Widescreen vs "normal" screen monitor?

[EvilHorace]

I've never given it any thought but besides watching DVD movies via PC (which I don't do), what possible advantage would there be for buying a widescreen monitor? I'd think that it'd then distort (stretch) other things to fit the screen.

[b-man1]

i've wondered myself...but i believe it is of some use to publishers, webpage authoring, etc where you want more of a WYSIWYG view with multiple pages next to each other.

for the price of a nice one i would rather have two separate monitors. hehe

i must admit...going to my local CompUSA and seeing a 23" Apple cinematic display is amazing...not worth the $$$ to me...but amazing to look at.

[FlyingPenguin]

I felt the same way until I first used one on a client's system.

Basically, you're getting more desktop space without dual monitors. More desktop is always good.

If you watch widscreen movies or videas on your then it's a bonus.

Games seem to run fine on them - older games just use a standard aspect ratio and you have black bars on the right and left, but newer games will actually use the wider aspect ratio (I believe HL2 does).

If I was going to buy a monitor now I'd go with a wide screen.

[EvilHorace]

Interesting. OK then.....widescreen it will be

[EvilHorace]

One more Q about this, How does the widescreen effect pics? Are they then stretched or somehow still normal looking?

[123cool]

not had a look but i gues the pics will be normal looking cause the resolution used should make things look normal rather than stretched.

[FlyingPenguin]

Pics are normal. It's just a wider desktop, that's all. A 600 pixel wide image is still 600 pixels wide.

[EvilHorace]

It went on sale today (sizzlin' deals thread) so I ordered one. I can't wait....especially now that the screen doesn't black out anymore

[Jim Z]

One more Q about this, How does the widescreen effect pics?

it won't, as long as the resolution you set it to has the correct aspect ratio. Typical native resolutions for wide LCDs are 1280x768 (WXGA), 1680x1050 (WSXGA+), and 1920x1080.

[zandor]

Some games support widescreen modes. I haven't had this used (eBay, off lease I assume) 24" CRT all that long so I haven't tried all that many, but HL2 works nicely in wide screen. I've only had one problem so far- If I try to take a screen shot in 2304x1440 (no AA, 8x AF, 6800GT) the game immediately crashes to the desktop.
Since I'm using a CRT I can just adjust the image width to keep things from getting streached, though that does leave black spaces on both sides of the screen. I've heard dealing with an LCD can be more "interesting", but I don't really know the details.

[RubberDuckie]

I was considering two 19" LCD monitors and instead went with the Dell 21" Widescreen and glad I did.

Once you experience the widescreen you will never go back. Now wide Butts are another topic.

[DoPeY5007]

a guy @ work has this pluggeg into his laptop





OMG this thing is nice!!!


link




24.1-Inch LCD Flat Panel Monitor

* Ultra-Fast, Motion-Enhanced, HD+24.1-inch LCD monitor
* 24.1-inch LCD (27 inch CRT equivalent)
* 0.27mm pixel pitch
* Ultra High Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
* High Brightness: 280 cd/m2
* 24-bit color, 256 gray scale levels, 16.7M colors
* DVI-D, HD-15, YPbPr (component video for HDTV input up to 1920x1080)
* S-Video and C-Video Input connectors
* Full set of detachable cables including:
o 3-meter detachable DVI-D to DVI-D
o 1.8-meter detachable HD-15 to HD-15
o 1.8-Meter detachable 13W3 to HD-15
o Component video cable (YPbPr)
o S-Video cable
o S-Video to YPb adapter
o USB2.0 upstream cable
* 4-port USB 2.0 hub
* 90 degree tilt
* Complete HD-TV funcitionality
* 588mm(W)x518/468mm(H)x277mm(D) w/stand
* Weight: ~29.5lbs., Power ~95W
* TCO'03 Compliant






This thing is so big it is almost like dual displays.

[Viperoni]

We got a lab of about 15 Mac's, each wit ha 23" widescreen LCD and a higher end epson scanner. Such a pleasure to use those monitors. Notice the useage of "monitor" and not "Mac"