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Question about Desktop Aspect Ratio

P

pav

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 10, 2007
7
0
Greetings

I am brand new to these forums as of today. I have always used/built windows based machines but recently I have been looking at the Mac Pro.

I am a muscian and am interested in putting together a little recording studio in my music room. While some of my co-workers ( i'm a network engineer at a major ISP ) use windows to record music I thought it might be a good idea to go with the industry standard.

Anyway

I don't know much about Macs at all. I notice that they come with monitors that have a 16:9 aspect ratio.

My question is will a mac pro utilize the full 16:9 aspect ratio, or will it stretch the desktop to fit?

I know that my current Window XP machine stretches the desktop much to my chagrin, making my new dell widescreen monitor useless.

Any help is much appreciated.
 
If you're getting a Mac Pro, it doesn't come with a monitor at all. Use whatever one you want. And no, the desktop will never be stretched; just choose an appropriate resolution. (Just to be nitpicky, iMacs actually have a 16:10 ratio monitor.)

--Eric
 
Eric5h5 said:
If you're getting a Mac Pro, it doesn't come with a monitor at all. Use whatever one you want. And no, the desktop will never be stretched; just choose an appropriate resolution. (Just to be nitpicky, iMacs actually have a 16:10 ratio monitor.)

--Eric
Click to expand...

Eric-

Thanks for the reply. I am aware that the Mac Pro does not come with a monitor, but I will definately be purchasing an apple monitor with my mac pro. I feel like Apple displays are the best in the industry.

My question was do I have the ability to set the aspect ratio to 16:9 ( or 16:10 whatever the case may be ).

Thanks for the info!

For some reason I was unable to find this information anywhere.
 
pav said:
Eric-

Thanks for the reply. I am aware that the Mac Pro does not come with a monitor, but I will definately be purchasing an apple monitor with my mac pro. I feel like Apple displays are the best in the industry.

My question was do I have the ability to set the aspect ratio to 16:9 ( or 16:10 whatever the case may be ).

Thanks for the info!

For some reason I was unable to find this information anywhere.
Click to expand...

You should have no problems with stretching no matter which monitor you select. I'd imagine your problem on your windows box has to do with your resolution settings more than anything as there's no reason for being stuck with stretched video.
 
When you say that Windows stretches... do you mean that it stretches everything onscreen, or do you mean that it stretches the desktop wallpaper? The behavior with respect to wallpaper in OS X and Windows are basically the same -- you can stretch, center, tile, etc. If you get a desktop that matches the size of your screen, you're fine; if you get one that has an incompatible AR, then you have to stretch it.

On both Windows and OS X, though, generally, if you are using a computer monitor as a display, you should generally be able to get it to match screen resolutions to the native resolution of the display (i.e. no stretch). Occasionally you need help, via some utility like SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX. But usually you should be able to get a match to any major manufacturer computer display as well as most TVs.
 
mkrishnan said:
When you say that Windows stretches... do you mean that it stretches everything onscreen, or do you mean that it stretches the desktop wallpaper? The behavior with respect to wallpaper in OS X and Windows are basically the same -- you can stretch, center, tile, etc. If you get a desktop that matches the size of your screen, you're fine; if you get one that has an incompatible AR, then you have to stretch it.

On both Windows and OS X, though, generally, if you are using a computer monitor as a display, you should generally be able to get it to match screen resolutions to the native resolution of the display (i.e. no stretch). Occasionally you need help, via some utility like SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX. But usually you should be able to get a match to any major manufacturer computer display as well as most TVs.
Click to expand...

What I mean by stretching is that no matter what resolution I use ( and I have tried them all ) When I am using the entire monitor screen it stretches the desktop so everything looks a little distorted.

It is exactly like a 16:9 TV where if your watching in HD everything looks normal, but if you watch on a normal tv channel it looks like everyone is a little fatter than they are because the picture is "stretched" .
 
You;ll be fine. There are plenty of ways to set an apple monitor... for instance on a 23 inch apple display, you will get 1920x1200 pixels... 16:10 and good to go.
 
CEAbiscuit said:
You;ll be fine. There are plenty of ways to set an apple monitor... for instance on a 23 inch apple display, you will get 1920x1200 pixels... 16:10 and good to go.
Click to expand...

Great


Thanks for the feedback
 
4) Buy monitors from Dell or somebody else.


