OT: Large LCD monitors for PC

[Joerg]

Right click on screen, Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Monitor
uncheck 'Hide modes this monitor cannot display'. Then back to settings
to see your options.

This machine's 5 years old with a Matrox P650 and doesn't show 1920x1080
but any 'recent' card should handle it. (The P650 would probably handle it
with a driver update).

Where do I find "screen" to right-click on in Windows XP? Found nothing
in the control panel.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Where do I find "screen" to right-click on in Windows XP? Found nothing
in the control panel.

Right click on the desktop.. and you should either get the default
windows dialog or something installed by your video drivers.

 

[Nico Coesel]

My color vision ain't perfect anyhow (sez my wife, when I pick a tie
...). All I really care about for the monitor is resolution and sheer
size. 30" would be great, 27" ok, 23"-24" wouldn't be worth it versus
the (excellent) 21" CRT I have right now.

I'd recommend a smaller good quality LCD from Samsung or another real
brand than a cheap panel which may not last very long.

 

[Nial Stewart]

For mechanical design I can see the value but the main reason for me is

that I need this for layout reviews. Which I have to do at an increasing
number these days, to advise on EMI improvements. Often you have to see
the big picture but at the same time look at details, such as trace
lengths to 0603 bypass caps. Right now on a 21-incher it's panning and
zooming like crazy.

This is also why a dual monitor setup doesn't do much good here.

You know you can set the two monitors up to be one massive desktop?


Nial.

 

[Joerg]

Right click on the desktop.. and you should either get the default
windows dialog or something installed by your video drivers.

That brings up the same dialog as "Display" in the control panel. Lots
of available resolutions but not 1920*1080. The closest one is 1400*1050
and then several higher ones that definitely go beyond the capabilities
of the monitor I have right now.

 

[Joerg]

You know you can set the two monitors up to be one massive desktop?

Yes, but then you have a gap between them because or their enclosures,
even if you'd overlap one slightly behind the other. Not so cool if you
do layout checks.

 

[Joerg]

I'd recommend a smaller good quality LCD from Samsung or another real
brand than a cheap panel which may not last very long.

The LCD TVs out here with the "cheap panels" in there seem to last a
very long time. None in the neighborhood has ever died.

 

[Joerg]

Here's my set-up:

http://analog-innovations.com/SED/MyWorkstation.jpg

Nice, but for reviewing large layouts for EMI hotspots the gap in the
middle ain't so cool. I've tried that at a client and quickly switched
to single screen.

For schematics (or in your case the timing diagram) I have another
'puter to the left of me, slightly angled but in full view. I need a ton
of desk space because usually lots of hand sketches and calcs are
needed. I've got about 20ft of that all around me

Watch out for big brother above the left monitor ...

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

That brings up the same dialog as "Display" in the control panel. Lots
of available resolutions but not 1920*1080. The closest one is 1400*1050
and then several higher ones that definitely go beyond the capabilities
of the monitor I have right now.

Okay, on the Dell laptop I'm using right now (YMMMV):

right click on desktop-> NVidia Control Panel-> Display -> Manage
custom resolutions-> Allow modes not exposed by the display.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Yes, but then you have a gap between them because or their enclosures,
even if you'd overlap one slightly behind the other. Not so cool if you
do layout checks.

Yeah, I don't like to split windows across displays either.. having
one 30" 2560x1600 for layout or CAD window and the other for other
stuff like PDFs, and the two 1600x1200 for communication, and the
single smaller one for coms with a target system makes sense to me.
Not everyone has room for 5 monitors on their desktop though.

 

[Joerg]

If higher ones show up, that's good. Try to find a monitor driver at the
manufacturer's home site. That should be able to tell the video card how
to do things.

I just fired off a support request to Dell, to see whether my computer
supports 1920x1080 natively or via a driver. The documentation is so
lousy these days that it doesn't contain such specs. That was
unthinkable in the good old days.

Docs for the chip set don't help much because they dumbed down the mobo
via the BIOS. Some stuff the HW clearly supports (such as 5-1/4 drives
which I would have needed for legacy projects) has been yanked :-(

 

[Joerg]

Okay, on the Dell laptop I'm using right now (YMMMV):

right click on desktop-> NVidia Control Panel-> Display -> Manage
custom resolutions-> Allow modes not exposed by the display.

I had tried that, in my case the Intel graphics accelerator comes up. No
custom resolutions that include 1920x1080 :-(

But that doesn't mean much because it contains higher modes so there's
no technical reason why it shouldn't. Dell might have pulled it though.
Hopefully Dell tech support can answer that, I just sent a request.

