Graphics settings problem.

[House of Roberts]

Just a while ago I had a slip with my mouse, and somehow made my display start showing images as 'stretched' horizontally. It's not really bad, but obviously the image is out of proportion.
I am using a Windows 7 unit, displaying simultaneously on a 15 inch standard monitor, and via HDMI cable, my 61 inch Vizio TV. When I first connected the cable, between the computer and the TV, I followed the instructions and came up with a nice functional dual display, that allows me to position windows on either the big screen or the monitor, and the cursor will travel from one to the other, very much like setups I've dealt with at work. Since it suited me from the beginning, I never got into the options to change anything, except to get the display as large as feasible on the big screen for reading text.

In Control Panel settings, I have selected 1024 x 768 resolution, and under 'Multiple displays' I have 'Extend these displays'.

On Graphics Options I have 'Output To' set to 'Extend Desktop' with 'Digital Television + Monitor'
On Panel Fit Digital Television I have 'Scale Full Screen'. Any other setting here shrinks the desktop from 16-9 to 4-3 size on the screen, which is obviously not what I had before my miscue. These are the only choices I can find that use both screens, and allow the cursor to travel back and forth between both. I had it really nice before and wonder if there is another place that adjustments can be made that I'm not seeing. Thanks to any who can help.

[canetoad]

1. Coupla things

You obviously have two screens. Have you adjusted the aspect ration and resolution seperately? Click on either screen 1 or screen 2 in display settings and tweak them to your liking.

Secondly, are you sure you didn't hit a button somewhere on the monitor itself?

[House of Roberts]

2. I'm not close enough to the monitor, or the TV to have changed a button directly.

I can't see anything to 'tweak' on the page that allows to toggle between screen 1 and 2. Resolution is the same for both monitors.

[canetoad]

5. If you're using Win 10

You can do it all through display settings (Settings/System/Display).

Two diagrams of monitors at top of page. One or the other should be darkened. This is the active monitor.
Scroll down until you come to Scale and Layout. Whichever monitor is darkened (highlighted) is the active settings.

The optimum resolution for each monitor will be marked. (Recommended). They can be changed independently.

[Make7]

3. If both your screens are 16:9 aspect ratios, 1024 x 768 is not a good choice.

1024 x 768 is a 4:3 aspect ratio. Can you set the resolutions to 1920 x 1080, or 1280 x 720, or 1366 x 768? (Just try the highest available 16:9 aspect resolution and if you don't like the results, wait for the computer to revert back to your current setting (30 seconds or so), and try another resolution.)

[House of Roberts]

4. That may help eventually.

My problem may be I need to make more than one change to get this to work right again, and I'm not changing but one thing at a time.

The TV is 16x9, but the small monitor is a 4x3.

Everything was fine until it wasn't.

[canetoad]

6. Addendum to my post above

This page has lists of resolutions for 16: 9 and 4:3.

http://natesbox.com/blog/43-and-169-screen-resolutions/

[House of Roberts]

9. It was the resolution that must have changed,

see my reply to Make7 for what I did.

Y'all were both helpful, and I appreciate your time.

[Make7]

7. You should be able to change their resolutions independently.

Leave the monitor at 1024 x 768 and change the TV to 1366 x 768.

If you right-click on the desktop and choose screen resolution, in the control panel that comes up, I think you just click on the numbered monitor icon at the top to select and change settings individually.

[House of Roberts]

8. I think that fixed it.

It's back to looking right again.

I changed to using only the TV, got the resolution like you recommended, and the display is much better. Then I went back to both displays and the computer changed the TV resolution to match the monitor, which is what was stretching the picture. Changing the TV resolution back to 1366x768 held and now it's keeping the aspect to what it should.

Thanks a whole bunch!

Plus I learned something that may make it possible to use my Windows 10 computer the same way. I tried the 10 on the TV while the W7 was in the shop and couldn't make it work.

[Make7]

10. Glad to hear it. Once you get the settings where you want, you might want to take notes.

You could just put a text file on your desktop with the resolution settings that work best in case something changes. Especially when you sort it out on your Windows 10 machine. Sometimes just unplugging a monitor temporarily makes the display settings revert back to some previous setting even after that monitor is plugged back in. Thanks, Microsoft.

[Paige_Turner]

11. if it does 768 then it should do 1080

does it?

you're missing screen space.

[House of Roberts]

12. I needed the lower resolution to make type bigger.

I already had the type set to 150%.

In spite of my incompetence, I learned something new. I have always said you don't learn much when these things work properly, but get things out of whack and sooner or later, you learn new tricks.

[KS Toronado]

13. Welcome to DU !