Widescreen Display through VGA

Question

Hi everyone!
Ok, got a new monitor today (Samsung SyncMaster B2230) and linked it upto my iMac (Late 2009 running 10.6.6) and all of the resolutions that it is offering are ins 4:3, not 16:9 (native res of the monitor is 1920x1080). Tried installing SwitchResX but no luck with that either.
Thought this was wierd so connected it upto my macbook, and it displayed the 1920x1080 resolution (16:9) that I was after - so the problem isn't with the monitor or the cable or the adaptor
Also booted into Windows 7 on the iMac to see if it could get the resolution to go to 1920x1080, but it was only doing the 4:3 ones as well (tops out at 1600x1200)
I THINK that the problem is with the ATI card in the iMac being annoying and not wanting to do widescreen through VGA, if anyone has any ideas/advice on what might work to get this sorted please get in touch.

Answer 1

Some general background info that may help reduce the confusion (or at least help explain why it exists):
• As explained in this Wikipedia article,"VGA" specifically refers to an analog video computer display standard introduced by IBM in the 1990's with a resolution no greater than 640 X 480 pixels, but in common use "VGA" has become a generic term for any of the modern analog video computer display resolution standards that use the analog VGA connector, or for the connector itself.
• Several of these modern analog computer display standards define 16:10 widescreen formats (see for example this Wikipedia list), such as the "WUXGA" (1920×1200) format.
• However, there is no common analog computer display standard that defines a "native" 16:9 widescreen format. The 1920x1080 widescreen format is the native one for HDTV's 1080p & 1080i signals, but they are digital formats with no direct analog counterpart.
• To make things that much more complicated, analog video signals of the same resolution may use slightly different parameters for such arcane things as horizontal & vertical timing & sync, & different monitors or graphics cards may & generally do accept or supply only a subset of all the possible ones.
• Because there are so many different variations in the analog standards, "plug & play" methods (in both Mac & Windows implementations) may not offer all the possible ones, especially those that involve non-native pixel mapping. For Macs, SwitchResX or a similar utility allows users to experiment with all the possible graphics card values it supports; however, there is no guarantee that the monitor will support the desired ones.
• The manuals for most monitors & HDTV's include a chart of the parameters for each display mode their VGA ports support, although many are incomplete. It can be very challenging to find any set of values that work other than the "plug & play" ones, but the chart values at least will give you a clue about what may work -- only values on the chart will work so entering them in the utility & making guesses about any that are missing is the best you can do.
• Because there are far fewer digital video display standard variations, using a monitor's or HDTV's digital connection(s) such as DVI or HDMI usually is much easier, as well as often producing a sharper image. Since all contemporary Macs support digital video out (with the appropriate adaptor), that should be your first choice whenever possible.