[SOLVED] Is there a way to turn off half the 1080p Monitor pixels to view true 720p? Need to simulate how my content looks on 720p screen without scaling.

Jun 24, 2022
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I need to review and create content in 720p. I have a 1080p monitor but with changing the resolution to 720p, the content looks different and slightly off as compared to what it would look like on a native 720p screen (because of the imperfect scaling). Is there a way I can (temporarily) convert my native 1080p monitor to native 720p (or 768p) so that only 1280x720 pixels are used on the screen and the rest are unused?

I've been trying to look it up but only getting irrelevant results online. I did find a way to do it within Nvidea settings but my system doesn't have a dGPU.

Any help is much appreciated.
 
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kanewolf

Titan
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I need to review and create content in 720p. I have a 1080p monitor but with changing the resolution to 720p, the content looks different and slightly off as compared to what it would look like on a native 720p screen (because of the imperfect scaling). Is there a way I can (temporarily) convert my native 1080p monitor to native 720p (or 768p) so that only 1280x720 pixels are used on the screen and the rest are unused?

I've been trying to look it up but only getting irrelevant results online. I did find a way to do it within Nvidea settings but my system doesn't have a dGPU.

Any help is much appreciated.
Go to a thrift store and buy an old crappy monitor if that is what you want.
 
Jun 24, 2022
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😧 I was quite sure that it's such a simple, albeit very weird and backwards, thing to do that there would be an easy way to do this.

I don't really want to add a new (and mostly useless) monitor to the setup as this is one of those things that I face just once in a while. Although I can make do without the level of detail but would've liked to do it properly.
 

KananX

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Apr 11, 2022
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😧 I was quite sure that it's such a simple, albeit very weird and backwards, thing to do that there would be an easy way to do this.

I don't really want to add a new (and mostly useless) monitor to the setup as this is one of those things that I face just once in a while. Although I can make do without the level of detail but would've liked to do it properly.
Just view it on a 1080p monitor and imagine it will look a bit better on a native 720p screen, cause that is what it will be like. The difference isn’t big. On the other hand I’m not sure why 720p is that relevant to you. Almost nobody uses 720p screens anymore, not even on their phones.
 
Jun 24, 2022
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Just view it on a 1080p monitor and imagine it will look a bit better on a native 720p screen, cause that is what it will be like. The difference isn’t big. On the other hand I’m not sure why 720p is that relevant to you. Almost nobody uses 720p screens anymore, not even on their phones.
Actually, I'm creating visuals and dashboard reports and my clients are using 768p laptop screens. In case of dashboards, the visuals and the text scale differently thus sometimes creating a significant difference. Suddenly text is overflowing from boxes and alignments are off.!

I guess I'm just being a bit obsessive about it. Not enough to get a different resolution monitor everytime it happens though.:)

Thanks for the clarification.
 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
Actually, I'm creating visuals and dashboard reports and my clients are using 768p laptop screens. In case of dashboards, the visuals and the text scale differently thus sometimes creating a significant difference. Suddenly text is overflowing from boxes and alignments are off.!

I guess I'm just being a bit obsessive about it. Not enough to get a different resolution monitor everytime it happens though.:)

Thanks for the clarification.
I would be more concerned by the performance on a laptop with 768p display. That is probably an old laptop with no RAM and a slow processor.
 

KananX

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Apr 11, 2022
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Actually, I'm creating visuals and dashboard reports and my clients are using 768p laptop screens. In case of dashboards, the visuals and the text scale differently thus sometimes creating a significant difference. Suddenly text is overflowing from boxes and alignments are off.!

I guess I'm just being a bit obsessive about it. Not enough to get a different resolution monitor everytime it happens though.:)

Thanks for the clarification.
I would upscale this content to a higher resolution that has the same ratio. That way the quality will be even better, and you can view it on full quality on your display. They will essentially get a downscaled version of higher quality content then.
 
Jun 24, 2022
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I would upscale this content to a higher resolution that has the same ratio. That way the quality will be even better, and you can view it on full quality on your display. They will essentially get a downscaled version of higher quality content then.
I think I was essentially doing that earlier, creating content on my laptop's 4k screen but that was even worse. It's very difficult and limiting trying to create content for 720p or such low resolutions. Higher resolution content downscaled to that level is way worse. The finer nuances that add to the aesthetics at 4k make it look outright ugly at 720p.

I guess I'll just have to keep using the scaled resolutions and hope that the content looks better on native resolutions.
 
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Karadjgne

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720p and 1080p are physically different in pixel amounts and dimensions. 720p / 1440p same, 1080p / 4k same, but 720p / 1080p are different altogether, which is why the scaling is off. Only way to do it is bordered, but then you get a much smaller picture.

Best bet, cheap monitor or HD TV, as HD is 720p, Full HD or FHD is 1080p.
 
I think I was essentially doing that earlier, creating content on my laptop's 4k screen but that was even worse. It's very difficult and limiting trying to create content for 720p or such low resolutions. Higher resolution content downscaled to that level is way worse. The finer nuances that add to the aesthetics at 4k make it look outright ugly at 720p.

I guess I'll just have to keep using the scaled resolutions and hope that the content looks better on native resolutions.
What kind of software are you using to create your content? With most video editing software you would create a black overlay which would just allow 1280x768 pixels to be visible and then evaluate your content based on that.
 
Jun 24, 2022
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Only way to do it is bordered, but then you get a much smaller picture.
Actually, that is almost exactly what I want to do, with or without the border. Not using the entire real estate of the monitor is not an issue. Any help on how I can do this?

To be clear, I just want to use (say) 1280x720 pixels out of the 1920x1080 pixels of my monitor. It just turns out that its not as simple as it seemed to me.
 
Jun 24, 2022
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What kind of software are you using to create your content? With most video editing software you would create a black overlay which would just allow 1280x768 pixels to be visible and then evaluate your content based on that.

Not creating videos, just dashboards and analytical tools in Power BI, Excel n stuff.
 
Jun 24, 2022
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You could temporarily create your content at 1080p with black bars around it so that so that your actual content only uses the 720p area.
I guess I should've been clearer about the nature of the content. It's Dashboards and analytical tools. I guess your recommendation would apply more to video/graphics creation.

I my case I need the window/screen to be the correct size.
 
i7-1165G7
Intel iRIS Xe graphics
You'd have to turn off resolution scaling in Display Driver settings.
With Nvidia drivers this is easy.
Not sure, how to do it with Intel Display drivers.

No scaling option:

twJyAsb.jpeg