get new ones.
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  • JimmehJimmeh Join Date: 2003-08-24 Member: 20173Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1594882:date=Jan 4 2007, 09:47 PM:name=Thaldarin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thaldarin @ Jan 4 2007, 09:47 PM) [snapback]1594882[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Your mousepad and keyboard are ugly. Get new ones.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Your face is ugly. Get a new one.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1594882:date=Jan 4 2007, 01:47 PM:name=Thaldarin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thaldarin @ Jan 4 2007, 01:47 PM) [snapback]1594882[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Your mousepad and keyboard are ugly. Get new ones.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    This is not ugly. The mousepad, though, I'll concede.

    <img src="http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/images/dinovo.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
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  • Iced_EagleIced_Eagle Borg Engineer Join Date: 2003-03-02 Member: 14218Members
    Man, I want dual-screens so bad <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

    Anyways, if Guru3d has nothing, I'm not sure... I mean the obvious workaround is to display it on the other normal 4:3 aspect monitor... It's not that bad once you consider that the game would probably display itself on the other screen at the same size if you found a way to put black bars on there...

    The other better, but more expensive workaround would be to get an nVidia card. It's time to retire the 9600 anyways! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
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  • ThaldarinThaldarin Alonzi&#33; Join Date: 2003-07-15 Member: 18173Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1594895:date=Jan 4 2007, 10:50 PM:name=Jimmeh)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jimmeh @ Jan 4 2007, 10:50 PM) [snapback]1594895[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Your face is ugly. Get a new one.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    The humour is lacking, troll.
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  • KaineKaine Join Date: 2002-08-07 Member: 1096Members, Constellation
    i have a (cheap proview) 22" widescreen and an NVidia card (7800GTX) and the adjustments for this sort of thing don't work for me, i just get a garbled screen when i try to use anything other than "Monitor Scaling" its very irritating because i'd really rather play stuff at 1400 x 1050 than stretched to 1680 x 1050.
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  • BlooBloo Village Fool of UWF Join Date: 2006-11-09 Member: 58497Members
    edited January 2007
    Tychos keyboard is the best keyboard...ever

    <- i has same keyborad

    Therefore. it owns.

    i also hate playing wc3, C&C Generals, doom 3 and other "Old" games with THE BAAARRRZ on the side of my screen (15,5 Widezors)

    i am currently running Radeon X550/x700 and for some reson that 0,1" prevents my display from displaying anything but 1289 x 800 x 60 hertz <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
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