How about trying Windows' options? There should be a way to increase either font size or icons to help. Like Chienworks, I run 1280x1024 on my 19" monitor. 800x600 is just way to small.

For video editing or any application that takes up most of the screen real estate 800x600 is simply too low a resolution. You may actually be making the eye sight problem worse. Even when my Bell's Paulsy was very bad and I could hardly see, I never went lower than 1024x768. I too normally run at 1280 x 1024.

One thing you may be able to try is check your video card and see if there is an opton to increase screen refresh rate. I see a world of difference when bumbing up from the default 60 Hertz to 75 Hertz at 1280 x 1024.

Just check your monitor manual first be sure it can run at higher rates or you could damage it.

Also are you sure your monitors are calibrated correctly? If the convergence is off trying to resolve small text is very hard if not impossible. Lower resolutions make the problem worse, not better.

Other things to consider are replacing your video drivers for your graphic card if you haven't upgraded in six months or so. They're fee for the taking at your graphic card site. Also some graphic cards do much better displaying crisper text than others. If you have a graphics card designed for gaming, may not be a good choice for video editing.

Finally, if you're running XP (some other versions of Windows) you can use a monitor profile file. Without it, output may not be the best. Once of the settings on most graphic cards (probably under advanced) should allow you to specify one. It may need to access your Windows CD. Been awhile I forget.

One last thing if you have a LCD monitor, most have a preferred resolution when things look the best. While you can go lower, if you do you need to dig out the manual on how to tweak the setting, because for sure they won't be right if you change the resolution. Most LCD monitors have some focus adjustment that will need to be adjusted if you don't use the recommended settings because unlike CRT types, everything is tuned to the preferred resolution.

I got an LCD at about the same time as my eyes started to go bad (I'm over 50 ...). Suddenly I HAD to use the higher resolutions, but just at the time when I could no longer see all that small detail.

Fortunately, as I found out, if you use XP, there are a number of things you can do to make the fonts and icons more readable, while still getting the advantages of the higher resolution.

Here they are:

First bring up the Display applet in the Control Panel, as follows:

Control Panel -> Display -> Appearance

Click on "Effects..." If you have an LCD screen, put a check mark next to "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" and select "Clear Type" in the box below this line. Just below this, make sure there is a check next to "Use large icons." Click on "OK" to go back to the main "Appearance" tab. You will notice a box called "Font Size." It will probably be set to "Normal." Don't change this yet, but make a note to go back to this setting if at the end of my advice you still find yourself squinting.

Next, while still in the "Display Properties" dialog, click on the "Settings" tab. In the lower right corner, click on the "Advanced" button. Now from this point on, I can't tell you for sure what you are going to see, because most of the options depend on the display driver for your particular graphic card. For my ATI Radeon 8500, I have exactly a dozen tabs. However, the "General" tab is hopefully the same for all adapters. Click on that tab (actually, I think it is the default, so it is probably already selected). You should find a "DPI setting" listbox.

This listbox is the important setting for improving your display.

Increase this setting to make things more readable. The normal setting is 96 dpi, and the "Large size" setting is 120 dpi. Change this to 120 dpi. Click on OK a few times, and if you are asked to restart, go ahead and do it.

I found that this really did it for me. However, my 83-year-old father purchased a Dell laptop about 18 months ago and was talked into a 1600x1200 15" screen because it was "the best." On that screen, even a young boy with 20/10 vision is going to have a tough time seeing all the details. For that screen, I used the Custom "DPI setting" (in the listbox mentioned above) and set it up to either 150 or 180 (I can't remember).

After you have done this, if everything looks fine except the text, you can go back to that setting I mentioned at the beginning of these instructions, and increase the text size.

However, after all this is done, and you are happily editing video, you may still have a problem with Internet Explorer. Many web pages in IE still appear with very small fonts. The "Text Size" feature in IE won't change these "hard-wired" fonts. Even worse, graphics are still tiny.

A few months back, I found the solution. It is definitely very "out of the way," but also amazingly powerful. Wow, what a difference it makes.

This is an amazingly cool tweak, one of the best I have found in the past year.

