DVI or VGA best for X1 Graphics and Resolution (More of X1 on Screen...)

I'm using 2 X 24" 1920 x 1080 monitors but havn't loaded X1 on my studio DAW yet. I'm doing a shake out tour and learning on my 18.4" 1920 X 1080 laptop.

It's a fairly big chunky display in X1 and I reckon 1920 X 1080 should be the standard to get enough on the screen for best use of the program.

I have two monitors here, a 23" Samsung monitor on the left turned to portrait (so that would technically be running in 1200 X 1600), and a 27" HP monitor running in 1920 X 1080 in the center.  There is a right monitor, but I need another graphic card (or a Displaymate monitor) to be able to use 3 monitors.  The left monitor is running in DVI and the center monitor is running in HDMI.  VGA is slightly fuzzier.  I personally prefer HDMI now, but it doesn't make that much difference in normal everyday use for X1.

This is just a guess, but I think if you are planning to do any sound-to-picture, I suspect you would do better to get off VGA in favor of DVI.  HDMI would be even better yet if you already have all the hardware, but I would not undertake the expense of HDMI "just for" X1.

When using X1, I most often have the PDF opened on the left (portrait) monitor, with the main X1 interface on the center monitor.  If I need to tear off /undock any X1 windows, I float them on the left monitor right over the PDF.  If I need to read the PDF, I just click on it and Windows 7 brings it into focus.  To go back to X1, I can just click on X1's main interface bar (above the control bar), and that brings all of the floating windows into focus over the PDF.

One thing I will say about very large monitors with very large screen resolutions (like 1980 X 1020 or higher) is that the elements on the screen may not appear as large as you had hoped for.  I still struggle with small knobs, faders, and text boxes, especially within VST properties pages.  I think deveopers need to do more to become aware of how their GUI's look on high resoultion monitors, and make adjustments accordingly.

If you are unsure at all about your monitor purchase, you might consider purchasing from a local store with a no-hassle return policy.  If you're "pretty damned sure" about your choice, you can buy a monitor from Newegg or an online outfit, but beware that returns and exchanges require additional days for shipping, and online retailers often have restocking fees.  Newegg is my go-to online retailer, but I have also used ABT, B&H, and JRR.

If you buy locally, you'll pay more and you'll pay sales tax, but at least you can see what it looks like in action.  And if you get one with bad pixels, it's a lot easier to exchange it at a local store than it is at an online retailer.

I'm running a Samsung Syncmaster PX2370 23" LED (1920 x 1080) and an old LG 19" LCD (1400 x 900). X1 is larger on the LG and easier to see, but there's not as much on the screen.

I just got a new video card that has 1-hdmi 1-dvi and 1-vga port so I had to set my monitors up to hdmi(Samsung) and dvi(LG). I had some problems because my PC tried to set my sound to default to HDMI through the monitor. Plus, I have to manually set my monitor to HDMI every time I boot up, for some reason it doesn't detect video when it does the automatic scan. And I had to go in and change my HDMI mode from AV to PC mode otherwise it's all blurry, and I had to manually adjust the scaling settings in my video card drivers.

If I could do it over again, I would get a video card with 2 -DVI ports.

I use VGA because of my KVM. It's fine. I dare say that the converters in the video card are better than the converters in display. It is crazy that X1 seems to be designed for something other than 1920x1080 though.

Bub

HumbleNoise


PC, how do you run your 23" in portrait? I need more vertical room.

It's an option in your video card drivers.

Thanks Bub

So what do you think the best screen resolution is to see the most of X1 i.e. mixer channels, etc.?

 
I'm using HDMI 1920x1080.
 
The "best" resolution appears to be somewhat higher than that (from other threads, it seems the developers may have been using much higher resolutions). At 1920 pixels wide you can't fit in all the control bar modules (3 missing, and no way to resize the control bar other than to remove modules you "don't need". I need one more than there's room for). Even at HD resolution, there's lots of blank space in the GUI generally by the way (i.e. wasted space).
 
As for tracks in console view, before the windows grow scroll bars, I can fit in 27 tracks, 6 busses (these are the same width as tracks) and 1 and a bit interface outputs (these are wider than tracks for some reason).
 
That's with all strips set to "narrow", which isn't very good to work with - see the threads about the problems with console strips in narrow view. In particular, you get the channel number and the first letter (only) of the track name. Quite useless.
 
Widen the strips and I get 14 channels and 3 busses, 1 and a bit outputs.
 
The good news is 1080 vertical works well enough. A second HD monitor would probably be a good idea, but I haven't space for one :-(
 
As for reading the display, I have no problems at all with 1920x1080 using reading glasses. 5 years ago I wouldn't have needed the glasses, but that's age for you. Buttons, sliders etc. are sized fine for me (but obviously less fine for some people - eyesight is a very personal thing).
 
All the text etc. being in blue (and not all of it is configurable as yet), along with the sea of silvery-greys I do find an eye-strain. It also reminds me of those brushed-aluminium cheap "all in one" consumer hi-fi facias. X1 desperately needs a simple, fast way to alter the colour scheme.
 
As for laptop displays - mine is 1280 by 800. I haven't tried X1 on that yet, but I suspect the smaller display will make things a bit awkward.

guitarfan


Hey fellas,
So what do you think the best screen resolution is to see the most of X1 i.e. mixer channels, etc.?

Randy

Although 1920 x 1080 (16 x 9) monitors are plentiful and cheap now, I would spend a little more and get a 1920 x 1200 (16 x 10) monitor. You'll be able to see a little more vertical information on the screen. Well worth the extra bucks...

chrisharbin


can I simply just hijack for one moment and express my disgust over vid cards???? Without all the gory details I've had the WORST time with vid cards. Mobo's? No problem. Ram? No problem. VGA's? nothing but problems

The hdmi drivers hijack my system, there are no fanless ones with two DVI ports (that actually work) spots flickering on the second monitor......ugggg! It never stops!

Ok, sorry about that but when I saw the thread title my "logical" mind thinks for us DAW's two DVI's would be the best bet.

I hear ya. Video cards suck, and they're worse than CPU's in that they come out with a new one every other day.

I have 2 high end AGP cards and 1 low end PCIe card sitting here, plus the one I just put in my PC brand new last week. I'm thinking of selling all of them already and biting the bullet to go for another one.

I don't know where this HDMI thing is going but I don't like it. It's too invasive. I understand the whole idea of HDMI providing audio/video in one cable, but that's not how the PC world works. At the time I bought my Samsung monitor at Best Buy they told me the HDMI socket was going to replace DVI. :(