Graphics Card for New 32" LED HDTV

[manderson]

I picked up a 32" Sharp LC-32LE700UN which is a full LED back light 1080p model. I have an ATI Radeon 4850 Graphics card and I am not getting nice crisp fonts at the 1920 x 1080 recommended resolution, and desktop icons are distorted, like they often look when you set a monitor to a non-optimum resolution. Photographs in Photoshop look fantastic, and I watched a DVD movie in Windows Media Player that looked excelent if it wasn't stretched to full scren. But I really can not deal with fonts and and smaller objects not being crisp and clear.

Will a new video card fix this problem?

Thanks very much for any response.

Mark A.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

You need to go to your Font settings and up the DPI of your fonts. TV's weren't really meant to be used to read things on and the "dot pitch" results in funky looking font.

Standard DPI is about 96, make it 120 or so and see if you like it any better.

Make sure "clear type" is enabled as well.

 

[manderson]

Thanks. It does look better, but sort of shoots down the idea of a large monitor for more screen work area. Everything is just bigger. Think I'll stick with a real computer monitor. Thanks again.

 

[TemjinGold]

The issue is the resolution. You can't get more usable screen area from the screen just being bigger. This is why 30" monitors are so expensive.

 

[Voo]

Thanks. It does look better, but sort of shoots down the idea of a large monitor for more screen work area. Everything is just bigger. Think I'll stick with a real computer monitor. Thanks again.

Yeah, what exactly did you think would happen if you used a 1920x1080 resolution on a larger screen? I don't like TVs either, because the dot pitch is just too large for my sitting distance and eyes, but there are people who prefer them, especially for gaming.
But that doesn't change the fact that you've got just as many pixels on a usual 24" as on a 32" or 46" TV..

 

[hans007]

are you sure you have your drivers set up correctly?

I have the 40" version of that TV, and i've hooked it up to my comptuer and it looks great. i've only used integrated video HDMI output for it though (ati video though).

 

[manderson]

It's an incredible TV. I should have done more homework before thinking new technology would do what I wanted. Actually, I'm starting to like it. I have dual monitor happening with the old Samsung 245BW, and working with Photoshop is great with the big screen. Plus, now I have a spare television. I think I'm going to keep it and ugrade the video card soon.

Thanks for the help.

Mark

 

[manderson]

are you sure you have your drivers set up correctly?

I have the 40" version of that TV, and i've hooked it up to my comptuer and it looks great. i've only used integrated video HDMI output for it though (ati video though).

No, I am not positively certain the drivers are set up properly. I've used ATI for the past five years or so, and never really cared for the Control Center (because it took forever to load in XP), so I always installed the drivers only. I've read a few things about setting up nvidia a certain way for this application, which is why I was asking if a new graphics card would help.

 

[386DX]

The dot pitch has nothing to do with the text not being sharp. The most likely problem is the most TV over scans the screen a bit (ie. you don't get exact 1 to 1 pixel match even with a 1080 signal). This is done because even on 1080p broadcast signals often times there's noise at the top/bottom pixels (ie. a line of pink pixels). Fortunately on your Sharp set there is an option to set the TV to get full pixel match. The option is called "dot by dot" mode and is only available when 1080i/p signal is used. Try to put the TV on that mode when you have your PC hooked up. Note this is not the same as "Full" or "Normal" mode. If that doesn't solve the problem, the next thing I'd look into is if the blurry text is caused by "blooming" which is caused when the contrast/brightness is set to high and each individual pixels have a halo around them causing text to be a bit blurry.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Yeah, I'd think if text looks good on a PS3/360 then you should be able to adjust things so your PC's text is similarly good.

 

[nenforcer]

How are you connecting the video card to the LED LCD TV? I'd assume your card has a HDMI output and I would preferably use this over the DVI if it has that as well.

 

[hans007]

The dot pitch has nothing to do with the text not being sharp. The most likely problem is the most TV over scans the screen a bit (ie. you don't get exact 1 to 1 pixel match even with a 1080 signal). This is done because even on 1080p broadcast signals often times there's noise at the top/bottom pixels (ie. a line of pink pixels). Fortunately on your Sharp set there is an option to set the TV to get full pixel match. The option is called "dot by dot" mode and is only available when 1080i/p signal is used. Try to put the TV on that mode when you have your PC hooked up. Note this is not the same as "Full" or "Normal" mode. If that doesn't solve the problem, the next thing I'd look into is if the blurry text is caused by "blooming" which is caused when the contrast/brightness is set to high and each individual pixels have a halo around them causing text to be a bit blurry.

yes push "view mode" on your tv remote, and turn off the zoom if its on.. if it is overscan corrected a bit, there will be a slight border around actually.

 

[Puffnstuff]

1920x1080 is awful low for a screen that size. With that said you should up the res if the tv supports it.

 

[Jesusthewererabbit]

1920x1080 is awful low for a screen that size. With that said you should up the res if the tv supports it.

I've run a 32" at 19x10 for three years. It is just fine as long as you don't sit really close. I don't think I've ever seen a TV that supports higher resolution, and if they did, they would cost a whole hell of a lot more.

 

[TemjinGold]

I can tell you for a fact, 1080p is the highest you can go as I am using that exact model myself. There is no such thing as a TV with higher than 1080p that the average consumer can afford.

 

[brandonb]

TV's aren't so clear and sharp with text. But before giving up... Look in the drivers.

There is an option for overscan/underscan to help scale the picture better.

I can't exactly where the setting is off the top of my head, but I had to set it with one of my computer and monitor combos. It wouldn't be under 3d settings, but another option.

I'd have to look when I get home, but don't give up yet without trying that.

 

[kalrith]

It will also look better to turn off as much processing as possible on the TV (set sharpness at 0, turn off any enhancements, etc.). You might have to change settings on the TV to put it in dot-for-dot mode.

 

[manderson]

Setting the view mode to "Dot by Dot" and setting the driver to full overscan did the trick. This looks just great now. Thanks everyone!

 

[0roo0roo]

You need to go to your Font settings and up the DPI of your fonts. TV's weren't really meant to be used to read things on and the "dot pitch" results in funky looking font.

Standard DPI is about 96, make it 120 or so and see if you like it any better.

Make sure "clear type" is enabled as well.

no....
dot pitch doesn't really apply here. lcd tv's are only problematic in that their resolution is inferior for the size. a 30" apple cinema display type monitor has twice as many pixels as a 32" 1080p tv. in other words it looks crude.
if its blur or funny looking its because its doing over scan or not 1:1 pixel mode. its scaling the input.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

no....
dot pitch doesn't really apply here. lcd tv's are only problematic in that their resolution is inferior for the size. a 30" 2560x1600 apple cinema display type monitor has almost twice as many pixels as a 32" 1080p tv. in other words it looks crude.
if its blurry or funny looking its because its doing overscan or not 1:1 pixel mode. its scaling the input.

Fixed.

 

[kalrith]

no....
dot pitch doesn't really apply here. lcd tv's are only problematic in that their resolution is inferior for the size. a 30" 2560x1600 apple cinema display type monitor has almost twice as many pixels as a 32" 1080p tv. in other words it looks crude if you sit too close.
if its blurry or funny looking its because its doing overscan or not 1:1 pixel mode. its scaling the input.

Fixed again. You can sit 1-2' from a 2560x1600 30" display because of its high resolution, but you shouldn't sit closer than 3' from a 32" 1080p display. At that distance it shouldn't look crude because of the low resolution. For, example, my 24" 1920x1200 monitor looked fine from 2' away, and the resolution of a 32" 1080p display will look the same at 3' away.