Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Monitor

Surrounded by darkness...

ricochet biscuit — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:45:08 -0800

I have an Omnitech OM22WD monitor and I want to change the display. It is currently showing me a 4x3 aspect ratio (i.e. it is a wide screen and I am currently seeing two black bars bracketing the image) and I want to switch it back to full screen. I have misplaced the documentation. Any suggestions?

Help me watch The Neverending Story on the bigscreen.

MithrilMongoose — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:57:33 -0800

FAQ about VGA to RCA. I want to use my TV as a monitor for my laptop. My laptop has a VGA output and I already have an RCA to analog widget.

So I've seen adapters that go VGA to RCA, and I've also seen converters, although I don't know what the difference is. I've also heard that to do what I want, the laptop has to be able to support a "TV out option" but I'm unclear on what that is. I've also read that your video card matters in this equation.

My question is: how do I get from my laptop's VGA output to an RCA input or, alternatively, what more information do I need in order to answer that question?

Thank yous guys.

Dual monitor weirdness?

k8t — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:24:35 -0800

Dual monitors with a DVI splitter in XP but they're acting screwy. For a friend. He has 2 monitors and wants to use them both. His graphics card has both a VGA and a DVI port. He can't use them both at once - trust me, we tried. He bought a DVI splitter and it works, but here's the problem:

When the main monitor is on and the second one is on, both work fine. But when the main monitor is on and the second one is connected, but not on at the screen switch, the main monitor has wavering streaks. When the main monitor is on and the second one is connected, but the electrical plug is taken out of the monitor, the main monitor works fine.

Any ideas? I told him to play around with the refresh rate, but this sounds like a power issue to me.

Maybe he needs to tell Windows not to extend his monitor before turning off the 2nd monitor?

Thanks! I hope that this works versus buying a second graphics card. (And yes, I already suggested that a new computer would make things easier...)

One of our monitors has failed

ArmyOfKittens — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:52:44 -0800

One of our monitors has failed. This is a follow-up to this question. I didn't get it repaired at the time and simply replaced it. I stored the monitor in a cold, dry room.

Yesterday I wondered if it would work again, so I brought it back into the living room and connected it up with all its original cables. And it worked for the whole night. But come this morning and it's broken again; the light on the power brick goes out as soon as it's connected to the monitor.

Given this, is the answer offered in the previous question still the most likely cause of failure? I wondered (in my non-techie way) if it might be to do with heat, since the screen itself has no vents and gets quite warm in operation; and of course, since spending months in a cold environment seemed temporarily to fix it.

Computer monitor as TV, and vice-versa?

st starseed — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:55:56 -0800

Computer monitor as TV, and vice-versa? My wife and I are now in the market for a new computer monitor that works quite nicely as a television. The idea is to put it in the den/man cave/playroom and utilize it as:

1. The full-time computer monitor for internet browsing, document creation, photo editing, video editing, and motion graphics...

and

2. A video display so we can sit about 6-8 feet back and watch movies or television.

1080p, 1920x1080, and an HDMI input (to run from the video card to the display) are my requirements; I'm not locked into any particular size, although I certainly don't want to go so big that I can't sit a few feet away and do some writing or webbrowsing.

Other notes: We already have a nice 42" LCD in the living room...Please don't mention the projector idea...I am not loyal to any particular brand, but I'd rather spend a few more dollars to get something better than try to hoard a few dollars and get something lame...the budget in my head is anywhere from $200-$400.

Has anyone had any luck finding something that works well for them?

Cleaning marker pen off LCD screen

WhackyparseThis — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:33:28 -0800

Has anyone had success in removing permanent marker from an LCD monitor? My 2 year old got hold of a purple Vivid marker, and drew on the computer screen. I usually wipe the screen with a dry microfiber cloth, but it's not working on the dried marker.

monitor-splitting software?

gttommy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:24:28 -0800

What's a good monitor-splitting software for finance people who have wide screen monitors? Ideally to allow a computer to almost appear like two separate computers, for windows XP. From what I read, window's "tile vertically" feature is good enough but just wondering what software is out there which adds value without bugs or headaches.

I'm looking for a website that can help me track/graph the movement of "defense forces" around the world.

parkbench — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:23:17 -0800

I'm looking for a website that can help me track/graph the movement of "defense forces" around the world. Basically, I've been thinking/reading a lot about Lebanon lately, and as a sort of experiment in this sense, I want to see if there would be any way that I could check every few days on the UNIFIL dispatches there.

I mean, is this sort of thing public in any way? Are there creepy military-buff websites that do this sort of thing? Even if it's not too fancy--brief, one-sentence descriptions, even--it would help a lot. Of course, monitoring troop movements outside of Lebanon would be welcome as well.

Thanks!

Big monitor, big monitor, talk about eyestrain, my girl's got 'er

Madamina — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:17:34 -0800

We're a Mac office, and we rotate the computers around when we get new ones. So imagine my delight when I got my weird 15" G4 monitor magically replaced with my boss' 24" iMac! w00t!... except that the giant size really spaces me out. Help! I've seen this question, but I don't think that's the same thing.

The computer is in the corner of my L-shaped desk. I did place it farther back on the desk (it's maybe 18" away now), and that helps, but I still seem to be squinting at it. Which is weird, because it's perfectly clear and I have no problems with high resolutions. I think I just don't really know what to focus on.

I'm mildly nearsighted but still need to wear glasses; with glasses, I'm pretty acute.

I do enjoy having the space to keep multiple windows open. For reference, when I work I typically have maybe two or three Word or Excel windows open with an expanded Firefox window on the side and other stuff minimized or in the background.

Adding to all this is the fact that I have absolutely awful desk posture, and sometimes I end up slumping reeeeeeally far down. I've found myself doing this a lot since I've gotten the new monitor, for whatever reason.

So. What kinds of things should I be doing with this thing? Lower the brightness? Lower the resolution just for kicks? Move it back so it's a full yard from my head? Sit fully upright at all times at the highest level of my chair's extension? Get tinted glasses (are they expensive? do I leave them at work?) Any and all ideas, however wacky, are welcome.

Thanks!

Moving to the big screen.

venividivici — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:28:37 -0800

Need help connecting my Dell netbook to an external monitor. A friend has just given me her old 22" monitor (Acer, X223HQ) and I'd like to hook it up to my netbook to watch movies, play games, etc. I have a Dell Inspiron 1010, but unfortunately it's the model that doesn't have a VGA port. How can I go about connecting the monitor via USB or HDMI?

Google is giving me loads of conflicting reports, and the recommended options seem really expensive. Is there a way to do this cheaply? For example, would this work? Sorry if this is a dumb question; I'm not very tech-savvy and a lot of the lingo I'm reading is way over my head.

Calling the heart line

littlerobothead — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:02:47 -0800

Acoustic modem + cell phone. Can it be done? More inside... We just left the NICU with our new daughter (YAY!) but they've given us a heart monitor we might have to use that communicates with the hospital via an old school acoustic modem not wholly unlike this one (erm...wot?). We have a house full of iPhones, but no land line. Will we need to get one for this gadget (which I will gleefully do without a moment's hesitation) or is there a way to make it work with our iPhones? Thanks!

Looking for metal legs for monitor stand.

Atarah — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:49:11 -0800

Can I make or buy a version of these metal desk legs? I've made myself a monitor shelf out of an IKEA Shelf and these legs. However, it's a bit too high for my liking. The legs should be around 3" instead of 4".

I've been looking for something like the IKEA Slinga brackets, except without the extra edge sticking out. Have you seen or heard of something that matches that description? About 5-6" long and about 3" high. Preferably in stainless steel. I'd rather purchase it somewhere, but I can build it if it's not terribly difficult and doesn't require expensive tools. It's for a work desk, so it needs to look "nice".

Can you help me with my search? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Stress Detector

philosophistry — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:32:48 -0800

Is there a device that can automatically observe your stress levels in real-time? A research scientist mentioned she knew of another research scientist who had a device like this. As she said, "It reminds [me] of a researcher who has a sensor on her computer, which can tell if you're stressed as you're typing away at work." When I followed up with more questions, she couldn't recall details.

I also vaguely remember this being possible. Maybe through a webcam that can tell your facial expressions. Anybody have any leads?

As a half-measure, I bought a heart rate monitor which is effective at telling you when your blood is boiling. While you may not need a monitor to tell you this, I believe in the saying, "if you can measure it, you can control it."

Monitor Cliff Scalers

tellurian — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:59:53 -0800

In the book I'm currently reading, City of Djinns, is this intriguing passage:

"Centuries earlier, one class of Marathars had perfected a technique for scaling the cilff faces that had protected the hill forts of Central India: they trained giant monitor lizards – which in the Deccan grow to over five feet long – to climb up sheer rock faces; and so firm and fast was the lizards' grip on the cliff's cracks and crevices, that the Maratha assault troops were able to tie ropes around the reptiles' bodies and clamber up behind them."

