1280 x 1024 => 640 x 480 doubling?

[Paul D.Smith]

All,

I have considered buying a TFT monitor capable of 1280 x 1024 resolution but
I forsee a problem. My daughters have some educational games which run at
640 x 480 resultion and with a CRT monitor, I can get WinXP to change
resoltion before running so they get a "full screen" display. But TFTs
can't do this and I imagine they will get a "quarter screen", small, game.

But it occurred to me that 640 x 480 x 2 == 1280 x 960, almost full TFT
screen size IF the TFT were to display each pixel using 4 real pixels. So,
do any TFTs do this and if so, what do the results look like?

Thanks for any information you can offer.
Paul DS

 

[Fisher]

All,

I have considered buying a TFT monitor capable of 1280 x 1024 resolution but
I forsee a problem. My daughters have some educational games which run at
640 x 480 resultion and with a CRT monitor, I can get WinXP to change
resoltion before running so they get a "full screen" display. But TFTs
can't do this and I imagine they will get a "quarter screen", small, game.

LCD's can do this by using interpolation. They will run 640x480 at
full screen. It will look a bit blurry though due to the
interpolation.

 

[J. Clarke]

All,

I have considered buying a TFT monitor capable of 1280 x 1024 resolution
but
I forsee a problem. My daughters have some educational games which run at
640 x 480 resultion and with a CRT monitor, I can get WinXP to change
resoltion before running so they get a "full screen" display. But TFTs
can't do this and I imagine they will get a "quarter screen", small, game.

But it occurred to me that 640 x 480 x 2 == 1280 x 960, almost full TFT
screen size IF the TFT were to display each pixel using 4 real pixels.
So, do any TFTs do this and if so, what do the results look like?

Some scale everything, some map pixels 1:1, some can be set to do either,
some have other tricks. Read the docs for any that you are considering.
Most newer ones at default to scaling.

I wouldn't worry about it--a 640x480 game played on a monitor that scales it
to 1280x1024 may not be ideally sharp, but it should still look fine.

 

[DaveW]

Not that I know of.

 

[bxf]

I can set the resolution on my 17" LCD to anything that makes sense,
and I get a normal full screen display. The only deficiency is a slight
loss in sharpness, due to the deviation from the monitor's so-called
"native resolution".

 

[Fisher]

I wouldn't worry about it--a 640x480 game played on a monitor that scales it
to 1280x1024 may not be ideally sharp, but it should still look fine.

BS...it will look like shit.

 

[J. Clarke]

BS...it will look like shit.

You of course have done this yourself using a current production monitor.

 

[Fisher]

You of course have done this yourself using a current production monitor.

Yes, of course. Have BenQ 19" LCD, Samsung 17" LCD and 19" LG Flatron
CRT to compare on. LCD's look like crap at 640x480, actually, they
start to look like crap as soon as you take them out of their native
resolution. Take off the rose colored glasses the next time you look
at your LCD at 640x480. Or is this one of those "layman" things again?

 

[J. Clarke]

Yes, of course. Have BenQ 19" LCD, Samsung 17" LCD and 19" LG Flatron
CRT to compare on. LCD's look like crap at 640x480, actually, they
start to look like crap as soon as you take them out of their native
resolution. Take off the rose colored glasses the next time you look
at your LCD at 640x480. Or is this one of those "layman" things again?

Personally I reserve "like crap" for display quality such as that of
the .8mm dot pitch 14" CRT that some SOB sold a friend of mine many years
ago. Since you use "like crap" for the relatively minor degree of
degradation of sharpness exhibited by an LCD running outside its native
resolution, I am curious as to what descriptor you would apply to the
aforementioned 14" CRT.

 

[Fisher]

Personally I reserve "like crap" for display quality such as that of
the .8mm dot pitch 14" CRT that some SOB sold a friend of mine many years
ago. Since you use "like crap" for the relatively minor degree of
degradation of sharpness exhibited by an LCD running outside its native
resolution, I am curious as to what descriptor you would apply to the
aforementioned 14" CRT.

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/hdtvage.html

 

[J. Clarke]

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/hdtvage.html

I'm sorry, but that site contains no description of a 14" monitor with
a .8mm dot pitch nor does it contain the word "crap" so I fail to see the
relevance.

 

[Bob Myers]

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/hdtvage.html

Hmmmm, that's interesting. When asked a very reasonable question
in a thread on the topic of scaling with LCDs, you respond with a pointer
to a page which describes an utterly unrelated problem with CRT-based
televisions. I suspect you have a point in their somewhere, of course,
and it should be even more interesting to find out just what it is.

Bob M.

 

[Bob Myers]

BS...it will look like shit.

Nonsense. In the horizontal axis, it's scaling to exactly double
to pixel count - if done sensibly, it will be a simple doubling
with no loss of detail whatsoever. IF the monitor attempts to
scale from 480 lines to 1024 (i.e., to fill the 5:4 screen with a
4:3 image), then obviously there will be some distortion vertically
(and if not, then it's the same simpe pixel doubling, to 960 lines).
But given that anything from 960 on up is greater than 2X the
line count of the original, there still is no necessity for any loss
of detail whatsoever.

Bob M.

 

[chrisv]

Hmmmm, that's interesting. When asked a very reasonable question
in a thread on the topic of scaling with LCDs, you respond with a pointer
to a page which describes an utterly unrelated problem with CRT-based
televisions. I suspect you have a point in their somewhere, of course,
and it should be even more interesting to find out just what it is.

Speaking of CRT televisions, I'm intrigued by the new 30" 16:9
direct-view CRT televisions from LG and Samsung. They can reduce the
length of the CRT by increasing the maximum beam-deflection-angle from
110 to 125 degrees.

I think it's a great idea, to offer the compelling price/performance
of CRT in the less-bulky package. However, I'm wondering what they
can do to mitigate the problems of such a large deflection angle,
which makes it more difficult to maintain focus at the corners of the
tube, especially at HDTV resolutions.

 

[Bob Myers]

I think it's a great idea, to offer the compelling price/performance
of CRT in the less-bulky package. However, I'm wondering what they
can do to mitigate the problems of such a large deflection angle,
which makes it more difficult to maintain focus at the corners of the
tube, especially at HDTV resolutions.

I guess time will tell - not sure I'd really expect to see 1920 x 1080
actually fully resolved on these things, for this as well as other reasons.
But hey, they still have to do SOMETHING to keep those CRT
product lines going for a while yet, right? There's still nothing else
that's going to hit that size/price point, and won't be for some time.

Bob M.