Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101 / FAQ

Everything about displays and monitors. 120Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz, 4K, 1440p, input lag, display shopping, monitor purchase decisions, compare, versus, debate, and more. Questions? Just ask!
User avatar
Chief Blur Buster
Site Admin
Posts: 11647
Joined: 05 Dec 2013, 15:44
Location: Toronto / Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101 / FAQ

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 09 Mar 2017, 13:27

Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101 / FAQ

Confused? What the hell is a "Vertical Total"? And why does ToastyX CRU look like an airplane cockpit? And what is this silly "VT1350" sorcery I see for BENQ Blur Reduction discussions? Is this black magic. And what does VSYNC have to do all of this confusing stuff?

Let this glossary help de-mystify this for you!

Both AMD and NVIDIA control panels have custom resolution tweaking utilities built in. Or you can use a third party tweaking utility such as ToastyX CRU. In these utilities, you see terms like "Vertical", "Horizontal", "Vertical Front Porch", "Back Porch", "Sync", etc. Let's simplify for you.

Not all pixels refresh simultaneously at the same time. Many cables have to deliver one pixel at a time. Many screens have to refresh one pixel at a time.

Video cables deliver pixel rows from top to bottom. Most screens also refresh from top to bottom. Watch a high speed video of a screen refreshing from top-to-bottom, seen from www.blurbusters.com/scanout ... The separator between refresh cycles is called VSYNC, a portion of the Vertical Blanking Interval.

phpBB [video]


First, let's introduce good old-fashioned VSYNC. Have you ever seen an old TV with a rolling picture, because of a mis-adjusted VHOLD?

Image

Today, this is actually all adjustable. Here's an example of a Custom Resolution Utility screen, accessed via NVIDIA Control Panel, when you create a new Custom Resolution.

Image

Some of these numbers metaphorically represents the thickness of that VSYNC black bar separating refresh cycles. Although not displayed onscreen, one can imagine that the vertical blanking interval is just offscreen the top/bottom edges of your screen. Essentially, your computer is outputting a bigger signal (to allow synchronization intervals and porches) and your screen is only showing the centre of that bigger signal.

Whatever is in the GPU's visible graphics buffer (aka "front buffer") is automaically embedded in a larger virtualized resolution (hidden offscreen pixels that are overscan/porch and synchronization markers) as the GPU transmits out of the video output, one scanline at a time:

Image

The CRU (Custom Resolution Utility) terminology, is explained as:

GLOSSARY

To understand better, just imagine your computer monitor's pixel grid is a big calendar
An Earth calendar is like a low-resolution screen of 7x5 pixels, with each day as 1 pixel.
However, a 1920x1080 monitor is more like a massively giant alien calendar (Of TestUFO alien fame!) where each weeks is a huge 1920 days long and more than 1080 weeks tall! A very huge grid of millions of days in one "alien month".

