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  1. My Sister's laptop was repaired a few weeks back. The hard drive went so a new hard drive was put in and Windows 7 was put back on it. Since it has returned I have noticed that videos that are in the 4:3 full screen format when played are stretched. It doesn't matter what I try in the settings of VLC Media Player it continues to be stretched. In general file dialog boxes and other stuff on screen seem to be stretched as well. Is there something I can adjust to stop the stretching. Older shows most times were 4:3 and they look odd when they are stretched to the widescreen format. I am thinking there is something in the Windows settings somewhere to address this issue, but I haven't found an answer yet.

    Thanks in advance for any help you can give me with this issue.
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  2. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
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    Tried adjust the screen resolution?
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    Right click on empty screen space
    Choose display properties
    You can change resolution setting , text and icon size etc.
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  4. Baldrick: I tried to screen resolution and it doesn't help. Thank you for your advice.
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  5. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
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    Try another player? Like MPC-HC or Potplayer.

    But it must be something wrong the desktop resolution...
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  6. Originally Posted by Tom Saurus View Post
    My Sister's laptop was repaired a few weeks back. The hard drive went so a new hard drive was put in and Windows 7 was put back on it. Since it has returned I have noticed that videos that are in the 4:3 full screen format when played are stretched... In general file dialog boxes and other stuff on screen seem to be stretched as well...
    What is the native resolution of the laptop's monitor, according to the brochure/manual/website/?

    Try to set Windows' resolution to the same size.
    http://www.dummies.com/computers/operating-systems/windows-7/how-to-change-screen-reso...-in-windows-7/

    If you can't do that (the native size does not appear in list of Windows resolutions), I suspect your "repair" guy copied a Windows 7 drive image without proper OS installation - possibly as a way to bypass activation, ie, steal it.
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  7. Baldrick: I installed MPC-HC yesterday in the hopes that would do the trick. Once again it didn't respect the 4:3 video, even when I selected crop to 4:3. It just ignored it and stretched the video to fill the 16:9 screen. I used to have an older version of VLC Media Player on her laptop before the tech did the hard drive replacement and I did uninstall that about six months ago because it became unstable for whatever reason but I do remember it respected the 4:3 video. Something happened with the reinstall of windows. Perhaps it is a video driver issue or something like that. Thanks for your help. I suppose it doesn't matter as my Sister is happy with it being this way; I am the one who likes to watch things in the original aspect ratio, but it isn't the end of the world. I am glad her laptop is working again.
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  8. raffriff42: It shows two options for resolution a low of 800 x 600 and a high of another number that I have forgotten as I am on my Desktop writing this. It is set for the top resolution. It is an Acer 15" laptop. I think the Tech Guy installed a valid Windows 7 because he did a whole slew of updates. Perhaps that is where the problem lies. I kept my sister's laptop off the Internet so never bothered updating it as it was just for offline use. Thanks for your advice.
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  9. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    My old 15" widescreen laptop had a resolution of 1366 X 768 (Native)

    If that's not available or set as the default,
    I would go to the laptop website and DL the correct graphic driver if W7 just
    installed a generic graphics card driver by default.
    .
    Last edited by redwudz; 24th Nov 2016 at 23:33.
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  10. Originally Posted by Tom Saurus View Post
    raffriff42: It shows two options for resolution a low of 800 x 600 and a high of another number that I have forgotten as I am on my Desktop writing this.
    Go to the graphics device vendor's site and download the latest WHQL certified drivers. Then set the Desktop resolution to the laptop's native resolution. It will probably recommend the correct setting.
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  11. My sister's laptop is "Aspire 5552-5686".

    I am looking at the screen resolution and on the high end it is 1024x768 and on the low end 800x600.

    It says for Display: 1. Generic PnP Monitor on Standard VGA Graphics Adapter

    Now on the laptop there is a sticker that says:

    AMD Phenom II X3 N830
    15.6" HD-LCD
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250

    Now if I go to Device Manager and click on Display Adapters it says:
    Standard VGA Graphics Adapter

    Where do I go from here? Is there any danger in trying to update the driver?

    I just checked the properties for the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter:

    Driver Provider: Microsoft
    Driver Date: 6/21-2006
    Driver Version: 6.1.7600.16385
    Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows

    If this Ati Mobility Radeon is on the system somewhere I would think it would be superior than this Standard VGA Graphics Adapter. Thanks in advance for any additional advice. I apologize for taking so long to respond.
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  12. Sorry somehow I double posted.
    Last edited by Tom Saurus; 4th Dec 2016 at 12:07. Reason: I double posted by mistake
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  13. Try "VGA driver" from Acer: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/3276
    If that doesn't work try from AMD: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/auto-detect-tool (but AMD recommends laptop vendor's drivers)
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  14. Standard VGA Driver is what Windows installs when you don't have the manufacturer's drivers installed. It's very slow, limited, and doesn't use any of the advanced features of the chipsets. Go to ATI's web site and download drivers for the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250.
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  15. Originally Posted by Tom Saurus View Post
    My sister's laptop is "Aspire 5552-5686".

    I am looking at the screen resolution and on the high end it is 1024x768 and on the low end 800x600.
    Those are 4:3 resolutions, but from these images, it looks like your laptop is 16:9 or 16:10
    https://www.google.com/search?q=Acer+Aspire+5552&tbm=isch

    Therefore your laptop is running a generic driver. Get the correct driver.
    https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/3276?b=1

    It's called the "VGA driver" for some reason. The ATI driver might work, but I think the Acer driver will give Windows the true native monitor resolution. After installing the Acer driver, you can experiment with newer ATI drivers.

    You probably want to install ALL the Acer drivers - touchpad, LAN, audio etc - as you are not getting the full functionality of your hardware without them.
    Last edited by raffriff42; 4th Dec 2016 at 19:08.
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  16. The native resolution is probably 1366x768.
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  17. sneaker: I downloaded the VGA Driver but didn't install then I downloaded that AMD Auto Detect Tool. I ran the tool and it updated everything. When it rebooted it said in the Display Options native resolution 1366x768. Now the videos play in the 4:3 aspect ratio without stretching. There is a world of difference now. It is so much better.

    sneaker, raffriff42 and jagabo: Thank you to each of you. Thanks for taking the time to help me with this matter. I think I am going to forward this thread to the technician as perhaps it will be of use to him as well.

    The other night I played a 720p video file and it just looked awful and I played it after this driver update and it looks the way it should. Once again thank you all so very much.
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