Why is PictureBox Image Quality Different Between PCs?

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Hello. I have a confusing question. I have a project that I am transferring back and forth between my home and work laptops. The project is run through C# Visual Studio Express 2010 on both PCs.

The work laptop has Windows 7 64-bit edition. When I run my program here, my picture boxes (which contain images much much larger than the picture boxes...but are set to stretch to fit) look pretty nice.

On the home PC (Windows Vista 32-bit), the same images in the picture boxes look blocky. It almost seems as though the interpolation settings are different even though it is the exact same project. Any ideas??? Thanks!

Edit 3-23-2011:

OK, I have four screen captures to show you guys.

First is a print screen of the home laptop running the application full screen at 1440x900.

Second is a print screen of the home laptop doing the same as before, but forcing the picturebox to draw with interpolation = High.

Third is a print screen of the work laptop running the application full screen at 1440x900.

Fourth is a print screen of the work laptop doing the same as before, but forcing the picturebox to draw with interpolation = NearestNeighbor

...OK, I thought I would be able to upload the photos here but I guess not. Instead I'll give a description of the photos.

1. Text looks bad. Fine detail is bad looking as well.

2. Things are "smoothed out" and lookin good

3. Text and Fine detail look nice. Extremely similar to #2

4. Text and fine detail looks bad. Similar to #1

Posted 22-Mar-11 17:46pm

Member 7766574

Updated 23-Mar-11 3:34am

v3

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Albin Abel 22-Mar-11 23:56pm

as you said it is PC dependent, screen resolution? color schemes?

Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 0:00am

Screen resolution is the same between PC's. 1440x900. Color scheme is nothing special on either.

I can even remote desktop from the worse computer to the better computer, and looking at it through RD'ing, you can tell the image quality is better than running native on the home PC.

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-22T18:23:00

Solution 1

I don't think the quality is different. It can be different if the system uses different color model (16-bits, 32-bits, etc. which can limit rendering quality). It cannot depend on Windows version.

More likely, the quality of LCD (or CRT?) is different, so the picture is perceived pale or color-shifted or even blurred. This is easy to check up. Use Alt-PrintsScreen in two identical applications running on different system, paste clipboard in some decent image editor (my recommendation: Open Source GIMP) and compare on the same system.

—SA

Posted 22-Mar-11 18:23pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Updated 23-Mar-11 7:50am

v2

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Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 9:37am

Hello. I took screenshots of the same application on both laptops (at the same resolution), and there is a definite difference when viewing the screenshots on the same PC. The work one looks much better than the home one.

I forced the home one to have it's picturebox draw the image with Interpolation = High, and it looks very good. Very similar to the work laptop.

I then forced the work one to have it's picturebox draw the image with Interpolation = NearestNeighbor, and it looks like crap. Very similar to the home one.

Any other ideas?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 13:53pm

The same. Compare settings on both computers. What are the differences?
Interpolation type is the feature of application. You should have all identical.
--SA

Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 14:00pm

I know interpolation type is an application feature.

What I'm saying is two "identical" projects have pictureboxes that look different on two different computers.

Computer A looks good
Computer B looks bad

I then modify computer B project to have the picturebox's interpolation = "High", and all of a sudden it looks as good as A.

I then modify computer A project o have the picturebox's interpolation = "NearestNeighbor", and all of a sudden it looks as bad as B.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 20:44pm

You still did not confirm is settings are the same.
--SA

Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 20:53pm

The project settings? It is a copy and paste from one computer to the other. They are the same.

I did take the executable and run it on both PCs. The same executable looks different on each one, so you must be right. The problem must lay with the LCD screens or something. Right?

Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 21:00pm

Wait wait. I just thought about that. It can't be the LCD screens. I print screened and it looked bad on both screens. Something is happening while the program is running that is causing the image to be displayed differently on one PC vs. the other.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 21:04pm

See system settings. You never answered if they are the same.
--SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 21:03pm

No! Of the system. Settings... Display... Settings... color quality.
I asked from the very beginning: are they the same or not?
--SA

Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 21:11pm

32-bit on both computers.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 21:14pm

Hm... hard to imagine, what else...
What are the differences in pictures?
--SA

Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 21:15pm

Is there a way to upload the pictures to this site? I can email them to you as well. To show how they differ

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 21:37pm

No. There are special sites for temporary images. Not that I want to see it very much. Any idea on what's different?
--SA

Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 21:38pm

I have no idea. I would not be posting this if I knew 8 )

Аslam Iqbal 23-Mar-11 9:50am

And Display driver too. my 5

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 20:44pm

You still did not confirm is settings are the same.
--SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 13:57pm

If settings and application are identical (and application rendering is "fixed", no "ifs" depending in hardware), two display drivers much present a picture pixel-to-pixel identical. Even if it is not so (one of video cards or drivers defected), the screenshots would be identical, but OP says they are different.
I can only suspect settings are different. Apparently, anti-aliasing in 32-bit color quality is better than 16, just compare the number of colors...
Thank you for your vote.
--SA

Dalek Dave 23-Mar-11 10:45am

Spot on answer.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Mar-11 13:58pm

Thank you, Dalek.
--SA

Member 7766574 23-Mar-11 13:20pm

I still don't know if I'm buying it, but I'll just run the same executable on both systems vs. compiling the project and running. If it still looks different, then I'll have to take your word for it