Displaying portrait mode on a projector

[eof]

I have a faculty member who uses OneNote to write and display his notes
during class. He would prefer to use portrait mode to do this, but we can't
figure out how to get that mode to display correctly on a projector. He's
using an IBM Thinkpad Tablet

Any ideas would be appreciated.

B.

 

[Grant Robertson]

I have a faculty member who uses OneNote to write and display his notes
during class. He would prefer to use portrait mode to do this, but we can't
figure out how to get that mode to display correctly on a projector. He's
using an IBM Thinkpad Tablet

When you change to portrait mode on the Tablet PC, what do you have to do
with the Tablet PC? Right, you have to physically turn it 90 degrees.
What do you think you are going to have to do with the projector?

 

[Thurman]

When you change to portrait mode on the Tablet PC, what do you have to do
with the Tablet PC? Right, you have to physically turn it 90 degrees.
What do you think you are going to have to do with the projector?

Are you suggesting he physically turn a projector on it's side?

Every projector I used was designed for max air flow to ventilate the
extraordinary amount of heat they generate. I don't remember ever seeing a
projector built to be rotated in place. That sounds like a good way to brick
the unit.

 

[Grant Robertson]

Are you suggesting he physically turn a projector on it's side?

Every projector I used was designed for max air flow to ventilate the
extraordinary amount of heat they generate. I don't remember ever seeing a
projector built to be rotated in place. That sounds like a good way to brick
the unit.

I'm saying that is the only way he is going to get a "portrait mode" out
of a projector. Just like a screen, a projector has a physical array of
liquid crystals. You can't just electronically tell a projector to change
the physical arrangement of those crystals. There just might be some
really high end models of projectors that do one of the following:

* Mechanically rotate the array on command.
* Use a square array of the maximum size needed then only use the band of
pixels in the middle needed to display the desired ratio.
* Optically rotate the display using mirrors in the projector.

I seriously doubt a single manufacturer spends the money to put into a
product these extra features that will almost never be used.

If you want to rotate the projector it is possible to do so without
blocking the vents, though it may take a bit of ingenuity. The air is
pushed through by a fan so gravity will not affect the cooling
efficiency. Most of the projectors at my university are mounted hanging
upside-down from the ceiling so you can see and reach the buttons. Some
projectors even have a plate in the bottom for bolting onto a plate which
has been welded onto the end of a pipe or other mounting apparatus. If
that mounting apparatus were hinged then the projector could easily be
rotated 90 degrees simply by swinging the apparatus on its hinge.

There are 1001 different ways this could be achieved. However, unless the
original poster has lots of time or political pull I doubt anyone would
be willing to do any of them.

What I recommend is that the original poster simply accept the fact that
there are limits to what one can do in the real world and stop trying to
project a Tablet PC screen in portrait mode. Just put the thing back into
standard landscape mode and write on it that way when he is projecting
onto a screen.

 

[xTenn]

I have a faculty member who uses OneNote to write and display his notes
during class. He would prefer to use portrait mode to do this, but we can't
figure out how to get that mode to display correctly on a projector. He's
using an IBM Thinkpad Tablet

Any ideas would be appreciated.

B.

You try to use something like switchResX to set up a portrait display
mode that is projector friendly. However, the reduced pixels may be
more than annoying, and if your projector trys to rescan it may be
unreadable.

http://www.madrau.com/html/SRX/About.html


But there is good news too - NEC makes projectors that are designed to
be tablet PC friendly in portrait mode. Google for NEC NT170, for
example (great looking little projector).

 

[eof]

Thanks for all of your thoughts.

Physically turning the projector is an interesting idea, but mine are also
ceiling mounted and immobile. You did give me another idea. Part of the
problem with writing in Landscape mode is that your palm rests on or near the
tablet's buttons causing inadvertant button presses. The Epson allows me to
flip the projected image 180 degrees, and the tablet allows the Prof. to turn
the image 360 degrees so a combination of the Prof. flipping the tablet image
and me flipping the projected image allows him to write in landscape without
bumping into buttons. It's a step in the right direction.

In the meantime I'll wait a few years for NEC and the rest of the
manufacturers to come up with a "vertical letterbox" projection to handle the
tablet's portrait mode.

B.