Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with display

How to drive 12 interactives with one machine?

MrBobaFett — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:51:52 -0800

What do I use to drive a multi head (12 displays) interactive display wall? I want to use one machine to run 12 discrete slide shows. Each show is only 2 slides. Mac/PC? Software? The details. Looking to have 12 displays running. Currently looking at the ELO 1537L ACCUTOUCH with VGA in and USB out for the touch screen.

My boss is drawn to using a MacMini for it's very small form factor since it will be installed in the display wall as well. It looks like I can use an EVGA USB VGA Adapter to drive the video for the displays. This solution would probably also work if we switched to a Shuttle PC.

The big question I think is what software will let me run 12 discrete full screen interactive? The interactive is very simple, each display has a default image it displays constantly, until someone touches the touch screen, then it flips to a second slide with info on the graphic. After an amount of time flips back.

Is there something that will let me do that with one machine? I'm pretty sure PowerPoint would be fine if I used 12 different machines.

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?

Without Maru the cat, I am nothing.

chez shoes — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:09:41 -0800

How to display Japanese text in Win7? Just upgraded my netbook to Win7 Professional. Then discovered this version of Win7 does not support language packs anymore. I only need to display Japanese language in a browser, not for local pps.

Does anyone know of a workaround? I've tried monkeying with the character encoding in FF, with no luck.

Would be fine using a different browser if that would work - I'm not familiar enough with Chrome etc to know what my options are.

How much is that [blank] in the window?

ericc — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:32:24 -0800

In this photo of the Microsoft store in Mission Viejo, there are two islands of product immediately as you enter the store. On the left is various versions of Windows 7. What is the product on the island on the right? Bonus for anyone who can identify what product might be on the other three sides of the display.

Stubborn MBP Display Problems

one_bean — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:42:23 -0800

I bring my MacBook Pro to school, and hook it up to an external monitor (with higher resolution) in clamshell mode. I come home and use it as a laptop. Often when I switch from clamshell to laptop, the desktop still thinks it's in the higher resolution, and all my icons are off the screen. Logging out fixes it. Is there an quicker way to fix this? This is a new problem in Snow Leopard.

How build a gaming pc that doesn't use much power when doing office work?

Pres — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:40:53 -0800

I want to build a pc with a powerful display adaptor for gaming, but that doesn't waste energy when I'm just doing office work. Any suggestions on how to do this? (multiple adaptors? software?)

This is not the universe telling me that I need new glasses.

honeybee413 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:16:14 -0800

My Macbook Pro display keeps randomly resizing to different resolutions. It started suddenly, about a month ago. What happened? Can I make it stop? I got a new MBP in April 2009. Everything else is running fine, but every few links clicked or pages loaded in Firefox, the display seems to change resolution. It zooms in a little, gets blurry, and will either resize to a bigger font size, or go back to where it was. Regarding the former, it is always fixable with the CMD + or -.

A little while ago, the resolution of the whole screen randomly changed - no provocation on my part, near as I could tell - and the whole screen resolution got HUGE! Things weren't fitting on the screen. I tried to change it through display settings in System Preferences, and even setting the display back to 1440x900 didn't help. I then decided to restart, whereupon my resolution shrank back to "normal," and all was right with the world.

What happened? Is there something wrong with my MBP? Have other people experienced similar problems? Is there a way to make this naughty behavior stop?

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.

I really WANT to love it...

StrikeTheViol — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:00:03 -0800

Macbook Pro display woes from a recent switcher: hardware or software? Will I be happy with Boot Camp? I'm starting to feel afraid... I bought my first Mac and find the display giving me terrible eyestrain out of the box, and unusual blurriness at any other resolution. I found some evidence my trouble is an artifact of the way OSX handles fonts, and so was resigned to waiting for my educational copy of Windows and then using Boot Camp. However, I read recently that some people run into similar problems using Windows on a Mac, pointing to a driver problem. How can I test if something is defective? Will my issues go away if I switch the OS? The universal access options all function like awkward kludges. Is there anything else I can do to get this display usable for me? (I'm willing to consider almost anything at this point

Display Affinity Software for MacOSX?

tomierna — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 10:50:04 -0800

Is there a piece of Mac OS X software which will let me divide a very wide screen up into several virtual displays so window/app affinity hacks like spaces will work? I recently purchased two 24" HD displays, and I'm running them both from my Mac Book Pro via a Matrox Triple Head 2 Go, Digital version (Dual-link DVI)

I love having all of this real-estate - it's truly wonderful for programming.

