If anyone could help me, I'd be very thankful. I've been hooking up my 2012 MBP to different TVs for about 6 months now. The display is fine on a typical modern 16:9 TV, a little cut off around the edges but not a big deal. What is far more frustrating is when I attach it to an older CRT 4:3 TV. I have never been able to get the display right, the issue is that everything is pressed together such that a O appears more like () if that makes sense. Circles look like ovals and faces look far too skinny. I have just upgraded to Yosemite and I still can't get it to display properly on a 4:3. I know that there should be letter boxing but I can't get such an effect to happen. Thank you to anyone who can help.
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Macbook display on TV help please!
- Thread starter rebeccaa
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From what you describe, it sounds like you are mirroring your display and the resolution is set to a native 16:9 or 16:10. Something like 1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050. Your 4:3 monitor probably doesn't support 16:9 resolutions so your Mac is scaling and squeezing it into a 4:3 resolution.
2 Possibilities to fix:
1) See if your CRT display has a 16:9 mode. Most computer monitors do not, but most late generation CRT TV's had an option that squished or cropped the image to fix the aspect ratio.
2) While mirroring, adjust your display resolution to one that is 4:3 native.
Goto System Preferences > Displays
Change resolution from "Best for Display" to "Scaled" and choose a 4:3 resolution. Something like 1024x768, 1280x1024 or 1600x1200.
This will put a 4:3 image on both displays. Your MacBook display will have pillar boxes (black bars on either side of the image) but the aspect ratio of the image should be correct on both displays.
