DVI and Flat Panal question

[jpetermann]

Hey all. Just got my DVI cable for my TFT. Some text still seems to be a little fuzzy, I have cleartype on. Also, when I go to play counterstrike, it goes to a half screen, with another half of the screen displayed on the bottom, which is usually the same as on top. And ideas on what to do to get this thing to work right? It is a cornea 17" flat panal.

 

[Menacer]

Turn off cleartype. It only serves to make text fuzzy, and I can't understand why anyone would use it. I LIKE the sharpness of my LCD.. no need to artificially make the text look bad.

As for the problem with CS.. I've run into that problem before in games.. but not in a really long time. uhm.. tried a different resolution?

 

[jpetermann]

I have tried many different resolutions. I forgot to mention that I have the PNY GForce 3 Ti 200. DOn't know that it matters, but worth the mention. Somewhere I read in here about a refresh fix for Nvidea based cards, maybe that would help? Any other ideas out there?

 

[badga]

refresh rate for nvidia cards fixes the problem that under w2k and XP games will reset the refresh rate to 60 hz from whatever was set up in the display panel (75-85hz or whatever). However as the optimum refresh for LCDs is 60hz this is not an issue. As the pixels on an LCD do not "refresh" but rather stay lit until they must change the flickering issue that CRTs experience at 60hz is not experienced by LCDs. Try disabling cleartype and see if you like it. Personally i prefer it. As well try optimizing cleartype hereMS cleartype site

 

[jpetermann]

I have tried it with both with cleartype and without. The screen still splits with either one. That is my major problem at the moment. It doesn't happen in games. What you see is the screen split in half, and the top of the screen is also displayed in the bottm 3 inches of the screen. Really wierd. The only way to fix it is to switch back to the analog input.

 

[gunf1ghter]

The only reason that I can think of that you would have a hard time displaying video on your TFT is if you were trying to run it in the non native resolution for the panel. Make sure that you are running CS in the native resolution. Also make sure that you have the game set up to use the same refresh as the TFT or you could have additional problems.

This is a major reason I don't own a TFT, they don't do a good job of handling any resolutions other than the one which they display natively.

 

[Dimitri]

Not really possible on a 17" monitor, though. The 17" probably has 1280x1024 as the native resolution which HL/CS won't do. You have tried the 1280x960 right?

 

[jpetermann]

I have been running at 1024x768. Just talked to Tech support, and I think he said, (could not understand his broken english very well) video card may be incompatable. I have a hard time believing my PNY GeForce 3 Ti 200 is incompatable. Oh well, the struggle continues!

 

[badga]

I think his answer really was "i havent a clue". I can't speak to the problem but do you know someone with a DVI card you could borrow to test. This may isolate whether the card is the issue or the panel. I have the same card and it played a number of Q3A games on a Planar 174 at 1024x768 easily but washed out as any non native rate will do.

 

[jpetermann]

OK, I tried a new card and still have the same problem with the screen splitting in half. I did find out that is I set it to "display adaptor scaling" instead of monitor scaling, it does not split, but it is also not as crisp. What is this scaling option thing, and is there anything else I can do? I hate to think I have to send this flat panel back for a replacement.

 

[Menacer]

It's probably not as crisp because you'r enot running in a native resolution. You're going to run into that problem no matter WHAT LCD you have.

 

[azkiwi]

scaling means that the image is being interpolated back from the native resolution of 1280 x 1024 to 1024X768. LCDs don't really like to do this, since unlike CRTs the screen is not scanned - every pixel is 'programmed'. When the image is scaled 1 pixel in the native resolution may need to be directed to 1½ pixels in the scaled resolution - which is not (accurately) possible. The approximation causes the fuzziness.

Set your monitor to 1280 x 1024 and all will be revealed!

 

[gunf1ghter]

This is a common problem with LCD's. LCD's have fairly large picture elements (pixels). They are designed to only run natively at a fixed resolution and when running at other resolutions they have to interpolate the image. This results in a pixelated looking image when running at lower rez than the screen is designed for.

This coupled with the ghosting and refresh problems commonly seen on LCD's just continues to point out why they aren't ready for the gaming community.

You can get an "OK" 17" flat panel for about $850. You can get a very nice flat 21" CRT able to display all resolutions at 85hz or better for about $700.

I'm not trying to deride your decision but you need to do some research before buying a flat panel for gaming.

 

[jpetermann]

Gunfighter, couldn;t agree with you more. I did not buy this monitor for gaming, actually bought to have some desk space. I do not "game" that much. Just want it to work when I use it. I have a VERY nice 19" crt. Just took up too much space!

 

[badga]

$0.02 worth here: I got a damn fine 17.4 inch LCD for $600 and while i am the first to admit it is not as nice for gaming as the 19" CRT that it replaced, that I think i traded off maybe 2-3% of "capability" with the "ghosting". I have adapted fairly well to the effect. As i said somewhere else here, i still firmly believe that a persons innate skills that determines their fate in the world of gaming, not the monitor. Like pastorjay i simply could not go back to having a 1/3 of my desk taken up by that behemoth CRT. As to not using the native resolution of a flat panel....unless game doesn't support it there simply is no reason to not use it.....has yet to be an issue.

 

[gunf1ghter]

Most flat panels that are interesting (i.e., good) run native 1280X1024. The game that many folks waste the most time with is CS. CS tops out at a much lower resolution. Many other quality games don't run at this resolution (Civ 3, most other strat games).

Additionally the next big crop of shooters (Doom II, Unreal II, etc) will tax even the fastest vid cards at 1280X1024 with all of the goodies turned on (32 bit color, lighting effects, etc).

Buy whatever you like, but I think many folks buy LCD's without knowing what they are getting into.

 

[azkiwi]

certainly if you read much in this forum, much of the chatter about LCDs centers on gaming. Gunfighter has a good point I think about resolution. If your primary mission is gaming think twice about LCDs. However if gaming is only your secondary mission, its a good time to switch.
And Civ3 still looks pretty nice on a 19" flat panel.

 

[badga]

CS, starcraft is one thing but you have to wonder about the business sense of any game designer not taking 1280x1024 rez into consideration with any recent game considering that is the std. rez of the 17-19" class of LCD panels and the overall growth in flat panels.

 

[azkiwi]

well considering the cost of LCDs has just dropped into the price range of the more flush amongst us in the last year, and panels acceptable (not ideal) for gaming have appeared only in the last 6 months its not really surprising is it?

Probably less than 5% of all gamers are operating at that rez.