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I have 1920x1080 LED display. If I set any lower resolution, is a bit blurry. I have the latest drivers, what to do?
John Smith
Posted 2015-07-15T09:06:47.497
Reputation: 187
Non native resolution is blurry on laptop
Answers
5
LCD monitors will only ever look nice and crisp when set to their native resolution. In your case, 1920x1080.
If things are too small to read, you're best bet is to keep the 1920x1080 resolution and adjust the screen "DPI" setting in your OS. You haven't specified what OS you're running, but assuming it's Windows:
misha256
Posted 2015-07-15T09:06:47.497
Reputation: 10 292
This is what the OP should be doing. Axel's answer is why running a non native res is bad. Displays do sometimes work well at fixed non native res - I use a lower resolution my monitor lists as supported for gaming, since my graphics card isn't powerful enough. – Journeyman Geek – 2015-07-15T10:57:14.167
@JourneymanGeek Funny you should say that, I also run some games at 800x600 or 1024x768 (on a 1920x1080 monitor) and I'm happy with that. So I just tried both those resolutions for desktop apps like Office and Visual Studio. Yuck! I can't bare it. Interesting that I don't care for games but I do for other desktop apps. – misha256 – 2015-07-15T11:07:11.490
4
If you select a non-native resolution, the driver has to calculate every pixel value from the original image where it corresponds to a fraction of a pixel. The interpolation error of up-sampling results in the blurry impression you have noticed.
The error can be reduced if you select a resolution with the same aspect ratio (width / hight) as your native resolution. Example: If the native resolution is twice the resolution of the original, it can simply be calculated by repeating every pixel horizontally and vertically.
Axel Kemper
Posted 2015-07-15T09:06:47.497
Reputation: 2 892
I see, so... there is only "1920x1080" resolution, and the others just "resampled" to it? Omg.... ok, I will look for the DPI settings – John Smith – 2015-07-15T09:48:01.610
2@JohnSmith You can't change physical number of pixels on your screen, resampling is necessary. – gronostaj – 2015-07-15T10:03:13.167
1It’s the other way around in this case: The resolution is lower, so for every physical pixel, there is less than one “image pixel”. – Daniel B – 2015-07-15T10:20:54.780
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As said before, on an lcd screen you can only choose multiples of your native resolution to avoid the blurry effect. So for your 1920*1080 screen you should lower your resolution to 960*540 which is much too low for you I guess.
Swe
Posted 2015-07-15T09:06:47.497
Reputation: 66
1+1 for pointing out the only other possible (though barely usable) resolution that would be 100% artifact-free. – misha256 – 2015-07-15T11:15:01.237
It’s not guaranteed this would result in a sharp image. I don’t know any screens that use pixel doubling to scale. – Daniel B – 2015-07-17T13:01:38.180
1What do you mean by non-native resolution? – Dave – 2015-07-15T09:10:14.890
Non native: not 1920x1080 – John Smith – 2015-07-15T09:22:22.810
2Are you saying you don't want to set the display at 1920x1080, or you can't? Because the answer to your problem is to set the display to 1920x1080. – misha256 – 2015-07-15T09:28:41.537
I dont want, because everything is soo tiny. I can set both 1920x1080 or 1024x768, or whatever, the resolution is just blurry – John Smith – 2015-07-15T09:29:57.220
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@JohnSmith Ahh I see. There really isn't a solution. The nature of LCD displays is that non-native resolutions look rubbish. Are you running Windows? You can adjust Windows to make things bigger while keeping the 1920x1080 resolution so it looks clear. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/443-dpi-display-size-settings-change.html
– misha256 – 2015-07-15T09:36:45.2033I guess the only option is to get a CRT – Chris.C – 2015-07-15T09:37:31.567
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@Chris.C Sony used to make absolutely stunning widescreen CRT monitors. If only I could find one: http://amzn.com/B00004YNSR
– misha256 – 2015-07-15T09:47:03.547What OS? There's smarter ways to do this, – Journeyman Geek – 2015-07-15T10:17:32.707
@JourneymanGeek He's on Windows 7 (inference from other posts). – misha256 – 2015-07-15T11:12:59.260
@JourneymanGeek Please share the smarter ways (I mean that sincerely), could be really useful at my work if they work well. – misha256 – 2015-07-15T11:18:50.033
Well, your answer covers the main thing I was thinking of – Journeyman Geek – 2015-07-15T11:21:42.630