[NBLUG/talk] Refresh Rates (was monitor resolution question)

[E Frank Ball]

On Sun, Aug 24, 2003 at 02:47:56AM -0700, Justin Thiessen wrote:
} 
} 
} On Sat, 23 Aug 2003, Jeremy Turner wrote:
} 
} > On Sat, 2003-08-23 at 06:25, Justin Thiessen wrote:
} > > You will almost certainly want to use xvidtune to tweak these, and you can
} > > guarantee that you get the highest possible refresh rates this way.
} >
} > So the only way to tweak refresh rates is to use modelines?  I thought
} > xfree86 made leaps and bounds with the modes line to specify
} > resolutions, but being able to specify refresh rates like that would be
} > slick.  I've never tweaked that before, only kept the default rates.
} 
} _Specifying_ actual refresh rates for a given resolution, and asking X
} to generate a mode, does not really seem to be the way things are set up
} under XFree86.  As you probably know, refresh rate, along with
} horizontal and vertical resolution, are not independent.  Your monitor has
} a set maximum amount of bandwidth it can handle, which is manipulated
} within the constraints of minimum and maximum horizontal and vertical
} frequencies, minimum allowable sync pulse times, and blanking intervals to
} produce a display.  The XFree86 Video Timing HOWTO does an ok job of
} covering this.


Most modern monitors are smart enough to report what scan rates then
can handle.  A gui like Xconfigurator or whatever can then use this
information to properly setup the xmodelines.  I have some very very
picky monitors at work, and this is the only sane way to make them work.

-- 

   E Frank Ball                frankb at efball.com