Aspect ratio problem

[Hatta]

It appears to be PC tech help week here on Racketboy , so I thought I'd ask this here.


I have a Samsung Slimfit 4:3 CRT HDTV with HDMI input. I have it connected to an ATI HD 4350 via a DVI->HDMI converter cable. The PC is running Windows 7(at least for the purposes of this discussion) 64 bit with the latest Catalyst drivers (11.5).

My problem is that the PC seems to think that the TV is 16:9, when it is not. It gives me 16:9 video modes which display fine on my TV when it's in 16:9 mode, with black bars on top. It's stretched if I put it in 4:3 mode. The driver does offer 4:3 video modes, but it displays them with black bars on the sides! This means any 4:3 game I want to play is surrounded by black bars on all 4 sides.

Now I know this isn't a hardware problem, because 90% of the time this thing is running XBMC on Linux with the proprietary Catalyst driver. In Linux I can run 4:3 or 16:9 modes as needed, and they look correct when the TV is in the correct mode. I can't be the only person who wants to do this, so there has to be a fix. I looked through all the options in the Catalyst Control Panel and couldn't find anything that looked relevant.

Is it possible to get Windows to stretch 4:3 games to fill a 16:9 display, ignoring aspect ratio? If I could do that, I could use a 16:9 mode (which would fill the screen horizontally) and change the TV to 4:3 mode (which would stretch the 16:9 mode vertically). I dunno, any thoughts?

[Stark]

Sounds like Windows assumes that your TV is 16:9 because it is outputting on HDMI? That's crazy. No ideas here.

[Hatta]

Yeah, I did consider hooking it up through component instead. But my card didn't come with the component video dongle.

[Hatta]

Edit: Damn, thought I fixed it but it switched me back to a stretched resolution. I don't get it.

[Hobie-wan]

XP has an option in the display stuff to 'hide modes my monitor doesn't support'. Maybe your PC isn't quite sure what your display is capable of and is incorrect. See if there's a similar option in W7 to make it show you all the modes and maybe you can then select one that's proper.

[d123456]

Usually a monitors resolution already determines the aspect ratio. For instance
1280X1024 and 1024X768 are usually 4:3 aspect ratios.
1920X1080 are usually 16:9 aspect ratios.
In theory when selecting the correct resolution, it should fill the screen.
Always set your pc to the native resolution of your monitor. When you get black bars, it obviously means you are not using the correct resolution. If you get a widescreen image on your 4:3 monitor it means increase the vertical resolution.
As an example:
Let´s say you set it to 1920X1080. You get black bars on top and bottom.
This would mean you would have to increase the 1080 to something like ooohh. I dunno. 1400?
Check the specs of your monitor. It should say on the back the correct resolution.
Another route is to install your monitor. Just go to the manufacturers site and there should be an installer package somewhere. It should workout. Let us know if your aspect ratio is stil lfuxured.