Transmitted one pixel at a time left-to-right, top-to-bottom as a way to serialize 2D images over what is essentially a 1D signal (like VGA or HDMI or DisplayPort). Newer signal standards may be packetized (e.g. pixel row compressed all at once) but it's still fundamentally a sequential stream serialization of a series of images (refresh cycles). This can also be both the video cable point of view, as well as the panel point of view (CRT, LCD, OLED) for displays that have a top-to-bottom scanout, as seen in high speed videos.
  • Horizontal Sync: There are hidden synchronization pixels beyond left-edge of screen (like a Sunday) & right-edge of screen (like a Saturday). The purpose is to signal a display to begin outputting the next row of pixels.
  • Vertical Sync: Also known as VSYNC or Vertical Blanking or VBI. There are hidden synchronization pixels beyond top edge and after bottom edge (e.g. like 1st week and 5th week). The purpose is to signal a display to begin the next refresh cycle. Videogames use "VSYNC ON" / "VSYNC OFF" to tell the game whether or not to synchronize frames with the refresh cycles of the display, for better smoothness. Sometimes when saying VSYNC, it excludes the padding/overscan (Vertical Back Porch and Vertical Front Porch), but often VBI and VSYNC is used interchangeably for most signals because the porches usually are tiny.
  • Vertical Blanking Interval -- Known as VBI. The entire interval between refresh cycles. The sum of (Vertical Back Porch + Vertical Sync + Vertical Front Porch).
  • Visible resolution: Metaphorically this is like the weekdays of 2nd through the 4th weeks of a calendar. The "pixels" (days) at the top/bottom/left/right edges of the calendar is invisible (hidden off-screen). Like only being able to view the centre of a calendar through a rectangular stencil. That's the "active resolution"
  • Horizontal & Vertical Totals: More complexly, within both Horizontal Sync and Vertical Sync there can be multiple hidden dotclock/pixels (Front Porch, Sync, Back Porch). Instead of just 1 hidden pixel at the edges. There can be hundreds of hidden pixels for display synchronization purposes.
  • Front & Back Porch: This is the padding (often hidden black or gray pixels) between the visible pixels & the synchronization pixels (which can be darker than black, aka "below black). Porches can be viewed as padding between the visible signal & synchronization signal.
  • Refresh Cycle: One full frame worth of pixels. For a 120Hz display, that's 1/120th of a second worth of pixels.
    ("one refresh cycle" for an Earth calendar is one complete month)
  • Dotclock: Number of pixels per second.
    (The "dotclock" of an Earth calendar is 1 "pixel" per day! While a computer monitor doing 1920x1080 144Hz is doing more than 300Mhz -- over 300 million pixels per second).
  • Horizontal Scanrate: Number of pixel rows per second.
    (The "horizontal scanrate" of an Earth calendar is 1 week.)
  • Vertical Scanrate: Same as Refresh Rate. Number of refresh cycles per second.
    (The "vertical scanrate" (also "refresh rate") of an Earth calendar is 1 month.)
  • Vertical Total: is the grand total of Vertical Resolution + Vertical Sync + Vertical Back Porch + Vertical Front Porch
  • Horizontal Total: is the grand total of Horizontal Resolution + Horizontal Sync + Horizontal Back Porch + Horizontal Front Porch
  • CRU: Custom Resolution Utility
  • VT: Vertical Total
  • VT1350: Vertical Total of 1350 pixels. Often mentioned along with BENQ Blur Reduction (XL2411 / XL2420 / XL2720 series)
Refresh cycles are transmitted over a video cable, 1 pixel at a time
Pixels are transmitted over a cable (VGA, DVI, DP, HDMI) from the computer to the monitor essentially one pixel at a time sequentially (even if packetized on DisplayPort). At dotclock rate (e.g. often 300-350Mhz dotclock for 1920x1080 120-144Hz).

Like days on a calendar are transmitted, left to right, top to bottom, scanned-out one "week" at a time. The hidden "days" at the edge of this metaphorical calendar are used for synchronization purposes and not visible on the screen. Porches and sync are hidden off the edges of the screen.

The sequence is BackPorch-Visible-FrontPorch-Sync. Beginning horizontally left-to-right, and then vertically top-to-bottom, pixels are much like how "days" are output on a calendar sequentially. Pixels are transmitted as one continuous stream, in sequence -- BackPorch-Visible-FrontPorch-Sync-BackPorch-Visible-FrontPorch-Sync-BackPorch-Visible-FrontPorch. Porches is padding that always separate visible pixels & sync pixels. This is a longtime carryover from an old analog video signals, which is well explained here. On analog CRT displays, the porch padding often allowed time for the electron gun to move back to the left edge of the next scan line, and then begin accelerating into a scan line (analog equivalent of a new row of pixel) before displaying image data (visible data) -- amongst holding other signals (e.g. colorburst signal, when color TVs first got introduced). The (often black) porches are hidden by the overscan of a CRT display. While the meanings of porches and sync has changed with digital signals -- and become far more flexible on modern gaming monitors -- they still continue to serve a very important display-synchronization purpose today.

