Widescreen monitor problem

[saltee]

Hi
I hope I'm doing this right- this is my first post, and I'm also pretty computer stupid.
I have this Gateway 19" widescreen flat panel display, I'm not sure I like it, it distorts images (esp. photos, makes everyone look like porky pig I talked to the Gateway tech 3 times- there is no option in the software or OSD to change (but I've read otherwise, about aspect ratios and resolution) he told me I could try changing the resolution in windows (xp) display-settings, which I did, the 1024x768 setting is too wide, the next setting is 1280x720 which is too narrow! The happy medium seems to lie somewhere in between, where windows doesn't go, of course. Anything else I can try before I cart it back to the store? Whats supposed to be the benefits of these things anyway? I'm not impressed. The model is FPD1975W in case I get lucky and someone has one.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[sindustrial777]

A 19" widescreen monitor should always be put at a resoultion of 1440x900 anything lower than that will look bad. I have a westinghouse 19" wide so i understand what you must be seeing at those 4:3 aspect ratio resoultions. The monitor is 16:10. The best way to fix this is to go to your control panel then display then the settings tab and slide the screen resolution over all the way to 1440x900. If this isn't possible it means your graphics card doesnt support this resolution and the only possible solution is to buy a new card. I believe you can get one quite cheap that will support 1400x900. Hope this helps. Welcome to OSNN!

 

[saltee]

omg Thank you so much for this- you did in a 30 second post what the Gateway techs couldn't help me with all day Now all my text and graphics are very small though-what can I do about that?
Thanks

 

[sindustrial777]

Ha tisk tisk gateway.

Not sure what you can do about small text, generally when you get a higer resolution then you are used to (which I assume this monitor is) then everything will seem a bit smaller, it takes some getting used to, but on the bright side you have more room for everything in general!

 

[dz2k]

you can try the following if you havent already?! in Internet Explorer, go to View, Text Size, and make it Larger or Largest.

 

[saltee]

Well, this seems like an interesting and friendly forum, maybe I'll stick around and hopefully learn something. First techie type forum I 've found that didn't harass newbies I hope you can put up with my simplistic questions, and not laugh too hard:laugh
I've been reading- just what exactly is native resolution? Is it the max resolution the monitor can handle before image degradation?
The resolution you gave is fine for everything right now, but I'm wondering when my husband goes to play his games what will happen? He is a huge Age of Empires fan, I heard games can give you problems in widescreen- will I have to change the resolution back to the games preffered res everytime he plays? I also read something about changing the geometry that enlarges the window( like for instance I am playing a pinball game, and it is a little square box in the middle of the screen) Got to figure out how to get that geometry setting to stay on the OSD for more than 8 seconds though, must be some simple setting to keep it on longer- can't even get contrast or brightness buttons to work either. Gateway techs are useless, or just consider me another idiot customer...Give me 6 mos here, I'll show em whos an idiot...

 

[sindustrial777]

Yeah you show em! You'll find all the answers you need here, or at least someone who can refer you to a good source of info.

First off, yes, native resolution is the highest resolution a monitor can go before you get out of frequency (a resoultion that won't run the monitor) So in this case 1440x900. The native resoultion is what will look the best becasue it uses every pixel the monitor has as one pixel.

Many games support widescreen nativly but some taking a bit of work to get at this resolution, changing some of the files, adding a hack or something of that nature. Some games just flat out don't support native widescreen so you'll have to put up with it "streching" which can make things look less than perfect. It's a curse us widescreen gamers face. Though now more and more games are supporting widescreen, it's just possible some of your old games may not play on it (if you have any.)

Usually when you launch a game for the first time with your neew monitor it will be in a different resolution than native. If the game does support your res then you can simply change it to 1440x900 in the video options. If that doesnt work for you then its off to the greatest website for widescreen gamers ever created... The widescreen gaming forum. This site is my savior and is what got me into widescreen in the first place.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

From this site you can find the game you want to play by clicking on games, this will bring you to the master game list where you will hopefully find your game and how to get it into widescreen.

Phew, after that long winded answer I hope I have helped

EDIT: Awww, i regret to inform you that after looking at the game list on that site it looks like age of empires isnt widescreen complatible, your monitor will most likely just strech the game and scale accordingly, it'll run, but I can't guarentee quality .

EDIT 2: Unless it's age of empires 2 or 3 then you got yourself a good deal! See the game list on the widescreen gaming forum on how to get 2 into 1440x900, 3 is native , Hope it works out!!!