Dell 17 inch Flat Panel Display

I hope someone can shed some light on a problem I am having. I just purchased a new Dell 8200 system with there top of the line graphics card and a 17 inch flat panel display. The recommended resolution is 1280 X 1024 and everything is nice and sharp at this resolution but extremely tiny. Too small to work on comfortably. When I change to a smaller resolution obvioulsy everything is larger, but the sharpness in my opinion is unusable. I tried increasing the DPI setting and that helps somewhat, but that only seems to affect certain parts of the display and leaves others tiny; on the web for example. Furthmore when I increase the DPI some programs do not display properly( overlapping fonts and button for example). I spoke with Dell to no avail. They checked their larger displays and as you increase in size the recommended resolution increases as well, so they felt I would have the same problem.

Question is, is this a problem inherent to Flat Panel displays or does Dell just have a poor quality display.

Thanks.

LCD screens are designed to a specific resolution - your 1280x1024 is actually the number of pixels on the screen. Unlike a monitor which creates pixels by two scanning "ray guns", the pixels are on a 1:1 ratio for LCD displays. The are meant to run at their full resolution - anything less and the display has to interpolate the pixels to a lower resolution.

If you don't turn on the "expand to full screen" option, then a lower resolution will use a smaller amount of pixels, but will maintain the 1:1 ratio and the display will look crisp - albeit smaller.

To go from 1280x1024 down to 1024x768, the pixels have to grow by 25% x 33% - therefore causing the "lines" between pixels to not be true lines, but rather the pixel trying to smooth out the difference of your desired resolution and the standard at which it was designed.

I hope this helps...

If you are running Windows XP, turn on “clear type smoothing” and your problem is solved. If you are not running XP, upgrade or get your self a nice big CRT for the bucks you spent on that space saver and have better images.

Morris

Hammy said:

LCD screens are designed to a specific resolution - your 1280x1024
is actually the number of pixels on the screen. Unlike a monitor
which creates pixels by two scanning "ray guns", the pixels are on
a 1:1 ratio for LCD displays. The are meant to run at their full
resolution - anything less and the display has to interpolate the
pixels to a lower resolution.

If you don't turn on the "expand to full screen" option, then a
lower resolution will use a smaller amount of pixels, but will
maintain the 1:1 ratio and the display will look crisp - albeit
smaller.

To go from 1280x1024 down to 1024x768, the pixels have to grow by
25% x 33% - therefore causing the "lines" between pixels to not be
true lines, but rather the pixel trying to smooth out the
difference of your desired resolution and the standard at which it
was designed.

I hope this helps...

Click to expand...

morris said:

Morris

Hammy said:

LCD screens are designed to a specific resolution - your 1280x1024
is actually the number of pixels on the screen. Unlike a monitor
which creates pixels by two scanning "ray guns", the pixels are on
a 1:1 ratio for LCD displays. The are meant to run at their full
resolution - anything less and the display has to interpolate the
pixels to a lower resolution.

If you don't turn on the "expand to full screen" option, then a
lower resolution will use a smaller amount of pixels, but will
maintain the 1:1 ratio and the display will look crisp - albeit
smaller.

To go from 1280x1024 down to 1024x768, the pixels have to grow by
25% x 33% - therefore causing the "lines" between pixels to not be
true lines, but rather the pixel trying to smooth out the
difference of your desired resolution and the standard at which it
was designed.

I hope this helps...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, but I still am a bit confused. From what Dell has told me, the larger the display, the higher the resolution and hence everything will still be the same size that it is now. I did turn on "clear type" and that does make things a bit easier on the eyes, but everything is still very small on screen. I can't imagine that I have to view things this tiny! Will a different monitor work at a different optimal resolution and make things lager on screen yet still sharp? If so any recommendations on one?

The larger the display - the more tolerable the higher resolution is. For 1280x1024 - I would recommend a 19-21" monitor. 1024x768 is a recommended "comfortable" size for 17" monitors.

I have a 14", 3x 17" monitors, 19" and 21", depending on the quality of the video card and cables used - the resolutions I use are:

14- 800x600
17- 1024x768
19- 1152x864
21- 1280x1024

Other people can shift these resolutions to a higher level per monitor - but this is what I find comfortable.

I have two TFT displays - on my laptops - 14.1 running at 1024x768 and a 15" @ 1400x1050. These resolutions seem fine because they are very crisp at their resolution. because they are LCD panels - they suffer the same loss of crispness when I use other resolutions.

So if you choose to get a bigger monitor (analog) you will have a wider variety of resolutions to pick from - as the screens are not "dedicated" to a resolution - albeit at the expense of size and weight.