Nontheless, we've used the same raster structure for almost 100 years, from 1930s analog TV broadcasts, all the way through 2020s DisplayPort. It's amazing how the raster signal sequencing is fundamentally unchanged, even through this digital era.

Does VSYNC ON versus VSYNC OFF affect the display signal?
Generally, no. The GPU is still transmitting the vertical synchronization signal. The use of VSYNC OFF in games simply tells the game to avoid waiting for the next refresh cycle. Instead of waiting for the end of the refresh cycle (e.g. "metaphorically waiting for the end of the calendar month", creating lag) -- it simply tells the graphics card to immediately begin the next rendered frame at the current point in the display output.

If you imagine the display pixel grid like a calendar grid -- just imagine the first half current month (e.g. February, current frame) is attached to the second half of next month (e.g. March, next frame). The calendar keeps moving ahead at the same dotclock (1 "day" at a time) at the same position on screen. The day-of-month keeps merrily moving exactly where it is spatially in this grid (e.g. specific day on calendar) even while you've suddenly jumped exactly 1 month ahead (VSYNC OFF). The tearline occurs where the splice occurs skipping a full frame ahead (sudden one-month skip ahead). Often (for non-GSYNC monitors) the monitor doesn't even know what "happened" -- the graphics card (GPU) simply immediately switched to the next frame in real-time.

Remember the rolling picture of a 1970s TV?
Yep! When you mis-adjust the VHOLD knob of an old analog TV -- that black bar is the vertical synchronization (VSYNC) signal. The thickness of the black bar is the total resolution of the (Vertical Front Porch + Vertical Sync + Vertical Back Porch). Which means, the bigger the Vertical Total, the thicker the black bar will be, if your computer monitor was theoretically capable of losing vertical synchronization and rolled like a 1970s TV. Synchronization of modern monitors are extremely strong and nearly bulletproof, so you will never see a rolling picture on newer displays -- but if you are old enough to remember an old TV, this helps make the Custom Resolution Utility concepts easier to understand.

Closed captions were transmitted in the porch scanlines. The vertical porch scanlines are often grayer than the actual "Vertical Sync" scanlines. Special signals are sometimes hidden in these (e.g. closed captioning signals. If you misadjust the VHOLD setting of an old TV, and roll your rolling on a closed-captioned TV channel -- you will see flickering white pixels/rectangles at the edge of the black bar here! Vertical Back Porch was popular for hiding hidden digital data in an old analog TV signals.

Vertical Totals tweaking is popular with some monitors
Vertical Totals became popular on Blur Busters Forums as an enhancement to several blur-reduction modes on some monitors, most particularly BENQ/Zowie XL2411, XL2420, XL2720. Essentially, large vertical totals can be used to accelerate scanout to panel (active refreshing) and add longer pauses between refresh cycles (idle). For more detailed information, see Why Do Large Vertical Totals Help Blur Reduction?.

What about FreeSync and variable refresh rate? How do they work in CRU math?
FreeSync simply varies the size of the blanking intervals to space out the refresh cycles. (For that 1970s TV diagram if you're familiar with that VHOLD black bar, it is tantamount to changing the height of that VHOLD bar). The scan line rate (pixel rows per second = horizontal scan rate) is always permanently constant, so adding/removing scanlines in the blanking interval is the method of varying the refresh rate dynamically on the fly. Every single refresh cycle, the refresh rate changes to exactly match frame rate, even a fluctuating frame rate. When creating a CRU mode for FreeSync, you're creating the timings for the maximum refresh rate (top end of VRR range) -- essentially you're defining the smallest blanking interval that is planned to be used. The graphics card will only *add* to the blanking interval to slow down the refresh rate during variable refresh rate operation (FreeSync / VESA Adaptive-Sync / HDMI 2.1 VRR) down to the bottom end of the supported range. ToastyX CRU is also capable of letting you force FreeSync out of HDMI, which has been a trick to allow FreeSync to work on CRT monitors since some multisync CRTs are apparently tolerant of dynamically-changing blanking intervals.

