Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have sold my CRT

[Muse]

About 3.5 years ago I chanced upon Totally MAD at a computer show. After some chin rubbing I plunked down my $25 or so and went home with what I later decided was the deal of the century (yeah, right!). OK, I was using a CRT. At the time it must have been my 17" Nanao F2-17ex. Totally MAD looked fantastic and I was really happy with it. Not long afterward I bought an NEC FP2141 22" CRT. I've since gone to a 19" LCD for my everyday computer work, a Planar PX191. Not long ago I sold the NEC 22" for 1/4 what I paid for it. Today, I just installed my Totally MAD and find the images disconcerting. It looks like ghosting, sort of like TV when you get antenna signals bouncing off buildings. Is there a way I can get the same clear, crisp images I got on a CRT on the LCD? I just can't handle the way it looks on the LCD. If I can't fix it, I"ll have to pull out my old Nanao 17" (I still have that, luckily). Thanks for any insight here.

 

[Eureka]

What LCD do you have? Just might be a bad LCD and ghosting... as well as scaling... if your game isn't running at the same resolution your LCD is, everything becomes blurry. And some older games don't have high res.

Norm

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: cevilgenius
What LCD do you have? Just might be a bad LCD and ghosting... as well as scaling... if your game isn't running at the same resolution your LCD is, everything becomes blurry. And some older games don't have high res.

Norm

Well, it's not a game. There's no motion at all. It's all still images. It has some really cool features (Broderbund), like magnification and moving anywhere on a page you want to move by using the hand tool. The text is really hard to read right now, though. I've never had any trouble with this LCD, so I can't imagine it has anything to do with a problem with it. I've had this LCD for over 2 years. This is hard to believe. It looked perfect on my CRT.

 

[Eureka]

Well, does it take a full screen? If so... then it's probably scaling.

Norm

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: cevilgenius
Well, does it take a full screen? If so... then it's probably scaling.

Norm

What do you mean? It can be run full screen or none full screen (there's a maximize button in the upper right corner, like most Windows applications). I've got two LCD's for dual display and running in clone mode it looks the same on the other (a Hyundai ImageQuest L90D+ 19" LCD).

 

[Eureka]

I'm thinking of like games where it takes control of the entire screen...

Maybe it's something with LCD and the way they display stuff? If not for scaling I'm out of ideas.

Norm

 

[Muse]

Actually, I'm now noticing some funny video artifacting in other stuff. I've got a MyHD 120 HDTV card installed and I see similar things going on with it. I guess I'll have to disconnect the video passthrough from my video card to the MyHD daughterboard and try running the video card straight into the LCD and see if that makes a difference. I'm only seeing the artifacts in TV viewing and Totally Mad, so far. It's way, way worse in Totally MAD, though.

 

[Wolfshanze]

What RESOLUTION are you viewing your program in? The "scaling" he's refering to is relating to the "native resolution" of your monitor (which is probably 1280x1024). Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) will look better on your LCD if (and only if) you view what you use in that resolution.

If your desktop is set to any resolution other then the native resolution of 1280x1024, the LCD will have to "scale" the image to that differant resolution, and image quality will suffer (often to fairly significant degrees depending on how picky you are). This is perhaps the most glossed-over, non-discussed major problem with LCDs today.

Native Resolutions... so many people call this a non-issue, but to a lot of people (you know, those with free wills and beliefs you should be able to view your monitor in any resolution you want), this is a big deal. If you prefer to view your desktop in a resolution other then 1280x1024 OR your program ONLY RUNS in a certain resolution (that isn't your LCD's native resolution) you are screwed on getting a sharp image, and you'll never get one as good as a CRT. AFAIK, LCDs will never be as good at viewing more then one resolution as a CRT can... we'll have to wait for a differant flat-screen technology to come along to free the world from native-resolution hell.

I personally love LCDs... so long as they are in native resolution... but if you have to view it in a resolution other then native, you need to stick to CRTs unless you don't mind fuzzy distorted screens.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Wolfshanze
What RESOLUTION are you viewing your program in? The "scaling" he's refering to is relating to the "native resolution" of your monitor (which is probably 1280x1024). Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) will look better on your LCD if (and only if) you view what you use in that resolution.

