[C] Date: 8 May 1997
From: Philip Wilk

Markus Gebhard has compiled a lot of
information about the 256 color barrier on the aero. These data can be
found at: <http://kakadu.rz.uni-passau.de/~gebhar03/aero/video.htm>.
Basically, the gist of it is that there are many different video modes
avaliable to the aero. Some of these video modes require an external
monitor that is about to sync at specific, non-standard frequencies. So
far, the only viewer program that can access these video modes is
fractint, which can be found at:
<ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/coast/msdos/graphics/>. 
Also, you may want to check out the 640 x 480 video mode that uses 16
greyscales; according to Mr. Gebhard it looks great. The only downside is
that some of those modes require a 45MHz H-sync. Not all monitors can do
this (mine can not).

[C]

The Aero does provide support for the "unofficial" 360x480x256 mode which is
available (if undocumented) on most video cards. I'm not sure of the mode
number, but I know that it runs full-screen rather than as the chopped-off
320x200 mode. Remember, on an LCD display you can't change physical display
resolution, so things that don't divide into 640x480 evenly (like 640x200,
320x200, 320x400, etc...) are going to get chopped off. 360x480 is in my
opinion a far better solution than 320x200, assuming your program supports it.

[C] Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 13:42:38 -0700
From: Steven Lawson 

You can't get 256 colors in 640x480 mode because not enough video
ram is available (only 262144 bytes is available, 256 colors needs
307200 bytes).  This eliminates hi-res Windows and anything else
needing 640x480.  You CAN get 256 colors in DOS with certain
image viewers in a 360x480 mode.  Compushow (CSHOW) does this
very well and it's what I use.

There's also a viewer for Windows someone on the list mentioned
which does a pretty good job dithering with 16 colors.  I've
played with it and it was the best I've seen under Windows, but
still nowhere near as clean as CSHOW under DOS (or a DOS session)

This is the biggest limitation of the Aero.... :(

   Note: I think the program for windows is lprint.   - Philip

[C] From: Miguel Angel 
Subject: INTERNET PHOTOS IN 256 COLORS

Many people in the Aero list have said that they cannot recognize photos
while they are in Internet. Well, there is a trick I use to view them in 256
colors; I use a picture viewer called PV, in the Netscape helpers you can
set the JPG and GIF (and all the others) to launch this application that
runs in Dos, and when you click with the right mouse button to view a
picture then launches the PV in Dos and I can view the image in 256 colors
in low resolution.
I don't know exactly where I get this application, i think I downloaded it
from Shareware.com and it works great with all formats. 
Best regards.