A blurry remote HMI picture is almost always the remote app's graphic quality control, not the panel. Set Graphic Quality to 100% in the app's setup menu, reopen the trend screen, and compare it with the panel. The setting changes only how the screen is rendered to your device; the panel's native resolution and the screen layout set the ceiling.
A remote HMI view that looks blurry, blocky or soft on your tablet is, in most cases, a settings problem in the remote app, and the fix costs nothing. The app is not streaming a video of the panel; it is rendering the panel's screen for your device, and one control decides how much of that rendering survives the trip. Set the app's graphic quality to its maximum before you touch any hardware. If the picture is still short of detail at 100%, the limit is the panel's native pixels and the way the screen was laid out, and no setting on the tablet moves either one. This page explains what the quality value changes, what it leaves alone, and how to tell a rendering problem from a screen that genuinely needs more pixels.
The setting to change first
Connect to the panel with the remote app as usual, then open the session's settings. In the app this lives under Setup, as an item named Graphic Quality. Set it to 100% and apply.
The app's own help page describes the trade-off plainly: a lower value reduces the resolution of the screen objects, and 100% is the value to use when you want high-quality graphics. A lower value sends less data per frame, which is why some servers ship with it low; the cost is sharpness you pay for every session.
Then judge it where it matters:
- Reopen the process screen you use most.
- Open the trend view and leave it updating for a few minutes.
- Hold each screen long enough to read its smallest text before you decide.
What the quality value changes, and what stays fixed
The value shapes the image prepared for your session and nothing else. The panel still draws its own screens at its native resolution, and the app serves that same screen at the panel's native resolution, as the app's store page states. The pixels you receive are the pixels the panel has. Raising the value to 100% does not add pixels to the panel, sharpen the panel's own view, or extend what the trend can plot.
That is why a tablet with four times the panel's pixel count cannot pull detail out of the session that the panel never had. There is no second, higher-resolution copy of the screen to send. The pixel grid is fixed hardware; why two HMI panel sizes can share one layout in pixels shows how layouts sit on it.
Which problem you have
Work down the list until the symptom matches:
- Soft or blocky only in the remote view, sharp at the panel. The quality value. Set Graphic Quality to 100% and compare again.
- Soft at the panel too. Different cause, usually the front cover or contrast. Start with fixing blurry small text caused by an anti-glare cover.
- Letters too small in both views. The text was drawn small for the panel's native pixels. The quality value cannot enlarge it; fix the layout at the panel.
- Trend lines coarse in both views. That is data resolution, not image rendering. Many trend objects resolve a fixed share of full scale; see why an HMI trend graph resolves 1% of full scale.
- Sharp but slow or jerky. The network path, not the picture. Start with why an HMI button can lag seconds before the graphic moves, then check the client you chose for remote HMI wireless access.
- Numbers look wrong. A process or data question. A crisper picture will not answer it; check the values where they live.
Example: quarter resolution turns a 1920 × 1080 trend screen into a gray bar
Say the panel's screen is 1920 × 1080, a common HMI size, and the alarm banner across the top uses capitals 24 pixels tall. At Graphic Quality 100% the app serves the screen at native resolution, so the banner arrives at its full 24-pixel height and reads normally at arm's length.
Some remote viewers instead step the image down in fixed fractions, documented as Full, Half, Quarter or Eighth of the screen. The arithmetic for each step:
- Half: 1920 ÷ 2 = 960 pixels wide, 1080 ÷ 2 = 540 tall. Capitals 24 ÷ 2 = 12 pixels tall. Readable up close, tight for a dense trend.
- Quarter: 1920 ÷ 4 = 480 wide, 1080 ÷ 4 = 270 tall. Capitals 24 ÷ 4 = 6 pixels tall. Six pixels cannot hold a legible letterform; the banner reads as a gray bar.
- Eighth: 1920 ÷ 8 = 240 wide, 1080 ÷ 8 = 135 tall. Capitals 24 ÷ 8 = 3 pixels tall. The screen is a thumbnail.
Every halving cuts letter height in half, and letter height is what your eye needs. Set the control to Full or 100% and the panel's native pixels arrive intact.
The same trade-off on a PC remote view
If the view you care about is a PC visualization reached with remote-desktop software, the control has a different name and the same effect. The screen is encoded as H.264 video for the session, and the client's image quality setting decides how much of the encoded picture survives. Documentation for one remote-desktop product describes enabling full-screen H.264 encoding and setting image quality high to reach 4:4:4 chroma.
Chroma is the color half of the signal. At 4:2:0 the encoder keeps one color sample for each 2 × 2 block of pixels, so the edges of small text smear. At 4:4:4 it keeps a sample for every pixel, and one-pixel strokes in letters and trend lines stay crisp. Set image quality to its maximum and take the 4:4:4 option when the client offers it. The sharper text costs more bandwidth, which matters most over a VPN link back to the plant.
If the setting is missing or will not hold
Some combinations hide the control: the server may hold a fixed quality, or the app version on your device may predate it. Do not go hunting for hidden parameters. Record the app version shown on its store page, the panel firmware version from its setup menu, and two screenshots of the same screen, one taken at the panel and one from the remote session at its current quality value. Send those to the panel maker's support and ask whether the quality control exists for your combination. If the value resets on every reconnect, the same evidence answers that too: the server is holding it, not your tablet.
What a screenless panel would buy you
Behind the blur there is often a wish for remote-only monitoring: a panel with no screen at all, viewed entirely from a tablet. The remote result would be identical. The app serves the panel's own screen, so the ceiling is the panel's native resolution with or without a screen attached. Buy the standard panel, let its local screen serve the operators, and read the pixel dimensions off the datasheet first if remote detail is the priority.
One boundary while you plan the wall around it: a signage display cannot stand in for the session. Our shop-floor screens play shows built in advance and take no video input, so they cannot mirror a live trend; they fit boards of typed targets, counts and notices, which is a different job. See our shop-floor display boards for that side of it.
Recommendation: Before ordering any hardware, open the remote session, set Graphic Quality to 100% (or Full, on viewers that step in fractions), and judge the trend screen next to the panel. If the remote view then matches the panel, the job is done; leave the value there. If both views lack the detail you need, the real limit is the screen layout or the panel's native pixels, so specify bigger text or more pixels at the panel and check the datasheet's pixel dimensions first. If the session is sharp but slow, fix the network path instead of the picture.
Questions
Does the graphic quality value change what operators see on the panel itself?
No. The value only shapes the image prepared for the remote session. The panel draws its own screens at its native resolution whatever the value is, so the person at the machine sees no change when you move it. That is also why the panel is your reference: if the local screen is sharp and the remote one is soft, the difference was introduced on the way to your device.
Why does the same session look crisper on a phone than on a tablet?
Pixel density. The session carries the same pixels at the panel's native resolution on both devices. A phone screen packs those pixels closer together, so each one is smaller and the picture reads as sharper at arm's length. Zoom in on either screen and the same softness appears, because no extra detail was ever sent. Judge sharpness on the device you actually carry into the plant.
Can a signage display show the live remote session on a shop wall?
Not the live session. Signage players, including the ones we sell, play shows built in advance from pictures, video and PDF, and they have no video input, so nothing from the HMI can be piped across. A wall board fits typed content: shift targets, counts, notices and safety messages. For a live trend, stay in the remote app or read the panel.
What should I send the panel maker when the quality control is missing?
Send support the version numbers and the two screenshots described above, and ask whether the quality control exists for your combination of app and panel, or whether the server holds a fixed quality. Those four items are enough for support to answer without a site visit.
Planning information, not legal or engineering advice. Rules differ by place: check codes and permits with your local authority and your licensed trades.