Internet Explorer 6 has an obscure registry setting that tells it to magnify all graphics and fonts. If you copy the following into Notepad (just the parts between the dashed lines, but not the dashed lines themselves), and then save it with a "reg" extension, then when you double-click on the file, it will enter the information into your registry and give you the fix. You have to have IE6 for this to work.

Back up your registry before you do this! If you are uncomfortable modifying registry settings, then don't do this.

End of lecture from my lawyer.

Here it is:

--------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"UseHR"=dword:00000001
------------------

Hope this helps!!

Are you wearing reading glasses?

I'm 43 and have had bad eyesight since I was 8. I've worn contact lenses since I was 17 but a couple of years ago I started having trouble reading newspapers and video screens.

I went to the optometrist and found that I am going long-sighted on top of my short-sightedness (something that surprised me at the time, I thought one would have cancelled the other out).

So - I have a pair of +1 reading glasses for computer work that I wear over my -6.5 contact lenses ...

It's a pain, but it's the only way I can do it.

And I agree - I run 1280x1024 and wouldn't run anything lower res than that. You need the real estate for these sort of programs.

Cheers

No, I've always had 20/20 vision and have never needed glasses and I'm 42. My vision is still fine but any resolution greater than 800X600 keeps me squinting, especially in Internet Explorer, E-mail, and other programs outside of Vegas.
I've made some of the adjustments recommended in this thread but because I've been using 800x600 all of my computer life, any other resolutions are quite an adjustment for me.

I find it amazing that you're using 800x600 on a 21" screen and yet you have 20/20 vision. I really would have thought you were legally blind. Seriously.

800x600 is commonly considered to be suitable for 15" CRT monitors.

I think you're going to have to get used to running at a higher resolution. And even with the 20/20 vision you might look into reading or "Computer" glasses anyway. I understand they can prevent shooting pains in the back of your head/neck.

For the LCD, most current 17" LCD monitors run natively at either 1024x768 or 1280x1040. At anything other than the default res they look like ca-ca.

BillyBoy says 75Hz for display frequency. Personally, I think 85 is better for a 19" monitor. It depends on how much flicker you see. I find that I see more flicker than many people I know.

I know an engineer who uses a 21" monitor, great big magnifying glasses, and views the screen from 6" away. He really is legally blind. I was pretty sure your situation must be the same.

If you vision is good, adjust your resolution and get used to it.

Rob Mack

I've got a 19" and use 1600x1200 (does noone else???). 60, 75hz doesn't seem to make mutch of a difference to me. However, if you're just having problems with fonts outside of Vegas, use the apearance tab in the display options (fonts under icons are edited under the icon setting). To increase the size of fonts in IE click view-text size then choose the size. Netscape is view-text zoom.

Hope that helps!

Another option would be to get a dual-head graphics card, or install a second PCI graphics card, and go to dual monitors.

That way you can spread things out a bit more, or move some windows to the second monitor. You might be able to make do with a lower resolution, this way, too.

increase the size of fonts in IE click view-text size then choose the size

The only problem with this is that many pages override Explorer and insist on certain text size. This control has no effect on those pages. That is why the registry setting in Explorer 6 was such an amazing find. It increases the size of both the fonts AND the graphics. For instance, some weather maps on that 1600x1200 display I mentioned were so small that they only took up about a quarter of the screen. What good is that?? Once I changed the registry, they took up most of the screen, as they should.

I've heard people talk about "Hz display frequency" and I've seen this setting in the properties, but I'm not really sure what it means. Can someone please explain what it does, and could changing things do any damage?

---" Just check your monitor manual first be sure it can run at higher rates or you could damage it" -------.

PS: I'm already running dual head. I have a Radeon 8500 card and use an older 21" screen together witha newer "17 inch flat screen. Man, things look tiny tiny on that flat screen at higher resolutions! But looks like I'm gonna have to get used to it.

> No, I've always had 20/20 vision and have never needed glasses and I'm 42.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. ;-) When I reached 43, I said to my wife, “Boy these darn magazines are using smaller fonts so they can get more print on a page. They’re too cheap to use more paper!”. She replied, “Honey, the font is the same as its always been, you need glasses.” When I got to my doctor for a routine physical and I related the story to him, he asked me to read his notepad and I held it an arms length away and read it. He said, “There are two cures for your condition: I could make your arms longer but the surgery is painful and risky, or you can get reading glasses.” With that I went to an optometrist and now I have one pair of glasses for the computer and a slightly more powerful pair for reading. Prior to that my eye site, like yours, was fine. At 40, your eyes start to dry out and harden so they can’t flex and focus as easily anymore. It’s just part of the aging process.

