Black bars in widescreen

[tigersty1e]

I just bought a cheap 19" widescreen Acer monitor and I want to game on a non-widescreen res.

Is it possible to have blackbars on the sides instead of strecthing the image?

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UPDATE: I found a ridculous solution. It's so stupid how this works. Credit goes to this guy who made the thread. I had to tweak his solution to make it work on my computer.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=26940&hl

In case the thread becomes lost here's the solution...

Okay, you go into the "NEW" nVidia Control Panel, and add the desired resolution, frequency, and bit color. Don't mess with anything else (just input the most basic info). Exit out and switch to the resolution you just made.

Go back to the Nvidia Control Panel, but this time you have to switch to the "OLD" style Nvidia Control Panel.

- Go in the tab with a name "Screen Resolutions and Refresh Rates"

- Click Advanced Timing and change flat panel scaling to "Fixed Aspect Ratio Scaling"

- From this screen, you only need to change 4 more things. Depending on what res you want you have to change it. My monitor native res is 1440 x 900. I wanted 1200 x 900.

1. Horizontal: Front-end active: 1200
2. Horizontal: Back-end active: 1440
3. Vertical: Front-end active: 900
4. Vertical: Back-end active: 900

Hit apply and 2 black bars magically appear.

 

[mpilchfamily]

I don't think there is. Are you not able to set the game to run at the native resolution of the monitor?

You coule play the game windowed so that it's not being streached.

 

[BlizzardOne]

not sure about nVidia, but my ati drivers give me the choice of having the image stretched or not..

 

[Stefx]

See if the monitor gives you the option of 1:1 pixel mapping.

If not, see if your video card driver does it.

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
I don't think there is. Are you not able to set the game to run at the native resolution of the monitor?

You coule play the game windowed so that it's not being streached.

If I set the native and the game doesn't support widescreen, then the top and bottom get chopped.

I paid 150 for the monitor so I don't expect this cheap thing to do 1:1 pixel mapping.

Anybody know if my video card can do this?

 

[nullpointerus]

The nVidia control panel should work fine for you. Just change the flat panel scaling option from the default to the setting that stretches but also preserves the aspect ratio, and you should get the expected black bars.

 

[Noema]

I used to that on my 22" WS ViewSonic and a 7800GS via the drivers; I'd get black bars on the sides when playing at nonWS resolution.

 

[tigersty1e]

I don't see anything in the Nvidia control panel that will allow this.

 

[vhx]

You need to use DVI to get flat panel scaling in NVIDIA's drivers I believe.

 

[zylander]

What games are you trying to play? Check out widescreen gaming forum, there are hacks/fixes for almost every game that doesnt support widescreen. The hacks look pretty good and most of them do not chop off the top and bottom.

 

[tigersty1e]

I'm trying to get widescreen to work in Swat 4. The only widescreen chops off the top and bottom.

BTW, I am using a DVI cable, but it's not working.

1440 x 900 ---what is the res in 4:3 format?

 

[kreidel]

Will there be an option for 1:1 pixel mapping on the monitor? Assuming a monitor has that feature.

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
BTW, I am using a DVI cable, but it's not working.

The flat panel scaling option is in the nvidia control panel, which you can open by right-clicking on your desktop and selecting Nvidia Control Panel. The page you want should be listed under the name Change Flat Panel Scaling:

http://www.tweakguides.com/images/NVFORCE_6b.jpg (picture)
http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_7.html (description)

1440 x 900 ---what is the res in 4:3 format?

1440 / 4 * 3 = 1080

1440x1080 is a nonstandard resolution. For it to appear in the game's list of available resolutions, you would have to add it as a custom resolution via the nvidia control panel.

 

[imported_Equinox]

NVidia cards ALL DO THIS. ATI cards do this only with the right drivers and the right monitor. Refer to the links nullpointerus indicated. Why ATI can't simply do this for every monitor is a mystery to me. They claim it is the monitors fault, but hook up an NVidia card to the monitor, and it scales just fine.

EDIT: Here, this whole link describes it, and even has pictures of the settings and drivers for both XP and Vista with NVidia cards: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=31&threadid=2074628

 

[tigersty1e]

Using this screenshot
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8679/8800gtsxpjj1.jpg
I clicked the appropiate box and the display gets all blurry. Just a jumbled mess of colors.

Help!


BTW, I did uncheck the Treat as HDTV box

 

[imported_Equinox]

Okay - you unchecked Treat as HDTV, and it was still fine, I am assuming. Then you checked use NVidia Fixed Aspect ratio scaling and it got blurry? In order for it to have the proper aspect it would have to be @ 1200x900 (4:3), i.e. 120 pixels worth of bars on either side. What resolution do you have the game set to? And when you say it got blurry, the desktop or your game when you launched it? 1200x900 isn't really a standard resolution - I'd imagine you are going to have to set it in the game to something like 1024x768.

BUT rather than doing all of that, try using the overscan compensation fix FIRST. This directly pertains to scaling issues with the video card, even though it implies it is for HDTV usage:

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi...d_adp.php?p_faqid=2064

Null is right that 1400x1080 is 4:3 - BUT you can't make your vertical exceed the limits - so in your case since 900 is the max vertical it is 900 * 4/3 = 1200. It must match the vertical pixel size, since that is as high as it goes.

To add a custom resolution it looks like this screenshot - note that at the bottom you have to input the way you want it to scale and the resolution. Then you hit test and it will ask you if you want to add it.

FIRST though, I use the Overscan patch from nvidia.
http://img54.imageshack.us/img...ustomresolutionvm1.jpg

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: Equinox
Okay - you unchecked Treat as HDTV, and it was still fine, I am assuming. Then you checked use NVidia Fixed Aspect ratio scaling and it got blurry?

