New LCD Screen :: Hate the stretching on widescreen!!

I'm currently comparing a LG L204WT 20.1inch monitor with a Viewsonic V2012wb 20.1 inch as well. They both are widescreen monitors.

Both monitors have a good response time, no problems for gaming or movies.

Personnaly, I find the L204WT Menu more convenient and complete.

As for the picture, its very hard to tell... The LG monitor has a better white, the Viewsonic has a yellowish white. However, some pictures look smoother on the Viewsonic, and too sharp/crisp on the LG monitor.


I havent found any reviews on any of these 2 monitors, link me if you find one.



Also, when I play games with 4:3 resolution, there's a horizontal stretching and I hate that. Is there anything that can be done so that it letterboxes instead of stretching?

I'm worried about the same thing. I plan to buy a 19'' monitor and I' m considering a wide one. Isn't there an option in the graphics driver to center the image?

I own a 24" 1920x1200 and can play 1600x1200 just fine (black bars on the sides). There should be a letterboxing option either on the monitor's menu itself or you can usually use your graphics card options to do so. With Nvidia just go to the main control panel and, if I recall, you have a ton of options for LCD scaling and whatnot.

Honestly though, I'm so spoiled that it's to the point where if a game doesn't have a 1920x1200 or other 16:10 resolution option, it's almost not worth playing. Once you go widescreen it's really hard to ever turn back.

Can only help you on NVidia but there should be something similar for ATI

In your system tray right click on the Nvidia Settings Icon
Chose NVidia Control Panel
Select 'Display' from the choices there
Select 'Change Flat Panel Scaling'
Select 'Use NVidia scaling with fixed aspect ratio'


That will give you a screen as big as will fit without S T R E T C H I N G evrything from text to graphics. Vertical black bars will fill the remaining portion.

Have fun.

Download the latest drivers from nvidia or ATI. The Nvidia drivers definitely have the feature; don't know about the ATI ones. Also, don't know about the really really really old Nvidia drivers like the TNT, whether they have it.

MSI Geforce fx 5600 256MB. Latest drivers

I already have the lastest drivers. I tried the NVIDIA ones, but they messed up video playback of .avi mpeg and wmv. Then I installed the latest driver from MSI, no problem with video playback but still no option to prevent the stretching. I check in the apps that are installed with the driver and it didnt help at all.

Not fixed, nothing in the menu, i dont know where to look. My graphic card driver doesnt seem to detect my monitor as a LCD