Mirrored monitors of different resolution

1

I want to purchase a 32" HD TV to use as a larger mirrored display for my PC. The problem is, my PC monitor is 16:10 and therefore has a resolution of 1920 x 1200, but the TV is standard 16:9, 1920 x 1080.

Will Windows allow them to be mirrored both at their native resolution? Or will I have to run them both at 1920 x 1080. They will be on seperate outputs, HDMI out for TV and DVI for monitor, if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Connor W

Posted 2009-11-15T20:14:51.560

Reputation: 3 537

Have you tried anything yet? – ChrisF – 2009-11-15T20:22:39.873

Well I havnt actually purchased the TV yet, I just wanted to know if it would work first. Ill change the question to make that more clear. – Connor W – 2009-11-15T20:56:24.660

Answers

-1

The whole point of mirrored is to have the same resolution on both screens.

Personally, I would use both as independent/extended screens and just move to one when you need to use it.

Alternatively, look at both TV and monitor settings for overstretch / shrink settings and see which one looks better when not at native then put up with it on the other one.... If you can get the TV at native 1920x1080 then put that out to the pc monitor at 1920x1080 without it stretching, that will probably be the best and look the least distorted. (You may need to turn off auto calibration / any auto resolution settings)

William Hilsum

Posted 2009-11-15T20:14:51.560

Reputation: 111 572

If they were independent though, programs would likely pop up on the screen im not using, which will be annoying to say the least. The only way to fix this would be to disable the screen I am not using from Windows, but thats equally annoying.

If I just 1920 x 1080 to both monitors, I assume there will be black bars along the top and bottom of the desktop screen? – Connor W – 2009-11-15T22:11:05.243

correct about black bars - but the only other real solution is to just use one a time and then unplug / unset the one you are not using. Other than this, if you set one screen as primary, you can be 99% sure that everything will pop up only on that one screen, unless it is something that was previously open and closed on the other. – William Hilsum – 2009-11-15T22:20:16.237

Actually, I just remembered reading somewhere else that someone set up hotkeys to switch display profiles... Maybe if I set up two profiles, one for the TV and one for the desktop, then I can just switch between them with a hotkey. That would solve the problem with black bars. I assume would this work in my case too? – Connor W – 2009-11-15T22:52:17.487

Yes. I personally do something similar. I have the different profiles set up within the Nvidia control panel and exported the settings a) for stretched to my monitor and b) stretched to my TV (My laptop can only stretch to one external at a time and I leave both DVI and HDMI plugged in). I actually use the Nvidia program to switch using the saved profiles, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with a hotkey – William Hilsum – 2009-11-15T23:23:00.767

Asked: 2009-11-15T20:14:51.560

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Active: 2009-11-15T20:57:06.217