Duncan,

I also have the E207WFP monitor and I'm experiencing exactly the same problems as you.

 

The monitor looks stunning as a piece of kit and at 22" looks like serious business! In terms of writing documents and spreadsheets, writing emails, browsing my iTunes library, etc, this monitor works absolutely fine. And it's just perfect when playing back DVDs (which easliy fill the widescreen frame at the correct 16:9 or similar ratio).

 

However it's the viewing of images, either saved pictures taken from my own digital camera, or just generally browsing the web where this monitor seems to really slip up. As you've described already, the picture gets stretched horizontally making images of people look very fat/wide indeed (the wife was particularly horrified when viewing shots of her in a bikini from last year's holiday snaps... I think she's on a slimfast diet already!). 

 

I can't easily see any way of correcting the aspect ratio to how it should be (which would be the traditional squarer 4:3 ratio). This being a brand new Dell PC means that I'm running on the new Windows Vista system and it's not obvious how to make the changes (in Windows XP you at least used to be able to right click on a blank part of the desktop and mess about with the 'Display Properties' and change the screen resolution... although obviously I didn't really need to do that with my old 15" square monitor).

 

Does anybody out there know any solutions to this? I'm beginning to think that maybe there is nothing I can do about this problem (short of contacting Dell about swapping my 22" widescreen monitor for a 19" square option).

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Well to be honest I'm pretty sure that EVERYTHING is distorted to fit the full 1680 x 1050 frame!

 

For me this doesn't really matter when you're dealing with words & numbers, documents & spreadsheets, etc, but does become a very real and noticeable issue with images.

 

My PC came fully loaded with Vista when delivered but I will double-check that the latest drivers have been installed. Cheers.

Well ~ it could be a Vista problem. My experience with Vista so far has not been pleasant at all. Seems that Microsoft left out the debugging stage when they developed it.

 

Anyway, I really think it's a Dell issue though - C'mon all you Dell "techie" employees - We know you monitor these forums - How about an answer to the problem.

It's regarding programs for editing photographs Chris, although the photos on my website are stretched out sideways and distorted accordingly. That is we both appear shorter and wider than in reality. Same holds for pictures no matter what I view them with.

 

See:

 

http://users.******************. [ link removed after discussion ended]

 

As to the driver download - I've done that and now need to install it. I'll let you know what happens. Resolution is at optimum now.

 

Thanks,

 

Duncan

In other words - there is no real solution and I (we) have to go back to a square monitor if we want pictures to display correctly. - YES ?

Well ~ that certainly improved it quite a bit as far as photographs are concerned. Only problem is now all the text, etc is so small it's much more difficult for an old guy like me to read it. - Ah well, in order to get something I guess you have to give up something if I want to keep this monitor. Too bad, the square monitor gives me both.

 

Thanks Chris,

 

Duncan