Computer specks: Pentium 4 @ 3GHz and 40G HD, the computer was an office (I think) computer so I don't think it has any fancy graphics card. Ubunit 12.04 LTS.
Yes, VGA cable.
Computer cost me $0 because it was going to cost $$$ for windoze XP, Honestly, why would you?

I can get movies to play properly but every time I play a movie I have to click Aspect: 16:9.
Why can't I just tell the computer that that is the screen it has?

I have an old computer that I'm using as a media center at home, Computer had no OS so I used the Ubunti Boot disk I made to get my lappy up and going and hey presto, a working machine.

Problem is that the computer thinks the screen is 4:3 and the TV is a 16:9 the system settings / displays doesn't give me the option to change it to 16:9 and when I watch a movie there are a lot of short fat people staring.

I'm connected with a 15 pin lead.

what Have I missed, this should be easy, No?

My sister has (or, I hope she still has) a very old windoze laptop that had no virus protection and got killed by viruses.
After playing with Ubuntu on my own machine (and running very well I might add) I wander if it is possable to boot her old laptop up on Ubuntu from a pen-drive (like I did with my machine at the start) and get the photoes of it?
The laptop died about 10 years ago, and was an old laptop then. I don't see this being a big issue. I may not be able to boot the thing of a pen-drive, I may have to make bootable disk. I think I can do that.
Would I have to "clean" the photoes once I get them off so they won't harm another windoze machine?

Am I going about this the right way?

Seems like a simlpe solution (now that I know I can use Linux) to me.

What have I missed?

1, I found that learning Linux was like learning to use a computer all over again, Easy stuff like somone would post a photo that I would want to draw on using paint was hard, I had to learn new softwhere then do the simple task.
It is easy to do with Linux, you just have to learn basic skills over again.
2, I'm learning to use Linux because I'm sick of computers that update them-self to the point that the Box can no longer work properly with the platform that the box was sold with, Forcing an upgrade (buy new Box) for a computer that is fully capable of doing what it was bought for.
3, No classes. Fumble and learn. Lots of fumbleing.
4, as above
5, I use my computer as a computer user, I look shit up on the web, pay my bills and talk crap on forums (not this one).
I have learned that with some patence, even a muppet like me can use linux.
6, There was going to be a test? Shit. now you tell me!

Rant: Why are 90% of companys around the globe using a buggy computer platform controlled buy ONE company?
If your car started to run slow and the advice was "start with closing the windows", Honestly, wouldn't you just get rid of the POS car?

Accualy, I've answered this all very honstly.

Yee Haa, we have Angry Birds!

O.K. new issue: The cooling fan on my laptop doesn't seem to work properly. I'm sure its a new issue since I installed Ubuntu, It just seem to run on slow all the time and I've had a couple of times that the computer has gone real slow then just shut down. and seemed real hot around the cooling fan. Also I installed the GKrellM System Monitor and cant get it to show the CPU temp.

Thanks for all your help so far.

So do I need anti virus? I do do Internet banking and it is a bank requirement.

Also, a bigger problem I have is that I don't seem to be able to find a Linux version of Angry Birds!

O.K. up and running.

I've downloaded AVG anti-virus but cant get it to appear in the "dash home" thing and run it. help?

Oh. How cool is that!

Thank you, your awesome!

Hi, I'm doing a similar thing as the OP.

My question is how do I wipe my old hard drive before I install Linux?

I am not worried about any data on the hard drive and am running Linux from a pen-drive as I type.

Laptop has factory vista on it.