Used projector & ghosting

[booman]

A friend from Church gave me a projector and when I plug it in
there is major Ghosting.
I tried two different VGA cables and both ports on my 9800pro and still a lot of ghosting.
I tried reseting the projector to factory defaults, messed with the focus, and adjusted the settings but still ghosting.
I did some research and read that your computer should be set to the same resolution as the capabilities of the projector and mine wasn't. I'm still going to try that and use an S-video cable.
Would different resolution create really bad ghosting?
Its so bad that the fonts look doubled as if the dropshadow was way to far away.
Any suggestions?

[Gizmo]

Being at the wrong resolution wouldn't cause ghosting, it would cause 'fuzzing' and artifacting.

Ghosting is generally caused by a poor impedance mismatch in the signal path. If you've swapped video cables that are known to work with other monitors, then I have to suspect that something is borked internally in the monitor; that's probably why the church was getting rid of the monitor to start with.

[booman]

I had a feeling you might say that.
I'm sure you are right, but I won't give up so easily...
I'll still try the S-video but I don't have any high expectations.
Actually my friend from Church works at Intel and I bet he got it from there.

[Samuknow]

Is this an older CRT based projector?

[booman]

I don't think so...
It looks alot like the meeting room projectors you can get at Staples.
I've never heard of the Brand name before.
I'll get the name and model for some searching...

[Samuknow]

I was just thinking a convergence issue.

[booman]

Du-Oh! I totally forgot to get the brand name and model last night.
But I did try the S-video cable. It actually worked ok.
There was still some ghosting but not as much. I could read the text this time. Only the color was offset a little. So that makes me think its either the VGA cable I was using or the VGA port is messed up.
I would try the digital port but its wider than the one on my Radeon 9800pro.
Any other suggestions? It works well enough for using at Church, but it still had a blue haze which is probably normal for office projectors.

[Samuknow]

TV out usually is crappy for desktop apps. Works fine on video or Power point type apps.

[booman]

We'll then that answers my question...
This projector is for our Friday night service (CR) and I plan to keep it at home for the rest of the week. We are only using it for Worship Lyrics and for sermon notes. We use a PowerPoint type of program with backgrounds and from time to time we may have a video for the congregation to watch.
But, I don't know if the Church's laptop has an S-video out...
I'll try the VGA first, but if I get the same problem I had at home then it will be useless.

[booman]

I tried the projector at Church on the laptop we use on Friday night.
The picture looked fine.
The fonts were crisp and the background was colorful.
So then what is the deal with my computer?
I used one of the same cables that I used at home.
The only main different is at Church I was projecting on a projection screen. At home I was projecting on some white closet doors.
Any idea what I could try at home to get it to work?
I have to computers to choose from.
1. Radeon 9800pro- digital & analog out
2. Radeon 9600pro- digital, s-video, analog out

[Gizmo]

What were the settings for vertical and horizontal refresh on the machine at home?

[booman]

I'll have to check and get back to you on that one...

[booman]

Man I checked in the Catalyst Control Center, the monitor settings, and in the control panels and I can't find where the vertical and horizontal refresh rates are!!??
Do I need a program to show me?

Anyways, here is the Brand Name and Model #:

ASK Proxima C180

I'm going to do some searching on the web to see if anyone else has had this same problem.

[booman]

Apparently it is just a random thing because I'm using the S-video cable from my DVD player to watch movies and it looks fine. There is a lot of blue projecting around the edges of the screen, but otherwise looks great.
It did the ghosting thing again last Friday on the laptop and I just kept restarting and swapping cables. Then all of a sudden it worked!
Whatever, at least I get to watch movies on a big screen at home.

[Samuknow]

The heck with movies....gaming on a 4 foot screen is all that.....