[hpsdr] powerSDR and High resolution

Wed Jun 28 08:35:03 PDT 2017

Samsung won't be the first with a 4K display. Sony got there first
with the Xperia Z5 back in 2015, though North America never got the 4K
version of that phone. They followed up with the Xperia XZ Premium
this year; it not only has a 4K display but it's also an HDR display.
It's already available elsewhere and is in preorder here.

The Sony phones have a 5.5" display. That comes out to an insane
800dpi (or ppi, pixels per inch, as it's usually called on phones).
Windows on that hardware isn't an issue for now as it only runs
Android, but it's possible that similar devices will get the upcoming
Windows on ARM.

On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 11:14 AM, John Marvin <jm-hpsdr at themarvins.org> wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> This is a "bug" in PowerSDR, but it's root cause is due to the Windows
> design for dpi scaling (in particular, font scaling) being so bad. People
> writing software for Mac's don't even have to think much about this because
> MacOS got this right (and please don't accuse me of being a Mac fan, I'm
> just a developer who ran into this issue on Windows and found that I didn't
> have to do anything for the Mac port of the application).
>
> Evidence for the bad Windows design is indicated by how many times Windows
> has made changes in this area over the years. I haven't looked closely at
> the Windows 10 fixes, so I can't say whether they may have finally got it
> right.
>
> Anyway, for those who have 4K displays and don't see a problem you need to
> understand that 4K resolution doesn't necessarily mean "High DPI".  The
> scaling problem is when you have a High DPI display. If you have a 4K
> display, but your monitor size is > 30" then you really don't have a very
> high DPI display, although it is probably higher DPI than many non 4K
> displays. The problem is not high resolution, the problem is with high DPI.
>
> To make an application work correctly for High DPI displays on Windows you
> need to modify the application to make it "DPI Aware". Google for "WIndows
> DPI Aware" for details. To see some of the issues, Google for "Windows High
> DPI scaling".
>
> If you want to see the issues with PowerSDR for yourself, try changing your
> font scaling to 200-250%. For some versions of windows you may need to click
> on "Set custom text size" or something similar if you don't get the option
> to scale above 150% (and a lot of applications have problems even at 150%).
> Even then the dialog may only let you go to 200% with the drop down box, but
> if it has a ruler, try dragging on the ruler (in Windows 7 you can get to
> 500% that way).  I use this method periodically to make sure I haven't
> broken support for High DPI displays, even though I don't own a High DPI
> display.
>
> Higher and higher DPI displays are coming, although the really high dpi
> displays tend to be smaller displays. It's rumored that the Samsung Galaxy
> Note 8 will have a 4K display. If the screen size isn't much above 6" that
> is going to be a > 600 dpi display!
>
> 73,
>
> John
> AC0ZG
>
> On 6/27/2017 5:14 PM, Brian D. Comer wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> George
>
> My display is only 3200 X 1800. When I set the DPI to 1 as per the windows
> 10 note it locked out the scaling under settings. If I Turn off custom
> scaling and sign out, when it comes back powerSDR is messed  up. If "Change
> the size of text, and other apps" is set to 250% as recommended, powerSDR is
> totally messed up, if set to 100 or 125 the vertical is correct but the
> horizontal takes the full width. The GTX 970 M driver recommended by Razer
> or something does not seem to handle this well. Only setting DPI to 1 with
> regedit seems to get a good result. It is interesting to note that, a second
> monitor I have connected with only 1920 by 1080 follows the built in monitor
> on the lap top ever if it set as the primary monitor.
>
> I'm also using Windows 10 Creator's Edition.
>
> I understand this is a windows setting and the program is working as it was
> designed. However now with small hi resolution screens this makes the text
> very small. The GUI window comes up 5 by 2.8 inches. I can go to full screen
> buy that only results in the same size text sparsely spread over the screen.
>
>
> Brian KF6C
>
>
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