You are a music man, so you dont have tight colour reproduction that Apple or Eizo monitors provide.

Way more reasonable is that you would get a 30" dell for the same price as 23" ACD.
That way you would get more screen estate,quality that is good enough for your working.
Unless you are a vain person that has to have a apple display...:D

Wich is okay.
 
you CAN choose a stretched resolution as an option if you have wide screen. But generally, os x will pick the native resolution of the monitor.
 

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pav said:
What I mean by stretching is that no matter what resolution I use ( and I have tried them all ) When I am using the entire monitor screen it stretches the desktop so everything looks a little distorted.

It is exactly like a 16:9 TV where if your watching in HD everything looks normal, but if you watch on a normal tv channel it looks like everyone is a little fatter than they are because the picture is "stretched" .
Click to expand...

We had some CRT monitors that never looked quite right, everything on the screen always seemed to be a little too wide. Even tho the monitor was set up properly, I would always go in and adjust it so that it would look correct, but it would have a little bit of black space on the sides.

I have seen this with other monitors too. But I think you are safe, as long as you buy a known quality brand, and not eMachine monitors like my boss did.
 
Macinposh said:
4) Buy monitors from Dell or somebody else.


You are a music man, so you dont have tight colour reproduction that Apple or Eizo monitors provide.
Click to expand...

Most Dell displays are of the same quality if not better than the Apple ones. Eizo is another story.

but yes, unless you HAVE to have apple display, i'd at least consider dell.
 
bearbo said:
Most Dell displays are of the same quality if not better than the Apple ones. Eizo is another story.

but yes, unless you HAVE to have apple display, i'd at least consider dell.
Click to expand...


I slightly disagree on the firts part,agree on the second.




Dell = Good quality, half the price.
Apple = Good/A bit better quality, expensive.
Eizo = Best quality,double the price.


And the tests that i saw/heard on the 30" showed that the apples display had better gamut and a bit more faithfull reproduction,not by a large margin due to a bit diffrenet backlightnign construction. The panel is the same.As far as i know.


They chose 24" eizos and few 30" apples in the end.
( A local preprint run some tests..)
 
Thank you Everyone for the help.

I took the plunge today. For anyone interested here are my specs

Mac Pro
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Final Cut Express HD preinstalled
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
One 16x SuperDrive
Accessory kit
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Mac OS X - U.S. English
2GB (4 x 512MB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)

I decided to not get the apple display ( partially on the advice of people here ) and instead go with the 20" widescreen dell monitor I already have.

:)
 
Man I'm Jealous!

I'm still saving for mine.... we'll see what happens.

So did you order it, or get it from a store?

if you ordered it, when it comes in, you'll have to let us know what your desktop looks like ;)
 
BiikeMike said:
Man I'm Jealous!

I'm still saving for mine.... we'll see what happens.

So did you order it, or get it from a store?

if you ordered it, when it comes in, you'll have to let us know what your desktop looks like ;)
Click to expand...


I ordered it. Should be here in 4-5 business days. I purchased it through a website provided by apple for people at my place of work at a small discount.

I saved about 300 bucks off the normal price. More I guess is you add tax savings.

I'll let you all know what happens with the display settings.
 
Well the Mac pro showed up today. I love it!

Just to let everyone know the aspect ratio problem I was having with windows is gone. I didn't do anything but let it autodetect.

God I hope I don't become a Mac Fanboy.

Although I am quite a fan :)
 
Hello there. Firstly may i apologise for what may be seen as 'hijacking' this thread, but it does relate to it.

I see that a lot of you are saying that the image will not be distorted when using a widescreen display as the control panel in System Preferences for Display has all of the resolutions listed complete with 'stretched' choices. (As posted earlier on this thread by 'product26' - thank you)

This I understand, but have any of you used a widescreen display with a G5 Dual 1.8 that is fitted with the Radeon 5200 Ultra 64Mb video (as factory fitted)?

I am investigasting purchasing an Eizo S2231W Display (native resolution 1680 x 1050) and want to know basically if the 5200 card will present me with this range of display options, or is it restricted to being available on a higher spec card suchas a Radeon 9600 or similar?

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but trying to get an answer from so called 'tech support' staff is near impossible. Plus if it does not work successfully then I am stuck with a display that I can not use unless I shell out further for another graphics card.


Mnay thnaks for any help or experience you can give.
 
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