After you’ve tried all the tweaks on this forum, if you still can’t read the screen comfortably at 1024x768 or slightly higher, visit an optometrist just to be safe. I was running 800x600 on my 17” monitor until a few years ago. Then I ran 1024x768 on my 19” monitor until last week when I got a 21” monitor and now I’m up to 1280x960 but I’m thinking of lowering it a bit because I’m starting to squint too. My other option would be to get more powerful glasses. It happens. ;-)

~jr

Hate to tell ya guys, but your eyesight typically keeps getting worse. I'm 58. I'd swear all the magazines, newspapers, all the labels on boxes, have started using tiny text recently. I'm afraid not. :-(

Just for laughs, how well DO you see? I can easily see 6 point sans fonts at 1280x1024 when doing something in Flash. That's WITHOUT glasses. Actually, since my adventure with Bell's Palsy, when before I ALWAYS wore my glasses when using the computer, I couldn't wear them, they just bugged me.

Now that I haven't wore glasses for about 9 months (how long I had the BP), it seems my eye sight has improved, visually, but the tearing is still pretty bad. Not a recommended method to improve your eyesight though.

LOL!

Now let me tell you a story - I started getting fuzzyness and you know what? it isn't an age thing as much as it is an eye/work thing. My eye Dr. said he sees this a lot - it used to be people like accountants and court stenographers, those who sat in one place and worked with numbers/reading all day - their focus would start to get 'fixed' after a while. He said now he sees it a lot with people who work on computers - so he asked if my job involved a computer or accounting. "Well - yeah," I said, "I edit films and do sound so I sit for hours in front of a computer." And that was it - he suggested trying to refocus every now and then by looking off from the screen and he also said I would know when I needed glasses - aside for the fuzzyness he said when I started to loose intrest/not able to concentrate that would be the real sign.

I too have a pair of magnifing glasses - like +.01 or something for now.

As far as the display frequency the Hz rate is how many times in a second the screen refreshes. In other words the image you're seeing on your TV or computer monitor is redrawn so many times a second. Generally the lowest is 60 Hz or 60 times a second. In the US anyway is due in part to AC current we use. That combined with something called visual persistence or how long your brain retains the past image accounts for a picture that doesn't giggle. However as you get into higher screen resolutions there is more to be drawn (more pixels) so it takes longer. To keep the picture from starting to giggle the Hz rate has to be increased.

The danger is some monitors can't handle too high a Hz. Usually if they can't they will just break up into a picture that you can't resolve. While there is some danger you can harm the monitor its pretty rare.

Just a caution to see what your manual says. Windows XP with certain graphic cards allows you to override the max setting. That's where the danger comes in. For example I'm using a ViewSonic monitor that has a maximum Hz Refresh rate of 75 Hz. But my Matrox graphic would let me push it to 85. I was too chicken to see what would happen. ;-)

thanks for all the input. At 42, my eyesight is still pretty good, however I've noticed recently at concerts I've had to make a slight adjustment with a trusty pair of binoculars I've had for many years. I've never worn eye glasses before.

When I get home tonight I will try some higher resolution settings and see if I can reach a compromise. It may be hard for me to make the switch since everyone here at my workplace is still using 600X800 for their editing programs (I work at a company that owns 5 radio stations) so I'm used to seeing a larger images thoughout the day.

I'm about the same age. My eyesight has gotten a little worse over the last 5 years but generally I have no trouble at 1280x1024. I have more trouble with highway signs and seeing who's at the other end of the bar.

If your monitors are old enough then they may not support much in the way of resolution or refresh rate. For that matter, the CRT may be close to dead.

It's hard to explain why you have good eyesight but have to work at 800x600 to see anything. Maybe there's something else going on. Could it be that someone has fiddled with the font setting on your machines already? 800x600 on a 21" screen should be clearly visible from down the hall and around the corner.

Rob Mack

Hi John

Thanks very much.

The registration Key has relly solved my problems with IE

Thanks again

Rune