22 inch widescreen monitor question...

[coachmann]

I have a new monitor, 22 inch widescreen but it is quite literally doing my head in (heavy head and spasmodic dizziness starting last Wednesday morning after a bout on the PC).

 

I set it up to 1280 X 720 but it all looks too large as if half the content was off screen on the floor and seems to take a lot of memory to do things. 

 

What size have you set yours please.

 

[Tony Davis]

1366 x 768, it is the recommended setting for my laptop

 

hth

[buffalo]

My 22" and 26" widescreen desktop monitors are both set at 1920x1200. Some may be better at 1920x1080 which is an exact 16:9 width/height ratio.

 

Nick

 

ps. what operating system? The screen resolution setting dialog often includes an option to 'detect' the type of the monitor. If recognised, it may then tell you what size is recommended.

[justin1985]

1920x1080 is the "normal" resolution for monitors around this size. This is full-HD resolution - as in 1080p. Windows 7 (or any recent operating system) should normally be pretty good at detecting, and automatically selecting, the optimum resolution for your monitoir. LCD flatscreens work a bit differently to old CRT monitors, and only really have one "native" resolution - you will be able to select a lower resolution, but it will look strange, and not be comfortable just as you've described.

 

Basically, always select the highest resolution available. If this makes things too small, you'll have to adjust the Windows DPI, font size etc instead, rather than selecting a lower resolution, which was the way everyone make things look bigger on a CRT monitor. 

[Tony_S]

My 22 " HP2229 is set at 1680 x 1050. The monitor was auto detected by Windows (8 but I'm certain it did on 7 too) and this was the recommended setting for the monitor in landscape mode. It can be rotated in portrait but I don't bother , it doesn't look nice then.

[Platform 6]

My 22 " HP2229 is set at 1680 x 1050. The monitor was auto detected by Windows (8 but I'm certain it did on 7 too) and this was the recommended setting for the monitor in landscape mode. It can be rotated in portrait but I don't bother , it doesn't look nice then.

 

My 22" Acer is set at 1680 x 1050 too. These are 16:10 ratio settings. I suspect this is the ratio of your monitor Larry.

 

Giving it a 16:9 signal sometimes causes them to reject and display at default low resolution as you seem to have experienced.

 

Edit: Spellings.

[Ian J.]

Dizziness might be caused by an incorrect refresh rate being set, as could the size of things appearing too large and some seeming to be off the screen.

 

Normally that wouldn't happen with an LCD though, as the Operating System is usually good enough at selecting the right refresh rate (60Hz or a multiple thereof, pretty much most of the time for LCDs, so 60, 120, 180, 240, etc) and native resolution.

 

Edit: Can you let us know the manufacturer, model name and/or number? That way I can look it up online and get specifications so can provide better advice on what its native settings should be.

[Platform 6]

 Basically, always select the highest resolution available. If this makes things too small, you'll have to adjust the Windows DPI, font size etc instead, rather than selecting a lower resolution, which was the way everyone make things look bigger on a CRT monitor. 

 

I don't think this is very good advice. You set your resolution to whatever 'you' are comfortable with. Fiddling with DPI and font-size are to be avoided. Causes all sorts of probs.

 

Edit for pie (10/06/13 09:31) - *** Before I get anymore 'Slaps' lol *** I do retract as we are talking LCD displays  - see posts 18, 19, 20

[Tony_S]

I forgot to mention my HP monitor at 1680 x 1050 is connected to the PC by the HD cable. Other options included DVI and VGA on PC and monitor ends.

[Metr0Land]

1920 x 1080 here if it's any help

[coachmann]

Thanks everyone for taking the trouble to respond. I have written down all the various configurations and will try things out this evening. When I first plugged it in last week the screen-saver was stretched sideways, so when it was altered I ended up wth a green border thicker at the LH and RH sides.  Will let you know how things work out.

[pointstaken]

Larry's description puts me in mind of the feature that some monitors used to have whereby they could be used in either horizontal or vertical mode.

 

Dennis

[Oldddudders]

I'm not technically savvy like these other chaps, but my LG2453 works best if I set the screen magnification (bottom right on any screen picture, I think) to 150%.

[Torper]

My LG 21.5" widescreen monitor is set at 1440 x 900.   This is not what is recommended by the manufacturer, but is what i feel most comfortable with.  It took quite a lot of trial and error to find this, as i found that most other setting led to a distorted picture with quite a few programmes, and on "higher" settings I found it difficult to read any writing as it was so small.  I still get occasional distortion, but by and large am happy with the present set-up.

 

DT

[DDolfelin]

As a temporary measure, also experiment with the 'view' button (if they appear on PCs), although the problem described should be fixable by choosing the optimum definition.

