Monitors. 16:10 ratio. Wassat all about?

[Loose rivets]

Looking for a new flat screen monitor. I've been given a $100 card by our credit card company, and it's burning a hole in me pocket.


There's an Acer 20" at $99.99 but it has 16:9 ratio. This sounds very common, but some of the reviews say that 16:10 is the 'Sweet spot.' (I hate that expression. They use it in electronics and I always thought it sounded a bit . . . erm, anatomical. :uhoh:)

Anyway, is it vital to have 16:10 ?

[green granite]

It's a ref to HDTV requirements which needs a resolution of 1024 vertical pixels so instead of 1600*900 you need 1600*1024, unless you want to play HD stuff it's irrelevant.

[Saab Dastard]

16:9 is the international standard format of HDTV, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television (EDTV) - and pretty standard for widescreen format LCD monitors.

Quite why 16:10 has been introduced for displays is beyond me! :confused:

But then I still prefer 4:3 for computer work, so what would I know! :)

SD

[green granite]

16:9 is indeed the ratio for HD but you need 1020 lines, this you cant get with a 1600*900 monitor, hence 16:10 it's just a way of selling more monitors by making them appeal to DVD buffs.

Personally I like my 24" 1920*1200.

[Loose rivets]

Well, I've got a Samsung 2494 on trial, and I hate it. Too bright with everything turned down and I can see the flicker at 60 refresh.

At first, it wouldn't allow the menu system to show, and indeed did little but show a screen-saver of 'Digital / Analog'. I caught on that it needed 60hz to get going, so had to connect the old tube just to re set it. :mad: Then my Nvidia card wouldn't go to 1920 x 1080. But then I found something in the windowz menu like 'auto' and away it went. I have no idea how I did that BTW.


It seems there is a higher refresh rate available for another $40...so I'll look at that.


I might well go back to me tube, one heck of a lot more controllable.


Oh, and another BTW. My new 46" Samsung needs a new LCD panel, so this was to cover for the time that it was going to be away. This run of exploding technology has to come to an end soon...it's statistically impossible for me to get every duff bit of kit there is...........isn't it?:hmm:

Yet another BTW. I told the manager that if I did return it, it wouldn't have a finger mark on it. Kin'el, by the time I'd plugged it in to several different sources, and struggled with the stand, and, cringe cringe, even opened the packet with the instructions in it! :uhoh: It looked less than fresh. Then . . . I have to say, LOL, a :mad: mosquito that has been plaguing me for ages, sat on it - right in front of my eyes. You have no idea how much I hated that mosquito.:E They even give you a cloth to clean SPLUT! marks off the screen. I've unpacked that now.

[Loose rivets]

After a reboot, it's gone back to another res. I still can't find out how I caused it to go to 1980 x 1080.

Even the Advanced list does not include that res.


Pain in the :mad:


Ages later.

I footeled with it for ages, then installed soft that wouldn't run with W7. Then after about 20 times of going to the res options, suddenly, there was 1980 !! But, the option for a higher refresh was withdrawn at this line frequency.

[Sprogget]

The thing with monitors is to simply go with the one that you like the look of (literally) the best.

And Rivets, stop endlessly fiddling with everything! Leave it alone!!

[Loose rivets]

'trouble with being born a perfectionist. Things have to be got right. Mind you, without the correct line frequency, all you get is fuzzy vision with any LCD (that I know of.)

One of my kids earns his living working at home on a computer. I got him a 21" Sony, when they were the bee's knees. On one visit I saw that it was on a 60hz refresh, and the picture was, to me, flickering fit to jump off the desk. He wouldn't hear of me changing it.

Like you he said, "just leave it alone." I considered sneaking in at midnight, but then, he's a lot bigger than me, so I left him to it.

This one is doing everything it's supposed to now, but I still don't like it. It really doesn't start to show colours properly until it's unpleasantly bright. Having to adjust the contrast via the menu system - done by touching the smooth surround - is something that can be done quickly eventually, but why should one have to 'learn' to do something that is used so routinely? They do offer the brightness on quick access while the menu is away, but I rarely use that, and anyway, finding the exact spot without shining a light on this dark bezel is fraught with problems.

I'll see if there's anything that comes close to 'the tube', but right now, I kind of doubt it.

[Loose rivets]

SynchMaster 2494

As mentioned before, I had to put my old monitor back to reset the frame to 60Hz before I could even get the menu to show. When it was going, no 1920 X 1080 was offered for my Nvidia Fx 5200 and the Samsung disc was no help at all. Suddenly, after an hour or so, the res was offered and I had assumed that the disc had done something after all. However, I was very unimpressed with the picture: Lackluster picture, and needed to be turned up very bright to get reasonable contrast and colours.

I left it running on my Vaio (3 Gig, but no dedicated graphics card) to show my son when he arrived. It also did not offer anything like the hi res that was needed. It was in fuzzy-vision on 1280.

At the end of festivities, I knew that it had re-booted at the behest of MS, I thought nothing of this. and at no time had the Samsung CD been put into the machine. Also nothing specific was mentioned about the up-date. I suddenly noticed that the photos on the screen-saver looked good. I was astonished. They were better than I'd ever seen from my aging Nikon. Full 1920 X 1080, with excellent colours - even at low brightness/contrast. I had no idea after 3 years that the old D50 was that good.

So, two things: It seems that MS supplied the driver after an hour or more of it just sitting there in the wrong res. And, the lap-top is capable of giving a better picture than my PC with an Nvidia card. (Though the Nvidia is quicker)

Both surprise me, and indeed it's a bit disappointing to think that I can't use the PC without more expense . . . or can I?

