Widescreen afficianados: help with web pages, games, and pics

[Superguy]

Hey all,

I'm currently deciding between two laptops at work. One had a widescreen and the other doesn't. The widescreen model is a Dell Latitude D810 with the WUXGA Ultrasharp display.

I'm liking the quality of the screen, however, I have some questions.

Is it possible to have web pages center on the screen? Most pages barely fill half the screen, so I feel like I'm always looking left and have my head cocked funny.

Second, how do widescreens work with games? I don't think most games I have support widescreen, so would it look funny or can I have the "black bars" on the side?

Lastly, what are recommended resolutions for pictures, like wallpaper? My current pics were made for a 4:3 screen, so they look funny stretched. Or is there software that will automatically correct this?

Thanks,

Super

 

[EvilRage]

Originally posted by: Superguy
Hey all,

I'm currently deciding between two laptops at work. One had a widescreen and the other doesn't. The widescreen model is a Dell Latitude D810 with the WUXGA Ultrasharp display.

I'm liking the quality of the screen, however, I have some questions.

Is it possible to have web pages center on the screen? Most pages barely fill half the screen, so I feel like I'm always looking left and have my head cocked funny.

I can't find any settings in IE or Firefox that auto-center a webpage, so the only way to do it is to 'restore down' a browser window and manually resize it to where you want it. That works plenty, though.

Second, how do widescreens work with games? I don't think most games I have support widescreen, so would it look funny or can I have the "black bars" on the side?

Older games will almost always automatically stretch for widescreen, so you're probably out of luck there. (Although that hasn't kept me from playing Starcraft on my 2405) I believe there's a way you can force the black bars on the sides, but I haven't looked into it so I can't say. SOME newer games have widescreen support, even if it's not official. Check out the Widescreen Gaming Forum for details on which games support what resolutions and what you need to have them do that.

Lastly, what are recommended resolutions for pictures, like wallpaper? My current pics were made for a 4:3 screen, so they look funny stretched. Or is there software that will automatically correct this?

Depends on your screen resolution. WUXGA supports up to 1920x1200, which is the resolution I use. I've found some 1920x1200 resolutions through google image search, some on DeviantArt and other art websites, and I've taken 1600x1200 images and added 320 pixels to a side, blended them, and used that. You can try any of those approaches, or you can simply take a 4:3 image and tell windows to center it, in which case it'll put bars on the sides for you, and possibly the top and bottom if it's not a 1600x1200 image.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Superguy
Is it possible to have web pages center on the screen? Most pages barely fill half the screen, so I feel like I'm always looking left and have my head cocked funny.

Use something like Proxomitron and add a universal filter to add a <center> tag around every website. As a plus, that program also blocks net ads.

 

[Superguy]

Thanks. I'll try these suggestions and see how it works. Might have to tweak a little to get it to work with our proxy script, but it looks promising.