[Belsay Lad]

I recently bought a new widescreen monitor and had problems with the image just being in the middle of the screen with blank space down either size - trying to get the image to fill the screen stretched it so that circles became ovals.

 

However, after updating the video card drivers the screen is now behaving itself so might be worth a try?

 

regards

Eddie

[coachmann]

Evening all.....After testing various configurations suggested on this thread, the one that suits me at the moment is 1366 X 768. I've also reduced brightness and contrast to cut down glare from such a big screen (darn sight bigger than the ow'd one).  I'll have to wear sunglasses!

[Suzie]

If you use a resolution setting that does not match the native resolution of your flat panel monitor the image will appear to be out of focus due to pixel blurring that the monitor will do to try and compensate. Your eyes will try and focus the apparently out of focus image and give you a headache because the image cannot be focused - but your eyes don't know that.

 

Always find the instruction manual for your monitor which will specify what the native (usually but not always the highest) resolution is, if you find the text a bit small (which should not be the case on anything bigger than a 17" monitor) you must change the font settings in your operating system to resolve the problem if you cannot upgrade to a larger monitor.

 

Most monitors on sale now have 1080 HD TV resolution, 1080x1920 (for example every single one I saw in Currys the other day when I looked), and some cheaper ones will have 720 HD resolution, 720 x 1280. This is because the lower cost TV sized monitors just use mass produced widescreen TV LCD panels to keep the cost down. Some smaller monitors have some odd resolutions and odder aspect ratios, but bigger ones over 19" tend to be standard.

[ZiderHead]

Yup, set it to the native resolution - this is the actual number of pixels your display has (check the specs). Anything else will be blurry.

[Platform 6]

.

If you use a resolution setting that does not match the native resolution of your flat panel monitor the image will appear to be out of focus due to pixel blurring that the monitor will do to try and compensate. 

 

Agreed - my comments about setting resolution to your own requirements relates to CRT screens and not LCDs.  (Apologies to Justin1985 above).

 

Back when CRTs were the only choice, people went crazy showing off how high the resolution would go on their (small) monitors, even though usability suffered (i.e. you had to squint to read default-sized text).

 

Personally, I'm getting to an age where a 1920 pixel width resolution on a 22" monitor strains my eyes. Glad I have a 1680 (native resolution) pixel 22" monitor. 

[Robert]

One other thing to mention - make sure the monitor is connected to the computer via DVI, HDMI or Display Port.  Using a standard VGA connection at such a high resolution will result in a dreadful picture.

 

Here in the office, I have a 30 inch monitor connected by DVI and the picture is crystal clear.  If it's blurry, flickery, or causing dizziness, then something is wrong.

[Ian J.]

One other thing to mention - make sure the monitor is connected to the computer via DVI, HDMI or Display Port.  Using a standard VGA connection at such a high resolution will result in a dreadful picture.

 

Here in the office, I have a 30 inch monitor connected by DVI and the picture is crystal clear.  If it's blurry, flickery, or causing dizziness, then something is wrong.

 

To able to do so presumes that Coachmann's computer has a DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort connector. It may be that he only has analogue VGA.

 

Edit: Actually, although this is highly unlikely, it's possible the monitor doesn't have a digital connector either. I have a Fujitsu LCD from about four years ago that only has a VGA input.

[Horsetan]

With the ever - increasing display sizes of monitors, I wonder if Larry's vision problem is akin to sitting too close to the telly?

[BG John]

I find my AOC 22" screen causes more eye strain than my laptop screen, or the small screens I've used in the past. It's set to its native 1920x1080 as there's no point using it if I can't see a lot on it. I used to work on two screens (an LCD and a CRT) as I couldn't display enough on one, and this screen is a compromise. I used to have accounts software on one screen and a speadsheet on the other, or a web browser and Dreamweaver, but on this one they have to overlap, and that gets a bit annoying. I've got the brightness turned right down. I use it with my laptop that only has a VGA output, and find the display quality to be very good.

[martin_wynne]

Hi Larry,

 

With an LCD flatscreen monitor you should only ever use the native resolution of the screen. That means the actual number of dots it is made of. Anything else will look fuzzy.

 

Go to this screen -- Start Button > Control Panel > Display:

 

 

1. Select the most suitable text size. If you are anything like me, the default (96dpi) setting is far too small, and has been all the way back to Windows95. I always set 120dpi on all my systems, which is now called "Medium".

 

2. Click this link. Windows will take you through the process of choosing settings for the clearest text, including automatically setting your monitor to its native resolution. At each stage you just click the text sample which looks best to you.

 

regards,

 

Martin.