External monitor with laptop

[janedo1586]

I'm trying to connect a Samsung 2333HD monitor to my Dell Studio 15 laptop using the standard video cable connection. I canNOT get the Samsung to set to the proper resolution (1920x1080). I can set the resolution to the optimal for the laptop (1920x1200) but that looks stretchy on the ex. monitor. I've gone into control panel, display settings. The monitor chosen is (Mulitple Monitors) on ATI Radeon blah blah. If I click the number 2 box, I can set the resolution to what it should be for the Samsung, but it won't "stick". I click apply and it goes back to something horrible like 600x800 with 8 bit color. The very first time I tried it, I got it to work...but then I did the fn+F8 to turn off the laptop monitor, the Samsung went all screwy and I haven't been able to get it to work since. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this to work? It drives me nuts when I can't figure this stuff out...I'm usually pretty good at this!

 

[mike123abc]

I suspect the driver is not letting you do it. Perhaps an update is available, but probably not likely Dell does not seem to update their drivers very often.

 

[Kevinw]

Have you tried changing the Samsung to number 1 monitor?

 

[TheForce]

If your monitor is a native HD res pixel base count, it likely is an LCD 1920x1200 screen. This is what you really want it to be set for., not 1920 x 1080. Then in the video mode to play Blu Ray DVD that are 1920 x 1080, your screen should automatically letterbox slightly for the proper AR. I have two work stations here with different computers and monitors. Both are set for native Pixel AR of 1920 x 1200 and both play BluRay disks with perfect geometry. There is a Blu Ray calibration DVD you can get that has all the charts for calibration. It is worth having in your library.

 

[janedo1586]

Kevinw, I have tried every which way to get it to work.

Don, the documentation for the monitor and the annoying pop-up on the screen says optimal resolution is 1920x1080. It worked when I first connected it....until I toggled off the laptop's monitor. Everything then went haywire. My laptop doesn't have a blu ray player...one option I did not choose as I never intended to use my laptop for movies. I have a Panny blu ray. Tried some other tweaks this morning and am still stuck with a stretchy screen on my monitor. *sigh*