Widescreen monitor without 1:1 pixel mapping + ATI card = OUCH?

[TossedSalad]

Hi,
I just recently purchased a Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22" TFT-LCD widescreen monitor. I have an ATI radeon x1950pro. I have the latest catalyst drivers installed. In the catalyst control center, I have "Use centered timings" under Image scaling enabled, but this only seems to work for certain resolutions. I can tell by setting my desktop resolution to a 4:3 resolution, and if it gets centered, it works, if stretched, it doesn't.

Now, 640x480 is one of the resolutions it stretches, and there is a certain old game I absolutely love to play every now and then, and that is Starcraft. This game only runs at 640x480 resolution, and gets stretched across the screen. For me, it's unplayable unless it has its aspect ratio maintained with black bars on the sides. I'm told the Nvidia control panel has an option that does this, regardless of what widescreen monitor you have.

Starcraft is not the only game I'm having this issue with. Is there anything I can do to play these 4:3 games without them getting stretched? It seems my only option is to return this monitor and buy another one that supports 1:1 pixel mapping - which leads me to my next question:
It appears whether a monitor supports 1:1 pixel mapping or not is NEVER listed under technical specifications of a monitor, so how would I find this out when seeking a new monitor that does support it? Any help would be VERY appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Captante]

HardOCP display forum

You'll find tons of useful information regarding this sort of thing there.

 

[43st]

I have a similar issue with my LG L204WT and my X850. The monitor will stretch any 4:3 and 5:4 ratio image to fit, which pretty much ruins any game.

Nvidia actually handles it in a fairly ingenious way. I believe they insert black bars at the driver level, this fakes the monitor into thinking it's getting full resolution, but in fact it could be getting any resolution. It also doesn't effect frame rates since the Nvidia card only has to render what's within the black bars per say. This works perfectly with my 7900GS, on our second PC.

ATI doesn't do this at all. ATI just passes the straight pixels to the monitor and let's it decide. I've been using ATI cards for the most part since the 8500 series. I doubt I'll ever consider them again now that wide screen monitors are on the market.

I have found a solution though. I can create custom resolutions that are close to the 4:3 but enough to fake out the monitor, not the eye. This only works though if the game you're playing gets it's information from monitor .ini files, or can somehow be custom set. Powerstrip allows you to add custom resolutions.

 

[rickn]

I wonder if there is a way for people who's LCD's automatically stretch non-WS contect to get into their LCD's service menu and disable it.

 

[HannibalX]

I have the same monitor with an X1600 Pro 512 and haven't figured it out yet. It's a great monitor but it would be nice to not have 4:3 resolutions stretched.

 

[TossedSalad]

I have found a solution though. I can create custom resolutions that are close to the 4:3 but enough to fake out the monitor, but not the eye. This only works though if the game you're playing gets it's information from monitor .ini files, or can somehow be custom set. Powerstrip allows you to add custom resolutions.

Thanks, I will try this.
EDIT: I was able to get resolutions very close to 640x480, and they would center correctly, but broodwar refuses to start up unless in the 640x480 resolution. Thanks anyway.

 

[sodcha0s]

I've used Power Strip to get games to scale down on my 215TW, give it a shot.

 

[kmmatney]

The last time I tried to scale with my card, I found that I could only use resolutions where at least one side of the screen was at a native resolution. For instance, I can scale my monitor to a 4:3 resolution of 1400 x 1050, from the native resolution of 1680 x 1050. All other resolutions just stretched to full screen. Luckily, I don't run into this problem very often, and I can tolerate most games being stretched.

 

[CP5670]

I get the same problem with 640x480 on my secondary rig, even on an Nvidia card (the centered scaling options don't work at all for me). It's on a 5:4 LCD, so the stretching is not quite as severe but is still noticeable and annoying.

One thing that might work is to connect the VGA input to the machine as a second monitor (if the LCD allows you to switch between inputs quickly). Many LCDs let you modify the size, position and other parameters, which can be used to unstretch the image, but only on a VGA input. There will be no quality difference between VGA and DVI at such low resolutions anyway. I haven't gotten around to trying this myself though.