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Aspect ratio help on MacBook Pro

grantwolsey

grantwolsey

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 14, 2010
48
0
Hello,
I have a MacBook Pro 15-inch Fall '09 notebook and a 40-inch Toshiba LCD HDTV (supporting 1080p, or "Full HD") I want to use my TV as a display for my laptop so I can use the bluetooth keyboard and trackpad from my couch so I bought a Mini display to HDMI adaptor and I thought my problem was solved. But then I noticed the black bars on either side of the TV screen. I found out these had to do with the fact that my pro has a 16:10 aspect ratio and my TV has 16:9. My question is there any way to make these black bars disappear, essentially "making" my TV do 16:10 or my pro do 16:9? I know there has to be some way. Any help that would lead to this no longer being a problem for me would be much appreciated. Thank you.
 
If you change the settings from Mirror Display to Extend Desktop, you can have different resolutions and aspect ratios on the two screens. Then your apps will either have the option to output to a particular screen, of you can drag the window to the other screen then it will output to that screen.

TEG
 
grantwolsey said:
Hello,
I have a MacBook Pro 15-inch Fall '09 notebook and a 40-inch Toshiba LCD HDTV (supporting 1080p, or "Full HD") I want to use my TV as a display for my laptop so I can use the bluetooth keyboard and trackpad from my couch so I bought a Mini display to HDMI adaptor and I thought my problem was solved. But then I noticed the black bars on either side of the TV screen. I found out these had to do with the fact that my pro has a 16:10 aspect ratio and my TV has 16:9. My question is there any way to make these black bars disappear, essentially "making" my TV do 16:10 or my pro do 16:9? I know there has to be some way. Any help that would lead to this no longer being a problem for me would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Uncheck mirror displays.
 
Holy crap you guys are so much more helpful than those punks at the Western Digital Forum... 3 replies in 1 day. I am a little confused though about the "uncheck mirroring" thing though; wouldn't that stretch the display from my pro's screen and show a distorted view of my desktop, apps, etc. on my TV? I'm obviously away from my mentioned hardware at the moment or I would just go home and try it before asking. Thank you
 
"Another screen on the HDMI"....meaning what, exactly? Not to be flippant, just wondering. Thank you
 
Essentially you will have 2 screens detected on the MacBook, and you can choose which screen you want the Finder bar, dock etc on, and then the other screen can be used for displaying whatever you want to put on the screen. Totally separate, with different resolutions for each screen you can choose.

http://www.gadgetell.com/images/2007/05/dual-dell-screens.jpg like so.

The user can drag windows the the secondary screen, and drag things back aswell.
 
Well, what I'm basically trying to do is connect the minidisplay to HDMI adapter, activate InsomniaX (a program that allows the macbook to run even if I were to say, close it and set it aside) and sit at my couch with my bluetooth keyboard and trackpad and navigate my mac while looking at a bigger screen, i.e. my 40" Toshiba LCD. Will unchecking mirror displays enable me to do that, or will it force me to keep my laptop at my side?
 
Yes, that will enable you to do that, but Apple has a built in feature to do exactly what you want, called "clamshell mode".

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3131 =) Make sure to look at the "bluetooth keyboard and mouse section"

It should automatically detect which resolution the display is, if it doesn't, you can go to system preferences > displays and change it. Also, there should be a option in displays to turn on overscan, to fine tune the external display.

Cheers
 
Thanks for the hyperlinks, they help. So the black bars on either side due to the aspect ratio discrepancy will be gone?
 
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