Question (not issue); Macbook Pro doesn't support 16:9

[tobyweston]

Hi,

Thanks for the great utility, I'm curious though why my Macbook won't support 16:9 resolutions? Any pointers where to find out more? It support 4:3, and 1.6:1 (whatever that is!) see below...

box$ screenresolution list
2014-02-25 20:55:03.231 screenresolution[27894:507] starting screenresolution argv=screenresolution list 
Available Modes on Display 0
  2560x1600x32@0        1280x800x32@0           2048x1280x32@0       
  1650x1050x32@0        1440x900x32@0           1152x720x32@0        
  840x524x32@0          1024x768x32@0           800x600x32@0         
  640x480x32@0

[refactorized]

Most macs don't come with a 16:9 native resolution LCD panel, so the modes would not be in 16:9 ( ~ 1.777:1 ) - that would create a lot of scaling artifacts. The Original widescreen resolutions, like wsvga, wuxga, etc were a bit taller, at 1.6:1 aspects and apple has for the most part stayed with panels of this aspect.

Supporting 4:3 entails cropping part of the display area if I recall correctly. Possibly 16:9 could be supported this way too, but to what purpose?