M1438 screenmode issues

[Harrison]

I hadn't noticed that DVD when I looked at the photo originally, but now you mentioned it I spotted it. You need to take better care of your things mate!!!

The black bars are definitely a limitation of the Amiga, not of the monitor being used. It is just how the Amiga outputs certain screenmodes. They are not the same dimension as a standard 4:3 monitor and so won't fill the whole screen, much like watching a 4:3 TV program on a 16:9 TV. If you want to watch it correctly you have the black bars, otherwise you are one of the idiots who has to have the whole screen filled up with stretched or compressed people running around. Definitely gives new meaning to the TV adding 10 pounds though!

[Stephen Coates]

I think the computer screen looks OK when it is stretched, but somethings won't be very good, like photos.

I don't like watching a 4:3 picture that has been stretched to 16:9. It just doesn't look right.

[Harrison]

My Dad does it too mainly because he doesn't quite understand about such things (he's quite old!). He was complaining when I was talking to him last week that the picture on his TV wasn't filling the whole of the screen. I told him that was because it was in widescreen, but he still thought he was missing some of the image due to the black bars. Mad logic some people have!

[Stephen Coates]

I find it odd why people find it hard to understand things like the aspect ration of a television. But I suppose we all have things which we find confusing.

I think if you have trouble understanding aspect ratios, then you should stick with a 4:3 TV. and have 16:9 pictures displayed in letterbox mode. I have mine set up like this and like it for the convenience, but I don't have any trouble setting widescreen TVs up correctly. And I don't ave any room for a widescren TV so don't really have any choice anyway. That is another problem with widescreen TVs. They are much wider. If I had a widescreen TV on this desk it would most likely be hanging off the edge.

[Harrison]

Unless you got an LCD of course, then you could wall mount it. The smaller LCDs are coming down in price now too. Even 32" screens can be bought for under £300, and I noticed some very small 15 and 17" ones are nearly down to £100.

[Stephen Coates]

Wall mounting in it's current position would be awkwardas it would then be too close to the wall for me to see it. And there are some sockets and a shelf directly behind it.

It just depends on where you want it. In my case, it needs to be on the desk. And I like it on the desk. It means I can move it.

[Buleste]

I've got a 1438 and unlike pc monitors it does suffer badly from black borders but if i remember rightly there are some improved basic drivers on Aminet (just type in 1438 in the search) or if you have a Graphics card use CGX as you canadjust most details of you display including position and stretching the image.

[Harrison]

I didn't know there were actual drivers on there for the 1438. I will have to try that out with mine.

[Buleste]

They're not brilliant but they certainly were an improvement on the old Workbench 3.0 Monitor drivers.

[Stephen Coates]

I saw the drivers on AmiNet. I'll download them later and see how good they are.