Monitor Question - new 19" flat screen

[Todd Burch]

Hello All. I hope today is finding you well.

I just purchased a new Acer 19" flat screen monitor (AL1912) to replace my old 19" CRT. Man, what a difference it makes on the desktop!!!

When pictures and graphics are displayed, they look fantastic. However, fonts suck. For instance, with the capital letter "H", sometimes the right vertical leg is fatter than the left vertical leg, and sometimes it's vice versa. (I'm using Arial).

It looks like an anti-aliasing issue. The monitor is actually a bit further away from me than before, so it's not that I'm closer to the screen.

I'm running 1024 x 768. The monitor doc suggests running at 1280 x 1024, but with Win98 and my hardware (e-machine, circa '98), I can't set it to 1280 x 1024. I briefly tested setting to 1152 x 864, and I could, but aside from being overall smaller character sizes, there really was no improvement.

Any ideas?

Thanks! Todd

[Lee DeRaud]

The thing about LCDs is that they really want to run at their "native" resolution: the ones with analog inputs will do lower resolution, but the results will be exactly what you're seeing. You should be able to upgrade your graphics board for less than $50 to handle the 1280x1024.

[Chris Gregory]

You may also want to upgrade your OS Windows XP has much better drivers for LCD screens

[Bob Tate]

Todd, try this link. ClearType is made for the flat screens. It is free, works great.

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/WhatIsClearType.mspx

[Todd Burch]

Both great suggestions guys. Thanks.

The monitor purchase is the first step in upgrading this machine (purchased in 1998) e-machine, 400mhz, 256 mb, to a current XP box in the 2.5ghz+ range machine. One step at a time...

After I posted, I started thinking about my "graphics" card. Don't have one - it's built into the motherboard. I would rather save the $50 at this point and put it towards a whole new box. I checked Acer's site for possible updated drivers, but they don't have one for Win98.

Oh well... I figured I might be stuck with this for a while. Thanks! Todd

[Jim Becker]

Are you using DVI for the hookup? The digital connection is even more impressive--both my Dell 19" LCD on my personal machine and the Benq 19" LCD I have on my work machine are hooked up digital and I love it. No more eye strain whatsoever. BTW, I used to use the third party ClearType application for clearer images on the LCD screens, but XP SP2 takes care of it natively.

[Todd Burch]

This monitor doesn't even have a DVI input... humm... I may be packing this up and taking it back... (Not that my e-machine has a DVI output, but the next machine will...)

THANKS JIM!! (Where were you yesterday when I was buying this???!)

[Tim Burke]

This monitor doesn't even have a DVI input... humm... I may be packing this up and taking it back... (Not that my e-machine has a DVI output, but the next machine will...)

THANKS JIM!! (Where were you yesterday when I was buying this???!)

My vote, return it if you can. Get a monitor with DVI. When you upgrade your pc, make sure it has a DVI output. You can use the analog input until you upgrade. DVI is noticeably clearer. I have a Dell 19" with DVI and analog. I've used both and the DVI is better.

And as mentioned, lcd's look good only at their native resolution, which in your case is 1280 x 1024. No way around this.

Tim

[Ken Garlock]

I second the recommendation to install ClearType from M/S. It does a lot to sharpen up the text characters.

Secondly, taxi that monitor back for one with a DVI interface, it makes a BIG difference to get digital data into your monitor instead of the analog, a much sharper picture/graphics.