[rominho]

Hi there,

sometimes I will connect my Dell Inspiron Laptop to my Toshiba Regza 37".
the procedure is quite straight forward, VGA cable from laptop to TV, put the TV on "PC output" and there you go.

The only problem is.... I will only get a 4:3 aspect ration out on the TV (even though both laptop and TV have a 16:9 screen) If i try to use the aspect ration control from the tv I only have to options: "Native" which will show the 4:3 output with black bars on right and left or "Wide" which which will stretch the screen to 16:9.

Now, say I am trying to watch a movie presented in 16:9 format, the output will come on TV automatically with 4:3 settings (black bars on top and bottom) if I change trhe TV screen to "Wide" it will only stretch the screen keeping the bars on top and bottom giving me a squashed image.

Anybody out there able to help?

[Andy98765]

What exact 37" Tosh have you got?
What exact res is the laptop set to?

[LINDY Chris]

Hi,

What video is it?

Are you sure these black lines are not 'hard-coded' to the video?

Best Regards

Chris

[rominho]

Originally Posted by Andy98765

What exact 37" Tosh have you got?
What exact res is the laptop set to?

My Tosh is a 37AV615DB (so annoying, bought it 6 months ago as a relatively "new model" and it's already discontinued)

I tried every possible resolution on the laptop. though I have to confess I am having a hard time adapting myself to doing these things using Vista. I have just got the laptop and am using Vista for the first time.

[rominho]

Originally Posted by LINDY Tech

Hi,

What video is it?

Are you sure these black lines are not 'hard-coded' to the video?

Best Regards

Chris

I tried with a movie downloaded from BBC iPlayer.

will try with something else tonight and will post here the result.

[rominho]

Originally Posted by rominho

I tried with a movie downloaded from BBC iPlayer.

will try with something else tonight and will post here the result.

Tried watching with a true 16:9 video and still get the black bars on top and bottom.

Any help out there?

[LV426]

You need to find out what the native resolution of the TV is and set the computer's graphics card to output at this resolution. One retail website says 1366x768 (if it's to be trusted) so, set your PC to this value.

[MarkTaylor]

Also check the manual to see what the maximum resolution is that it accepts over VGA as it is not uncommon to find this is different to the maximum native resolution.

[LV426]

Agreed. But the point is - you need to be using a resolution which is inherently 16x9 in ratio. 1366x768 is; 1280x720 is (examples). 1024x768 isn't; 1280x1024 isn't; 800x600 isn't....

[Joe Fernand]

It sounds like your have two separate issues to deal with - if you have Black Bars Left and Right the TV is receiving a 4:3 ratio signal from the Laptop.

If within that 4:3 'window' you have Black Bars Top and Bottom of the screen its either that the content you are playing is narrower than 16:9 or your video player is configured badly.

As others have said your first step is to find out what signals the Display supports on its VGA input - the TV User Manual should list them; once you identify what 16:9 format signals it supports via VGA (assuming it supports any!!!) you then need to set the Laptop to that signal on its VGA Output port.

Joe