Change aspect ratio

[edithegodfather]

Umm, how do you change the aspect ratio for the desktop? I'm currently on 1680x1050 resolution on a 23' sort of winde screen but it's obvious that the image is stretched along it's height to fit the screen. Normally this would have been the recomended screen resolution but the monitor is not wide enough xD so untill a bit earlier i ran my screen in 1330x1024, it was a bit foggy but at least it fitted well.
I've uopdated my video driver (nvidia) to v190 and now everything's gone crazy, my old resolution doesn't work anymore, the aspect ration doesn't change from 16:9 (or 16:10, i don't know) to 4:3 and the image looks too squary and is sticked to the right side of the screen so there's a big black area in the left side.
The 1680 resolution doesn't look well either cuz it's too wide for my screen.
I need to know how to change the desktop aspect ration from 16:9/10 (don't know) to 4:3. Any info i might use?
I also have a screenshot
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/262/43985370.png
hope you can see the stretching.

Thnx

 

[Destr5ct]

Hmm... Interesting.
If the native resolution of your monitor is 1680×1050, then it should look okay using that resolution, without any distortion, or stretching. If your monitors aspect ratio is 4:3, then the native resolution cant be 1680x1050.
In this case the screenshot is useless, can't be seen anything wrong on it.
Can you post a photo of your monitor instead of taking screenshot with the computer? Then we will see I think.

I don't know about nvidia video card settings, I have an ATI card. But in the card's settings, if i set a not native resolution, there is option to center, or stretch the display. There must be something like that in the Nvidia control panel too. Maybe that helps.

 

[edithegodfather]

Umm, well the monitor's native resolution is 1680 but it doesn't look well (it looks a bit stretched vertically) at aspect ratio 16:9, only 4:3 resolutions look good. So before i updated my video driver i used resolutions that apply on that ratio (1330x1024 and/or 1365x1050) and it fitted, now the same resolutions will look as stretched vertically as 1680 and it will be a very big black area on the left side of the screen (using the monitor buttons to fit the image won't help cuz it's too discentered).
When i first installed windows 7 i kinda had the same problem with image not fitting well but it got solved after i installed the video driver (old one), now i updated it cuz when playing red faction guerrilla i got some video glitches and it's everything as it was before.
Also when playing some old crappy game with no resolution change (ex. starcraft) i'll get some vertical black stripes (like you get at the movies only they're not horizontal) and it's reeeeally reeeeally annoying.
Anyway, does this have to do with windows or with the video drivers?

PS: I'll try to make a photo but i don't have any fancy digital hd camera, only available device is my cell phone which is probably as good as those cameras in the 30's xD , i'll post one tomorrow, hope anyone can decipher anything.

 

[Kari]

Could you please tell the make and the model of your monitor.

Kari

 

[noyb]

A screen shot is a picture of what's going to the monitor .. Not what's on the monitor.

Just for another way to test your settings ....
If the attached Circle/Square isn't displayed Round and Square ...
Your driver setting's aspect ratio doesn't match the monitor.

 

[edithegodfather]

Could you please tell the make and the model of your monitor?

LG W2241S 23'

If the attached Circle/Square isn't displayed Round and Square ...
Your driver setting's aspect ratio doesn't match the monitor.

Yep, that's right. I see them both stretched vertically.

[Edit]

I managed to make some photos of my desktop, you won't be able to see mouch but the black areas are visible.

http://img36.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=img0102wa.jpg

 

[Kari]

OK, one thing we definetely know now is that the native resolution for your monitor is 1680 * 1050, aspect ratio 16:10. If the the picture is not correctly presented using this resolution, you have to adjust the display settings in the monitor.

Go to settings menu of your monitor and adjust the settings for horizontal and vertical size and position. You could also try to reset your monitor from the menu.

Kari

 

[edithegodfather]

I tried those they didn't work. But here's a thing i found out, the problem can be solved if i go into timing at nvidia's control panel>create custom resolution window, there if i choose gtf the resolution will fit the screen perfectly .

 

[noyb]

Not sure I understand ???
If the ratio of these numbers = 1.6 .. it should've worked.
M$ could've made it easier and showed us the Ratio

 

[edithegodfather]

My best ratio is somewhere between 1.3-1.4. Anyway, i solved the desktop issue but i didn't solve the old-crappy-games-with-no-resolution-change issue , the game appears with black stripes on the edges, that goes for diablo 2 and starcraft.

[Edit]

Solved this one too, you just have to make another resolution of 800x600 on gtf preset and at 16-bit color, even if you're not going to use it still the game will recognize it .