4:3 in wide

[Merlin5]

I have a question about the term '4:3 in wide'. On my LG 23" monitor, which is 1920 x 1080, there's a 4:3 in wide function and mine is set to wide. This fills the whole screen. Is that true 16:9 aspect ratio? Been using it like this for a couple of years and all looks normal to me, very sharp, no stretching. Here's a screenshot from the manual.

The reason I ask is because I have a couple of old games which have no resolution options, and on my 1366 x 768 laptop there is a black border either side of the game screen. On my desktop LG monitor, because of the 4:3 wide, there's no black borders with the same games, unless I click the 4:3 option again to make it 4:3. While it gives a slightly stretched look to those games, I don't mind as it fills the screen.

Now if using 4:3 wide is true widescreen, then why isn't the game screen stretched on my laptop, as I assume my laptop is using 16:9 aspect ratio? I hope I'm making sense.

 

[Merlin5]

Your laptop is displaying the image with the correct aspect ratio having a black border either side.

With your desktop monitor all you're doing is stretching the same image so there's no black border.

It's not "true widescreen", it's simply the same image stretched out.

Yeah, I understand that the game is not true widescreen and is being stretched. So how do I get true 16:9 on my monitor? Even without loading the game and just viewing my desktop, If I don't use the 4:3 wide function, everything on screen has a black border either side and a slightly squashed image.

 

[Merlin5]

The 4:3 Wide probably kicks in only when the monitor detects a 4:3 signal. So if your computer is outputting 1920x1080, it doesn't matter what it says in the 4:3 setting. You're getting the "real" 1920x1080, in any case.

Now, if you're outputting like say 800x600 resolution, it will in Wide setting scale the horizontal 800 pixels to horizontal 1920 pixels, and vertical 600 pixels to vertical 1080 pixels. This means it will "distort" the original image, as the horizontal scale will be 1:2.4, whereas vertical will be 1:1.8.

While on the other hand, when in real 4:3 mode, it will first scale the vertical pixels, and get the 1:1.8, and use this same scale for horizontal pixels, meaning 1.8x800 = 1440 pixels. Therefore you will get 1920-1440 = 480 black pixels, which means 240 for each side. This maintains the aspect ratio, therefore not distorting the image, but at the expense of black bars.

I just saw your post after replying to Surveyor. I don't really understand all the technicalities of what you said, but in your first paragraph, it looks like I am getting true widescreen when the old 4:3 games aren't loaded?

 

[Merlin5]

Yeah, I'm set to 1920 x 1080. Well, I've just taken these quick pictures. With it set to 4:3 in wide, the whole screen is filled, and likewise, the old games fill the screen but are stretched. Without it as 4:3 in wide and just as 4:3, then it creates black borders on the desktop. So I'm assuming 4:3 in wide is as it's meant to be set then? Even with resetting the monitor to factory default, my windows desktop has black side borders unless I set it to 4:3 in wide.

http://i.imgur.com/Mzk6D.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KOTcp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4Yvjn.jpg

 

[Merlin5]

Ahhhh.... I'm going to assume here, that "4:3 in wide" means "compensate for a 4:3 picture that has *already* been stretched by your DVD player/skybox/media player to a 16:9 resolution".

This would be retarded, quite frankly, but hey ho.

It would be (at a guess) for people with devices that simply cannot output a 4:3 signal and always stretch it to a 16:9 ratio. Or for people who use software media players which do not have a "maintain aspect ratio" feature.

So a "feature" which is close to useless.

I made a mistake earlier saying resetting my monitor gives borders. I just reset it again and it's fine, whole screen is filled. So it's obviously giving 16:9. But then after doing the reset, if I press the button on my monitor, it shows that it's in '4:3 in wide'. By clicking the '4:3 in wide' again, it will then give borders allowing 4: 3 aspect ratio. So what I don't understand is, if by default the monitor is in '4:3 in wide' mode @ 1920 x1080, is that true 16:9? If it is 16:9, then what is the difference between that and my 16:9 laptop screen? The laptop in 16:9 gives black borders to old 4:3 games, and the desktop monitor in 16:9 stretches the old 4:3 games. I'm confused

 

[Merlin5]

You shouldn't be using the monitor's built in scaler for a PC signal. Leave your TV at whichever setting gives you the correctly proportioned image on the windows desktop.

