Trying to clone displays

I apologize if my post offended you guys in any way. I’m not as advanced in those things as you are.
To me “clone” (as it states on the Catalyst) was simply showing the desktop on my TV at the same time with the native resolution left on the desktop. To be honest with you I never looked closely on the TV to see if any part of the desktop is missing or something. As long as it was not in “extend” mode. Whatever it was/is on XP is good enough for me to edit and play the movies since it would fill up the entire TV screen. And this is what I’m shooting for in Windows 7. Now that I understand what exactly “clone” means, let me rephrase what I need. I need to be able to see my desktop on the entire TV screen at the same time with my 1600X1200 monitor resolution left as is. As long as the movie that I play on the desktop will be full screen on TV.
So how do I keep my monitor’s resolution while doing that? As soon as I click on “duplicate”, Windows changes it to 1440X900 and I can’t change it.
Here is a little video of the way it is on Windows XP. And this is what I want it to be on Windows 7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5pA...ature=youtu.be

Kari said:

Why is it so important you must have the movie showing on both displays

Because when I edit movies/videos I like my mouse to be on the computer desktop in front of my eyes where the editing program is and not on TV even though it's in the same room. I can always turn my head or even come closer to the TV to see how the borders etc look like on 16:9 but not going there with the mouse :)

Kari said:

• 
  
  • Maximum available resolution determined by the display with smallest maximum resolution, for instance a dual display setup with one display 800 X 600 max resolution and other display 1920 X 1080 resolution, resolution used when duplicated maximum 800 X 600 on each display
  
  

I understand now. So if I want to do a dual display setup with one display 1600X1200 max resolution (in my case) and other display 1920X1080 max resolution, is it possible to somehow keep that 1600X1200 resolution on my monitor and have the same result you saw in the video?

rmike1991 said:

I understand now. So if I want to do a dual display setup with one display 1600X1200 max resolution (in my case) and other display 1920X1080 max resolution, is it possible to somehow keep that 1600X1200 resolution on my monitor and have the same result you saw in the video?

When you "extend" the Windows desktop, EACH monitor is utilized at its native resolution and the Windows desktop extended horizontally across them both.

You can then pull any program window onto either screen depending on what you want or need at the time, and keep it in window mode or maximize it to full screen (on that monitor).

So when you're working on video editing you would pull the program window onto your monitor in front of you, and it would use up to the entire 1600x1200 area of the Windows desktop that is visible on that monitor. If you wanted to PLAY a movie you could drag the window over to the TV monitor, and it would play there... in true 16x9 1920x1080 resolution.

Note: since your two monitors have different vertical height, when you drag a window from one monitor to the other there might be what looks like a loss or increase of vertical window size. But this is the natural result of having two different size/shape display devices.

What's important about "extend" mode is that the two monitors are entirely independent, with each presented at its native resolution. And the entire 2-monitor space is one large consolidated Windows desktop, so that you can drag windows across both of them as you want.

Guys, thanks for your replies. I knew how to do the extended mode from the very beginning. The reason I started this thread is to find out how to do the clone or I should say duplicate the displays (you know what I mean by now). I also understand that if I do the "extend" mode I'll have the native resolution on both. But this is not what I want. I want them both running 1600X1200 with the stretch on TV to full screen. Is that possible to do?

AddRAM said:

Is your memory running in dual channel with 10 GBs ? If not I`d fix that.

8 GB in dual channel is better then 10 GB in single channel.

Could you please explain that to me. I have no idea what you're talking about. How do I check if my memory is running in dual channel or not?

rmike1991 said:

Guys, thanks for your replies. I knew how to do the extended mode from the very beginning. The reason I started this thread is to find out how to do the clone or I should say duplicate the displays (you know what I mean by now). I also understand that if I do the "extend" mode I'll have the native resolution on both. But this is not what I want. I want them both running 1600X1200 with the stretch on TV to full screen. Is that possible to do?

We're back to the exact definition of what "clone" mode is and how it works.

Your YouTube clip shows what I had described previously, which relates to viewing what is clearly a 16x9 image on two different aspect ratio screens. When you display a 16x9 image on a 16x9 screen it fills the screen. When you display a 16x9 image on a 4:3 screen it gets "letterboxed" (i.e. black bars on top and bottom, to center the OAR 16x9 rectangular shaped image vertically while extending it the full left/right horizontal width of the screen).

However this doesn't mean you're not watching both display devices at 1600x1200. It's just that since the 16x9 TV screen is actually "less tall" than your 4:3 monitor, there are no black bars to display on the TV while still presenting the rectangular image to fill out the entire rectangular shaped screen. In contrast, that rectangular shaped image is "centered" as appropriate on the 4:3 screen, i.e. that's what is meant by "letterboxed 16:9".

Now, can you make a duplicate of that YouTube clip showing what it looks like with Win7? I'm curious to see what, if anything, is different. Again, picture = 1000 words, so this demonstration approach is perfect.