The problem is that the Triple Head 2 Go makes both monitors present as one huge, wide display to the OS.

This means whenever any centered alerts pop up, they are right in the middle of this giant screen, and split by the bezels.

OK, so it's not the worst thing in the world, I just need to move the window to make it legible.

But, I was wondering if there's any third-party or shareware software out there that will allow me to tune the screen location affinity of apps or windows or alerts.

The real solution to this, I know, is to have a desktop machine with multiple display cards, but that's not happening at the moment.

display order of descriptions in custom Google Maps

kalapierson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:19:13 -0800

In a custom Google map, the points you define are listed in forward chronological order and can't be re-ordered. Any way to change this (for all visitors, not just for your own viewing) to reverse chronological order? By this I mean your description of the first point you add is listed first within the left sidebar; your description of the second point you add is listed just beneath that first description; etc.

I'm making a custom worldwide map of events that have been happening over the last 15 years (there are 120+ events so far) and will keep happening at an increasing rate.

Ideally I want my most recent entries to display first in the sidebar. Most importantly, I don't want my earliest entries in real chronological history to display first in the sidebar (because the earliest entries are the least interesting and therefore the last thing I want to feature prominently for people who view the map).

There's no really good approach here, if I know I don't want my chronologically-earliest entries displayed first. If I start now in reverse chronological order (first adding 2009 events to my map, then working backwards, ending with early-90s events), then in the future, adding the 2010-and-beyond events will just leave those sitting at the bottom of a long list.

Ideas? Workarounds? Tricks (that will work for all users across browsers and OSes) to force the sidebar display into reverse chronological order? I don't want to hide the sidebar altogether, since there are a couple notes in my description I want people to see.

Cinema Display problem(?)

sueinnyc — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:33:46 -0800

Is the problem my Cinema Display and if so do I have any hope of fixing it? I have a G5 Mac (circa 2004) and a 22" Cinema Display (circa 2001). Unimpressively old, I know.

Yesterday I had a problem with the mouse freezing and ended up rebooting the G5. Today, when I tried to start up, the Leopard login screen came up but the mouse was frozen. I did a hard restart by holding down the power key on the G5 (nothing else was having any effect). I did the same thing again, and now the monitor light is on but the display is black. The G5 will make all of the right sounds, but nothing happens on screen.

I tried disconnecting the power altogether, but each time I reconnect it the monitor light comes right back on and nothing else happens.

I found a site saying to start up while holding down Option-Command-P-R. I tried that, but with no luck.

Does this sound like a problem with the Cinema Display? If so (or even if not), is there anything that I can do?

I'd love to use this as an excuse to buy a new Mac and a new display, but I really ought to be more responsible than that at the moment....

Replacing my dead MBP's display.

althanis — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:35:38 -0800

Dead Macbook Pro display. Apple resellers charging $1,000. Any recommendations on somewhere else to purchase from? My Macbook Pro display died on me and I don't have it under warranty. I'm in Trinidad and the local Apple place is charging me close to USD$1,000 to replace it.

I read a couple forums and people have recommended iResQ (who charge $379 + shipping) and dttservice ($450 + shipping).

Does anyone have any previous experience with either of these 2 or can recommend anyone else?

Why is my laptop display tiled?

tdismukes — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:55:10 -0800

Why is my laptop display tiled and how can I fix it? When I booted up my laptop this morning, the entire display (including during POST) was tiled on the screen 4 times, with a broad black vertical line in-between the right and left sides of the screen. (Actually I can see the very top portion of two more tiles at the very bottom of the screen, so maybe I should say 6 tiles.)

I've rebooted a couple of times, and the problem remains. I would search around in my control panel for some sort of display setting which might cause this, but the tiling makes the fonts so small as to be just about completely illegible. If I knew exactly where to find the setting, I might be able to navigate to it, but there's no way I can just browse around to find it.

