Confused on 4:3 vs widescreen

Hi experts,

This might be trivial to you but I am pretty confused.

I have an Thinkpad R51 with some Intel(R)82852/82855 GM/GME graphics controller. It works fine but have a dull and small display, therefore I would like to put a cheap 19" or preferably 20-21" external monitor on it. But what can I buy that will fit the 4:3 ratio that this controller has?

The options on the controller goes from 800:600, 1024:768, 1280:1024, 1600:1200 to 2048:1536.

Is it likely I can use any higher formats that 1280x1024?
And how does it work if I buy a "normal" 10:16 in 20"?

Thanks in advance

 

you can hook up any monitor, widescreens will give you funny pictures (the picture being stretched). 4:3 aspect ratio is normal screen, so any monitor that isn't widescreen will be normal screen.

 

Thanks for the answer.

Can I make the 16:10 screen not stretch the 4:3 output and have black strips/unused space on each side of the picture?

I am asking because I am likely buy a new notebook (X300 or Toshiba U400) in a couple of months and then I will not need a 4:3 screen any more.

 

Yes, just set the desired resolution in CP.

 

Well, you can set it so that you only use the external monitor, and then you set it to the monitor's native resolution instead. This way your laptop becomes a regular computer, in a sense. The resolution limits is most likely dependent on the monitor, not the computer.

 

Thanks again.

 

Does your graphics card have software to allow outputting at 16:10 or 16:9? I use a 4:3 but I use a tv as external monitor which is 16:9. The software of the gpu supports it, and it's quite old.

 

BTW.. 1280X1024 is 5:4, not 4:3 like most people thought. Only 1024x768, 800x600, 600x480 is 4:3. Most widescreen monitors are 16:10. Most HDTV are 16:9.