Resolution

[latigular]

Hello,
i have very newbie question. My desktop resolution is set to 720p, because i have eyes problem. My movie is in 1080p, will i see it in 1080p or in 720p? I am using MPC-HC Player.

[johnmeyer]

1. Your monitor resolution should be set to exactly equal the actual number of pixels of your monitor. If you don't do that, everything will look a little fuzzy, because everything has to be scaled. This fuzziness can sometimes be quite severe.

2. When you play something that doesn't match either the actual number of pixels on your monitor, or the resolution you have set it to, your playback software will either scale it, in which case you will get additional re-sizing fuzziness, or the image will be shown smaller or larger on the screen. If larger, you will lose some of the image off the screen. Most people have things set up so that the video is always scaled to fit the screen.

3. If you need to enlarge things because of your eyesite, do that by using Windows Control Panel settings to increase icon size, and then, as needed, use the Control Panel "Accessibility" and "Ease of Access" features to magnify parts of the screen.

[jagabo]

My desktop resolution is set to 720p, because i have eyes problem. My movie is in 1080p, will i see it in 1080p or in 720p?

You will see it in 720p if you watch it full screen. Something less if you watch it in a window. As noted, it might be a little more blurry than watching a 720 video on a 720p monitor, because of the scaling -- a 1080p video will be downscaled to 720p by the graphics card then (assuming a 1080p monitor) your monitor scales it back up to 1080p for display.

I disagree about always using the monitor's native resolution. I know several people with visual impairments and they are much happier with big fuzzy text than small sharp text. And Windows' automatic scaling has a lot of problems. The best solution might be to get a very big 1080p monitor.

[johnmeyer]

I disagree about always using the monitor's native resolution. I know several people with visual impairments and they are much happier with big fuzzy text than small sharp text. And Windows' automatic scaling has a lot of problems. The best solution might be to get a very big 1080p monitor.

I could be wrong about this because I haven't set up a display for a few years, but my memory is that you can enlarge most of the elements of a Windows UI by going through the various settings in the Control Panel Display applet. It not only lets you enlarge icons (which I already mentioned), but also menus. You need to look carefully, but there are dpi settings that let you change the size of the text, and other settings that will enlarge other elements of the GUI, but without having to scale the whole display.

[Cornucopia]

You can, johnmeyer, but it's not a single uniform setting (it has elements in different places including some hidden/arcane options).
I still recommend that over lowered rez overall settings. Big fuzzy text is not as good as big sharp text. To anyone.

Scott

[jagabo]

I could be wrong about this because I haven't set up a display for a few years, but my memory is that you can enlarge most of the elements of a Windows UI by going through the various settings in the Control Panel Display applet. It not only lets you enlarge icons (which I already mentioned), but also menus.

Yes, you can do that but not all programs follow the settings and some don't scale properly (not all programs, just some). So if you set the default text size larger, for example, the end of lines of text may be cut off at the right edge of the window. Dialog boxes with the OK button at the bottom may remain a fixed size but the contents are scaled larger -- so you can't see or press the OK button because it's outside the box. Things like that.

You need to look carefully, but there are dpi settings that let you change the size of the text, and other settings that will enlarge other elements of the GUI, but without having to scale the whole display.

The DPI settings are supposed to scale everything. But again, they don't. You get the same kind of problems. It's gotten better over the years but it's still pretty bad.

I used to use a 27" 2560x1440 monitor with DPI set to 125 percent. But all those little problems eventually became too much so I bought a 32" 2560x1440 monitor and run it at 100 percent. All the problems are gone and I can actually read what's on the screen.

I also have my browser (FireFox) set up to override web sites' fonts and sizes (I can't read your stinkin' tiny serifed font!). That also leads to problems on some sites but I can live with that since it's limited to the browser. In a worst case scenario I can use a different browser if I need to read something at one of those problematic sites.