I've googled and found a couple of other people on tech forums with the exact same problem, but neither of them had found any answers yet.

My laptop is a Compaq Presario V6444US running Windows XP with all the latest updates.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Fixing multiple monitors position changing after waking from Sleep in Vista?

wastelands — Thu, 07 May 2009 07:56:05 -0800

Annoying Vista bug: monitor positions change after waking from Sleep mode. How can I fix it? I have an external monitor plugged into my laptop via the VGA port. I use both screens (laptop + monitor), with the external on the left, and have the "Drag icons to match your monitors" in Display Settings to match and "Extend the desktop onto this monitor". Works great.

Yet whenever I wake from Sleep, I have to rearrange the monitors in Display Settings. Every single time. It's so annoying. Some googling led to this post:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/97955-multiple-monitors-change-position-after-sleep.html

But I do not have such a task in my Task Scheduler.

I'm running Vista SP1 with all Windows Updates installed. NVIDIA 9600m GT video card with latest drivers installed.

Frame Skipping Mac

thefamousmoe — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:43:48 -0800

Why is the video skipping on my Mac when hooked up to seconday display? I have a Mac with 2 gigs ram and 2ghz intel processor. When I play a video on it it works fine. But when I plug my tv to it through, hdmi -> minidvi, and audio cable to the tv. It runs fine for like 10 minutes then starts skipping really bad. If i unplug and plug the hdmi, or even audio cable back in then it works again for another 10 minutes. I dont understand, anyone have any ideas? Oh and when it skips in VLC player it gives me this message.

ffmpeg: more than 5 seconds of late video -> dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

Online Photography Display System

netbros — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:06:41 -0800

I'm planning to post photographs to my own website as a travelogue. I'm looking for an eye-catching interface that is easy to use and maintain. What would you recommend? I'm not interested in one of the photo sharing sites like Flickr. This will be on my own site. I've seen many of the Flash interfaces and photo-a-day blog types. Some seem to work fairly well, but others just aren't very viewer-friendly. Free obviously is best, but I don't mind spending something to get a nice, pleasant looking product. I am somewhat computer savvy, so I can probably deal with setup and configuration. In your experience, or from what you have observed, what is best? Thanks for your help.

Can't switch between XBox and Computer on my LCD Monitor

ODiV — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:33:06 -0800

How can I switch between my XBox 360 and my Computer on my LG 22" widescreen monitor? I have a 3rd party VGA adapter for my XBox. It only works with the LCD monitor (Model L226wtx-bf) if there is no signal on the DVI from the computer.

I can run another computer into the VGA input and switch between both computers just fine using the Source button. If I try to do the same thing with the XBox, It will not switch to Analog. I get a black screen for a second or two and then it goes back to the DVI.

If I have the XBox running and displaying on the LCD, I can boot up the computer and the VGA continues to work until I switch over to DVI. Then I can't get back to the XBox.

It's not just Apple's logo that used to be in color

adamrice — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:07:49 -0800

My wife has a shiny new unibody Macbook. We have observed a bizarre display bug. The bug is intermittent and temporary. What happens is that the contents (or some of the contents) of the front window will appear in grayscale. Resizing or scrolling the window, or clicking on an element in the window, will usually make it go away. This happens in all kinds of apps: the Finder, Safari, InDesign, etc. It happens on an external screen and the laptop's own screen (with or without the external hooked up). Here's a picture of the bug affecting the Finder.

She does have an appointment at the Genius Bar, but sometimes those Geniuses aren't so smart. She has tried zapping the PRAM, to no avail.

PB G4 17in Display: Am I really screwed, or just kinda screwed?

fontophilic — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:45:57 -0800

My PowerBook G4 17in, with the dreaded W85 serial number is displaying (or rather not) a white 1.25in vertical block down the left side. Turned on my PowerBook G4 this morning, checked email, closed the lid and then went out for the rest of the day. Came back, opened it up and I've got this 1.25 inch dead while line down the left side of my screen. Doing a screen capture of this area reveals what should be there, and problem persists after restarting, leaving me to conclude hardware problem. It's about 4 years old, even extended apple care is long gone. It could be much worse, as this laptop is currently my livelihood, and I have access to an external monitor.

