23" LCD Monitor Distortions

[wschurch]

As a Christmas present, my husband purchased for me an Olevia 23" LCD flat screen monitor.  I had been using a 17" LCD monitor up until this point.  

I am very pleased with clarity, sharpness and color but I am not real happy with the distortion.  (You know, going from almost square to rectangle).  I have been doing a lot of surfing and understand the difference between 4:3 and 16:9 (aspect ratios) and how this can stretch things out and change the apperance of the graphics.

My question is whether there is a setting that may bring this distortion back to normal (or almost normal). I have reviewed the owners manual and they do not touch on this subject at all.  I do have the monitor set at its native resolution of 1024 x 768; 60HZ.  I dabble a bit in web design and it is making my design work a bit interesting with this distorted look.  I did try the 1280 x 1024 resolution and I lost all kinds of quality and sharpness.

I have this feeling that this be the "nature of the beast" but I just want to be sure I am not missing an "easy fix" (if there ever is such a thing).  Thanks in advance . . .

s. church

[Neil]

That seems quite a low native resolution for such a large monitor. I thought widescreen monitors used resolutions like 1280x768? Whose shape is very much a rectangle and so should better fit a widescreen monitor. If your monitor supports it, try that resolution. On the other hand resolutions like 1024x768 are square in shape (at least by comparison) and for normal "square" monitors.

[wschurch]

Thanks, Neil, for your fast response.  I am beginning to wonder about my graphics card .  . the only resolution settings I have are 1024 x 768, 1152 x 864, 1280 x 1024, 1600 x 1200  . . . I do not have a 1280 x 768 setting.  

I suppose the possibility exists that my current graphics card may not support this particular LCD monitor as far as resolution settings???


schurch

[GX1_Man]

And what card is it?

[Serrik]

What he said

AND

Did you install the monitor drivers? And under monitors in the device manager is it showing your new monitor?

To access your device manager click "start", then click "run", then type in "devmgmt.msc" and hit enter.  Expand the branch labelled monitor and see if your monitor name is the same as your monitor.

[Neil]

I don't see why not, if it can support 1280x1024. Have you got the correct and latest video drivers installed?

[wschurch]

First of all . . . a big thank you in advance to all of you who have responded.  Sure do appreciate it!

GX1_Man - I apologize that I did not list the graphics card in my earlier post.  It is an Intel 82845G

Serrik - This monitor did not come with drivers or anything else to load.  Truth be told, this monitor is actually a TV that can be hooked up to your computer.  It is an Olevia and if you go to their site, no where on their domain is a download for monitor drivers.  When I look up monitors in my device manager it just lists "Default Monitor".

Neil - I went to Intel's webpage and found some downloads for drivers for my card, just not sure they are what I need.  One is called an accelerator driver and the other says it is a graphics driver with this description "Installs drivers for the integrated graphics controller of Intel® chipsets. This file is intended for use by Developers."

I did write to Olevia's tech support to ask them this very same question.  Wrote them on 12/26 and still have not heard back.  Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

[Calum]

Monitors don't need drivers under XP (I presume that's what you're using?)

Truth be told, this monitor is actually a TV that can be hooked up to your computer.

That would explain the low resolution.
I think you're stuck with that, TVs aren't intended to make fantastic monitors.
I don't know about your drivers, having never used Intel graphics myself.
Hopefully someone else can advise?

[Serrik]

"Monitors don't need drivers under XP (I presume that's what you're using?)"

Most don't but I can assure you some do.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the ones that don't almost always display under the device manager by name or as "plug and play monitor" or by their brand and model name, but not usually as "default monitor"

The viewsonic I put on my wifes computer last week definately needed a driver, for example.  The "plug and play monitor" XP defaulted to would not let it display at 1280 x 1024 until I updated the driver from the provided disk.  Windows deteced and installed the "plug and play" monitor right away, it was clearly the driver from viewsonic that was needed and once installed it displayed under the device manager, and the display preferences allowed me the choice to use 1280x1024.

[Calum]

Oh, OK.
I've never seen a monitor that needed a driver before.
Thanks for that.
In this case though, I'd say that a driver isn't needed, as there isn't a driver on the site and it's a TV - I've never heard of a TV needing drivers.

[Serrik]

Yes I agree, it is likely impossible for them to get the exact resolution needed if the computer is displaying "default monitor" as the "default monitor" built in windows xp driver is only going to have the more standard type resolutions as options.  And cleary a TV is not going to support plug and play so the monitor won't be supplying windows with its available resolutions.

Not sure if there is an ideal fix for this, its a real noodle scratcher.  Maybe the TV manufacturer will reply with something.  We can only hope.

[Fed]

I don't know if this will help you but it's worth a read anyway.
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;EN-US;Q820286