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Thread: Widescreen monitors

  1. #1
    Senior Member Ouroboros's Avatar
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    Widescreen monitors

    Hey folks,

    I am involved in an extensive rebuild of my computer. The last step is picking a monitor...

    I have an old 17" CRT 'standard' monitor now, and I am looking at a 19" or greater LCD monitor. Not many options unless I go Widescreen. Being a member of the "old school", I'm not used to seeing monitors in a widescreen type dimension.

    How disorienting is it, switching from a standard to a widescreen monitor? And what would you recommend?

    Applicable specs:

    Win Vista Home Premium (soon to be Ultimate, when the upgrade DVD-ROM gets here), 2 GB RAM, GeForce FX 6200 256MB GPU (DVI connection).

    Any opinions or thoughts for a Widescreen newbie? What is the default resolution? I've lived by 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 for years.
    "entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"

    "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity."

    -Occam's Razor


  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    Hi,
    Even tho i do have wide lcd i am just using it as tv screen.Prefer my ctr 21".
    Have a look this few reviews which will give you some idea what are you looking for.

    http://it-review.net/index.php?optio...d=856&Itemid=1
    Good Luck

  3. #3
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi Ouroboros,

    As you know, I am very old school, and I don't like the wide screen format. But I guess that depends on what it is being used with?

    I could see it being useful if you worked in finance or some other area where you look at spreadsheet or tabular database presentations.

    I got my wife a Chuntex 19" with rotation software to do that sort of stuff with............ then you just flip the screen back to regular and use the management software to change the orientation and aspect ratio (unless you are very flexible or want a sore neck)

    My regular TVs are standard format as well, although you can change the aspect ratio for wide screen transmissions. You just lose some of the viewing area.

    It is the usual dilemma is it not?............. the technology is there, but the software to leverage it isn't. I see that in sports bars, some programmes are OK but most are the old format, and are distorted on the widescreen.

    I guess I would only go widescreen with a laptop right now, on the grounds of "future proofing"?

    Last edited by nihil; September 16th, 2007 at 09:50 AM.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Ouroboros's Avatar
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    Well, I went and did it

    I went out tonight and bought an Acer AL2002W 20" widescreen monitor. It's pretty. The first thing that I did after plugging it in was to go to the nVidia control panel and enable the GPU's scaling feature against the native resolution of this monitor. Things are a bit wider, naturally, but no distortion at all. Lots of empty real estate at this resolution (1680x1050), so I'll have to play with it to find a rez that works best for me.

    Gotta love new toys.

    O
    "entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"

    "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity."

    -Occam's Razor


  5. #5
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    Yeah thats the problem with wide screen most things are written for a 4:3 aspect ratio but its not really a big deal i suppose. I just got my laptop that has a 14" wide screen when i am used to a 14" regular on one but honestly I kind of like it better. Def has pros and cons for each ratio.

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