Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey, I have the latest drivers for my 8800 GTS and people have been saying that with the latest nVidia control panel, you can force the screen to put in black bars at the side for 4:3 resolutions or something, like what happens on a widescreen TV when you watch different ratio movies.
Please reply quickly :D

Hello ... welcome to the forum ... :D

Please reply quickly :D

Ok ... but what is the question ?

Oops, lol I posted it quickly, yeah the question is, how do I force the black bars on the sides of the screens?

:lol:

Open up the nVidia control panel ...
Select ... Advanced Settings ... at the top ...
Click on ... Change flat panel scaling ... on right ...
Choose ... Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio.

I haven't tried this so I can't tell you if it works ...
You may need to tell your monitor not to scale ... but I'm not too sure as I think different monitors handle things differently.

Let us know how you get on ... 8)

AWESOME!!!
But for future reference, don't select "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio", just select "Do not scale" the NVIDIA option causes it to go blurry for some reason, but Do not scale, shrinks it down so theres small black bars at the top as well, but its crisp
lol thanks :D

Cool ... thanks for the heads up ... glad you got it working ... :D

Um... do not scale would do the exact same thing as not checking a box......
You want to use the other option as it does what it says, you need to re examine the results you had.

I use the correct option and it's perfect.

You can't not check a box, as it is the circular boxes, which means one of them MUST be checked, Do Not Scale, scales it to the correct aspect ratio, so does the nVidia fixed aspect ratio option, but on my screen anyway, the nVidia option causes it to blur around things that should be crisp like writing etc. where do not scale shows them nice and crispy :P
Goto 800 x 600 resolution, and compare the two options.

The scale option can increase the resolution to match your desktop. For example an 800x600 image on a 1920x1200 desktop.

There really should not be any distortion that is noticeable.

Here's what happens when I use each setting, with a resolution of 800x600 on my 1920x1200 screen.

Use NVIDIA scaling -
The 4:3 picture fills my screen completely, causing stretching. The monitor "sees" a 1920x1200 resolution.

Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio -
The 4:3 picture fills the vertical span of my screen, but not the full horizontal span, creating black bars. The aspect ratio is preserved. The monitor "sees" a 1920x1200 resolution. This is what I prefer to use.

Use my display's built-in scaling -
The monitor "sees" a 800x600 resolution. What gets displayed on my monitor depends on what the monitor's aspect ratio is set to, of which there are three settings. "Full" has the same effect as "Use NVIDIA scaling," but the quality is not quite as high. "Aspect" has the same effect as "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio," also not quite as high quality. "1:1" has the same effect as "Do not scale" which is about to be described.

Do not scale -
The 4:3 picture is displayed in a little window in the middle of the screen, surrounded by thick black borders. There is no stretching, but the viewing area is tiny - exactly 25% of the size it is when I select "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio."