Widescreen Monitor

Post by **Avi** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:34 am

Hi guys,

I just picked up a 22 inch widescreen monitor for 220 bucks. I was messing around with some games on it last night to see how everything looks on that resolution setting, and I noticed that most of my games say 1280 x 1024 (LCD), but hardly any of them have 1600 x 1200 as an option. They show resolutions higher than 1280x1024, but not as high as what my monitor can display. Should I just leave them at 1280x1024, or just use the highest available setting? This is my first big upgrade in the monitor department (my last one was a 17 inch flat panel LCD), so I'm not too familiar with the numbers that I'm seeing.

Post by **data_ghost** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:20 pm

a cleverer person should come in a sec to enlighten you, but as far as i can tell, 1280x1024 is a 4:3 resolution. what are the resolutions higher than that? because they could either be for a 4:3 screen or a widescreen (16:9)

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:21 pm

I updated the FAQ a while back about using Tron 2.0 with a widescreen monitor. The same basic advice applies to almost every game out there.

http://www.ldso.net/tronfaq/pages/video.html

Scroll down to the part where it talks about widescreen. There's a setting in the nVidia and ATI drivers that lets you keep the aspect ratio correct when you play in a 4:3 resolution like 1280x1024.

Of course, this means you will get the dreaded "black bars". But it's either that, or put up with a stretched image.

If a game supports higher than 1280x1024, try to find a resolution that doesn't get stretched out of proportion when it scales up. Sometimes some games will allow you to select weird resolutions just for this reason. (e.g. 1400x1050 is an oddball resolution that will only have small black bars on the sides, so the image almost entirely fills your screen.)

Post by **Avi** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:35 am

Thanks guys, I got it all set now.

The one game that needed the most tweaking was Soldner. My character looked like he gained 75 pounds since the last time I played it. Adjusting the resolution slimmed him up pretty good, and now he's fit enough to run over endless miles of deserted map again.

Post by **Avi** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 6:37 pm

I want to create a dual monitor setup using my old 17 inch monitor placed on the shelf above my new widescreen monitor, but there's only one VGA output on my graphics card. Is there any way to convert the other 2 slots on my video card (DVI and S Video) to VGA so that my other monitor doesn't go to waste?

Anyone?

Anyone?

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 7:13 pm

Well, you could get a DVI to VGA adapter to drive the second monitor. But it would be pointless, because you'd get the same image on that other monitor.

Unless your video card documentation explicitly states that it supports dual displays (i.e. a different desktop on each monitor), then it doesn't. And only the most recent cards from nVidia and ATI support dual displays now. (Meanwhile, Matrox has been specializing in multi-display video cards for years.)

Post by **Avi** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:11 pm

The control panel for my graphics card has a "Detect Displays" option, and it mentions that my monitor is the primary one and the secondary monitor icon is grayed out...so it appears that I can run dual displays. I'll research it a little more anyway before I go find the adapter.

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:25 pm

Hmm, okay . . . after doing a little more research, it seems dual display support goes a bit further back than I originally believed. I thought it had only been a very recent development, but it seems that it dates back on both sides (nVidia and ATI) by about 2-3 years.

nVidia calls it nView, and ATI calls it Hydravision. So you may be in luck, especially if you're using XP. (I've read that nView currently doesn't work in Vista.)

Post by **Avi** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:10 pm

Sounds good. Maybe I can configure the overhead monitor to act as a rearview mirror for my Light Cycle!

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:17 am

Yeah, see it used to be that you had to have two separate video cards in order to have dual displays.

So it kind of shocked me to discover that nVidia and ATI have been supporting two displays (aka dual head) now for about 3 years. That used to be the exclusive domain of Matrox: which is the primary reason they're still in business. People who do CAD and so on, need multi-monitor support. And Matrox pretty much had a monopoly on that market for years.

Older nVidia and ATI cards supported cloning in the past, where every output would show the same image. But separate images? Independent desktops? That's a rather new development. And great news for consumers, I suppose!

Post by **Avi** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:21 am

I still don't have concrete proof that my vid card can show different displays, but I'm still digging through ATI's (AMD, actually) site. A woman at a local PC repair shop told me that a video card can only show one display at a time no matter what, so I don't know what to believe now. I guess I'll try navigating AMD's site for a few more hours until I get my answer.

My card is a Radeon X1600 512MB, so if anyone has any idea about that model of video card please feel free to chime in.

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:42 am

Avi wrote:My card is a Radeon X1600 512MB, so if anyone has any idea about that model of video card please feel free to chime in.

Yup, the X1600 supports Hydravision. ATI started supporting dual displays with the 9000 series of cards (9200, 9600).

Post by **Avi** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:37 am

So, do you think that getting a VGA to DVI adapter would do the trick? I read something about converter boxes that range up to $300 bucks, which in that case it would be cheaper to just buy a new video card with 2 VGA ports.

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:02 pm

A converter box isn't necessary. You can get a simple DVI to VGA dongle, for about $10 it looks like. I actually have one that came with my ATI card, so you might want to rummage around and see if maybe you got one with the card but forgot about it.

It would look like this: