[Info-vax] Audio and video technology, was: Re: getting pixel dimensions of monitor

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <00ACE715.55E675FB at sendspamhere.org>,
	VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG writes:
> In article <38b648d2-c430-4253-a60b-4b189920c08e at ia3g2000vbb.googlegroups.com>, AEF <spamsink2001 at yahoo.com> writes:
>>On Feb 5, 8:47=A0am, Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-
>>Earth.UFP> wrote:
>>> On 2013-02-04, AEF <spamsink2... at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > On Feb 3, 8:50=A0am, hel... at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---
>>> > undress to reply) wrote:
>>>
>>> >> The numbers come from trial and error. =A0Using them on a different
>>> >> monitor sometimes results in stretched images, so the ratio is probabl=
>>y
>>> >> not the same. =A0Is there some standard way to find out what the ratio
>>> >> really is? =A0(Probably not, otherwise one could set it on the fly.)
>>>
>>> > Uh oh, another case of aspect-ratio disease! Phillip, I wish you luck
>>> > on your endeavor to eradicate this instance of the disease. But it's a
>>> > plague. I've even seen TV's (LG's) with the picture over-stretched!
>>> > That means it would have fit as is but was somehow stretched even
>>> > more.
>>>
>>> The information Phillip needs is encoded in the EDID structure on modern
>>> monitors. On a modern OS (ie: Linux) that information is read automatical=
>>ly
>>> and the graphics controller configures itself as required; there are no
>>> aspect ratio problems at the native resolution.
>>
>>Score one for Linux.
> 
> Really?  Then why did I recently spend 2 days dicking about with getting the
> video to work properly when I upgraded???  It's now working at 1920x1080 but
> it didn't happen/configure all by itself!
 
Probably because he should have said "Score one for some specific and
unique version of Linux".  The Linux world is more fragmented and
variant than the proprietary Unixes ever were.

In it's defense, I have installed three different desktop Linux
distributions on 4 distincly different pieces of hardware and in
all cases it correctly identified the video hardware and installed
complete working desktops.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>