I know that the gap between myth and reality in Indian reality/history/mythology is often slim, so I ask, does anyone have some concrete (or similar) instances/or the likelihood of this story being real?

Using PC Monitor for Console Games?

flatluigi — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:39 -0800

How can I play console games through my computer monitor? I have a shabby old television that I use to play my Wii on. It occurred to me the other day that I have a much better monitor that I use for PC gaming and it would be pretty nice if I could set it up to play on that.

What do I need to get to do that? I'm aware of some hardware I can buy to play through my PC for recording purposes (such as a GameBridge), but that's unnecessary for what I need and I'd like to know of cheaper alternatives.

Thinkpad refuses to obey my wishes for higher resolution!

midatlanticwanderer — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:52:42 -0800

My new-ish laptop running Vista keeps resetting to 800 x 600 resolution on restarts (from crashing) and restarts from intentional shutdowns. How do I prevent this from happening in the future? Among other woes with Vista on my relatively new Lenovo Thinkpad T400 (purchased from the Lenovo outlet three months ago), it seems to crash frequently. When restarting from those crashes, it often resets to an 800 x 600 resolution from its default resolution of 1280 x 800. Also, when I intentionally shut down the computer, it will sometimes then start up in the 800 x 600 resolution.

I have seen some mention of this issue elsewhere (namely, here and here). The second link recommends setting the monitor to be the primary monitor and have it extended across the desktop, which I have already done. Otherwise, some of the solutions don't seem to apply (i.e. my "base video" item is unchecked on the boot tab of MSConfig).

The monitor on the laptop is a Thinkpad MaxBright Display 1280 x 800 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series.

Any wisdom from the generally-more-informed hive mind would be much appreciated!

Select a TV for our conference room

namith — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:04:16 -0800

Help me select a TV (to be used as a computer monitor) for our conference room. We've got a small conference room at the office. I'm considering buying a used LCD (or plasma?) TV to use as a computer monitor for meetings. I need a little guidance in choosing the right specs. Size: We don't have too much wall space, so I'm thinking a 36" class would work. We will be sitting no more than 6 to 8 feet from the screen.

Input: The TV will likely hook up to an older 2GHz Intel MacBook. I assume most TV made within the past 3 or 4 years have standard inputs for computers (VGA and/or DVI). Should I be looking for something specific in terms of inputs?

Resolution: My biggest unknown is using the TV as a computer monitor. We are generally going to be looking at web stuff using a browser. I obviously want clear text and images. I don't know anything about how TV resolution compares to computer resolution. Most of the websites we'll be visiting are designed to be about 950 pixels wide, I guess to fit properly in 1024px monitor resolutions. For the TV, I want the browser window to roughly fit the screen -- not a very small window and likewise nothing that requires horizontal scrolling. So I guess the questions is, what resolution should I be looking for in selecting a model?

Refresh rate: I assume this is not too important in my case. I understand refresh rate to be important for sports (i.e. rapid changing graphics). We won't be doing any gaming in the conference room.

Type: Plasma vs. LCD?

Brand: Once I figure out what I need, I'll be scouring Craiglist for something that fits the specs you recommend. I know there are 'throw away' brands such as Vizio and Polaroid. In visiting people's homes, I see Sony Bravia and Samsung. Any input on brands would be helpful as well. Honestly I don't expect to use this for a 'lifetime.' I'm just trying to get a few years of reliable service. Keep in mind, that it won't get the usage that a typical TV gets. Maybe a few hours a week at most.

Anything else?

Thanks for your input and guidance. Any details that can help me make a decision are much appreciated.

If it hurts, don't do it?

pwnguin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:01:17 -0800

Why does my background torture LCD screens? I made a (IMO) awesome fractal background in GIMP. I'm discovering though that it's rather killer on LCD screens. Supposedly LCD doesn't suffer burn-in, but that's basically what I'm facing.

Only some parts of the image seem to provoke "image persistence" or whatever people want to call this. Interestingly, only the dark regions seem to trigger memory, but not all dark regions. The dark areas on the screen border left or right don't trigger it.

For a long time I thought it was some weird magnetic field line effect, before I realized my background does have similar form. Are there ways to tweak the image to reduce this?

