External monitor question.

B

bez

Registered
Hi all. I have recently purchased a 17" widescreen monitor for my pc, with the intention of hooking up my 12" powerbook when I use it at home. The problem I am having is getting the mac to output in the correct resolution for the 17 " monitor.The powerbook gives me the resolutions to choose from ( the monitor is 1280*769)but when I choose this, it stretches the images on the extra monitor. If I use the extra monitor as extended workspace, it stretches the images accross the screen also. If I use it in video mirror mode, I get a black bar either side of the screen on the monitor. Is it possible to get my powerbook to output in the correct resolution for the monitor without using it as extended workspace?
I want to bacically use the bigger screen to look at, but use the rest of the powerbook ie keyboard and mouse, but I cant get everything looking right.Any help much appreciated.
thanks, bez
 
what do you mean by strechtes the image? Is it a problem of wrong resolution or video mode you are talking about?
What is the native resolution of your screen?

And welcome to the forum! :)
 
Thanks for replying .Sorry I am not being cleare, I am a bit of a computer novice. What I mean is that I cant get my powerbook to to fill the screen of my widescreen monitor, resolution 1280*768. I can get it to mirror what is on the screen of the powerbook, but it does not fill the screen of the 17" external monitor. I cant get the resolution right, it puts two black borders each side of the screen, not filling it, or stretches whatever it is displaying.
Is there a way I can get my powerbook to fill the external display fully, how do I do it. sorry for being such a computer dunce!
 
The problem is, in mirroring mode, it is just that, a mirror of what the main screen is. Because the main screen is not in the same ratio as the external monitor, it cannot mirror to the full screen, which is why you have the black bars at the top and the bottom. It is doing the same pixel ration on the 2nd screen. Try setting the resolution on the powerbook to 1024x178 and see how that works, it will look destored on the powerbook screen, but should look fine on the external monitor.

Brian
 
your powerbook runs at 1024x768 on the lcd. When you mirror to any other screen, the second screen will be on 1024x768 too. When you have a screen which actually has a native resolution of >1024 horizontal, you will get those borders (since you are talking about your screen being weide I had to point this out). If you want to fill the screen completely, you should use splitt screen mode. The only problem that could occur now is that macosx doesn't support the native resolution of your second screen. What kind of screen is it? LCD or CRT (regular tupe screens)? You can adjust a CRT to full screen even when the native (max) resolution is not supported. LCD is not that easy.
 
the screen is an lcd monitor ( samsung syncmaster 172w). Thanks for the reply. It makes sense now you have explained it like that, that the powerbook will just mirror the resolution it is displaying. Its just nice t have a bigger screen to work on when I am at home.
Thanks for your help
 
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