The problem with most panels is that they all have a certain pixel size to deal with - if you get a different sized panel, you'll be getting a different native resolution. I.E.> if you get an 18.1" panel, the default res would be higher than your 17 - so things would be the same size - just more room for more of them.

To ease your eyes - the best solution is to get a nice monitor. The good news is that the money spent on that 17 LCD would get you a very nice 19-21" display.

Good luck...hope this helps...

Hammy said:

The problem with most panels is that they all have a certain pixel
size to deal with - if you get a different sized panel, you'll be
getting a different native resolution

Click to expand...

Hi Hammy,

The LCD resolution thing is a mystery to me too. After reading this post of yours, I am wondering something about my Dell laptop. I ordered a higher resolution option on my 14.1 screen, as opposed to the standard resolution (on the same size screen). Does that mean that the screen was designed for this higher resolution, or is the screen being "forced" to display non-native resolution? (I hope that question makes sense).

Thank you,

markE

markE59102 said:

Does that mean
that the screen was designed for this higher resolution, or is the
screen being "forced" to display non-native resolution? (I hope
that question makes sense).

Click to expand...

markE,

I'm pretty sure that if you ordered the higher resolution screen, you got one that has more pixels and therefore smaller pixels - to fit in the same area. I had the option on my Dell 15" to get the 1600x1200 and although the reviews said it was crisp - I don't think I'd be able to read much of it.

Like CCDs and printers - LCD's have a pixel size - they can vary between different models and therefore offer different resolutions and sizes. Printers, you'll notice - offer say, 2880 - and then multiples of that (1440, 720) which they can achieve easily by binning 2x2 or 4x4 nozzles. CCD's have a wide variant of pixel sizes - offering different resolutions and sizes resulting in different multipliers. And different LCD's have different pixels per inch (ppi) resolutions.

So you probably have a panel that is rated at your top resolution - to find out - try a lower resolution with the screen still expanded (taking up the whole screen). More than likely it will get a little fuzzy, because of the "reverse" interpolation being made to lower the resolution (trying to make 1.3 pixels = 1 pixel).

If you're really bored, here are some insteresting reads:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=lcd.htm&url=http://www.atip.org/fpd/
http://www.pctechguide.com/07pan2.htm

Thanks a lot, Hammy. I understand this a bit better now. I'll check out the links too!

markE

Hammy said:

Hammy #54417 said:

Does that mean
that the screen was designed for this higher resolution, or is the
screen being "forced" to display non-native resolution? (I hope
that question makes sense).

Click to expand...

markE,

I'm pretty sure that if you ordered the higher resolution screen,
you got one that has more pixels and therefore smaller pixels - to
fit in the same area. I had the option on my Dell 15" to get the
1600x1200 and although the reviews said it was crisp - I don't
think I'd be able to read much of it.

Like CCDs and printers - LCD's have a pixel size - they can vary
between different models and therefore offer different resolutions
and sizes. Printers, you'll notice - offer say, 2880 - and then
multiples of that (1440, 720) which they can achieve easily by
binning 2x2 or 4x4 nozzles. CCD's have a wide variant of pixel
sizes - offering different resolutions and sizes resulting in
different multipliers. And different LCD's have different pixels
per inch (ppi) resolutions.

So you probably have a panel that is rated at your top resolution -
to find out - try a lower resolution with the screen still expanded
(taking up the whole screen). More than likely it will get a
little fuzzy, because of the "reverse" interpolation being made to
lower the resolution (trying to make 1.3 pixels = 1 pixel).

If you're really bored, here are some insteresting reads:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=lcd.htm&url=http://www.atip.org/fpd/
http://www.pctechguide.com/07pan2.htm

Click to expand...

Marty K said:

Thanks for the input, but I still am a bit confused. From what Dell
has told me, the larger the display, the higher the resolution and
hence everything will still be the same size that it is now. I did
turn on "clear type" and that does make things a bit easier on the
eyes, but everything is still very small on screen. I can't imagine
that I have to view things this tiny! Will a different monitor work
at a different optimal resolution and make things lager on screen
yet still sharp? If so any recommendations on one?

Click to expand...

Sounds to me as if you may have 'Small Fonts' selected on your graphics display. Look in 'Control Panel' - 'Display' - 'Settings' - 'Advanced' and ensure that you select Large Fonts. Made all the difference to me!

Gordon

In a Dell Inspiron LCD I can change from 1024x768 to 800x600 without any sharpness loss. I think your problem is that somehow the aspect ratio of your monitor is tied up to 1280x1024 which is NOT a 4x3 aspect ratio and when you switch to modes that are 4x3 you have problems. My 2 cents.