Doing some research I found that there is a known problem with serials that start with W85 for this model. Allegedly due to shoddy assembly in China. Apple censors it at every turn.

However, this is my question. These cases tend to look like a few lines, scattered around, but mine [1, 2] is a solid white vertical block Is there any chance that when I got my new hard drive installed at best buy a month ago, they pulled a monitor pin out or something along those lines?

Wishful thinking, or am I going to say good by to $300?

(the old hard drive was working fine, just too small)

Hotplugging an external monitor? - xubuntu/aspire one

knapah — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:00:15 -0800

How do I make my external monitor hot-pluggable in xubuntu installed on an Acer Aspire One? I recently got rid of Linpus on my netbook and have so far only had one complaint. My external monitor doesn't work terribly well with it.

If I have the external plugged into the VGA port throughout bootup I can use it to some extent, but when I try to change the resolution through the GUI (Apps>>Settings>>Settings Manager>>Display) it tends to crash xfce.

I've had some success using xrandr to get the external working more or less as I would like it, but then I can't get the laptop screen working again without unplugging the external and rebooting.

Can someone with better knowledge of linux and xubuntu help me out? The level of my knowledge is incredibly slim, so if in doubt, over-explanation is best.

I'd like a yahoo pipe badge to display properly

Baud — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:09:59 -0800

I'd like a yahoo pipe badge to display properly (and vertically) in Internet Explorer Firefox not being (yet) the most-used browser in the world, I recently discovered how painful it is to display properly a yahoo pipe badge.

this page displays something very flat that needs to be scrolled.

How can I display it on the full height of the page ?

Thanks in advance !

Fixing the display on a G4 iBook

penguinliz — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:27:00 -0800

The display on my iBook G4 is dying. Have I diagnosed the problem correctly, and is it worth trying to fix? The display on my 3 year old G4 iBook is starting to go. The backlight turns off when the screen is at certain angles, sometimes opening and closing the screen a few times will fix it but it is slowly getting worse. Googling suggests this is a problem with the inverter cable slowly breaking as it gets trapped in the screen hinges - does that sound right?

Google also suggests I can change the inverter cable myself, but it is incredibly fiddly. Has anyone got any first-hand experience with this? Is the worst-case scenario that I don't fix the screen, or could I easily break things further while trying to change the inverter cable? I am reasonably competent with desktop PCs, but I've never tried fiddling with the insides of my laptop, and if there's a good chance I'll break the whole machine I will leave it alone and keep it for use with an external monitor.

What to do with these paper cranes?

Becko — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:10:03 -0800

What to do with all these paper cranes? For my wedding last July I made 1,000 origami paper cranes. A lot of them people took home with them, but a lot of them are sitting in a huge bag in my apartment.

I made some of them into Christmas ornaments, but that only took up like 15 of them.

I'd love to come up with a creative way to display them. Any cool ideas? Our wedding colors were red and light blue, but the cranes are all different patterns containing blues and reds. So there's a lot of variety to work from.

what are these thingdoos called that hung my posters as a kid?

jessamyn — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:58:47 -0800

Can I buy something to display my postcards on a wall that is simple and cheap? Looking for a low end version of this sort of thing that I can get in the US. When I was a kid, I hung my Leif Garrett posters on my walls with these rigid pieces of plastic. One slid over the top of the poster and had a little piece of string in it and one went on the bottom and just added weight. They were super cheap. I want them now.

I get a lot of postcards in the mail and I'm running out of space to put them and I'd like to look at them while I work. I'd love to have an upside-down version of the poster hanging thing that was attached to the wall that I could just slide postcards into, in a long line. Preferably transparent plastic. I envision it looking like this only with like 50 postcards over a few rows. So maybe sixteen or twenty linear feet.

Things I am not looking for: postcard/photo clips (too grippy, too inflexible, too spendy), postcard/photo sleeves (too tough to remove/move cards), frames or hangers (too spendy in bulk), "poster rails" (as I have seen them, too expensive, this is the closest I've found), tacky wall stickum stuff (too gloppy, I'm looking for linear). I read this thread but that's not quite right either.

If I can't buy these things, I'm open to other suggestions that don't involve wall-stickum or thumbtacks. Thanks!