Clean install of Win 7 Pro from XP, image and vid quality poor.

[perceptionist]

I recently did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional 64 bit (not upgrade) from windows XP 32 bit. I have the latest display drivers installed but the quality of images and video is very poor now. The same images and video that looked clean and sharp with XP now look quite noticeably grainy.

Can someone suggest something I might have overlooked?

The display adapter is an ATI Radeon Mobility 2600 on a Gateway M6864FX Laptop.

Thanks for any advice...

Oh also while I'm asking, another odd display anomaly I have been noticing randomly since installing Win-7... I took a screenshot of this post to show an example... notice the 2nd line in my post on this picture below... I am getting this all the time. If I highlight the line, it fixes it. Thanks again for any insight.

[hello_hello]

Are you running the display using the same resolution as previously? LCD displays have a "native" resolution and generally they'll look "crisper" running at that resolution.

The text problem looks like it's being caused by Windows "smoothing" it, possibly in combination with not running the display at it's native resolution. I still use XP myself, but I'm sure if you hunt around in the Win7 equivalent of Display Properties, you'll find options for resolution and font smoothing. Does Microsoft still call it "cleartype"? I quite dislike it myself.
If I remember correctly, newer versions of IE also have an option for enabling cleartype. I can't remember whether it just effects the browser or the whole OS.

[perceptionist]

Thanks for the reply,

I'll check around for settings with regard to cleartype.

By the way, you wouldn't happen to be a Stern fan would you? "Hello hello" is a catch phrase from... well it's a long story if you're not a fan... I was just wondering

[hello_hello]

No, I'm not familiar with "Stern".

[fvisagie]

I think hello_hello is going the right direction with this. Turning off ClearType on my system certainly causes this kind of behaviour.

Start > Control Panel > Display > Adjust ClearType text.

If that doesn't help, also have a look at Start > right-click Computer > Properties > Advanced system settings > Performance > Settings. Memorise/screenshot the current configuration, turn on Adjust for best appearance and compare results with settings.

Cheers,
Francois

[zing269]

Microsoft rewrote the font rendering code in Windows 7. At work I have two identical PCs , one with XP and the other with 7, with identical monitors and settings and the fonts all look noticeably worse to me on the win 7 machine.

[jagabo]

Oh also while I'm asking, another odd display anomaly I have been noticing randomly since installing Win-7... I took a screenshot of this post to show an example... notice the 2nd line in my post on this picture below... I am getting this all the time. If I highlight the line, it fixes it.

That type of error is a driver bug. Update to the latest WHQL certified driver for you graphics card.