Does PTE downsize a over-size image for projection?

[fh1805]

In a different thread (see here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....showtopic=9732) Ed Overstreet made the following statements:

...I haven't seen any problems running my 1400x1050 images on a 1024x768 projector... In my experience PTE seems better at down-sizing on the fly than up-sizing on the fly...

I might be mis-understanding things again (it's happening quite frequently at present) but Ed seem's to be implying that it is PTE that down-sizes the 1400x1050 image to 1024x768 when it goes via an XGA resolution projector. Is that really the case? Or is the down-sizing getting done by firm-ware in the projector?

I've always fought shy of making sequences at a resolution greater than my projector because I had assumed the projector would be doing the down-sizing and, unlike Photoshop, it doesn't have any Unsharp Mask capability to restore sharpness after it has discarded those unwanted pixels (or does it?).

Does anyone have any hard facts on this aspect of digital image projection? If not, what is the experience of other users? Can an over-size image be presented for projection through a smaller resolution device with no - or an acceptable - loss of visual quality?

regards,

Peter

[JRR]

Peter:

Not a technical hard answer, but my image files in PTE are 1280x960 and I run them through a projector at 1024x768 with no concern re lack of quality due to downsizing.

But I admit that an LCD projected image, on a 10-15' screen may show a lack of quality compared to a good monitor.

But I put that down to the projector, not the downsizing.

I have a few shows at 1024x768, and some at 800x600 (that are not upsized) and haven't noticed an different quality than the 1280x960 run through the same projector.

As I say not hard technical reply, anecdotal only

[xahu34]

... that it is PTE that down-sizes the 1400x1050 image to 1024x768 when it goes via an XGA resolution projector. Is that really the case? Or is the down-sizing getting done by firm-ware in the projector ...

Peter,

Just a question: For each image in the object list of a slide you can choose Edge antialiasing, Blur, Anti-shimmering, Low quality of resizing. Would any of this features make a sense if the resizing/resampling would not be done by the application itself. Normally the graphics card feeds the projector with a resolution according to the projector's features, here 1024x768 or lower. What may happen is that the projected image looks distorted, in cases where you choose graphics settings for the PC with an aspect ratio that does not fit the one of the projector.

Regards,

Xaver

[MikeL117]

Hi Peter

Simple answer: either projector or PTE (or both) can resize in this case.

PTE will resize to fit the display resolution, the projector will take the display resolution and resize to fit the native projector resolution (assuming you select something like fit to screen option in projector) the projector will then re-sample to allow for any electronic keystone you have selected.

In my experience PTE does a better job of resizing then most common projectors. This would suggest that you set the display resolution to the native resolution of the projector and let PTE take care of all (except keystone correction, which you really do want to minimise) resizing.

Also in 'real world' situations for 99% of all images I have seen projected even the author would not notice a difference in a resized projected image to his memory of the image on a computer screen without extreme scrutiny, as long as the resizing is not excessive (2:1 or less) and done as well as PTE does.

Other issues are much more problematic such as intensity (particularly in the mid tones) and colour balance/profiling.

Mike