In my last blog entry about the resolution degradation after connecting to an external monitor, I find that I was in error to some degree. While working at home yesterday, I plugged in an external monitor and the video resolution was great on both screens. So I decided to try and experiment with the display settings when connected to work. This morning, I plugged in the external monitor and sure enough the video resolution on the MBA went down. So I opened up the Display options and found that the resolution had gone from the highest to the 2nd highest resulting in the video degradation. Once I set the settings back to the highest for the MBA, both screens looked GREAT!
What I can't explain is why I had two different experiences. The external monitor at work is a 17" 4:3 aspect ratio and the home external monitor is a 22" 16:9. So it is possible that this had something to do with it. Also, it wasn't immediately intuitive to change display resolution to solve the problem given that 1 screen looked great. This may just be chalked up to figuring some things on your own unless you are willing to pay $99 for education at the Apple store.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Extending the desktop
Okay...so as I write, I realize that my experiences described on this blog has been a mix between the MBA and Leopard. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish which one I am writing about until I post and think about what I just wrote. However, this time I am going to make the callout that this is mostly an entry about Leopard. I will make one or two comments about the MBA.
I used the micro-dvi to connect to an external monitor. I have tried it at home before, but today was the first time at work. Normally, at home, the MBA would transition and show on both monitors. Today was different. After plugging in the monitor, I saw the normal screen come up on the MBA and just my desktop background on the external monitor. I shortly realized after checking the systems display that it configured the setup to be extended monitor. WOW.
I had to do a little bit of configuration to get the extended monitor the way I wanted, but once that once done, I put the RDC application on the extended monitor so I could remote in to my work machine, while saving the MBA monitor space for Safari. Also, I had to configure Spaces to allow the extended monitor to be up the same time as Safari because Safari is configured for Space 4. I am assuming that if I transition to another application on a different space, the application on the extended monitor will hide.
So here is my comment on the MBA. I believe, at least what my eyes see, there is a bit of video degradation when plugging in an external monitor. The words are just not as crisp. Not sure if there is a solution given the video card has to handle both monitors. Is it something I can live with? Yes. After all, this is not my primary machine and I don't think I plan to have it connected to a monitor all the time. That defeats the whole mobility part of it.
I used the micro-dvi to connect to an external monitor. I have tried it at home before, but today was the first time at work. Normally, at home, the MBA would transition and show on both monitors. Today was different. After plugging in the monitor, I saw the normal screen come up on the MBA and just my desktop background on the external monitor. I shortly realized after checking the systems display that it configured the setup to be extended monitor. WOW.
I had to do a little bit of configuration to get the extended monitor the way I wanted, but once that once done, I put the RDC application on the extended monitor so I could remote in to my work machine, while saving the MBA monitor space for Safari. Also, I had to configure Spaces to allow the extended monitor to be up the same time as Safari because Safari is configured for Space 4. I am assuming that if I transition to another application on a different space, the application on the extended monitor will hide.
So here is my comment on the MBA. I believe, at least what my eyes see, there is a bit of video degradation when plugging in an external monitor. The words are just not as crisp. Not sure if there is a solution given the video card has to handle both monitors. Is it something I can live with? Yes. After all, this is not my primary machine and I don't think I plan to have it connected to a monitor all the time. That defeats the whole mobility part of it.
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