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9404

May 17th, 2006 03:00

LCD Resolution Question

I just purchased a Dell 20.1" Widescreen 2007FPW Monitor. It's a wonderful monitor but I have a few questions.

My wife feels that the native resolution 1680 X 1050 is too high and she has to squint to read things. The way we have the monitor set up, it's about 3-4 ft away from the keyboard. Although everything looks very sharp at that resolution, things are just too small and difficult to read. I tried using the large font option on Windows XP and it helps but it doesn't affect the way web pages appear. It seems the only solution is to reduce the resolution from the optimal 1680 X 1050. I tried 1280 X 800 @ 60 Hz and this seems to be a really good resolution where everything is fairly easy to read.

Now for my questions:

1. Can I cause harm to the monitor by running below the optimal resolution of 1680 X 1050?

2. I had to add a custom resolution of 1280 X 800 in the windows settings. I picked 60Hz and 32-bit color options. Should I use a different refresh rate...perhaps 75Hz?

3. The text is not as crisp at 1280 X 800 as it was with the native 1680 X 1050. Is there another resolution I can use that will look as sharp as the native resolution?

4. What other resolutions can I try besides 1280 X 800? Is there a listing somewhere of recommended 16:10 aspect ratio resolutions?

Kan-O-Z

3 Posts

May 18th, 2006 20:00

Anyone?

2 Intern

 • 

12.1K Posts

May 18th, 2006 20:00

CRT’s are scalable, and you can raise or lower the resolution settings. LCD’s however, are different. Any settings lower than the native resolution results in either letter boxing, which maintains image quality by shrinking the image to a compatible size, or keeps the full screen image, but adjusts for missing pixels, sacrificing image quality.

Screen flicker with an LCD is not an issue since the monitor does not refresh like a CRT monitor, so a refresh rate of 60 Hz should be just fine for an LCD monitor.

A few new owners of LCD’s often find that the size of the fonts are too small for them, failing to realize that LCD’s have a native resolution for each size monitor for best viewing experience. IE : A 15 inch LCD has a native resolution of 1024x768, and a 17 / 18 / 19 inch LCD has a 1280x1024 resolution. A 20 inch LCD has a native of 1600x1200. The higher the resolution, the smaller the fonts. What you get is more information on the screen with the larger screen with the native resolution of 1280x1024 over the 1024x768 resolution. If you purchased a 17 /18 /19 inch screen, but are uncomfortable with the smaller fonts, lowering the resolution to 1024x768, as some have done, now gets you less information on the screen, wasting the extra money you paid for the larger monitor, not to mention the viewing experience will be less as well for most. Just should have gone to a smaller LCD instead, and saved big bucks for the same real estate. Some with bad eye sight to begin with may not notice the image quality being less than optimal by lowering the resolution, but others will.

ClearType settings to get rid of the font jaggies : Right click an empty space on the desktop, click on Properties next, click on Appearance, than click Effects. In this box, select ClearType instead of STANDARD. Click OK, than OK again in the final box. Done

http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/4520-3174_7-5136369.html?part=ecoustics-cnet   Analog compared to Digital ( DVI ) article

You won't hurt the monitor by going to a lower resolution, but many don't like the results since there eye sight is good.. Others will not have a problem, because in my opinion their eye sight is not as good and may not see the difference anyway. 

If your monitor shows that it can handle the 75 hz, than you won't hurt it.  Trying to push it further will if its not displayed as being able to handle it. 

Many, many members are now complaining about Color Banding on that model.  Do you see it yourself  ?

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=54714&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

Message Edited by SR45 on 05-18-200605:28 PM

20 Posts

May 18th, 2006 20:00

Or, if its just websites that you're having trouble with, you could always go the simple route and change the text size in IE/Firefox/whathaveyou...

Message Edited by buckwild420 on 05-18-200604:29 PM

1.2K Posts

May 18th, 2006 20:00

I'll give you a link for a few things to try.  The link is for notebook PCs with attached LCD displays but most of it can be used on yours.  Also, running at non-native resolution will not harm the display but anything other than the native resolution will produce less than optimal results, as you've already seen.

Tweaking the Display

3 Posts

May 19th, 2006 03:00

Thanks for the responses. I will try some of the tips posted to see if that can do the trick. I love this monitor. It is absolutley beautiful and seem to have incredible image quality at the native resoluion. I personally feel the monitor is on par with the Apple Cinema displays in design and quality and has more features to offer at a lower price. I have not noticed any banding. I am using the VGA cable so perhaps that is why I am not seeing this? What is the best way to test for banding?

Kan-O-Z

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