[mythtv-users] OT: How to calculate displaysize

[Kim Wall]

Brian C. Huffman wrote:
> If this option is calculated this way, the Xserver could do it by itself? 
> Honestly, logic would tell me to get out a tape rule and measure my TV

Yep, that's the way to do it.  Well, almost:

The catch is that X assumes your display device is sitting on a desk in 
front of you, and as such scales fonts etc to a reasonable reading size; 
a TV is usually watched from a considerably greater distance.

The easy way around this is to sit in your TV-watching position, and 
using a steel tape measure (or ruler or whatever) held at arm's length, 
measure the apparent size of your TV screen from this position.  X then 
does (more or less) The Right Thing.

If the fonts are still a bit too big/small, then you can do a bit of 
trial and error to find the optimum value - just remember to keep the 
ratio[1] of the two sizes the same.


kim.

[1] On the subject of ratios, DisplaySize also seems to be the way to 
tell X that your display device has non-square pixels (eg. anamorphic 
widescreen TV).  I've played around with this, and discovered that myth 
does the right thing when told that the display size is 16:9.