Tricky problem, display on subset of screen?

Declan · 2011-02-01 21:25:41

Hi guys!

I'm wondering if something is possible. Me and a friend bulit a projector from an old overhead projector and an LCD screen from a monitor. It actually works terrifically, but the surface of the projector (the area light actually goes through) is smaller than the LCD screen (we couldn't be picky when it came to size). So it cuts off about an inch from each side, and about half an inch from the top and bottom. It's decent enough to watch movies, but it's a little annoying when you want to click on the gnome panel or something.

So basically, I'm wondering if there is a way to just display everything I normally would, but only display on a subset of the screen, the part the light actually shines through. I have never really heard of anything like this before, so I'm a little stumped. It also seems like it would have to be a pretty low level hardware thing, so I don't know if there would be a practical way to do it.

Does anyone know?

Thanks!

.ps: Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, it didn't seem to belong in Hardware Issues...

karol · 2011-02-02 07:48:23

I certainly is possible with e.g. movies with mplayer.

penguin · 2011-02-02 09:30:10

If only using CLI, you can have empty frames and only use one of the panes, and align them any way you like.

like so: (OK, this is running in an X-terminal)

But obviously this wont help your gnome-panel thing.
There are other window managers, where you can move the panel, and adjust its vertical and horizontal size. Fluxbox for instance.

Last edited by penguin (2011-02-02 09:32:07)

Declan · 2011-02-02 17:24:13

karol wrote:

I certainly is possible with e.g. movies with mplayer.

Well that's what we do now, we just resize the mplayer window so it covers it. But it's kind of messy, and ideally I'd like to be able to use it as an actual huge computer screen, not just a movie player.

Declan · 2011-02-02 17:26:53

penguin wrote:

If only using CLI, you can have empty frames and only use one of the panes, and align them any way you like.
like so: (OK, this is running in an X-terminal)
http://blog.hawkhost.com/wp-content/upl … 00x219.png
But obviously this wont help your gnome-panel thing.
There are other window managers, where you can move the panel, and adjust its vertical and horizontal size. Fluxbox for instance.

I've considered that, but no matter what, it will still be cutting off part of the screen... Ideally it would display the whole desktop, just on a smaller part of the physical LCD screen.

Any ideas?

karol · 2011-02-02 17:32:10

You can coax the system into displaying images only on a part of the screen, e.g. 800x600 on a 1400x900 screen, but it starts drawing on the display from the top left corner, so it's not well suited for your situation. I don't know if you can specify an offset or a different start point.

Declan · 2011-02-02 19:32:49

karol wrote:

You can coax the system into displaying images only on a part of the screen, e.g. 800x600 on a 1400x900 screen, but it starts drawing on the display from the top left corner, so it's not well suited for your situation. I don't know if you can specify an offset or a different start point.

Hmmm...this might work. Honestly, a relatively small part gets cut off, so this could conceivably work. I seem to remember, on old CRT monitors, being able to change the display mode (years ago when using windows), and the screen would only be displaying on a little rectangle in the center of the screen.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-01 21:25:41

Tricky problem, display on subset of screen?

#2 2011-02-02 07:48:23

Re: Tricky problem, display on subset of screen?

#3 2011-02-02 09:30:10

Re: Tricky problem, display on subset of screen?

#4 2011-02-02 17:24:13

Re: Tricky problem, display on subset of screen?

#5 2011-02-02 17:26:53

Re: Tricky problem, display on subset of screen?

#6 2011-02-02 17:32:10

Re: Tricky problem, display on subset of screen?

#7 2011-02-02 19:32:49

Re: Tricky problem, display on subset of screen?

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