Problem keeping aspect ratio whilst changing resolution

mtb · 03-20-2015, 04:40 AM

Hello,

i have a problem when i change resolution (and i need to change it in order to clone the desktop to an external projector that supports only 1024x768).

This happens with the 2 notebook i have.

For example a Compaq Presario R3000, with a 1280x800 display.

If i want to lower resolution i get 1024x768 the aspect ratio is not manteined on the laptop screen, the image is horizontally strecthed and distorted to fill the screen, so for example i see an ellipse instead of a circle.

Is there a way to have black borders on the left and right size so keeping the aspect ratio?

In this notebook the graphic card is the following.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation NV17M [GeForce4 440 Go 64M] (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 006d
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
Memory at e2000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at f8080000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Kernel driver in use: nouveau

This happens also on the other notebook i have, where the graphics card is an ati:

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS780M [Mobility Radeon HD 3200]
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 014b
Kernel driver in use: radeon
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV620/M82 [Mobility Radeon HD 3450/3470]
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 014b
Kernel driver in use: radeon
02:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV620 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 3400 Series]
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 014b
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

On the first notebook i use lubuntu 14.10, on the secondo linux mint xfce 17.1, but i think it doesn't matter.

Thank you in advance.

mdooligan · 03-20-2015, 12:23 PM

You sure it's 1280x800? That's not even 16:9. 16:9 is 1280x720, 4:3 is 1280x960. Most screens I've seen are either 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio.

1024x768 is 4:3 aspect ratio and it sounds like you have 16:9 (widescreen), which, at 1024 wide, would be 576 tall.

The screen modes are in your Xorg config file. You probably want to have a look at them, and see if you can dig up some fresh new ones. Another option (and I'm no expert here) is to create a 2nd monitor section for 4:3, and use that for the projector. I think you'd need to find a decent 4:3 monitor, plug it into your monitor output, and play with it.

mtb · 03-20-2015, 04:21 PM

Thank you for the reply.

The screen is 16:10 (btw, imho much better than 16:9).

xrandr output

Code:

$xrandr 
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS-1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 330mm x 210mm
   1280x800       60.1*+
   1024x768       59.9  
   800x600        59.9  
   640x480        59.4  
   720x400        59.6  
   640x400        60.0  
   640x350        59.8  
TV-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

I don't have and xorg.conf configuration file... it used to be in /etc/X11 a lot of years ago...