Custom scaling in native/full resolution?

Hey guys,

I work retail and I have a customer who purchased a monitor (1920x1080). Its an HP Pavillion 23xi. He's trying to display an ipad mini and it always truncates the screen with black bars on either side. This wouldn't be a problem if custom scaling was enabled, but in full HD, it's not.

Which monitor can I get for this customer that would allow stretching/custom scaling in full HD. The HP one likely cannot do it. I figure any samsung would be able to. Thoughts?

Thanks.

The mini is 1024x768, isn't it? That is a 4:3 ratio, so even if you have full scaling supported, you'll either get: black bars, or the image will be stretched out so the image will look weird. At 1:1, there will obviously be much more black space around the image.

On the HP, are you just talking about black bars, or 1:1? If it was me, I'd prefer black bars than weirdly stretched out images. If he wants a perfect image, stretched out properly with no black bars, you'd need to get a 4:3 monitor -- unless the mini supports (16:9) 1920x1080 on an external?

All we're looking for really is a monitor that allows for custom scaling while running in full (native) resolution. In this case, that would be 1080p.

Just check monitor specs for scaling options ... decent ones should have it. I know the NEC 90 series has on-the-fly scaling options, so you can choose a scaling percentage. You can check if newer NECs have this, if it's something you'd want.

I would have assumed the mini could display 1080p, stretched, in one of its display settings, without relying on the monitor scaling. But I don't own one, so can't check that. I also don't want to recommend any specific monitor, as it beats me if it'd work with an ipad mini or not. And again, be aware that if the mini doesn't output in 1080p, the image will be distorted.

I have read that some apps don't support hdmi output, so you may run into some instances that it won't work regardless. Perhaps Apple TV mirroring would be an option too, but again, don't own one, so not sure. You'd need an Apple person to reply.

The NEC PA series can, but they might be out of his price range. They have an amazing scaler that can do the normal stretch/aspect/none scaling, but also a full custom mode where you can specify the settings. It does appear to work at the native rez (the options show up in the menu for me at least).

They are pricey displays though.

Yeah, the 90 series has the same thing. It's pretty neat and something I haven't seen in any other monitors. It comes in handy when playing an old low res game, where full blast stretched looks weird, and 1:1 is too tiny ... it's easy to figure out an in-between setting,

He didn't mention a size, but if he wants to go cheap, there usually are NEC 1990s on eBay for $50-$100 used, and < $200 new (or refurb). He may be able to run the mini at 1280x960, for the best pic, with small bars underneath .. or stretched out, if he prefers. A 1600x1200 20"-21.3"er would probably be best, as it'd be 4:3, so no bars at all and the image wouldn't have to be distorted.

But I have no idea what apps he is running or if he requires a higher res.