Author Topic: Fitting to widescreen tv  (Read 2794 times)

bsdunbar1

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Fitting to widescreen tv
« on: December 06, 2019, 07:17:04 AM »
This info may be posted elsewhere but all I could find was really old threads on the topic.
I have a Surface Pro laptop with 3:2 ratio, when I display TD on a widescreen tv with 16:9 ratio I end up with black bars on the left & right of the screen.
I have an older laptop that IS widescreen and the widescreen tv screen is filled 100% using it. I would prefer to use the newer Surface Laptop.
Is there is simple fix for this or is it just the way it is using a source that is not widescreen?

Corey Cooper

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Re: Fitting to widescreen tv
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2019, 11:26:25 AM »
How is your Surface connected to the TV?  When you put another app on that display, does it fill the TV screen or are there also black bars?

bsdunbar1

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Re: Fitting to widescreen tv
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2019, 05:37:01 PM »
HDMI Cable
Running anything from this surface to the tv does not utilize the entire tv. This is not a TD issue, i was just wondering if there is a way to make the app it utilize the entire screen even though the source is 3:2.

Corey Cooper

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Re: Fitting to widescreen tv
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2019, 10:52:41 PM »
Sounds like you're duplicating your surface screen to your TV.  Can't you extend it instead?  When you duplicate it, you're just showing the same thing on both the surface display and the TV.  If you extend it, you have two displays: your surface and your TV, and each displays a different desktop.  Then you should be able to utilize the true resolution of each display.  Right-click on the desktop and select "Display settings".  Not sure exactly the setting in there because my win10 laptop has no external display connected to it at the moment.  On my win7 desktop, there's a selection called "Multiple displays" which has options "Duplicate these displays", "Extend these displays", "Show desktop only on 1" and "Show desktop only on 2".  Mine is set to "Extend these displays", since I have two monitors.  If I set it to "Duplicate these displays" it shows the same thing on both monitors.