Any attempt to change the drive reports that the driver is working and that it's the latest one. Is there a way to force the change to something better, or do I need to start thinking about a better card?

(The Samsung disc does not seem to offer drivers for specific video sub-systems.)

[green granite]

You are using the digital output from the graphics card rather than the analogue VGA one aren't you?

[Rossian]

......when one looks at the totality of your posts, Loose, my old; it is an almost unbroken litany of broken techy stuff 'pooters, projecter TVs, laptops, PCs and cars (esp. MBs) did I miss sound systems?? Most of the trauma seem to occur after attempts to "get things right" and because you're a "perfectionist". Why not buy something and just use it? It'll cost you a hell of a lot less and save your blood pressure and stomach acid levels.
May I suggest (with my tongue in my cheek) that you take a course of yoga lessons and maybe some Pilates classes, get your chakras fettled and have a few whole body massages and maybe 2010 will get off to less stressful start (Hell I get stressed reading some of your problems!!)

OI!! I told you - don't bloody touch it.

The Ancient Mariner

[Loose rivets]

You are using the digital output from the graphics card rather than the analogue VGA one aren't you?

Erm, no. I tried VGA just cos the lead was there, but I'm off for a mirror to try to see the back of the card which is somewhat hidden.

Edit: it also has one of the small round plugs that is similar to wife's HP. I took this to be specifically for data transfer to/from video cameras and the like. There is no DVI type plug.


Why not buy something and just use it? It'll cost you a hell of a lot less and save your blood pressure and stomach acid levels.


Exactly the reason I purchased the MB!!! Never, in all my 50 years of doing ALL my own repairs on cars, have I had so much trouble with a vehicle. A 25,000 mile E500 that looks like new, yet behaves like a car with half a million miles on it.

MB, Sony, Samsung. All brand new or nearly new kit. What names can I trust?

Sheesh...I might as well have brought a . . . let me think, something exotic . . . erm, a Porch 928, that'll do it. ;) Just ship my tools over this side of the oggin and I'll be a happy camper again. Tools? Oh, :mad: me. Even Hitachi are having their big kit made in China. The floor standing drill press that I have is total tat compared to the post war ? maybe even pre war, Progress No1 that I had in my workshop for 30 years.

Back to graphics cards. I've mentioned before that XP seems to have a Photo Viewer than is much better than Vista or W7's. I find that even PhotoShop is allowing pixellation earlier than on the old XP. This spells out to me that it might be XP's control of the graphics card, rather than the program itself. I'll boot in XP and try to get the monitor going in that to prove the pudding.

[green granite]

I note that Nvidia don't do a W7 driver for the FX5200 last driver was for Vista.

it also has one of the small round plugs that is similar to wife's HP. I took this to be specifically for data transfer to/from video cameras and the like. There is no DVI type plug.


The small round plug is S-Video According to the Nvidia specs it should have a DVI connector.

http://techreport.com/r.x/geforcefx-5200/ports.jpg

[Loose rivets]

Ah, sadly I don't have one of those. The monitor does, of course - with lead included. However, the monitor is running on VGA right now, and is, as I said, one of the best pictures I've ever seen.


Time for an upgrade? Though throwing money at this unit is probably not wise.


One of my lot in Austin, purchased a fairly hi spec PC for his son this Christmas. He describes the case as being 'enviable', and performance better than his workstation. It cost $240. The only downer was that it was on Vista. I'll try to ascertain what graphics system it has.

[Loose rivets]

Curiosity got the better of me. Looking at it while in situ, I can't see any maker's name. MS 97** then VER 10 is in tiny print on one side. It has a substantial heat sink but no fan.

It was a 'refurbished' from CompUSA, but in mint condition when it arrived. A good deal at the time, but my guess is that it has a clone graphics card that reports as an Nvidia. Being an HP, I suppose it's under license, but who knows? The card may have been added by C-USA.

[Saab Dastard]

LR,

I just noticed your location - what does

Him a abler Blown Mini
mean?

:confused::confused::confused:

Sheesh...I might as well have brought a . . . let me think, something exotic . . . erm, a Porch 928, that'll do it.

Yep, does it for me! :ok: ;)

SD

[Loose rivets]

I'll carry on having a conversation wi' meslf, in the hope someone will be interested. :}

I'm totally flummoxed by this. But there is one immutable fact. The computer and the card are capable of driving the new monitor.


I pulled the new monitor off the laptop and put it on the PC. But, I'd rebooted on XP Home. The first thing I noticed was that I was offered the full res on an older OS !

Apart from a very slight 'noise' on the text, it was very good. Certainly faster than the laptop with its integrated graphics. 4mp photos were snapping into sharp focus instantly.

Then I went back to W7. Instantly, I could see the degrading white mist that I'd seen before. The hi-def pix did just not have that cracking focus. I was back to a much lesser quality.

Right click on desktop and the first screen shows SynchMaster as a monitor, but the Advanced shows a generic pnp listed - with no options. That's the only clue I've got.

I think this is a red-herring, but even more perplexing. I've discussed it before, and I though it was a different issue, but now I'm not sure. It just complicates the problem - or blurs the issue.:rolleyes: (Sorry)

I looked at the head and shoulder jpg of a lassie that becomes pixelated on Vista and W7. There is no doubt. On XP, there is a slight softening, but the jaw line is unbroken. On the more modern ones, it is totally ruined with zig-zags. Can there be any connection?

[Loose rivets]

Hee Hee

Yes, I'd picked up on you having one of the most conceptually fantastic cars ever made. IMHO of course


Him a abler Blown Mini ??


Flying Lawyer got very near to the mark with that. Or was it . . . ?