New Article Coming On This
New Blur Busters article coming on main Blur Busters website within a few weeks (after the brand new site has launched), that expands CRU 101 further.
Head of Blur Busters - BlurBusters.com | TestUFO.com | Follow @BlurBusters on Twitter

Image
Forum Rules wrote:  1. Rule #1: Be Nice. This is published forum rule #1. Even To Newbies & People You Disagree With!
  2. Please report rule violations If you see a post that violates forum rules, then report the post.
  3. ALWAYS respect indie testers here. See how indies are bootstrapping Blur Busters research!

spacediver
Posts: 505
Joined: 18 Dec 2013, 23:51

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101

Post by spacediver » 09 Mar 2017, 14:31

nicely done, and much needed.

Also, first time I've ever seen the word "complexly" - love it :)

RLBURNSIDE
Posts: 104
Joined: 06 Apr 2015, 16:09

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101

Post by RLBURNSIDE » 16 Mar 2017, 10:18

I managed to get my w1070 projector overclocked to 75hz over HDMI using custom settings like lowering the number of porch lines etc.

I currently use 71.928hz as my main refresh rate, since it's exactly 3 X 23.976 which is film framerate, though I use DmitriRender interpolation for smoothness on top of that. It's really the best, very little artifacts, perfectly stable, never crashes. Works and looks great at 144hz on my LCD monitor too.

Games run better too, and a 20% overclock also increases colour wheel speed on my DLP by the same amount. Win.

My next attempt will be to use a DP 1.2 -> VGA adapter, or my GPU's VGA out, to get native 10-bit at RGB / 444 at 72hz. This is for UHD Blurays which are 10-bit native and can indeed benefit from less banding on DLPs which don't have a native bit depth, and have a mirror switching speed capable of reproducing 10-bit gamma easily (DLPs are actually linear, i.e. no gamma curve on them, natively). With a custom de-gamma LUT it should be possible to decode PQ (st.2084 HDR signals) natively too, though I will have to figure out how to apply a custom LUT. Then I could also use the cinema filter I bought from an Epson 3LCD projector to get P3 colour gamut. Cost me 20 bucks.

I Love DIY! Saves so much money and makes things run so much better.

spacediver
Posts: 505
Joined: 18 Dec 2013, 23:51

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101

Post by spacediver » 16 Mar 2017, 10:28

what would be the purpose of the VGA conversion (I'm assuming you're not talking about running on a CRT)

User avatar
Chief Blur Buster
Site Admin
Posts: 11647
Joined: 05 Dec 2013, 15:44
Location: Toronto / Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 16 Mar 2017, 17:37

Maybe it's because for this specific particular device, the VGA is the only input that can take 72Hz or 75Hz?

Sometimes devices only allow the highest refresh rate on VGA. It doesn't happen often anymore, but it's a consideration.
Head of Blur Busters - BlurBusters.com | TestUFO.com | Follow @BlurBusters on Twitter

Image
Forum Rules wrote:  1. Rule #1: Be Nice. This is published forum rule #1. Even To Newbies & People You Disagree With!
  2. Please report rule violations If you see a post that violates forum rules, then report the post.
  3. ALWAYS respect indie testers here. See how indies are bootstrapping Blur Busters research!

Milincho
Posts: 19
Joined: 28 Oct 2022, 10:45

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101

Post by Milincho » 16 Nov 2022, 17:07

RLBURNSIDE wrote:
16 Mar 2017, 10:18
I managed to get my w1070 projector overclocked to 75hz over HDMI using custom settings like lowering the number of porch lines etc.
Sorry to necropost, but I see this user is not on the forum anymore to ask him directly, and I am very interested in this issue.

I am trying to get beyond 60Hz with my Epson 6040UB projector ( https://epson.com/For-Home/Projectors/P ... ifications )

I created a new custom resolution with CRU and it recognizes and displays a 72Hz signal (23.976 x 3):

Image

BUT the motion is not smooth. It's jerky like it's jumping or losing frames, and this can be easily checked with the UFO test.