John

Marty kaufman said:

I hope someone can shed some light on a problem I am having. I just
purchased a new Dell 8200 system with there top of the line
graphics card and a 17 inch flat panel display. The recommended
resolution is 1280 X 1024 and everything is nice and sharp at this
resolution but extremely tiny. Too small to work on comfortably.
When I change to a smaller resolution obvioulsy everything is
larger, but the sharpness in my opinion is unusable. I tried
increasing the DPI setting and that helps somewhat, but that only
seems to affect certain parts of the display and leaves others
tiny; on the web for example. Furthmore when I increase the DPI
some programs do not display properly( overlapping fonts and button
for example). I spoke with Dell to no avail. They checked their
larger displays and as you increase in size the recommended
resolution increases as well, so they felt I would have the same
problem.
Question is, is this a problem inherent to Flat Panel displays or
does Dell just have a poor quality display.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

John,

Which Inspiron do you have? I have the 4000, 20GB HD, 256 RAM, PIII 900, with combo DVD/CDRW.

markE

John Davis said:

John

Marty kaufman said:

I hope someone can shed some light on a problem I am having. I just
purchased a new Dell 8200 system with there top of the line
graphics card and a 17 inch flat panel display. The recommended
resolution is 1280 X 1024 and everything is nice and sharp at this
resolution but extremely tiny. Too small to work on comfortably.
When I change to a smaller resolution obvioulsy everything is
larger, but the sharpness in my opinion is unusable. I tried
increasing the DPI setting and that helps somewhat, but that only
seems to affect certain parts of the display and leaves others
tiny; on the web for example. Furthmore when I increase the DPI
some programs do not display properly( overlapping fonts and button
for example). I spoke with Dell to no avail. They checked their
larger displays and as you increase in size the recommended
resolution increases as well, so they felt I would have the same
problem.
Question is, is this a problem inherent to Flat Panel displays or
does Dell just have a poor quality display.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

7500.

John

markE said:

Which Inspiron do you have? I have the 4000, 20GB HD, 256 RAM, PIII
900, with combo DVD/CDRW.

markE

John Davis said:

John

Marty kaufman said:

I hope someone can shed some light on a problem I am having. I just
purchased a new Dell 8200 system with there top of the line
graphics card and a 17 inch flat panel display. The recommended
resolution is 1280 X 1024 and everything is nice and sharp at this
resolution but extremely tiny. Too small to work on comfortably.
When I change to a smaller resolution obvioulsy everything is
larger, but the sharpness in my opinion is unusable. I tried
increasing the DPI setting and that helps somewhat, but that only
seems to affect certain parts of the display and leaves others
tiny; on the web for example. Furthmore when I increase the DPI
some programs do not display properly( overlapping fonts and button
for example). I spoke with Dell to no avail. They checked their
larger displays and as you increase in size the recommended
resolution increases as well, so they felt I would have the same
problem.
Question is, is this a problem inherent to Flat Panel displays or
does Dell just have a poor quality display.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the input, but I'm still at a loss with what to do. Bottom line, if I want to stay with an LCD monitor, which I do, is there one made that is 17 inches or larger that has an opitmal resolution that creates text and images of a size that is comfortable to use for long periods of time.

thanks again, Marty

It's primarily a pixel per inch problem. If a 17" lcd panel running at 1280x1024 is too fine then go with a 19" panel runnning at the same resolution. You can also go to a 20" panel but watch out because most of them run at 1600x1200 which puts you back where you started just with more screen area.

Marty kaufman said:

Thanks for all the input, but I'm still at a loss with what to do.
Bottom line, if I want to stay with an LCD monitor, which I do, is
there one made that is 17 inches or larger that has an opitmal
resolution that creates text and images of a size that is
comfortable to use for long periods of time.

thanks again, Marty

Click to expand...

Marty,

What programs are you having problems with? With many programs, you can customize the font type and size of text labels and so forth, so you could change them to a larger size that you will be able to see more easily. If you are having problems with a word processor, almost all of those have various zooming options, so you can blow up the size of the text on screen with no problem.

I use a 19" monitor set at 1600x1200 resolution so that I can see my photos at higher resolution. I use Thumbsplus to catalog my pictures, and I've reset the default thumbnail size to 200x200 pixels to make those thumbnails easier to see.

If you're having problem with menu bars and Windows desktop icons, you can go into the display properties and set it to "large fonts" instead of "small fonts".

Good luck!

Patrick Martin
http://www.patrickmartin.com

Marty kaufman said:

Thanks for all the input, but I'm still at a loss with what to do.
Bottom line, if I want to stay with an LCD monitor, which I do, is
there one made that is 17 inches or larger that has an opitmal
resolution that creates text and images of a size that is
comfortable to use for long periods of time.

thanks again, Marty

Click to expand...