Confused: Samsung SyncMaster T240HD not displaying 1080p correctly, yet states "1080p" on side frame sticker??

I've inquired numerous times on this question of mine yet have never really received a solid answer and/or solution.

As my title states, I use a Samsung T240HD, which is as 24" widescreen monitor. The native resolution, 1920x1200, which is 16:10, displays perfectly, and "looks right". This is such the case when gaming or using Win7.

That being the case, the minute I attempt to alter the res. to a 16:9 resolution, such as 1920x1080p, or 1280x720, either the screen colors, contrast, and/or tint appear to be distorted, along with the picture being stretched to where there is a portion cut off along the perimeter of the screen.

My question is, quite simply, if my monitor advertises that it is indeed capable of displaying "FULL 1080p" resolution, why wouldn't it display it correctly?? I realize that it is not the native resolution, but that should still not prevent me from setting it to a 16:9-type resolution. Is this some error on Samsungs part, or an effort to attract the simple-minded or not a tech savvy consumer, by seeing "FULL 1080p" they automatically know it's a HD monitor, yet in actuality the monitor's only "correct viewable" resolutions are 16:10's? By the way, 4:3's work fine as well, but, as you can imagine the screen is obviously stretched and not meant to be a widescreen rez.

I'd like to play my games at a lower resolution than 1280x800, rather 1280x720.. I know its not much but that small bit of extra processing power could make a big difference in smoother gameplay for my particular setup.

 

Full 1080p= capable of displaying 1080p content. 1920x1200 is bigger than 1080p thus it is full 1080p capable

16:10 monitors do not stretch well to 16:9 format from my experience. I'd prefer the little black bar than the stretched format myself though.

 

Sating the obvious: Since you have a 16:10 screen it has such proportions and a native res that match that proportion. Changing or using a 16:9 resolution on a non 16:9 native monitor will show the image distorted and /or stretched (depending if you use full screen). Any image you use that does not use 16:10 proportions and you use full screen it will look wrong. Merely using lower resolutions like 1280x800 will, at most, make the image stretched.

You can configure your video card to show the content natively, thus showing 1920x1080 content as it should appear, but you will have a portion of your screen unused because you have 120 more vertical res.

 

it's actually not the monitor's job to scale resolutions. by default, it should display full screen on the monitor (stretched, not to scale)

the correct scaling is done in software, you can change those settings on your graphics card.

 

Yes, as masterchef suggest, you should be changing your resolution in the game, not per the monitor.