Dell Vostro 1500 display clarity issue

I bought a Dell Vostro 1500 last fall.

1.6 Core Duo
2GB Ram
15.4WXGA+ Truelife
nVidia G86 128mb video card
XP Home

The computer works fine and I've had no real complaints until recently.

The display in 1440x900 mode is very sharp and clear. If I lower the resolution with the Display control panel, the sharpness/clarity drops. The display isn't exactly blurry with a lower resolution but it's nowhere near as sharp as the 1440x900 mode.

This hasn't been a problem for me because I almost always use the computer in 1440x900 mode, but recently I've been streaming some videos from the internet (surfthechannel.com) to my computer and in full-screen 1440x900 mode, the video isn't smooth, it sometimes "stutters" for want of a better term. It's like the computer can't keep up. I don't have this problem with DVDs so maybe it's a networking problem. The video doesn't stutter in a smaller window in 1440x900.

However, if I reset the Display to 800x600 and then stream a video in full-screen mode, there is no stuttering, the video plays smoothly. However, the picture is not real clear. Sure, maybe streamed videos aren't known for their sharpness, but I get the feeling that if the 1440x900 full-screen videos weren't stuttering, they'd look somewhat sharper than the 800x600 videos.

There is an nVidia utility that came with the computer but I haven't figured out how to make lower resolution displays look as sharp as the highest resolution display.

I appreciate any help anyone can give.

 

I recommend a visit to laptopvideo2go.com to update your drivers.
http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/

Also it may be a problem with your player/codecs (Try VLC, I've heard it works well):
http://www.download.com/VLC-Media-Player/3000-13632_4-10267151.html

Good luck

 

LCDs at non-native res. always look horribly fuzzy. I also have a 1500 w/ 1440x900, it is the AUO panel and it's a little grainy and it looks absolutely horrible at non-native res. more so than most non-native LCDs

 

I actually have some problem like this with the similar card (8600 gs), might it happen because out-of-date driver? Or perhaps because the display screen is widescreen, which is not optimized for lower resolution?

 

Nowt to do with the driver, in all probability. Running an LCD at it's non-native resolution will always result in a sub-optimal display.

They're better than they used to be. But it is almost certainly non-fixable with newer drivers or anything like that.

 

Hi, I've actually got an identical problem (I also have a Vostro 1500 with WXGA+ screen, but with the 8600M GT video). Streaming in full screen at 1440x900 tends to stutter in the way you described; streaming in a smaller window is just fine. I'd never actually checked if the issue is resolved at a lower resolution, but you're right - it's just as smooth in full screen as it is in a window.

One thing I've noticed is that the issue doesn't occur on every site. Try a video at a place like www.dailymotion.com - no stuttering at all. This makes me think that the issue is related somehow to the flash player that other sites are using.

As for what would be conflicting? I know that I didn't have the issue when I first got my Vostro - it just appeared after a while. The only thing I would have done in between is update video drivers. It's possible that some incompatibility with the flash player was introduced over time; actually, this could also be caused by a Flash update itself.

So, in the end I don't have an answer for you - just know that you're not seeing things.

 

Thanks, I tried the dailymotion site and had no problems. It must be either a driver problem with my computer or a problem with the streaming server. I'm glad to see someone with a computer like mine is having the same problem. Well, I'm not exactly GLAD!! ;-)

 

Its the processor. Check out its usage. I bet its at 100% during that. (ive had a similar issue). Thats the only reason ive thought about upgrading it to a faster one.

 

It's a little hard to tell the percentage of processor usage when the video is full-screen. So I started the Task Manager and clicked on CPU to show the top processes, then I started full-screen videos from surfthechannel.com and hulu.com in 1440x900 mode and let them run for about 30 seconds each then I'd close the windows and l'd look at the Task Manager. The System Idle Process was always at least 50%, usually more. The hulu full-screen videos didn't stutter, the surfthechannel videos did stutter.

Come to think of it, I use firefox nearly all the time, I think I'll try running these videos tonight from Internet Explorer.

 

That did it. Using IE, I streamed a video in full-screen 1440x900 mode from surfthechannel.com and it didn't stutter. So there must be a problem with firefox on my computer. Maybe!