 

[Joerg]

Yeah, I don't like to split windows across displays either.. having
one 30" 2560x1600 for layout or CAD window and the other for other
stuff like PDFs, and the two 1600x1200 for communication, and the
single smaller one for coms with a target system makes sense to me.
Not everyone has room for 5 monitors on their desktop though.

30" would be even nicer than 27" but I can't easily see that high a
resolution. 1920x1080 would be just about right because I run the
current 21" at 768 lines. Goes higher and offers super image quality but
then my eyes strain a lot. Getting older isn't all fun ;-)

 

[Joerg]

My display driver (ATI) has no "technical" gap... nothing is missing,
even though there's a physical gap. Continuous "mousing" between
monitors.

Mine (Intel) doesn't gap either but there is still a gap because of the
black bezels around your screens. I bet if you took a large Dremel to
cut that off they'll quit working ...

Huh? That's an analog schematic on the left, simulation results on
the right.

The sims look rather digital to me, except for the 2nd trace from top. I
am involved in an analog chip as well right now, very similar looking
sims (for all the mux switches in there). Except that some of ours go to
100V

Not seen, I have a full desk on my right, buried in paper ;-)

I try to keep mine fairly clean. Have to. It's easier to make sure that
files from various clients will never get mixed up, and my wife would
have a hissy fit if I'd carry a mess on the desk spaces. She is the one
cleaning the offices (I don't do a good enough cleaning job, sez SWMBO ...)

I use that for Skype and GoToMeeting. It's off unless I choose to
"share".

Really paranoid people would hang a piece of cloth over it

I see a Java srcipt book there on your shelf ... <shudder>

 

[Joerg]

1280 x 1024 seems perfect for my eyes _without_reading_glasses_!

My great-grandpa was able to read the newspaper without glasse when he
was over 100 years old. I am not that lucky, around 40 I needed 1.25x
glasses for the computer and 2.5x or stronger for SMT (depending on
whether there's 0402 stuff on there or not).

But, I thoroughly impressed a group of aerospace engineers when they had
a last minute spec change and I soldered a 0603 resistor on top of
another, using a Weller with the standard "pipe fitter's tip". Ok, with
glasses. "You mean, you just doubled the current that way?" ... "Yup".
Wiping off sweat beads and happy that I had >100% reserves in my
circuit. I just knew it, saw it coming ...

 

[Joerg]

As fine as 0.25mm? Not on big screens, but plenty of laptops are well
in excess of that... all the way down to around 0.15mm. LCDs on phones
get even tighter, such as the iPhone 4's display at an astonishing .078mm!

Of course this reflects the idea that your eye only has so much
resolution anyway, and hence with a bigger display the idea is that
you'll be physically further away from it and super-high dot pitches
don't buy you much... (Steve Jobs would have you believe that, held at
10-12 inches from your eyes, the iPhone 4's display is roughly the same
resolution as what your eyeballs can differentiate, but it's a somewhat
contentious issue with others claiming he's off by a factor of up to 2
or 3...)

I guess he's over 50? Then that may be the reason

[...]

 

[Joerg]

[...]

Really paranoid people would hang a piece of cloth over it

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you

Once a client engineer asked about that mirror in my lab. "Just so I can
see if someone walks up towards the window with an AK47 in hand" ... "Oh!"

(in reality is was to be able to see noise effects on ultrasound
machines with me poking around in the back where the boards are, but now
gone)

I just needed to learn enough to make an un-bot-able mailer.

I believe you could have just downloaded one.

 

[Joerg]

My Samsung, now > 3 years old, is beginning to show vertical bands.
First I thought it was burn in, but there is nothing with pure vertical bands
to burn it in, and running an 'unburn' program does not help.
It looks like some manufacturing pattern, getting worse from left to right.
It is JUST below irritating on movies now, no problem on normal work.

Try to gently squeeze around the corners, see if it changes. Could be
just a contacting issue.

 

[TTman]

1920*1080 is a weird resolution. My PC doesn't have that. Strange.

That is a function of your video card, not your PC....

 

[Joerg]

It's over four feet from edge to edge, so yeah, it's kinda big. And
that doesn't include the fourth monitor on the shelf above them, or the
laptop's monitor (five LCDs total). I'm building a bigger desk

To give you an idea of how wide the main desktop is, here's a snapshot
of a window that spanned all three main monitors (across, not up/down):

http://www.delorie.com/tmp/play2sim.png

My son has decided that two monitors works best if one (side) is
portrait and the other (center) is landscape.

Wow! How did you manage to butt the glass together so no seams show?