Anyone got a widescreen laptop?

Have you got a widescreen laptop? If so, what happens if you try to create a graphics window in normal 4:3 aspect such as 800x600. Does it error or just show it fine, but all stretched out, or perhaps centered?

Thanks...

I tested this a while back, if you create a fullscreen then it's stretched, as you would expect. However it is possible, via the GFX drivers, to centre the screen and maintain the normal aspect.

I have one and the screen's just stretched to fit the display.

What indie said. You can either stretch or have black borders

oh ok thanks. Xlsior got me paranoid by saying some maybe wouldn't accept 800x600 which my next game will default to.

My Dell Inspiron has a 15.4" widescreen, so I guess that it can handle just about any resolution 4:3 or 16:9. It automatically configures itself to the game's resolution, and fills the whole screen...

Of course, my desktop's hooked up to a Westinghouse 32" HDTV, so same thing there, since my Westy's got a "brain" in there to configure to whatever resolution it's given, and fills the screen, of course it looks stretched on the standard modes, and sometimes with a PC game, you may see half the screen missing, so you have to hit the button in the menu to reconfigure the screen layout, not fun...

Yeah, I've got a Plasma TV which doesn't auto detect 4:3 and widescreen, you have to manually swap. This annoys me.

Some won't. Most will.

Mine is set to stretch the window while maintaining the aspect ratio, but it can be set to center it and stretch it without maintaining the aspect.

seems that most decent laptops will do either then, cool.

I bought someone a laptop and when it arrived was horrifed to find it was a widescreen as I'd misread the screen type. So a 15" widescreen is actually quite small vertically and the default res seems to only be 600 pixels tall (as in 800x600 equivalent) just a lot wider (it might have been 768 tall actually). Anyway, this just made everything tiny, and for what, the ability to play a few DVDs or browse the web wider, even though most web pages are designed to fit in an 800x600 screen and thus aren't very wide, and Word docs look dumb with all that white space etc etc.

Sorry to slag them off, but tell me why are they cool? I must be missing the point somewhere.

I don't remember seeing it in the drivers for a laptop. It's usually in the bios. But all assumptions thus far are correct. You can do any res you want in any way you want.

Check my sig. Both my laptop AND my desktop are widescreen now.

More real estate == more detail. That's why you get wide screen. You are indeed missing the point somewhere. :)

Got to agree with you there Grey. I've got a wide-screen and hate it. Like flogging us fried potato peel and calling them laa-de-daa potatoe skins - they chop the top and bottom of the display off and call it 'wide-screen' like they're actually giving us a bonus or something!

I like mine since I can have multiple windows on screen instead of only having enough space for one window that obscures the others. Same reason why I have dual monitors too.

It's just a preference thing.

Rather then true-widescreen, I quite prefer my 5:4 display on my 15" LCD here, has just the right width/height ratio to it @ 1280x1024 (which is its native rez.)

I can also do the things Indie mentioned in my gfx drivers, but only when I have my monitor hooked up via a DVI cable (which I do). Quite nice for playing old low-rez games and keeping the aspect ratio intact without stretching, but for the most part I cant really notice any difference having it just stretch the screen to the corners on this monitor since it's only just a little wider then the standard 4:3 setup.

Good for watching DVDs in bed :)

The aspect ratio means that a DVD picture on my 15.4" widescreen laptop is usually bigger than on a 17" monitor because of the lack of borders.

Worse comes to worst, you can always relate it to the size of one's phallus.

small but wide?

I prefer mine to be fairly wide and of average height.

Has to be the perfect fit or it just hurts... the desk.

mind you tall and thin can be pretty good fun ... esp. on games like 1942.

I'd like to think that 15.4" is just the perfect size for a widescreen notebook, because there are some footprints that are too small, like those Averatecs, Sony Vaios, or Dell I710m (I believe it was the 710m that had that itty-bitty footprint). However, I think that 17" would be too difficult to lug around in some areas, and I see 17" being more for a desktop PC.

I think it depends on the driver and the gpu. I have on that
has an nvidia and another that has an ati. the nvidia will
stretch it and the ati makes it fit and crops the sides.

I have access to two laptops, one's an ATI gfx chip and ones an Intel Extreme Crap-hics. Both laptops have a FN button to change weather it stretches or just cut off the side of the screen.

Cyg: neat. What do Max games play like on the Intel Extreme? OK?

Theyre fine.

*cries again*

Sometimes better than on this flippin desktop with a 6800.....

do you have home insurance Cyg? It may cover breakages with a low excess...

You just had to go there, didn't ya? Cyg already has PSP trouble, now all he needs is a broken laptop, well, go for a Panasonic Toughbook, if you think that'll solve your troubles... Those come in widescreen, if I'm not mistaken...

My laptop got stood on a couple of weeks ago.

like I said, get some home contents insurance :-)

> My laptop got stood on a couple of weeks ago.

Do you mistake it for the X-Box door stop?

Lol, Nah

Tracy used it as an excersize step.


Luckily it survived and I just need to replace my wireless card.