can i display a 4:3 image on my HDTV?

[Nvidiaguy07]

so i have a (somewhat) old sony HDTV that isnt widescreen. It supports up to either 1080i or p i think. I was able to hook my computer up to it via DVI to HDMI cable. By default it goes into 1280x720 mode and looks pretty bad. i set it to 1024x600 and it looks pretty decent now.

I want to be able to use the whole screen though, im getting bars on the top and bottom. If i set it to any other ratio like 1280x1024 or 1024x800(which would be perfect) it still gives me bars and stretches the screen out.

Is there anyway i can utilize the whole screen? If theres someway to edit the adapters native rez to something else maybe it'll work? Any ideas?

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

nothin?

 

[Cheesetogo]

Did you try 1024x768? None of the resolutions you mentioned are 4:3.

 

[BernardP]

Being a TV set and not a computer monitor, the screen is optimized for widescreen with letterbox in 16/9, or 480P in the 4/3 format.

When it sees a vertical resolution higher than 480, the TV will probably want to display in 16/9

I am betting you could fill the screen with a 640x480 or 720x480 resolutions, as these are TV formats the TV is expecting. These are poor resolutions for computer work, but they are OK for TV viewing

You could try to find the technical specs of your TV to see if there are other options available.