Running LCD monitor outside of "recommended" resolutions

[hans030390]

I recently found out that one of our 19" widescreen monitors (Envision something-or-other) lets me run my PS3 in 1080P mode (with a bit of squishing, but it's better than anything else we have in our house), and it looks AMAZING on it compared to our TVs.

After reading online, the 1920x1080 resolution is outside of the "recommended" resolutions that you can/should run the monitor on. After that, it says running it on a different resolution can damage the monitor.

Is this true? If so, I'm sad.

 

[mercanucaribe]

It shouldn't damage the monitor. The actual resolution of the screen is 1280x1024 or 1440x900 if it's widescreen. It's probably just downscaling the image, so it should look pretty good. Are you using component, or what?

 

[xtknight]

I doubt it will do anything these days to either type of monitor. Many LCDs have a 'safe mode' where it will downscale 1920x1080 and this doesn't damage anything. I used to use 1080i input on my Samsung 17" regularly along with an HDTV tuner. My ViewSonic 19" didn't have the same ability to downscale 1080, however. It just simply didn't work; no damage had been done.

 

[hans030390]

I'm running my PS3 through a HDMI to DVI connection. The picture quality is outstanding, and I just wanted to make sure I really wasn't hurting anything (which I didn't think I was) by running it at such a high resolution.

Thanks!

 

[vhx]

I thought LCD's don't run higher than the native resolution?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: vhx
I thought LCD's don't run higher than the native resolution?

Most won't. Some (especially ones that are are also "TVs") will take 1080i/1080p and scale it down to fit the native resolution, although this is pretty unusual for an LCD sold as a computer monitor.

In any case -- running an LCD at a non-native resolution should not damage it in any way. Either it will scale the image to its native resolution in some way, or it will not display it. Some (very old) CRTs could be damaged by trying to feed in a resolution/refresh rate that was too high; maybe that's the warning you were reading?

 

[BernardP]

One of my co-workers bought a Samsung 215TW about a month ago. As he told me the story, he opened the box, installed it, powered the computer, and mistakenly set the resolution @ 1600x1200 instead of 1680x1050. He was not aware of the proper resolution :roll: After just a few minutes of running a distorted image, the monitor suddently died. He never was able to turn the power on again. A few weak flashes of the ON light and nothing...

I have been wondering if this could have been caused by the improper resolution or is a simple coincidence.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: BernardP
One of my co-workers bought a Samsung 215TW about a month ago. As he told me the story, he opened the box, installed it, powered the computer, and mistakenly set the resolution @ 1600x1200 instead of 1680x1050. He was not aware of the proper resolution :roll: After just a few minutes of running a distorted image, the monitor suddently died. He never was able to turn the power on again. A few weak flashes of the ON light and nothing...

I have been wondering if this could have been caused by the improper resolution or is a simple coincidence.

It's just a coincidence. If a resolution exceeds the monitors native resolution and not supported by the monitor, it'll just say something along the lines of the source is "out of bounds" or something along those lines.

I've actually run 16x12 on my Viewsonic VX2025 and it will run it when it is in centered mode. It'll just crop off the top and bottom to fit on a 1680x1050 screen.

 

[0roo0roo]

assuming crt it probably won't show anything. same with lcd. i hear a long time ago crts could get damaged, but it was a long long time ago.

most 19" crt probably don't quite have the ability to truely render 1080p, phosphor dots and all that stuff

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
It shouldn't damage the monitor. The actual resolution of the screen is 1280x1024 or 1440x900 if it's widescreen. It's probably just downscaling the image, so it should look pretty good. Are you using component, or what?

ummm... yes, it may be downscaling it now, but here is the question, how much can the hardware downscaler handle? You may be pushing the limits of the internal memory as well as the bus speeds on the internal circuits, which could lead to damage as stated.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
It shouldn't damage the monitor. The actual resolution of the screen is 1280x1024 or 1440x900 if it's widescreen. It's probably just downscaling the image, so it should look pretty good. Are you using component, or what?

ummm... yes, it may be downscaling it now, but here is the question, how much can the hardware downscaler handle? You may be pushing the limits of the internal memory as well as the bus speeds on the internal circuits, which could lead to damage as stated.

...who in their right mind would design an internal scaler that couldn't handle the resolutions it was designed to handle?

And even if there was too much data coming in you'd just get a corrupted/garbled screen display, not damage the LCD.