Gateway XHD3000 Aspect ratio experiments

I decided to start a new thread since this is a very specfic topic. As per requests on here I did some aspect ratio measurements.

I want to state for the record that I am a PC GUY. TV and movies are not that important to me and I only watch movies when my g/f insists. I have a very old Toshiba DVD player (that she gave me) and a couple DVDs that I got as gifts. That is what I used for these tests. The DVD was connected via S-Video.

I started with Moulin Rouge. I played the DVD and paused it at a scene a quarter way in. Then I measured the image on the screen.

Setting 1:1 20.75" W 9.5" H ratio 2.18
Setting Zoom 25.25" W 11.25" H ratio 2.24
Setting Wide 25.25" W 9.5" H ratio 2.66

I then tried it with Pump up the Volume. This movie had two options, wide screen and full screen. I tried both.

Wide Screen
Setting 1:1 21" W 12.25" H ratio 1.71
Setting Zoom 25" W 14.25" H ratio 1,75
Setting Wide 25" W 12" H ratio 2.08

Full Screen
Setting 1:1 21" W 15.75 " H ratio 1.33
Setting Zoom 25" W 15.75" H ratio 1.56 This filled the ENTIRE DISPLAY
Setting Wide 25" W 15.75" H ratio 1.56 This filled the ENTIRE DISPLAY

The difference between the last two modes could be seen as you switched between the two. Both filled the entire display, but one was "squished" more than the other.

Reference ratios 3:2 = 1.5 4:3 = 1.33 16:9 = 1.7 16:10 = 1.6

Looks like the scaler DID get the 4:3 ratio correct and the 16:9 ratio correct when using 1:1! Kudos Gateway!

Now make sense of all that data!

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but we are still using 1900x1200 on this gateway as my ebay purchased ati radeon x1900 was lost in the mail. So 1:1 refers to the 2550x1600 is that correct? My wife says she likes the 1900 res just fine but I told her that the 2550 would be much clearer. She then came back and said, "So the new card would make videos on this monitor look a lot better, as I can see the scan lines now."

I said yes....was I wrong?

1:1 means it properly displays non native aspect ratios without stretching. The monitor is 16:10 so to properly display 16:9 or 4:3, black bars need to be placed around to top or side to preserve the original ratio.

DonutHunter said:

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but we are still using 1900x1200 on this gateway as my ebay purchased ati radeon x1900 was lost in the mail. So 1:1 refers to the 2550x1600 is that correct? My wife says she likes the 1900 res just fine but I told her that the 2550 would be much clearer. She then came back and said, "So the new card would make videos on this monitor look a lot better, as I can see the scan lines now."

I said yes....was I wrong?

Click to expand...

You are correct for two reasons. Higher res gives a better quality image, if your image is also high res. If not it just stretches the low res image. Secondly ALL monitors look best at their native resolution