What resolution are you running at?

Our "pub" where you can post about things completely Off Topic or about non-silent PC issues.

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What resolution is your monitor running?

640 x 480 or 800 x 600
1
1%
1024 x 768
8
9%
1152 x 864 or 1280 x 960
11
12%
1600 x 1200
11
12%
2048 x 1536
1
1%
912 x 684 to 992 x 744
1
1%
1280 x 720 or 1366 x 768
1
1%
1920 x 1080
0
No votes
1280 x 800 or 1440 x 900
4
4%
1680 x 1050
8
9%
1920 x 1200 or 2560 x 1600
5
5%
1280 x 1024
36
40%
some other weird nonstandard 4:3 or 5:4 resolution
2
2%
some other widescreen resolution
2
2%
a resolution of aspect ratio taller than 5:4
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 91

IsaacKuo
Posts: 1705
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 7:50 am
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Post by IsaacKuo » Wed May 24, 2006 2:11 pm

Powerstrip has a very frustrating non-intuitive interface. The easiest way to do this is probably to actually add a new custom resolution which is almost-but-not-quite 2048x1536. 2048x1538 should be good.

As you may have noticed, in the timings adjustment window you can only modify timings for the current resolution. You're locked out of making any changes that change the resolution, so in particular toggling "interlace" mode keeps the same resolution while halving the pixel clock etc.

This is a problem if your monitor can't display the "standard" 2048x1536@60hz timings, because you won't be able to adjust the settings downward to something the monitor can display. The only way you can do it is starts off in the custom resolution with custom timings from the start.

To do this, go to the timings adjustment window (at any resolution), and then click on the "custom resolutions" button to get to the custom resolutions window. There, use the "paste" button to paste from these Linux modeline timings:

Code: Select all

ModeLine "2048x1536" 193.40 2048 2144 2624 2816 1536 1540 1565 1617 interlace +hsync +vsync
Why Linux modeline timings? Because it's been a really long time since I've done this in Windows and all of my custom timing stuff lately has been with Linux. These super-high resolutions aren't really very usable in Windows anyway.

Anyway, the next step is that you'll need to transform these timings into 2048x1538 resolution. Do this by toggling on the "Lock Geometry" checkbox. This locks things down so that the hsync, vsync, and pixel clock rates stay constant. The only things you change are the size and position of the actual used screen pixels within those timings. Why this isn't the default behavior I will never know--the bizarro default behavior is completely and totally unusable for any purpose whatsoever.

After toggling "Lock Geometry" on, change the resolution upward from 1536 to 1538. This will automatically adjust the other parameters as necessary.

Next, click on the button to add this resolution to the registry. It will tell you that you'll need to reboot for the change to take effect. Go ahead and close everything and then reboot.

After you reboot, you should be able to try out your new custom 2048x1538 resolution simply by selecting it in the normal way via the Desktop properties. You do NOT need to run Powerstrip to get custom timings to override the default timings--there are no default timings for the 2048x1538 resolution so the custom timings you manually created are the only ones in the registry.

If you try to do all this with the 2048x1536 resolution, then you'll have some frustrating undesirable side effects. The default progressive timings will be used until Powerstrip runs and overrides them. This is a big problem if you have a login screen, because Powerstrip won't run until AFTER you log in!

Tephras
Posts: 1140
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:03 am
Location: Europe

Post by Tephras » Wed May 24, 2006 3:00 pm

PowerStrip can start as a Windows service to circumvent the problem with timings/login.

mb2
Posts: 606
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 2:42 pm
Location: UK

Post by mb2 » Sun May 28, 2006 7:18 am

hm i managed to do it with 2048x1536.. by going to the custom res and doing it there.. haven't restarted so i dont know if it will spaz or not, but i dont have a logon screen..

however, i wont' be keeping it cuz,
1) it doesn't give me much more space than 1920x1440.. eg on iTunes i could get 75 songs on one screen.. and w 2048x1536 its only 6 more..
2) @ ~84hz (the max it can handle), it still looks pretty flickery to me (like, wobbly?) if its close.. far away it looks ok and may give less eyestrain than 60P .. but u need to be quite close to see the text..
3).. which i find worse on this monitor than 60P, a bit grey-ey (w black on white) like somone said..
4) finally, the top of my screen mushes up.. like the whole titlebar for a window is ~2mm. so, unusable...
this type of thing happens at some resolution/refresh rate combinations on the left sometimes.. anyone know what it is that is messed up?

Also, as for small unreadable fonts;
would it not be possbile to edit the system fonts and make each one 2pts higher.. eg current 10 could use the size used for 12pt..?
it would make text proportionally larger than pictures in web pages.. but then u could use the original (copy) for that + opera..?
possible? (if so how?)

edit: switching back to 60p, theres definately more eye strain than 84i..

and i cant do more than like 65i on 1920.. despite doing more on a higher res? and it not being much more than the p refresh rate..? :?

edit2: er, not sure what that was all about.. i think it might have been keeping p or something. anyway, made 1928x1446 ~100i so if i prefer that after a while i may replace 1920x..p with it. off to try out 1080p video :?

IsaacKuo
Posts: 1705
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 7:50 am
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Post by IsaacKuo » Sun May 28, 2006 8:32 am

When you push a CRT monitor near its limits, you get undesirable funny effects like squished top/bottom, or smearing, or greyishness.

As you've discovered, there's seemingly endless tweaking possible and there isn't one particular "right answer". There's tradeoffs that depend on the exact particular monitor and your particular preferences. You just have to try things out, and go with what you find works best.

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