1440x900 19" Widescreen Question

[yzmxer608]

Hello, I'm new here, I have registered because I have a question that I couldn't find the answer for anywhere, I'm hoping you guys can help me out . I have a Samsung 19" widescreen monitor, it's native res is 1440x900. When I set the res to that, everything seems stretched vertically. An example is avatars for msn are taller than they are wide, like they are stretched up. While researching, I have found this information. The second post states that 19" widescreens (highest res of 1440x900) are displayed in 720p, which is 16:9 aspect ratio, while the res 1440x900 is in 16:10 aspect rato. This difference makes the monitor stretch the screen vertically. I've been trying to think of a solution to this problem, but the only thing I can come up with is trying to make the two the same aspect ratio, which I don't think is possible. There has to be a solution, why would there be a monitor made at this res that doesn't even display correctly? I have also tried the custom res option in the NVIDIA control panel, I'm not sure what all of the settings are though. Any help is much appreciated!

 

[Peter.Cort]

what's the model of the monitor?

 

[yzmxer608]

Samsung SyncMaster 932BW/932BW Plus.

 

[Nitestick]

i think you have misinterpreted the information there. what the author of that post is saying is that if you try and display 720p video on a 19" widescreen it will be stretched because 720p video is 1280x900 and 19" widescreens are 1440x900. are you certain you have set the correct resolution and refresh rate (generally 60Hz)?

both my girlfriend and grandfather have 19" 1440x900 widescreens that work fine. could you perhaps take a photo of your screen so we can see the distortion? i would say take a screenshot but the screenshot will only take the output from the video card and will probably be in the correct ratio, though perhaps posting a screenshot and photo could be interesting :/

 

[yzmxer608]

Ah I get the explanation now. I actually changed it to 75hz from 60, I changed it back and there was no difference that I could see. I took a photo and a screenshot of a plain square. It would normally be a perfect square, but the stretching makes it taller, I just used this as an example because it's the easiest to see the problem.
Photo:

Screenshot:

Edit: I just changed back to 1280x1024 (what I have been using) and it changed both the screenshot and photo to their normal shape. I'm not really sure what to do now. If this helps you any, I have a Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTOC. In the Nvidia control panel I can choose to make a custom res, I'm not sure what all of the timing modes are though.