Resolution and HD/Blu-ray

[aforbes3498]

I am getting ready to build a new system and am considering the Dell U2410 with a resolution of 1920x1200. My question is: what will happen when I watch HD/Blu-ray at 1080p? Will it stretch to fit the optimum resolution, or will it drop the extra pixels and give me black bands at top and bottom?

 

[LNCPapa]

You will have small black bands on the top and bottom - it won't be too bad though.

 

[Appzalien]

Actually I think it would be the application you play it with that might offer the option to stretch or black line to fit the screen, but the default is usually letterbox. If you think about it, if you played with media player you would see the media player gui while it was playing unless you switch to full screen, and then you would have your black lines.

 

[compdata]

This is usually controlled by the application you are running. In the absolute worst case you can set your monitors resolution lower to match the 1080p spec while playing movies.

 

[LNCPapa]

That is definitely worst case - if you drop your res then you'll be modifying your aspect ratio for the film. If your monitor does 1920x1200 then it's been designed for a 16:10 aspect ration (along with have a pixel count that equals 16:10.) Things will be a little stretched if you go that route.

Also, I assumed you'd be watching full screen since your source will be 1920 pixels wide and your display will also be 1920 pixels wide - otherwise you'll be losing a tiny bit on the sides for your border.

As they've mentioned it will be controlled by the software, but I'm hoping if you're discerning enough to actually be watching legit HD media then the aspect ratio matters and you'll put up with the borders or watch it on a 16:9 screen if you can't handle it. In fact, there is still a chance you'll have borders if the film doesn't completely fill a 16:9 setup - many do not. Some films are actually wider than 16:9.