How can I change the aspect ratio from widescreen to.. not-widescreen

[SteelShark]

I would like to state first that I've searched the forum for this question with reasonable effort and I could not find this particular one or an answer to it.

I have a widescreen monitor. There are some old games I like to play which do not have widescreen resolutions, and as a result, the graphics are stretched wide to fit my monitor.

I would like to force my widescreen monitor to display things like a "non-widescreen" (what ever that aspect ratio is officially titled) would, and I would like it to do this by having black letterbox bars on the side(s) of the screen and squishing whatever is being displayed to fit inbetween these bars so that it may be seen un-stretched as though the monitor were not wide-screen at all.

My monitor is made by LG and is a "FLATRON L222WT"

Thank you. I hope someone here can help.

 

[richc46]

Im not an expert in this area but with trial and error, you may be able to work it out with DPI and resolution
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/443-dpi-display-size-settings-change.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/255-screen-resolution-display-settings.html

 

[xarden]

Does your monitor itself have settings that will adjust the ratio?

 

[SteelShark]

Does your monitor itself have settings that will adjust the ratio?

It might, but if it does, I do not know how to use it. I've been unable to find any sort of user manual, but it is made by the company LG and is a "FLATRON L222WT"

 

[xarden]

Try this link. The owners manual is at the bottom.
Refer page A8.

That should help somewhat.

 

[SteelShark]

Try this link. The owners manual is at the bottom.
Refer page A8.

That should help somewhat.

I found a part about 4:3 but it didn't sound like it was saying anything about how to change it to that with bars on the sides.

Maybe you or someone else knows about a third party program or Nvidia settings (I have a BFG GTX295 fan cooled graphics card) which could do the same job?

 

[logicearth]

Look in Nvidia's control panel, might be under the monitor settings.

 

[xarden]

Page A15, sorry.
It says right there...

ARC To select the image size of the screen.
FULL ORIGINAL

Resolution Screen ratio
1280x1024 5:4
1152x864 4:3
1024x768 4:3
800x600 4:3
640x480 4 : 3
720x480 3 : 2

* ORIGINAL : Depending on the input video signal ratio,
it is automatically changed to an optimized screen
ratio. (The 1280X1024 input signal is changed
to 5:4 ratio and 1024X768 to 4:3.)
❈ The input signal which the ARC does not support the 'ORIGINAL'
is the following.
- The 22 inch monitor is 720x400,1280x768,1360x768,1680x1050

What is your screen resolution? It should not be one of the ones I made bold.

 

[gregrocker]

I believe you can make these changes in Screen Resolution by rightclicking the Desktop, as Rich suggests.

 

[Lordbob75]

Run the games in windowed mode?

~Lordbob

 

[Pusspa]

nvidia control panel has a setting for flat panel scaling

 

[SteelShark]

Found it ^_^, it was on my monitor settings in that section at the bottom that looks like a gear, that manual helped, wasn't quite sure how to navigate the OSD before that, and I was afraid of messing stuff up by doing it wrong. Thanks.

 

[xarden]

Glad to hear it,