I have a very nice Samsung 932bw widescreen monitor.  This mutha has an optimum response time of 2ms, and a contrast ratio of 3000:1.  It's native resolution is 1440x900, which is awesome for all things widescreen.  I have it plugged into a GeForce 8600GTS via DVI, so it looks fantastic.

My problem lies in displaying resolutions that are not widescreen. (RM2K3, and really old games, for example.)  The monitor just stretches everything to fit, so RPG Maker games appear stretched in fullscreen mode.

I want the monitor to display 4:3 scaled resolutions in pillarboxes (Black bars on the left and right.)  There appear to be no scaling options on the monitor itself (Autoadjust and image moving simply says "not available.")

Nvidia control panel has options for flat panel scaling.  It's set to "use my display's built-in scaling", which looks fine, but won't adjust for aspect ratio, as mentioned above.  "Use NVidia scaling" makes everything look blurry.  "Use Nvidia scaling with fixed aspect ratio" makes everything blurry, and adds letterboxes, even though it's widescreen.  "Do not scale" letterboxes the image, and makes it extend past the edges of the screen, so the mouse scrolls it around.

Basically, none of those work.  Anybody run into a similar problem with their LCD displays?

Edit:
UPDATE

I updated my video card drivers.  Now, All the scale settings do the same thing, with the exception of "Do not scale", which makes RPG maker games very small in fullscreen, and stretched to widescreen still.  Even "fixed aspect ratio" stretches 4:3 resolutions to full widescreen.

What operating system are you using? This is one thing that annoys the hell out of me too and I have been blaming it on Windows Vista so far. Apparently older drivers allow the pillarboxing but I have not yet had any success.

You can configure this from the nvidia control panel. its called LCD scaling I believe.

I thought the native aspect ratio option or whatever is in the monitor. On my monitor, I just changed the settings.

I thought the native aspect ratio option or whatever is in the monitor. On my monitor, I just changed the settings.

It can actually be on both, some monitors don't have an option to change it in their control panel though.

I remember reading that Nvidia cards have some problems with pillar boxing. I couldn't get it work with my GF 7600 GT but it works flawlessly with my new Radeon X1950 GT. Also, I think pillarboxing doesn't work with VGA connection, so make sure you are using DVI connection.

I'm running Windows XP Home with the Beta SP3.

Playing with the scaling options in Nvidia control panel does pretty much nothing.  On the previous driver, it made things look blurry and stretched.

I am using the DVI connection.

The monitor has no options for scaling adjustment.

'Fixed aspect ratio' is definitely the setting that is supposed to do exactly what you are wanting here (At least, it's always done a fine job for me), but I have no idea why it's not working for you...

I can't find it in my control panel though! I have seen screenshots of the checkbox etc but I don't get it on mine.

It's odd, I know.
Here's a screen of the setting:


What it describes is exactly what I want, and it looks fine at 1440x900 (It didn't with previous drivers.  It was blurry, ugly, and letterboxed.)  Lower 4:3 resolutions are still stretched though.

Are you trying 4:3 ratio resolution for those games? (640x480,800x600,1024x768)
Or 1440x900/other widescreen resolution?

I want anything that runs in 4:3 ratio resolutions (320x240, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768) to run pillarboxed.  1440x900 or other widescreen resolutions I want to fill the screen, as they currently do.

Try a program like powerstrip that will allow you to customize each resolution.

My PC detects my LCD flat panel as a CRT monitor. Which is kinda worrying considering...

Try going to your manufacturer's site to see if they have drivers for that particular model.

Try going to your manufacturer's site to see if they have drivers for that particular model.

I have it installed and it still thinks it's a CRT  My monitor is a Hanns.G HW191D

I have it installed and it still thinks it's a CRT  My monitor is a Hanns.G HW191D

Did you update the driver in device manager?

Bondo: Everything will be blurry, you cannot fix this except for turning scaling off (and you'll have to turn off virtual desktop so it won't scroll the screen like that). LCD's have a set number of pixels, and anything below that will be less sharp and more interpolated the further you go down.