I have decied that I am going to build my screen in 2.35:1 format 132" x 56"
I want to make my X2Gen VGA monitor display 1280x 544 instead of it's native 1280x800 and mask the area where the letterboxing would occur on the LCD itself.

So basically I want to put out 1280x800 over VGA but have the active desktop area be 1280x544 (2.35:1)
The older Nvidia drivers had a utility for overscan compensation that would do this nicely. I either can't seem to finde them now or they nolonger exist in the drivers.

I have messed with the timmings in the Nvidia drivers and with powerstrip but I can't quite figure out how to do what I want.

Does anyone know how to do this? I remember reading posts where people were doing this with 17" monitors to get 720p

Look at the numbers used for 1280x800 (the totals of front porch, back porch, active area, etc etc). Then reduce the active area to 544 and split the difference between the front and back porch number (I think). I haven't played with the timing much in a long time so I don't remember the exact formats, but hopefully that makes a little sense...

When I set active pixels to 544 I always get the same result, an extremely vertically stretched image!
this happens no matter what i set for front and back porch
by default the fp is 4 and the bp is 8 so I tried fp 132 and bp 136 with 544 active and it is just the same as if i just set the active to 544 without messing with the fp and bp.

Arg. If I can get this to work it will be trick.
Any ideas? is ther anything besides powerstrip?

Perhaps a utility that could letterbox the desktop, that is effectively what I am trying to do.

First set the resolution to the displays native resolution within windows. Next run powerstrip. In the advance timing tabs there is a check box near the bottom that says something like "lock timings", check this box. Next go to the top and then reduce the vertical from 800 down to 544. Then click "add" timing. You can then go back to the first page and select the new 1280x544 resolution from there. If you've already added a 1280x544 timing, there may be multiple entries in your registry. I've found that uninstalling Powerstrip and Video Card drivers, then re-installing video card drivers and then Powerstrip will get you back where you can run this procedure again with success.

I hope some of this is clear. I also know that I only had success using the VGA on my ATI cards. It would not work using DVI... it was also dependent upon the version of driver that I was using... not sure about Nvidia, I know there are more options for setting custom resolutions, but haven't played with it much as I only have Nvidea on my laptop....

cheers,
gs

That worked, the trick was to first click add custom resolution, then lock total geometry then change the active area.

before it was just trying to edit the resolution I had, I missed that add custom resolution button.

This is very exciting because I can make a much wider CIH 2.35:1 ratio screen. Most of the movies I watch are 2.35:1 and the 1.85 movies will be pillarboxed. The advantage of pillarboxing a 1.85 movie is that the movie will not become too tall. I am really looking for a Cinema Style setup not an HDTV replacment.

A quick question, are you using DVI or VGA connection to your panel ? (just curious) Thanks.

gs

VGA, I am still using the X2Gen panel (VGA only)
I have a sharp 1920x1200 but no controller for it yet!

So now that I have the proper timming setup via powerstrip can I get the reg settings for it and pack them up into a reg file then uninstall powerstrip?

The reg file would be used to put the res back if I re-install windows.

O yea and BTW thanks for the help, I am now set on the fixed screen dimensions of 136"x58" this will be most optimal for viewing 2.35:1 films but 1.85 content will still be 9' wide. After reading a lot about constant image height setups on AVSforum I was sold on the idea, this setup gives me the ability to run a CIH without a anamorphic lense. The only disadvantage of not using a panamorphic lens is that the brightness will not be as good.