I tried lowering the porch numbers as much as I could without losing the signal, but I don't see it fixing that jerky refresh.
This stuff gets a bit over my knowledge and I honestly don't know if this makes sense for an LCD projector like the Epson or what kind of settings are needed, but if possible, it would be great to get RGB 10bit 72Hz.

Any ideas? :roll:

User avatar
Chief Blur Buster
Site Admin
Posts: 11647
Joined: 05 Dec 2013, 15:44
Location: Toronto / Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101 / FAQ

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 17 Nov 2022, 00:12

If you are getting frameskipping at www.testufo.com/frameskipping then you may be SOL in overclocking.

Does your projector have a 3D mode? If so, try 120Hz. Sometimes you have to double Hz instead...

If you play games on your Epson, you might want to try QFT (Quick Frame Transport) to reduce projector lag. e.g. transmitting your "60Hz" refresh cycles faster instead.
Head of Blur Busters - BlurBusters.com | TestUFO.com | Follow @BlurBusters on Twitter

Image
Forum Rules wrote:  1. Rule #1: Be Nice. This is published forum rule #1. Even To Newbies & People You Disagree With!
  2. Please report rule violations If you see a post that violates forum rules, then report the post.
  3. ALWAYS respect indie testers here. See how indies are bootstrapping Blur Busters research!

Milincho
Posts: 19
Joined: 28 Oct 2022, 10:45

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101 / FAQ

Post by Milincho » 17 Nov 2022, 10:06

Chief Blur Buster wrote:
17 Nov 2022, 00:12
If you are getting frameskipping at www.testufo.com/frameskipping then you may be SOL in overclocking.
SOL? sorry for my total ignorance... :D
Chief Blur Buster wrote:
17 Nov 2022, 00:12
Does your projector have a 3D mode? If so, try 120Hz. Sometimes you have to double Hz instead...
Yes, it has a 3D mode, but that seems to be a totally internal thing, as it doesn't show up as 120Hz refresh rate in the info. Will try anyway.
Chief Blur Buster wrote:
17 Nov 2022, 00:12
If you play games on your Epson, you might want to try QFT (Quick Frame Transport) to reduce projector lag. e.g. transmitting your "60Hz" refresh cycles faster instead.
Yes, I play a lot of games in the projector. Don't know what QFT is, but gonna search about it right now.

Thanks!

Milincho
Posts: 19
Joined: 28 Oct 2022, 10:45

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101 / FAQ

Post by Milincho » 17 Nov 2022, 10:09

Ah, just read about QFT (Quick Frame Transport), but I see that's an HDMI 2 feature. This Epson 6040UB projector is HDMI 1.4...

User avatar
Chief Blur Buster
Site Admin
Posts: 11647
Joined: 05 Dec 2013, 15:44
Location: Toronto / Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101 / FAQ

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 17 Nov 2022, 18:54

Milincho wrote:
17 Nov 2022, 10:09
Ah, just read about QFT (Quick Frame Transport), but I see that's an HDMI 2 feature. This Epson 6040UB projector is HDMI 1.4...
Unofficially QFT can be hacked onto VGA, DVI, DisplayPort and any version of HDMI. It's just a custom resolution tweak.

QFT, for example, reduces the latency of doing certain fixed-Hz-modes on DLP projectors, for example -- even though the DLP projectors does not officially support QFT.

Since unofficial QFT is not a VESA mode or HDMI Forum mode, but you can still DIY-create your QFT mode via Custom Resolution Utilities.

QFT works even on early HDMI variants if the bitrate allows and the transceivers on both ends supports it.
Head of Blur Busters - BlurBusters.com | TestUFO.com | Follow @BlurBusters on Twitter

Image
Forum Rules wrote:  1. Rule #1: Be Nice. This is published forum rule #1. Even To Newbies & People You Disagree With!
  2. Please report rule violations If you see a post that violates forum rules, then report the post.
  3. ALWAYS respect indie testers here. See how indies are bootstrapping Blur Busters research!

Post Reply