Yes. It got blurry right when I checked use Nvidia Fixed Aspect ration scaling and hit Apply in the Nvidia control panel. The screen stays blurry for the default 15 seconds and then reverts back to the previcous selection because I don't (or can't even see) click the Yes box.

Originally posted by: Equinox
In order for it to have the proper aspect it would have to be @ 1200x900 (4:3), i.e. 120 pixels worth of bars on either side. What resolution do you have the game set to? And when you say it got blurry, the desktop or your game when you launched it? 1200x900 isn't really a standard resolution - I'd imagine you are going to have to set it in the game to something like 1024x768.

I can't even get to a game because the desktop doesn't display properly.

Originally posted by: Equinox
BUT rather than doing all of that, try using the overscan compensation fix FIRST. This directly pertains to scaling issues with the video card, even though it implies it is for HDTV usage:

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi...d_adp.php?p_faqid=2064

I'm at work right now, so I can't try this fix. But I'll do this when I get home. Is it possible to fix this without installing this patch because I hate installing more stuff on my computer?

Originally posted by: Equinox
Null is right that 1400x1080 is 4:3 - BUT you can't make your vertical exceed the limits - so in your case since 900 is the max vertical it is 900 * 4/3 = 1200. It must match the vertical pixel size, since that is as high as it goes.

To add a custom resolution it looks like this screenshot - note that at the bottom you have to input the way you want it to scale and the resolution. Then you hit test and it will ask you if you want to add it.

FIRST though, I use the Overscan patch from nvidia.
http://img54.imageshack.us/img...ustomresolutionvm1.jpg

I did add 1200 x 900 res in the custom res screen, but I do believe I left the scaling type as default (which is fixed aspect).

Regardless, when my monitor was in the native res of 1440 x 900 and I clicked the use nvidia fixed aspect ratio scaling, the screen shouldn't have gotten blurry.

BTW, if this does work, does this mean 1:1 pixel scaling works even with cheap monitors that don't have this support built into the hardware? Because this changes my options. This is one option I must have in an LCD, but only the higher end models have this option.

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: Equinox
...In order for it to have the proper aspect it would have to be @ 1200x900 (4:3), i.e. 120 pixels worth of bars on either side...

Null is right that 1400x1080 is 4:3 - BUT you can't make your vertical exceed the limits - so in your case since 900 is the max vertical it is 900 * 4/3 = 1200. It must match the vertical pixel size, since that is as high as it goes.

Doh! I can't believe I wrote that.

Originally posted by: tigersty1e

Regardless, when my monitor was in the native res of 1440 x 900 and I clicked the use nvidia fixed aspect ratio scaling, the screen shouldn't have gotten blurry.

BTW, if this does work, does this mean 1:1 pixel scaling works even with cheap monitors that don't have this support built into the hardware?

Yes, you're correct on both counts. When you use the fixed aspect ratio scaling option, the video card is still sending a native 1440x900 image to the monitor, but the video card is doing the cropping/upscaling required to make it a 1440x900. This includes any black bars or blurry scaling procedures.

But a 1440x900 image should require NO scaling or letterboxing of any kind, so your screen definitely should not have become blurry. Something else is up.

There's the off chance that you might've accidentally set your LCD to a higher refresh rate before clicking the apply button or whatever in the flat panel scaling page. 75Hz has done that to my VX2025wm LCD until I revert to the standard 60Hz.

Another possibility is that your nvidia drivers are old (i.e. before the 158.xx series), in which case the fixed aspect ratio scaling option will fail and in the process set the desktop resolution to something like 800x600. IIRC, if this happens, the same scaling page in the nvidia control panel will display an option to change your LCD's desktop resolution back to native. This problem can be fixed by upgrading your display drivers.

 

[tigersty1e]

With my 6800 card, I can't really use driver 158.xxx

I'm using 9X.XXX


My monitor only comes in 2 refresh rates - 60 and 75. I tried both frequencies.

 

[Fallen Kell]

You should be using 60Hz refresh. I don't know why 75 is even listed, it may cause problems with the panel. 99.9% of LCD screens use a fixed 60 refresh. A very small subset use a higher refresh (however, that number is growing now that 120Hz is possible, 120Hz is a magic number for video formats because standard TV uses 30 frames per second, movies use 24 frames per second and HD TV uses 60 frames per second. 120 is evenly divisible by all those formats, so there is no stuttering from having one frame displayed longer then originally intended so that it can be forced to fit in the 60Hz refresh rate of the panels).

 

[tigersty1e]

Mini update: I've tried both frequencies. I've come close twice but no cigar.

1. I've been able to get the image to stick to the center with black bars all around the image, but my desktop was set to 1200 x 900, so I don't know why there were black bars vertically.

2. I did the same exact steps a second time as I did to get results from 1. but this time instead of centering the image, the image was justified to the top left corner of the screen with black bars only on the bottom and right side forming a black L.

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: Equinox


BUT rather than doing all of that, try using the overscan compensation fix FIRST. This directly pertains to scaling issues with the video card, even though it implies it is for HDTV usage:

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi...d_adp.php?p_faqid=2064

I read through this fix and here's what they say, "However, with ForceWare Windows XP drivers v158.22 or higher, overscan compensation over DVI outputs can be enabled ...."

I'm using 93.71 drivers. Will this even work with my 6800 agp card?

 

[tigersty1e]

BTW, if you end up fixing this for me, you should go work for Nvidia and get paid a boatload of money.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=12956

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=66608

 

[tigersty1e]

Bump. Solution is in my first post.