Today background weirdness.... Whats wrong with the color depth on the Today screen?

[FredMethot]

So I have this Windows XP wallpaper JPG that I resize to 240x320 (for x50 mid).

I transfer it to the Axim and open the image in Pictures. It looks nice, the color depth is nice and shows all the gradients very smoothly. Then I set the image as my Today background, goes to the today screen to check the result, the color depth looks like 256 colors. The gradients are all rough... but it looks perfect in Pictures.... whats wron with the today screen?

Exactly what size/color depth should I use for a today background?

[FredMethot]

So I have this Windows XP wallpaper JPG that I resize to 240x320 (for x50 mid).

I transfer it to the Axim and open the image in Pictures. It looks nice, the color depth is nice and shows all the gradients very smoothly. Then I set the image as my Today background, goes to the today screen to check the result, the color depth looks like 256 colors. The gradients are all rough... but it looks perfect in Pictures.... whats wron with the today screen?

Exactly what size/color depth should I use for a today background?

Bump... Anyone???

[drum4ever]

The pc is likely in the millions of colors. The Axim is (i believe) around 64 thousand colors. Get down around that range and you should get a more true image.

The pc is likely in the millions of colors. The Axim is (i believe) around 64 thousand colors. Get down around that range and you should get a more true image.

I think what he meant is that the application for viewing the picture shows it as the colors that he sees fine; whereas after setting the background it shows as a blocky compressed picture that shows artifacts.

I only know the way of fixing this on the x50v, unfortunately:

replace the file stwaters_480_640.gif in your /windows folder with the one that you create (on a pda or other picture software, saved as gif extension);

yes, only gif. in x50v if you set picture backgrounds using "pictures" it re-encodes it to a gif file, and places it under /windows. for landscape the file is stwaters_640_480.gif

maybe you can get some hint out of that for x50 mid?

[drum4ever]

oops. I misread the post sorry. Thanks for the clarification. I should never reply to posts before coffee.

[FredMethot]

I think what he meant is that the application for viewing the picture shows it as the colors that he sees fine; whereas after setting the background it shows as a blocky compressed picture that shows artifacts.

I only know the way of fixing this on the x50v, unfortunately:

replace the file stwaters_480_640.gif in your /windows folder with the one that you create (on a pda or other picture software, saved as gif extension);

yes, only gif. in x50v if you set picture backgrounds using "pictures" it re-encodes it to a gif file, and places it under /windows. for landscape the file is stwaters_640_480.gif

maybe you can get some hint out of that for x50 mid?

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS !

It worked! Thanks to you!

On the x50mid, the file is called default_stwater.gif. It contains both normal and landscape image.

Wow my Today screen really look sharp now, thanks a lot !


Now, microsoft really screwed up on that one though.
Why the hell would they limit the today background as a 256 color GIF file? 1, a gif is a lot bigger than a JPG, so it takes more memory when loaded. 2, why display 256colors when you can display 65k ?

Anyways, thanks for the tips man !

oops. I misread the post sorry. Thanks for the clarification. I should never reply to posts before coffee.

not a problem, i do that often as well ;) (and ppl hate me when i start poking out bits and pieces that they said wrong on forums, either intentionally or not :))

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS !

It worked! Thanks to you!

On the x50mid, the file is called default_stwater.gif. It contains both normal and landscape image.

Wow my Today screen really look sharp now, thanks a lot !


Now, microsoft really screwed up on that one though.
Why the hell would they limit the today background as a 256 color GIF file? 1, a gif is a lot bigger than a JPG, so it takes more memory when loaded. 2, why display 256colors when you can display 65k ?

Anyways, thanks for the tips man !

not a problem. it took me a while to figure out as well (i was using an image browser program and i accidentally tapped /windows - and i found out that folder contains a picture that i used for today screen .. hehe.

this method works great for running SE_VGA and oz_vga as well (when your menu bar and status bar are 1/2 sized and the wallpaper doesn't fit properly on the whole screen).

[bludger]

I thought I'd add what I encountered to get my picture to work.

I've got an x50v with ROM update A02. The file I had to overwrite was stwater.gif. I also had to do a soft reset afterwards to get it to display the pic.