Feature: allow to control refresh rates
[ This was originally reported by alister.hood-guest on 2013-07-23 00:45 as issue 314336 on alioth. ]
Hi, Other programs like lxrandr and zarfy allow you to control the refresh rate for each output as well as the resolution. Apart from this missing feature arandr is much better than the other lightweight alternatives, so it would be nice if it had this ability too :)
Since different refresh rates may be available depending on the resolution, and arandr controls resolution in a menu, the refresh rate and the resolution would need to be controlled together like in zarfy (rather than lxrandr which uses two separate comboboxes). i.e. the resolution menu might look like this: 1280x1024 (60Hz) 1024x768 (75Hz) 1024x768 (60Hz) 800x600 (75Hz) 800x600 (60Hz)
[ Follow-up by chrysn-guest on 2014-01-07 15:04: ]
that's on my agenda, but strangely got lost when i migrated to this bug tracker.
implementation-wise, i won't go with a "WIDTHxHEIGHT (RATE)" resolution, but instead have an additional menu, possibly packed away in a "details" dialog; it will usually have "automatic" selected by default, and jump to the next best fit when the selected rate is unavailable after a resolution change.
i tend to consider this a niche feature -- what use cases nowadays for refresh rates other than the highest? (i figure crt monitors that act weirdly with some modes are a thing of the past)
[ Follow-up by alister.hood-guest on 2014-01-11 01:26: ]
I've encountered a number of video cards (particularly on-board ones) which are a bit flaky in the highest resolution and refresh rate, as well as at least one LCD monitor with a similar issue.
- I've also seen high-end video cards where the Linux driver wasn't quite right and the image was warped or off the side of the screen in the highest refresh rate. Luckily with an LCD monitor there is no need to use a high refresh rate to avoid eye strain, because it doesn't flicker like a CRT monitor.