Screen resolution help

Hello, I seem to have ran into a small problem. I am using an IBM 390X laptop and an Epson PowerLite 715C projector. I am using NeoMagic MagicMedia256AV video card. I am able to use dual video support but my images for my backgrounds are bad. Yet on the laptop they look fine. I have hooked this up to a monitor and it looks fine. I tried to look for drivers to update the video card or thought maybe the projector had one, (I am completely new to projectors). Any other suggestions?

[Andrew Proulx]

What is the MAX resolution on the output of the laptop verses the native (normal) resolution of the projector?

If your laptop is only outputing say, 800x600 but the native resolution on the projector is 1024x768 then you are going to see poor results. make sure your out put matches your projectors requirments, if your video card in the laptop doesnt go that high you may need to upgrade your video card or maybe even the laptop.

[volzjr]

Originally posted by D8TA
I am able to use dual video support but my images for my backgrounds are bad.

D8TA
Define "bad"... Are the colors changing? Is the image the wrong size? Smaller or larger? My first inclination is to try changing the resolution of the projector. I'm not familiar with the Epson, but most have a way to manually set various resolutions, as well as letting the projector attempt to try and set the resolution automatically. It could be set to auto, and the projector is not choosing the optimum setting, or it is manually set to a resolution that is not best for your laptop's output. Try the various settings and see what you get. If that doesn't work, come back and describe the images so we get a better idea of the problem.

Jeff Volz

Originally posted by volzjr
D8TA
Define "bad"... Are the colors changing? Is the image the wrong size? Smaller or larger? My first inclination is to try changing the resolution of the projector. I'm not familiar with the Epson, but most have a way to manually set various resolutions, as well as letting the projector attempt to try and set the resolution automatically. It could be set to auto, and the projector is not choosing the optimum setting, or it is manually set to a resolution that is not best for your laptop's output. Try the various settings and see what you get. If that doesn't work, come back and describe the images so we get a better idea of the problem.

Jeff Volz

Probably the easiest way for me to describe the output is if you have ever formatted your hard drive and when you get the OS installed and it doesn't have your video card drivers installed correctly or the incorrect ones. You can see the image but it may have a little shadowing of green or black on some of the image. Boy, this really is difficult to describe. I will try the resolution suggestion, dropping down maybe to 800x600 instead of 1024x768. I also noticed I am able to select the external display device if I set the internal colors to 16-bit high color instead of 24-bit True color. Guess I'll play around some more...any other suggestions?

Thanks!

For some reason I think the projection is being displayed as 256 colors. When I change my notebook settings to 256 colors this is a good idea of what it looks like. Not sure if this projector can change to the 16-bit or is that controlled by the video card? At least I was able to describe the output better.

[sempei13]

Important question. Are you using a video output like rca or s-video? Or are you using a VGA connector? Video output is inherently poor compared to computer. Think tv vs. high def. video.

Paul

[Brian Busch]

Overly simplistic WARNING:

I'm SURE the projector will support 16 bit (which is roughly 65,000 colors). 24 bit is better (at roughly 16 million colors) and usually is more than the human eye can discern.

It's the graphics card you have to contend with -- it is the one which understands the concept of the "depth" of each pixel. The projector is getting a video signal, so the images are already "processed" by the graphics card. How large an image you send to the projector (800x600 or 1024x768, etc.) and the depth of each of these pixels (8 [256 colors], 16 [65K colors], 24 [>16M colors] is configurable and only (usually) constrained by the amount of memory on your video card, NOT the RAM in your computer (usually).

According to my first hit in google, this web site shows that you should be able to go full 24 bit, 1024x768 on this card.

Of course, depending on what you DISPLAY on this card (and your projector), 1024x768x24 may be too much for your gpu/cpu to process (like movies). Or, worse, your projector might scale it down. Look at your manual on the projector and set your display adapter (in windows) to the same as its max.

BTW: 32 bit depth is pretty standard in high[er] end graphics card, where the remaining byte (1byte=8bits) of 'per pixel data' is used for transparency (or alpha channel) information.

Recall that your computer uses RedGreenBlue (RGB) color space...if each pixel gets 8 bits (3 colors x 8 = (volia) 24 bits). 16 bit is not divisable by 3, so a colorcube/colorspace is used and you get less colors. 8 bit is horrible, and like your reference to SAFE mode in Windows, can only display 256 colors, so your very nice photos or movies has to be "dithered" down to 256 colors. Horrible.

Hope this helps.