Cannot Full-screen Video on my Dell 2405FPW

[lbeachmike]

Okay - this is a strange one folks ....

I have a dual monitor setup -

Monitor 1 - Samsung SyncMaster 915N - 19"
Monitor 2 - Dell 2405FPW - 24"

They are both running off my ATI Radeon 9550 AGP card, the Samsung off the VGA port and the Dell off the DVI.

Everything works perfect, except for one thing!

If I try to view full-screen video on the Dell, Windows Media Player will crash. Other media players will go blank.

However, I can full-screen any video on the first monitor with no problems. I've tried this with the monitor settings set as being continuous, or duplicate.

Am I missing a particular setting somewhere in ATI Catalyst? Is this video-card or driver-related? Anybody ever hear of this issue before?

Thanks for any help or guidance.

Mike

[apocalypse]

What is the resolution of each monitor set at?
What is the maximum resolution that each monitor can display?

It could be that the program's maximum resolution is 1024x768, but the monitor's resolution is 1280x1024, therefore even when the program is "maximized" it stays windowed.

[lbeachmike]

It doesn't stay windowed - it crashes, or displays nothing at all.

I'm not coming close to max resolution on either with my current settings -

The Dell 24" is currently at 1152x864 (because my primary use is display of text)

Any other ideas?

[Peter M]

Run the monitor at its native resolution, and adjust Windows display properties to the correct dpi value. Then your text font sizes will be correct again.

Video replay should be working on either monitor. Check driver installation, and ATI control panel settings.

[lbeachmike]

I suspected you'd suggest running at native resolutions - however, at native resolution, text is way too small for my tired eyes. The Dell monitor is very resilient to various display modes and does an excellent job over a variety of resolutions. But why would I be unable to full-screen at a lower resolution than the native? In particular, I can full-screen via VideoLAN, but Media Player crashes every time with "an unknown error" (gotta love those crackerjack Microsoft programmers!)

I will try to switch resolution and see if I still get the crash on Media Player. That should at least answer one question. Incidentally, driver installation is good and current.

mrk

[Peter M]

Did you listen? Tell Windows the physical size of your display, and text font sizes will adjust. There are few things sillier than running an LCD screen at a non-native resolution. The interpolation and stretching will always look awful compared to native resolution.

Done right, you don't get smaller text. From a higher resolution display, you get exactly the same physical font size, just formed from more pixels.

[sm8000]

lbeachmike, like what Peter's saying, I say go to 1920x1200, then you can choose higher DPI or else large or extra large fonts, or a combination of those, and even enable ClearType if you've got Windows XP.

[lbeachmike]

Aha! <Visualize lightbulb going off above mindless LBeachMike's head!> ....

Okay - it's all just clicked - and so I've basically set things up as quite a mess not using the approach explained above. I actually did previously try this, but I ran into issues with the inability to set things so that both displays were happy (since they are different aspect ratio, different native resolution, etc.) - but the most recent ATI drivers seem to have resolved this issue. I will soon find out - I'll give it a go and report back.

However, as far as this comment goes -

There are few things sillier than running an LCD screen at a non-native resolution.

I can think of some ....

1. Complaining about UPS not working properly and later realizing that the PC was connected to the "Surge" side and not the "Protect" side (oops!) :confused:

2. Forgetting to disconnect power before inserting RAM into mobo and shorting out RAM slot #2 :rolleyes:

3. Crafting this response while letting recently delivered dinner get cold over on nearby table, and reaching near starvation levels.

On that note ....

mrk