From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DxFqH-0001Vz-Ha for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 26 Jul 2005 03:10:53 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with SMTP id j6Q39vEU011035; Tue, 26 Jul 2005 03:09:57 GMT Received: from mail23.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail23.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.25]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id j6Q36OlP009762 for ; Tue, 26 Jul 2005 03:06:25 GMT Received: (qmail 5650 invoked from network); 26 Jul 2005 03:06:27 -0000 Received: from dsl027-182-150.sfo1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO chi.speakeasy.net) (rmsand@[216.27.182.150]) (envelope-sender ) by mail23.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 26 Jul 2005 03:06:27 -0000 Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:06:27 -0700 From: Bob Sanders To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] switching to LCD monitor Message-ID: <20050725200627.2cb98391@chi.speakeasy.net> In-Reply-To: <20050725000838.GB25128@waltdnes.org> References: <20050721082452.GA7199@sympatico.ca> <42DF6345.3040306@skynet.be> <5491fade050721052826e361ef@mail.gmail.com> <20050723122327.GA7184@sympatico.ca> <20050724053644.GA7222@sympatico.ca> <20050725000838.GB25128@waltdnes.org> X-Mailer: Sylpheed-Claws 1.0.4a (GTK+ 1.2.10; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 2671fc42-aab4-4260-9f26-194b12c99ced X-Archives-Hash: 2515e35d7ea75bb60e0fa763b89b0f33 On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 20:08:38 -0400 "Walter Dnes" wrote: > "Internet TV", or videos are one reason. Do you want an animated > postage stamp in one corner of your 1280x1024 display? Software scaling > imposes a heavy load on the cpu, so hardware scaling is preferable. As > I mentioned in a previous message, attempting to interpolate partial > pixels hurts image quality. E.g. going from 1280x1024 to 1024x768 or > 800x600 or 640x480 is bad. But that is what the Gfx card is for, not the monitor. The vast majority of LCD monitors just don't have the ability to do decent scaling. Gfx cards like Nvidia's 6200 and 6600 are getting there. Ati, doesn't seem to do as well, the last time I looked. The integrated VIA Unichrome series has been hampered by the older memory - the new ones have upped the memory bus speed to 400 MHz DDR. The XGI cards have some scaling, but the open source driver is lacking. 3DLabs doest some really nice scaling, but at $900 for the entry level, it's not for everybody. And their driver is still closed source, like Nvidia and ATI. > > However, you can retain picture quality if you divide the resolution > cleanly by whole integers. E.g. a 1280x1024 display should be just as > good at 640x512 or 320x256. Similarly a 1600x1200 LCD would do OK at > 800x600 or 400x300. "xrandr -q" is your friend. > Yeah but it's a real pain if you prefer to work at higher resolutions, then have to go mucking about with a resolution change. Besides, all monitors need a different color profile and brightness/contrast ratio to display video correctly. If this isn't done, no amount of resolution mucking is going to present a decent image. And I've seen very, very, few LCD monitors that produce the same color temp across the surface. The original Apple 20" was one of the worst offenders in this regard. The new 23" seems much better. Bob -- - -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list