Mac and eystrain

lsemel — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:21:17 -0800

I've been wanting to switch to a Mac for around a year, but my vision isn't perfect and Macs seem to be designed for designers with 20/20 vision. First I tried a Macbook Pro 15" and everything was too tiny for me (I asked a question about this on this site previously, but couldn't find any good way to enlarge everything, unlike on Windows which is full of options for this). Then I got a Mac desktop and hooked it to my old monitor, which was nice and big (19" 1280x1024) but now the text is big but so fuzzy it immediately gives me a headache and eyestrain looking at it. When I switch to Windows in VMWare this feeling immediately goes away. I am already using DVI, have calibrated the monitor, adjusted the brightness, tried all levels of font smoothing, checked the resolution, toyed with the contrast settings in universal access, and tried every other adjustment I could think of.

So, what's the best super-sharp, high-contrast LCD monitor for a Mac that doesn't make everything look tiny? (Apple's 30" and 23" displays are too high-res for me) Or is there some other solution I've overlooked?

I have around 10 days before I have to return it, and if I don't find a way to use it comfortably, I'll just have to face that the Mac is just not for me and go back to Windows for the foreseeable future.

Monitoring Exchange Performance without admin access

Coolcan2 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:51:38 -0800

How do I monitor ms exchange 2003 performance without admin access? Hi Guys,

I'm trying to log exchange performance on our hosted service. A number of guys around the office experience drop outs, and long outbox queues.

I was wondering to what extent I am able to monitor exchange performance from a lowly user account.

Bonus points if you can recomend a way to do this in *nix. :)

Thanks.

Which monitor is for me?

timshel — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:51:38 -0800

Best affordable external monitor for HD video editing? I would like an external monitor to extend my desktop real estate and, on occasion, serve as a television/output monitor for HD video editing playback, color correction etc. It will presently be used with a Macbook Pro (DVI) and eventually become the second monitor to a iMac (DisplayPort.) I'd like to spend £500 or less. Is this doable?

A friend recommended this, though it's a bit beyond my price range:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Monitors/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=223-9379

Thank you!

My monitor won't turn on

bingwah — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:10:14 -0800

Is my Dell monitor dead? CPU boots up but the monitor is black and on/off switch is not lighting up. My computer and monitor are about 3 years old. I have no idea what the model # of the monitor is. All I know is it's a Dell 15' flatscreen that I bought with the computer. Everything worked fine last night. I shut down and turned the monitor off. This morning when I turned the computer on the monitor remained black. Usually once I boot up the on/off switch on the monitor turns orange and then I'll turn it on and it will turn green. Today there is no light at all on the on/off switch. The computer seems to be booting up fine.

So is my monitor dead or is there a deeper issue with my video card? I don't have a 2nd monitor to test this with although I'm about to go buy one and test it.

Apparently Daewoo makes TVs. Where can I find parts for one?

twins named Lugubrious and Salubrious — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:45:24 -0800

Where can I get a display stand for a Daewoo DP-42SM plasma monitor? Asking for someone else:

I'm looking for either a service center or a place where I can order a display stand (not wall-mount) for a Daewoo SP-42SM plasma monitor. Can anyone offer any advice? Their service centers don't seem to be that well represented online in the US.

Thanks in advance.

Windows 2000 max resolution issue

kraigory — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:12:27 -0800

I'm working on a windows 2000 pro machine that is running at 800 x 600 resolution. The monitor supports 1024x768, but in display settings, the resolution slider is all the way. It seems that 800 x 600 is the max resolution. Is there any way I can increase this?

Ship or sell my computer from Japan?

greasepig — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:27:00 -0800

Is it worth it to ship 2-3 year-old computer components from Japan? In a couple of months, I'll be moving back to San Francisco from Japan. Here I've bought a computer, printer, and monitor (and accessories) that I've been using for the past few years. The printer is a three-year-old heavy and fragile HP copy-scan thing. The monitor is a two year-old but really nice 23 inch LG, and the CPU was used when I bought it a year ago but heavy desktop. Audio is very heavy but sounds great Creative set. I am wondering if it is worth it to try to pack and ship these things back home, or just sell them for cheap and get new versions when I get back to the states. Since I don't have any of the original boxes, packaging would be less than optimal, so I think there would be a chance for damage, especially if I choose the cheapest, slowest freight. Or would it be possible to pack this stuff in luggage? If anyone has a similar experience of shipping similar old items across the ocean like this, I'd be most appreciative of hearing your opinions.