Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi everyone!
first post here and i'm REALLY DESPERATE!!!!.... (i'm terribly sorry if i posted in the wrong area or if this has been answered elsewhere -i swear i searched a lot- please forgive this newbie)

ok now, time to get on my knees and BEG for help:

for months now i've been searching for a solution to the common 'stretching' that 4:3 games suffer under widescreen circumstances... yes i know this has been talked over and over, but i believe my problem is a bit different, due to the fact that i haven't come across any solutions after searching and searching here and there.

so, once upon a time, i bought this Samsung SyncMaster 740nw monitor that goes into a gf8800 GT card through VGA, not DVI (i had to use an adapter that came inside the graphic card's box). Basically that's my main problem. I read that DVI connections allow the nvidia drivers to understand the whole thing as a wide lcd monitor and thus enable a "force aspect ratio" option on the nvidia panel which solves or partially solves the stretching thing by adding black sidebars WHICH I WOULD LOVE.
in my case, i don't have such option, apparently because my VGA connection makes my nvidia panel think that i'm using a CRT monitor :(
here is where i get desperate... i just can't believe there is no software solution for this... i'm very aware that the black bars could be forced in by some code that overrides the graphics data... or something.. but i can't find anything like that.
the closest i've come to "solving" this problem is by using a 'coarse' slider within the monitor's own panel. it TRIES to stretch a widened 4:3 image back into its form, but stops halfway through because it reaches it's peak values so i still get a -not so- deformed image
so there, my monitor doesn't handle it's own aspect ratio correction. nor can i do it from the nvidia graphics panel :( did i mention i was desperate??

(just in case, my drivers are version 181.22)

again, i'm awfully sorry for begging and being such a newbie, and i'd really REALLY appreciate any help you guys can provide (believe me, signing in here and breaking your balls was my last option :(

HUGE THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!!
-me

This will get moved to the hardware forum soon.


But uh why cant you just use DVI?

This will get moved to the hardware forum soon.


But uh why cant you just use DVI?

because the cable that comes from the monitor itself (which goes to the pc) ends in VGA, not DVI.
maybe it's not called VGA :S i'm not sure about that, but it's the old kind of plug... blue.. with lots of copper pins and safety screws to the sides.

here's the official samsung details page. i couldn't find it in english :(

http://www.samsung.com/ar/consumer/detail/spec.do?group=computersperipherals&type=monitors&subtype=lcd&model_cd=LS17HANSB/XBG&fullspec=F

thanks again!
(move this where it belongs, as DaFox said)

Hmm yeah the monitor does not seem to have a DVI or any other connection at all! :o

Thread moved to the "right" forum.

There's no easy way to solve your problem Blade Runner. Your graphics card cannot manage image scaling through a VGA ("old blue") connection, and the slider on your OSD (monitor's built-in menu) is just for slight image adjustments and has nothing to do with 4:3 or widescreen.

The only thing you can do is try to run those 4:3 games in windowed mode...

Have you checked the CD that came with your Samsung monitor? It may contain some useful utility for your to adjust the resolution? It has been ages since I dealt with a Samsung monitor but Samsung seems to have something called Safe Mode for downscaling a 4:3 1600x1200 video signal to match the montior. I wonder if this helps or not.

BTW, I just type in "Samsung 740nw" in Google and the first return shows the spec in English.

http://www.samsung.com/ae/consumer/detail/spec.do?group=computersperipherals&type=monitors&subtype=lcdmonitor&model_cd=LS17HANSB/XSG&fullspec=F

Thread moved to the "right" forum.

There's no easy way to solve your problem Blade Runner. Your graphics card cannot manage image scaling through a VGA ("old blue") connection, and the slider on your OSD (monitor's built-in menu) is just for slight image adjustments and has nothing to do with 4:3 or widescreen.

The only thing you can do is try to run those 4:3 games in windowed mode...

:(

i am running 4:3 games in windowed, but it sucks coz you can see the desktop which distracts. if the game doesn't support a large resolution the resulting window is painfully small. some games just won't run in windowed (even when forced to) and some others do so but with a glitch or two (often mouse related). it's very frustrating :( am i wrong to think that all this could be fixed by some tool or utility that simply globally added black bars to a fullscreen 4:3 mode?

BTW, I just type in "Samsung 740nw" in Google and the first return shows the spec in English.

http://www.samsung.com/ae/consumer/detail/spec.do?group=computersperipherals&type=monitors&subtype=lcdmonitor&model_cd=LS17HANSB/XSG&fullspec=F

lol, my google is sabotaged :P (it restricts the first returns to the country where i live in.. in spanish) so thanks for posting the good link.

the cd that comes with the monitor only brings the windows drivers, a pdf manual, and two color management applications which are useless in terms of resolution management (these are called "Natural Color Pro" and "MagicTune")

and thank you guys for your ideas and trying to help!!