[scarpogre]

Hello,
I'm Trying to connect on old G4 tower to a 37" LCD 1080i display. I connected it through a vga and am getting only a 4:3 aspect ratios. When I first connected the tower to the display, I was able to get 1360x768 very close to the native resolution to the screen. Now for some reason I do not have the option for any 16:9 aspect ratios. I am running a 1.6 ghz g4 with an ati radeon 9000 pro card. Pleas help, the stretched out image is driving me crazy.

Thanks in advance

[tinkered]

1360x768 is not a standard resolution. See this link for standard resolutions: Image:Vector Video Standards2.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anything beyond XVG requires a DVI (ADC) connection. HD requires DVI. Your card should have DVI, use it.

[scarpogre]

My card has dvi and adc, my television has component, hdmi, vga only. I was able to get 1360 x 768 once before (through vga) but for some reason, my mac only gives my the 4:3 choices now. I tried to go dvi to hdmi but that was no joy also.

[P]

1360*768@60 Hz (and a few others, don't remember exactly which - 75 Hz is one, I think) is WXGA - standard is a matter of definition these days, since all modern graphics cards support any resolution that is a multiple of 16 and many support even more than that, but at least it has a name. If the native resolution of the screen is 1366*768 (which is common for 37" LCDs), 1360*768 is the closest you'll get without breaking the multiple-of-16 rule. Another option which both TV and GPU should support is 1280*720 - 720p. I have used both from a Mac.

VGA ports can be used for any resolution, but the quality will eventually decrease if you use a too high resolution or too high refresh frequency. That level is way over XGA or WXGA though - I don't know what XVG is. The standard that has a real upper limit is single link DVI, which supports up to 1920*1200@60 Hz after which you have to use a double link connector.

I would strongly recommend that you try a DVI-to-HDMI cable again, set the display to "PC standard" (sometimes you can reset the ports from set-top box to PC and back again), shut everything and start it new, with the TV first. That should show your resolution again.

If that also fails, try an application called SwitchRes and either connector. That should force the GPU into the right resolution.