Mac pro aspect ratio of main screen is wrong

Hello,


Done something I had to do ages ago, just upgraded from 10.6 to 10.9.2. All went perfectly well but for two little (hope little) problems

1. The aspect ratio of my main screen is not correct, it sretches over the vertical direction. Impossible to do graphical work like this.

2. If I drag window to another screen the movement is not fluent as it used to be + a window can not be split over two screens which could be done before too.


For the rest all seems to be perfectly nice and clean.


Hope somebody has ideas

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on May 3, 2014 11:14 PM

Reply
14 replies

May 4, 2014 8:36 AM in response to lllaass

With the System preferences > Displays pane open, hold down the Option key for more Resolutions and more Options.


This un-Mac-like hack has been allowed to creep in, and the Mac Human Interface Police have not dealt with the perpetrators ... yet.


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10.9 Mavericks changes the way displays are treated, and the new default is that each display is an independent workspace. This can be put back to the "correct" Extended desktop way.



Windows in Mavericks reside in a single space by default, so they usually don't span multiple displays. When a window is dragged between displays, it appears translucent on one of the displays to indicate this. After you are done dragging the window, it snaps to one display.

If you need an app window to span multiple displays, deselect the option "Displays have separate Spaces" in the Mission Control pane of System Preferences.


--from:

Mac OS X: Using Multiple Displays in Mavericks


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May 4, 2014 6:24 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Starts to be annoying,

tried as lllaas said via madrau, took the setting as mentioned in the manual... not to much success there yet. The screen is squeezed in the opposite direction. Filled in a help sheet have to wait for his reply.

possibility seems to be promising... wait and see

Mission control did a perfect job Grant

Opt. didn't work either, presume this is a less common screen worked perfectly fine with 10.6

May 5, 2014 5:40 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Seem to be in real trouble now.

Installed the program available at www.madrau.com, didn't do the job, aspect ratio changed but was inverted wrong. Asked for support with question to try all resolutions. Before I only changed to resolutions proposed in the manual of Samsung hdmi series 5 TV.

Did the try as requested

Screen gives message "mode not supported, the resolution is not supported on this TV. Please change the resolution"

As for follow up support I only got there is a FAQ which is useless since I can't access a thing like. My docks and any control button only can be accessed via my main screen which is blacked out.

As for cables Grant I have

1 acer connected via VGA with adaptor

1 acer connected via mini port next to VGA and Mac adaptor

Main screen Samsung via VGA with adaptor


Searching for hours now but out of ideas unless taking Samsung out, restart and hoping that all goes well.

May 5, 2014 9:54 PM in response to Doublevie

It is not surprising that it cannot do VGA at 1920 by 1080. That is a real stretch for VGA.


Part of the problem is that DVI-I ports do not actually use a converter to get VGA. They use an extractor that merely re-wires the pins.


VGA signals are provided directly by the card, and are output on the blade at one end of the connector and the pins immediately around it. Salmon-pink in the diagram below, courtesy wikipedia. Shortcomings in this VGA signal are shortcomings of the card itself, the adapter does nothing -- it just re-wires the signals provided.



User uploaded file


.


If your TV has an HDMI port, you could get a DVI to HDMI converter or cable and get that resolution with proper aspect ratios without issue. Wider than 1920 wide requires a much more expensive adapter with some serious electronics in it.

May 5, 2014 10:05 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Ok I'll try to find such a cable Grant.

Hope that will solve the problem, thank you very much for your help.


Though some side notes:

I had no problem with 10.6 in combination with this screen, aspect ratio was perfect

I did succeed in having 1920*1080 on the screen by using the soft proposed at madrau.

It was only after he asked to try all resolution that the screen gave the "not supported resolution" most probably I pushed it too high.

Though indicated in the manual the aspect ratio changed but inversed distorted this time


Though indicated on his site that help is excellent, I can't say I'm impressed with.


If I would obtain another screen and for all security what do I have to look out for? Resolution indicated with model X or?

Appreciate your support very much, thank you

May 5, 2014 10:30 PM in response to Doublevie

The Drivers for that particular card, the GT120, seem to have been neglected a bit.


For a while two cards did not work at all in 10.8 -- you had to remove one card to get the other to work.


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Except for VGA support, any display should be well supported up to 30" resolutions of 2560 by 1600 using DVI or [Mini] DisplayPort. Conversion of Video from DVI to HDMI is just a re-wiring. Conversion of Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort is just a re-wiring as well.

May 6, 2014 5:20 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Got my screen back to normal, unplugged the Samsung, restarted,

Went to prefs -> mission control -> checked display have separate Spaces again to make sure I could access the menu

Made sure that prefs was positioned on one of the side screens

Rebooted the computer with main screen connected

Upon reboot main screen was still black, though could access prefs and take a lower resolution


Aspect ratio still wrong of course


Try one thing more and will post if it worked.


If anybody has good suggestions for a new monitor more then welcome

Preferred: 32"

Work mostly in graphics field, photoshop, maya, mudbox

Price is important but has to have quality within reason

Many give resolution 1900*1080 as max and after this story I feel uncomfortable with it

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Mac pro aspect ratio of main screen is wrong

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