Widescreen Laptops and Projectors

[mattpant]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm sure more and more of you are finding yourselves in positions where new laptops only seem to be in the widescreen format, and projectors that you currently have around the schools ceiling mounted etc do not support these new resolutions.

 

What tips/setups are you going down the route of? Are you purchasing new projectors for the new widescreen laptops? This adds to the cost and also will probably need new brackets to ceiling mount etc etc

 

Or are you simply just putting up with it and changing the laptop resolution to something like 1024x768. I hate doing this, as the display on the laptop is awful and would hate anybody working with the incorrect resolution.

 

Any help/tips/ solutions would be gratefully accepted!!

 

Does anybody have any experience of any Wireless Widescreen Projectors that we could use (Mainly for our Tablet PCs)

 

Regards

 

Matt

[bizzel]

Our laptops switch down from 1280x800 to 1024x768 when switched over to a projector. If you switch back to single display mode, the res goes back too but teachers rarely do that. In fact, so few staff even notice that it's a non-issue.

[sharkster]

Our laptops switch down from 1280x800 to 1024x768 when switched over to a projector. If you switch back to single display mode, the res goes back too but teachers rarely do that. In fact, so few staff even notice that it's a non-issue.

 

hi can you tell me what laptops you use please.

 

what ive done with our laptops is use "Q-res" and create a batch file so before you change to the projector it will change the resolution and its quicker than goin through the display options, when ya finished ive made another batch file that changes the resolution back.

[broc]

Dell still have non-widescreen XGA resolution laptops in their Latitude range (D520 & D530) so I am still buying these for staff. There are a number of suppliers EuroPC, MCS, ITC, SterlingXS who sell refurbished systems for less than £400. We experimented with widescreen laptops but staff didn't like them, several older members of staff complained about the screens being difficult to see in their native resolutions. Fortunately the students think they are 'cool' so we have bought a number for curriculum use.

 

All of our teaching 'spaces' have non-widescreen IWB in place so we will not be buying any more (apart from replacements if any break). My current plan is to let the 'BSF' experts sort this issue out when we are 'remodelled' in three years time. That way I won't get the blame if staff don't like the outcome.

 

I must admit I find 15" widescreens hard on my eyes, that's why I have a 17" widescreen laptop

[bizzel]

Lee, we use Dell Latitude D620s for all our teaching staff. We find that just using the Fn+F8 combo to switch between internal and external displays works fine using the bundled nvidia graphics drivers - no problems so far! Hope that helps.