If your desktop is set to any resolution other then the native resolution of 1280x1024, the LCD will have to "scale" the image to that differant resolution, and image quality will suffer (often to fairly significant degrees depending on how picky you are). This is perhaps the most glossed-over, non-discussed major problem with LCDs today.

Native Resolutions... so many people call this a non-issue, but to a lot of people (you know, those with free wills and beliefs you should be able to view your monitor in any resolution you want), this is a big deal. If you prefer to view your desktop in a resolution other then 1280x1024 OR your program ONLY RUNS in a certain resolution (that isn't your LCD's native resolution) you are screwed on getting a sharp image, and you'll never get one as good as a CRT. AFAIK, LCDs will never be as good at viewing more then one resolution as a CRT can... we'll have to wait for a differant flat-screen technology to come along to free the world from native-resolution hell.

I personally love LCDs... so long as they are in native resolution... but if you have to view it in a resolution other then native, you need to stick to CRTs unless you don't mind fuzzy distorted screens.

I'm with you 100% on this one. I was visiting my brother around 3 years ago and I went on a shopping trip to Best Buy with his wife and she picked out a popular Samsung 19" LCD for a gift to herself from my brother (her husband). I have to say, her taste was impeccable and she picked out the best LCD they had - the thin bezzeled 191T, I believe. However, I was bedeviled to discover that she doesn't run it in its native 1280 x 1024. I have tried a few times to convince her to do so, but she insists that she prefers 1080 x 768. I visited them and demoed the native res this Thanksgiving, and she at least left it at that res while I was there and working on their system, but I bet she's changed it back to the lower res. She says things are just too small at native res. I tried to impress on her that she'd get used to the native res if she gives it a try, but she's resistant. What can you do? Anyway, my Totally MAD works at any resolution I use, and I always use native res with my Planar PX191 19" LCD, so that's not the issue. See next post, where I baldly link an excellent JPG of what I'm talking about <--- !!

 

[Muse]

OK, see this image to see what I'm talking about. It looks exactly like that. If I move the image with the hand tool, it looks exactly the same. If I increase the magnification or decrease it with the + or - tools, it continues to look exactly like that, only zoomed in or zoomed out. Yes, it makes one wonder if the scans were like that but I don't think there's much possibility of that. I didn't get that when I was using the program 3 years ago with my 17" CRT. What could be causing that?

 

[Muse]

I guess the answer lies here (quote from review):

- - - -
- The clarity and resolution of the pages aren't as high as I'd hoped. While there is a magnification feature where you can "zoom in" on a section of a page, even with this there are still some times where the words are barely legible. Although I'm sure this development is due to the CD-ROM set's producers wanting to put as much as they can on as few CDs as possible, I'm still a bit miffed by it. I wouldn't have minded if they put all of the issues on ten or twelve CD-ROMs if it meant better clarity and resolution! Then again, itmight have been due to them using a low-quality scanner...
- - - -

The above is from a review of the set at Amazon.com, seen on this page.

 

[w00t]

make sure you running it native resoltions. turn up you contrast all the way and adjust your brightness with a program. LCD's actually have better text i am using one right now ussually use a CRT till the 2007FPW comes out maybe try to install a driver or RMA it.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: w00t
make sure you running it native resoltions. turn up you contrast all the way and adjust your brightness with a program. LCD's actually have better text i am using one right now ussually use a CRT till the 2007FPW comes out maybe try to install a driver or RMA it.

No, I always run native res. I use NEC/Mitsubishi's Brightness Controller for quick adjustments (a free download and I highly recommend it!). Yes, it was the text sharpness that was at the top of my list when I decided to go to LCD. From the first time I used one, I decided I would get one when the prices came down sufficiently. There's nothing wrong with my LCD's. The problem is with Broderbund. Back in 1998 or so when they produced the set I guess DVD's weren't an option. They could have improved the product very considerably by using more CD's, like the quote from my previous post says. It's really a crying shame. Maybe someday they will rerelease the set on DVD, assuming the scans are sufficiently well done, or maybe they could rescan. They are still selling the out-of-production sets for over $100 at eBay and Amazon.com and elsewhere, I'm sure.