stan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I'm contemplating purchasing an LCD flat panel disply for use on the new
> Debain woody workstation I am building for my wife.
>
> Having never used one of these before, and since they are failry expensive,
> I thought I would ask some advice of this list.
>
> We do a lot of work in console mode, in addition to some work in X. Will
> I be able to use all of the framebuffer functiosn on this disply? I
> presently use xawtv in the console mode, fbi to display graphics, and have
> a custom resolutinon set up for the console sessiosn. Will all of these
> work with the LCD flat panel?
>
> I would also be interesetd in hearing peoples experiences, both positive,
> and negative, regarding use of these uints with Linux.
I have a 20" flat-panel display at work. Although I just received it
about a week ago I think I can give you some insight. I'm no expert,
so take the following as my perception of things, not gospel. Also, I
run X almost exclusively so I can't speak to the FB issue.
Flat panels, in general, have a certain number of pixels and their
display is optimal for that number of pixels. If you're running the
thing digitally and you want to run at a resolution less than the
monitors optimal setting you'll just get a portion of the screen. For
example, the 20" I have runs 1600x1200. If I'm running it via DVI
connection (digital) at 1280x1024 I'll have something that looks like:
---------------------
| | |
| | |
| Image | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
|-------------- |
| |
| Blank |
---------------------
For analog you can run at any resolution up to and including the
optimal setting for the monitor, and it'll fill the screen, but you're
taking a double whammy. First running analog your image isn't nearly
as sharp as running digital. It's not horrible, IMO, but it's
noticeably worse than running the same thing in digital mode. Second,
if you're running at less than the optimal resolution, on my Dell
FP2000, the monitor will "stretch" the image to take up the entire
screen. It interpolates to increase the image size. Again, this adds a
certain amount of "fuzziness" to the image (especially noticeable when
viewing text). So you've got fuzziness from running analog and you've
got fuzziness for running at less than the optimal resolution.
Although I almost always run in X windows, I did exit out of it once
and noticed that it was still running in console mode at the same
resolution I was running in X (1600x1200) and so I know you can run
the things at extended resolutions in console mode.
Again, take the above as anectodal, since I only have limited
experience, and then with only this single panel.
Gary
