Thanks for the info.  My only reference for a Dell large monitor like this is my current one, and my view of the PBP modes for it is that they don't - to use your words - scale gracefully.

@voxorg  Happy to help.  I've never tried PBP on a "regular" ultrawide, but the U4919DW's even wider aspect ratio (super-ultrawide?) definitely makes that a more practical solution. Enjoy!

@jphughan​ Sadly this isnt the case. I've been using the U4919DW for a few years now and every single time I try to put it into PBP mode, there is NO option for 2560 x 1440...

I get either 1920 x 1440, 2560 x 1080 etc, but regardless of what options I select, every single option on fill half the height of the screen. It's as if its only using the middle 50% of the screen horizontally.

I just cannot get it to go full height of the screen, at all... I wanted to plug my Xbox into the HDMI side, and live stream via a capture card, without needing a second screen on my desk...

Sadly, this isn't even going to be an option.

Cant really use it if its like looking through a letterbox.

Unless you have any different experiences with the 4919?

@MLIG585842​ Are you only trying this with an Xbox? It’s not clear what generation of Xbox you’re using, but 1440p support isn’t available on the original Xbox One, for example. It also looks like there have been some firmware updates for the U4919DW, so you could try installing those: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/dell-u4919dw-monitor/drivers

As an alternative way to set up your intended goal, can you feed the capture card into your PC and just run that at the display’s full resolution with the capture card display window sized to occupy the left half of the display?

@MLIG585842​ One other thing to check: Are you perhaps using a really old HDMI cable? 2560x1440 support has been available since HDMI 1.3, which has been around for a very long time now, but there were HDMI cables made before that spec arrived. Or I guess you might just have a problematic cable. I remember when I first got my Xbox Series X and wanted to run 4K 60 Hz w/ HDR. I initially connected it using my existing HDMI cable to avoid having to run a new cable behind my entertainment unit. It worked except that the display would very quickly black out every minute or so. As soon as I swapped to the cable that came with the Xbox, it ran flawlessly.

@jphughan​ Nope. Using the DP cable that came with the screen. I dont have anything lse plugged into the screen at the moment, just my Dell Dock connected to my laptop.

@MLIG585842​ Ok, a little information can go a long way when it comes to troubleshooting technical issues. Please provide more specifics about the exact models of your Dell laptop and dock.

@jphughan​ It's an XPS17 connected to a WD19TB dock, more than capable of driving this screen all day long at full res.

@MLIG585842​ “XPS 17” is an entire series of systems, kind of like saying “BMW 3 Series”. But since even the original XPS 17 would be adequate when paired with that dock and a DP cable, I guess that doesn’t matter here.

Out of curiosity, have you confirmed that the system will run the display at its full resolution? Is this ONLY a problem around PBP mode not allowing 2560x1440? Have you checked the display firmware against the releases in the link I provided earlier? Are your GPU drivers current? If your system allows this, have you tried defining 2560x1440 as a custom resolution in your GPU control panel and forcing that mode? Any other PCs or confirmed 1440p-capable source devices you can test with to start isolating variables?

@jphughan​ I'm 33 Years in IT by the way. Worked with Dell Kit exclusively now for the last 15.

Am not a newbie to any of this, so am extremely aware of what my kit can do and I'm 100% positive this is an issue with the screen, not the dock nor the laptop(s)

Just to save you having to ask more basic questions mate :-)

Do you have and use a U4919DW?

@MLIG585842​ Ok, that’s great. I’m 15 years in IT, working mostly with Dell endpoint and server hardware over that time — partly because a decent chunk of that career was at Dell. I only ask basic questions when basic information wasn’t provided upfront, which is a tendency I tend to observe in people who are LESS technically inclined, since IT types tend to know and appreciate the value of providing technical information to help troubleshoot technical issues. :)

But if your intent here is just to inform people that “it doesn’t work”, then I’m not sure that’s as generally accurate as you’re implying. I don’t have a U4919DW anymore, but I achieved dual 2560x1440 in PBP mode when I had one and had access to one in a showroom type of area in one of Dell’s buildings.

@jphughan Apologies, my bad. I saw your level 9 status and figured I was in a similar company, so I just jumped right past all the basic stuff, totally forgetting you folks wouldn't know anything about what I was doing or had tried...

So my screen has the latest firmware on it.. M2B108

My nVidia 2060 is using the latest drivers and nVidia control panel

Docking station, again, latest firmware.

Dell Display Manager v2.3.2

Displayport cable is the one that came with the screen, haven't changed that.

Checking over the Dell Support and Drivers for my screen, I found something called a "5K_Enable_Support_U4919DW" so I downloaded it and let it do the registry inserts...

This had a weird effect...

It now set the max resolution for my entire desktop to 2560 x 1440

But, when I then enabled the DBD mode, it worked correctly, exactly 50% screen split and full screen height too.

But, when I switched off PBP, back to normal screen use, everything is now huge as its running the full screen in 2560 x 1440.

I had to remove the registry additions and reinstalled the Intel UHD drivers to get things back to normal.

So I'm now right back where I started. But now I'm thinking this could be an Intel UHD issue, where it can do one or the other, but not switch between both. If forced into 5K mode, I get the option to set the desktop screen resolution 2560 x 1440, but nothing higher than that at all... Without that "fix", I can use the screen to it's fullest, 5620 x 1440, but no option at all for 2560 x 1440, and PBP Mode seems to make the desktop image half height, leaving huge black space top and bottom...

So it seems this is an Intel UHD Graphics thing, coming from the laptop... Tried a "Custom" mode and it sent the screen nuts, unviewable, had to reset the intel graphics command centre software.

Hope that clarifies things a bit better... Apologies for any confusion..

@MLIG585842​ I’ve had to learn more times than I care to admit that it’s never a good idea to skip the fundamentals. I’ve lost quite a bit of time going down the wrong path on troubleshooting because I assumed that surely something had already been tested, or surely the person would have told me if they were had implemented some bizarre configuration, etc.

In terms of the Intel/NVIDIA interplay, at least the last time I checked in on the XPS 17, there were two architectural possibilities in terms of how the GPUs worked.

On systems with NVIDIA non-RTX GPUs, which were the lower of the two NVIDIA GPU options at any given time, the NVIDIA GPU was never directly wired to any display outputs. It instead operated in render-only mode via NVIDIA Optimus and passed rendered content to the Intel GPU for output to the display(s). This allowed the NVIDIA GPU to be completely powered off when its performance was not needed, rather than having to keep it running to feed displays.

On XPS 17 models with NVIDIA RTX GPUs, the system had a BIOS option that allowed the user to switch between the mode I just described (default) and a separate mode where the NVIDIA GPU had direct management of the display outputs. This option was given the rather clunky name “Direct Graphics Controller Direct Output Mode”. If you have that option present in your system’s BIOS, you might want to try enabling it to see if it changes the behavior you’re observing. If it does, then you might have to decide whether the battery life penalty of having the NVIDIA GPU always running is worth it.

Thanks for that. I think for now, I'm going to leave it be. My laptop uses the GPU to render stuff when needed, such as games or video editing, and I like having the full screen all the time far more than I'd ever use half the screen, as it was just to see if I could switch between the two modes, for a few hours a week... Didn't fancy having a second screen on my desk just for the xbox.

Kinda given up on it now... Every day's a school day huh...