If you want to play old (non-widescreen) games with 1:1 pixel mapping you need to adjust your graphics card's built in scaler which is accessed from the nVidia or ATi control panel. It should have options such as "Maintain aspect ratio" or "Fill screen" or "zoom".

Hope I've understood what you're trying to achieve

But that's the thing, after a reset of my monitor, the picture is the same as it's always been which is correctly proportioned, filling the screen. When I then look at that '4:3 in wide' by pressing the button on the side of my monitor, it seems to be by default in the wide setting, because if I press it again, it goes to 4:3 with borders. So I'm assuming the monitor is in 16:9. But if it is, then why is it treating 4:3 games differently from my laptop.

In my catalyst control panel, under properties (digital flat panel) there's an image scaling section with maintain aspect ratio, scale image to full panel size, and use centered timings. Radio button is set to scale image to full panel size, but all 3 options are greyed out. if I tick the box 'Enable GPU scaling', they're still greyed out.

Tbh, I actually would like to be able to stretch the old games on my laptop the way they're stretched on my desktop, but wasn't able to do it so far.

 

[Merlin5]

I just found this from LG , on a different model to my monitor

"4:3 in Wide
With the 4:3 in Wide Function, you can say goodbye to distorted images. Enjoy true widescreen images, without stretching or distortion."

http://www.lg.com/au/it-products/monitors/LG-22-inch-wide-screen-W2252TQ-PF.jsp

 

[Merlin5]

The setting is greyed out because the ATi driver programmers are stupid. (see here)

Your TV is treating 4:3 games differently from your laptop because it's a TV, not a monitor. The monitor in your laptop doesn't have a scaler built in and relies entirely on the option selected in the graphics drivers, whereas your TV does have a scaler built in (this is why I'm saying don't use the TV's scaling options, use the graphics card scaler instead using the workaround above). The setting in the laptop's graphics driver defines how the 4:3 game is displayed on the laptop screen.

Why do you say it's a TV? This is mine:
http://www.lg.com/uk/it-products/monitors/LG-lcd-monitor-W2361V.jsp

 

[Merlin5]

I've never seen a monitor with 4:3/16:9/Wide options. I assumed it had those options because it was a TV.

It does have a scaler built in though, just ignore where I called it a TV .

I got some weird ass monitor then
Nice picture on it though. Thanks for the help, I'll read that link you posted about How to Enable GPU Scaling Options in AMD Catalyst.

 

[Merlin5]

Hey asim, I sorted out the old games on my laptop based on what you were suggesting earlier. I have dual graphic switching on it, both intel HD3000 and a discreet AMD card. Through the intel control panel I was able to change from 'maintain aspect ratio' to 'scale full screen' and now those two old games of mine fill the screen. Stretched, but look fine. So, I'm happy. These are really old point and click games going back to 2005 that I've been meaning to play for years, so after these, I don't think I'll need to scale any others. But it's more immersive this way. I hate playing with borders so even slightly stretched looking suits me better.

 

[Merlin5]

Man, now I feel like an old man (which I'm not!). It was around 2005 that I played a really old point-and-click game (Simon the Sorcerer II, from 1995), that I hadn't played in years.

edit:
Speaking of old games, I'd recommend trying God of Thunder. It's from 1993, and nowadays freeware (probably need DosBox to play it). Hilarious puzzle-adventure in Nordic myth world.

Shall check that game out, thanks.

Nice one mate

Interestingly, after posting that, I loaded the game again and the black borders were back. I was like "huh, what happened?".

I noticed that those scaling options disappeared from the laptops intel control panel when I disconnected the laptop HDMI from my samsung TV. Reconnected to TV, re-enabled duplicate or projector only, and they reappeared. So by itself, the laptop doesn't stretch it, but connected to the TV, it does.