2 questions in 1!! how do I play games in its original aspect ratio?

[MustangSVT]

1) i have a 22" widescreen, when I play old games like SC it stretches it out. I am using the latest Nvidia drivers and I remember that there was an option to play with bars on the side to keep it original aspect ration in the video properties but I can't find it now. Do I need to change/add some registry value?

2)I was viewing some HD clips of tech demos for Crysis and the video playback was not smooth. Is it dependent more on the videocard or raw cpu performance? This is on a machine with ti4200 (sold my 6800 ) with o/ced sempy.

thanx ~

 

[kylebisme]

Run Splinter Cell in widescreen:

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

As for other games that you can't run in widescreen, I don't recall exactly where the centered timings options are in Nvidia's drivers but I'm sure someone else here can help you out with that.

As for the HD clips, More recent videocards decode various codecs, but I'm pretty sure it is all CPU on that old card regardless of what codec is used.

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
As for other games that you can't run in widescreen, I don't recall exactly where the centered timings options are in Nvidia's drivers but I'm sure someone else here can help you out with that.

The phrase the OP will be looking for in the nVidia control panel is "flat panel scaling." In the old control panel, this will be found on the monitor-specific tab such as "DVI display." In the new control panel, this will be found under Display/change flat panel scaling. In either case, the option you want is "fixed aspect ratio" as that will still allow scaling but ensure that the content is appropriately letterboxed.

 

[PingSpike]

If you're playing on a ti4200 and you can't get the options to work, try installing the 5x.xx drivers. I've been doing some research on this problem and I've read a couple threads where a guy couldn't get it to work anymore after upgrading his video drivers to the 6x.xx ones. In his case, he'd upgraded to a 6200 so he was stuck but that info may be useful for your situation.

 

[MustangSVT]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
If you're playing on a ti4200 and you can't get the options to work, try installing the 5x.xx drivers. I've been doing some research on this problem and I've read a couple threads where a guy couldn't get it to work anymore after upgrading his video drivers to the 6x.xx ones. In his case, he'd upgraded to a 6200 so he was stuck but that info may be useful for your situation.

ah, no wonder I couldnt find it. I guess its the driver issue... THANX!

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: MustangSVT

Originally posted by: PingSpike
If you're playing on a ti4200 and you can't get the options to work, try installing the 5x.xx drivers. I've been doing some research on this problem and I've read a couple threads where a guy couldn't get it to work anymore after upgrading his video drivers to the 6x.xx ones. In his case, he'd upgraded to a 6200 so he was stuck but that info may be useful for your situation.

ah, no wonder I couldnt find it. I guess its the driver issue... THANX!

Let me know if that works for you. I'm pretty curious actually, but I didn't have any of the necessary hardware to test the different drivers and see if this works. The thread I was reading the guy had previously had it working with a fx5200, not a gf4ti card so who knows?

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
2)I was viewing some HD clips of tech demos for Crysis and the video playback was not smooth. Is it dependent more on the videocard or raw cpu performance? This is on a machine with ti4200 (sold my 6800 ) with o/ced sempy.

Read this X-Bit Labs article on graphics card performance for video decoding.