image stretched on widescreen monitor

blackswan2

I have just replaced my bust monitor with a widescreen one .... but the images are all stretched.

My Dell PC is running Windows XP home (sp3) and the new monitor is an Acer 21.5" monitor with a screen resolution of 1920x1080 (P225HQBD).

Any helpful advice appreciated - I presume I have to specify the resolution somewhere, but don't know where!

Thanks!

PS I won't be able to act on any advice until Friday.

googler

I had the same problem.

Advice seemed to be - update the driver for my graphics card, as the original one dated from [re=widescreen days.

I did this, but now find that if I select resolution(s) where the images aren't stretched, I can't read the text on the screen, and the resolutions where text is legible are the ones that stretch. Ho-hum.

warehouse

Place the mouse in the middle of an empty desktop, right click, select properties, click the settings tab and select the new resolution from there.

If the resolution isn't available, update the monitor driver with a CD provided, then repeat the above.

totalsolutions

Right click desktop select properties and go from there. Its best to restart the pc first having set the monitor to basic vga. Then install the new drivers. Win 7 should do this for you. You may find the old video card cannot drive the desired resolution to the new settings 1920x1080, the upper limit might be say 1024x800. Then you need to upgrade the video card.

NiVZ

Hello,

1920 x 1080 is the highest widescreen resolution you can use (equivalent to 1080i or 1080p in HD terms)

If you divide 1920 by 1080 you get 1.78 which is widescreen aspect ratio.

If you mean that full screen images (eg desktop wallpaper) are being stretched this is because most photos or images you will have will have aspect ratio of 1.33 or 1.5 which are square screen.

When a square screen picture is displayed on widescreen it is often stretched horizontally. You're only options are to have vertical bars at the left and right edges, or crop (ie lose) some of the top or bottom of the image.

If you can tell us exactly which images (eg desktop background, or photos, etc) that would help to provide more specific advice.

As other have said, right click an empty part of the desktop, choose properties then screen resolution. Check to see what resolution it is using. Make sure the resolution you choose is widescreen (divide width by height and it should be close to 1.78) If you divide the numbers and it's closer to 1.33 then that will cause stretching.

NiVZ

spud17

Presumably you used the 'Auto' button on the monitor?

Sorry if it doesn't have one but my 19 inch Acer has.

googler

NiVZ wrote: »

If you mean that full screen images (eg desktop wallpaper) are being stretched this is because most photos or images you will have will have aspect ratio of 1.33 or 1.5 which are square screen.

So you're telling me that if I go out and buy a brand-new PC with a matching widescreen monitor, that whenever I display a webpage with a 4x3 photo, preview or display a 4x3 photo of my own, or display a document containing a 4x3 photo, that photo will always be stretched unless I set my monitor to display a 4x3 box with black lines on each side....???

If so, someone in the computer industry really hasn't thought this through.....

blackswan2

thanks all - not at home at present … I did press the Auto button, display wobbled a little but doesn't seem any different.

After starting this thread I installed the software from the CD that came with the monitor but on restart the PC crashed with a STOP error, tried again with the same results so started in safe mode and uninstalled the acer software.

Will try right click / properties tomorrow.

amcluesent

>So you're telling me that if I go out and buy....<

Nope, once the video card is set to match the display resolution then it all works fine.

freddi_2

that photo will always be stretched unless I set my monitor to display a 4x3 box with black lines on each side....???

It has always been like that, just look at old 4 X 3 TVs displaying a widescreen film, you either had black bands at the top and bottom, now when you get a 4 X 3 picture on a widescreen TV you get black bands at the sides.

It is the laws of physics, how on earth do you think you can fit a 4 X 3 picture on a widescreen without distortion or black bands?

moonrakerz

How old is your PC ? It may well be that your graphics chip/card is just not capable of driving your new monitor.

Go into Control Panel - Display and see the highest resolution that your PC will support. If it less than your new monitor you will get distortion.
In that case you will need to buy a new graphics card that will support the resolution of your new display.