My new laptop display is squashed!? And the HDMI output is warped!!

I just bought a Acer aspire 5740G, its got one of those super wide screen displays which i was not happy about but willing to put up with.

I thought the computer would have an appropriate resolution for this to keep a 1:1 aspect ratio, but it looks like everything is squashed! the resolution is 1366x768

Compared to all my other monitors and normal widescreen ones the actual picture seems everything is shorter and wider.

Is there any way to fix this or do I need to try take it back, because I cannot stand is improper aspect ratios. Anything stretched or twisted. I almost strangled people back from 2000-2008 when most people had widescreen Tvs but watched everything 4:3 on 16:9 TVs in full screen.

The ping to my home router over the wifi is 30ms when it should be 1ms...again!


Also, I just used the HDMI out to ouptut to my 1080p bravia. It was set to 1920x1080 on the secondary display, I know how to set these things, but for some reason it did not fill the scrreen on the TV. It was too short. there are borders both on the side and top. i bought this to outtut media to my TV and not even that works right!

I dont think I cant even take it back as it is not malfunctioning, its just crap! . I never ussualy buy things on impulse but I did this time and am sorely dissapointed. Yea its brand new btw.

I have no idea if its how things are meant to be tbh, maybe its becasue I've never had a display like this. All my other laptops have resolutions like 1280x800, which when you divide it is 1.6, when you divide this one its like 1.77 or something. Maybe I am just not used to it, but things look more squshed.

When i run 3d mark06 everything is messed up, the loading screen for each test is like in 4:3 and the actual test runs at whetever it feels like, for example the first test with the minigun dude is black borders on the side, on my old laptop everything fits properly.

 

Pampum, the native resolution for the 5740G is 1366x768. That's the standard for 16:9 aspect ratio screens, the same kind used in HDTV. 1280x800 is a 16:10 standard.
And because you're losing a few pixels of vertical room, things will feel a bit shorter and wider; it takes a bit of time to get used to.

Check your display scaling setting in Nvidia Control Panel/ATi Catalyst Control just in case it's getting the aspect ratio wrong.

Not sure about the wireless issue - maybe download the latest driver?

Check to see if your TV has any 1:1 Pixel Mapping modes - it might be trying to compensate for overscan that doesn't exist.

Are you running 3DMark06 at 1280x768? It runs fine on my machine, and I've got the same resolution display as you.

 

You need to adjust "scaling" in Catalyst Control Center to "0" for your HDTV, to get rid of the black borders. You can google on how to do that.

Also, 1366x768 has more pixels than 1280x800. It has more workspace and you just need to get used to the 16:9 ratio (widescreen).

Here is the math. You multiple it, not divide it. You are trying to figure out the number of pixels on screen.

(higher is better)
1366x768 = 1,049,088 pixels
1280x800 = 1,024,000 pixels

Also, when you run old programs. It is obvious it will run in 4:3 ratio if it doesn't support widescreen and will have black borders on the sides. That is normal for all old programs that don't support widescreen. It is better than having a stretched out picture like you mentioned before.

The wireless problem I cannot help you with because it could be driver or hardware issues. Maybe, you have something interfering with the signal. Maybe, your wireless channel is overlapping with a neighbors. Who knows.

I really don't see these as malfunctioning issues. It almost seems like you never used a "widescreen" display before.

 

If you're using Windows 7, I recommend moving the taskbar to the left of the screen instead of having it at the bottom.
I find that the screen feels a lot less cramped top-to-bottom that way; you're getting the full 768 pixels instead of 768 minus whatever the taskbar is.

 

Absolutely . . or consider setting it to auto-hide 'mac style' if leaving it at the bottom.

Personally I reckon the winner in the browser wars will be whoever moves all the top/bottom menus to the left side as internet browsing is badly messed up by the trend to 16:9 screen viewing. until then the F11 key in IE is your friend as it hides the top/bottom menu space so you can see some content in the middle !

 

Thanks for this I think it is exactly what i was looking for. Why is it so hidden and not set to normal by default.

Another question I have is about the quality of the output. Its not hideous, but for some reason it is not that good in terms of quality. My TVs display is great and can display 1080p fine, in fact from other computers its surprisingly clear, like a computer monitor pretty much, but with this laptop i find its not as clear and accurate. The text looks a bit wonky and not easily readable, for example when i extend the desktop and drag firefox into in, things look a bit blocky and malformed.

Yea I'm well aware of this, but I meant on all the other computers I have run 3dmark06 it filled out and looked fine or as you would expect, I didn't know it could look any other way until I saw this laptop running it which is the first time Ive seen 3dmark06 not fill up properly. Also its not an old program... Its the same as any modern day program when it comes to scaling or resolution support, so what you are referring to is not at play here.

I am not sure. I just have bad luck with win 7. But its definitely not some interference or drivers or any other blah blah like that. I have tried the lot. I upgrade my acer 5920g to win 7 and my and boom same issue. My friends dell on win 7 and boom same issue. Vista Xp etc runs fine 1ms pings.

Me neither, I never said they were malfunctioning issues. Just they annoy me and wanted to get some feedback on it. I was not sure if people are putting up with it as well or if its Just me.

Yea I have been struggling with this since 4:3 went out of fashion as well, especially on some web pages were most of the text is positioned up to down, you really have a tiny view of information you want to see and a lot of wasted space on the sides.

F11 brightntens thing up somewhat. But I lready knew all these things, still bad ratio to height vs width.

Yup this is a good tip. You can do it in vista as well, but personalyy it doesnt suit me as when you do that you cant see what the open tabs are called. I dont use icons even in win 7, I always have display full name, when you have it to the side you cant read the names.