iMac 24" - different resolution to HD TV's

[nicnic77]

I've bought myself a 40" 1080p LCD to use as a second monitor for my 24" iMac.

I connect the two over HDMI and I'm very impressed with the quality. However, somewhat annoyingly the iMac has a resolution of 1920 x 1200, whereas the full HD standard is 1920 x 1080. This means when mirroring desktops on the iMac / TV the iMac adds letterboxing to the top and bottom of it's screen, which I find very annoying as I'm loosing screen real estate on the iMac.

If anybody out there is looking for a HD TV to compliment their iMac, then I believe you can get 1920 x 1200 TV's which won't give you black bars. Could be an option.

 

[ftaok]

If anybody out there is looking for a HD TV to compliment their iMac, then I believe you can get 1920 x 1200 TV's which won't give you black bars. Could be an option.

The only problem is that no one makes an HDTV with a native resolution of 1920x1200. Your options would be to extend the desktop or to live with the letterboxing on the 24" screen.

 

[Aegelward]

as far as i know, if its connected through VGA it can actually use the native resolution of a HDTV (720p anyway)

 

[psonice]

It's a weird side effect of the different sizes of tvs and monitors. TVs tend to be 4:3 or 16:9 (widescreen), and monitors tend to be 5:4 or 16:10 (for lcds at least).

That's why you won't see a 1920x1080 monitor, or a 1920x1200 tv. Why they make it like that, I have no idea and it's annoying!