Best cheap DVI 4:3 LCD monitor

[halfadder]

Ok, here's my problem... I'm trying to help a friend put together a system for AutoCAD. He would really like a high quality LCD and the best prices are obviously for 17" models. But the catch is that 1280x1024 is not a 4:3 resolution, it's 5:4. Just about every other common resolution (800x600, 1024x768, 1600x1200) are 4:3, which CAD programs and Windows expects to be dealing with. Why is this a problem? A circle or square doesn't look right at 1280x1024, they turn out to be slightly distored!!! Insead, the "solution" would be to run 1280x960 (which is 4:3 when full screen), but this would only work on a CRT. On an LCD, using that resolution would only crop the display... or dither to a blurry fullscreen.

So I woud like to know what your recomendations are for a square 1600x1200 LCD? It needs to be cheap, but also have DVI and be of high quality.

 

[Ritt]

I think you might be a little confused. If the ratio problem of 4:3 versus 5:4 actually existed than everything on these 5:4 displays would be distorted. So seeing the fact that the 1280x1024 monitors are flying off the shelves, and no one else seems to be having these distortion prolems, I think it is safe to assume that as dumb as Windows may be, its not going to distort your friend's precious squares.

Not to mention that at work this summer I used just such a monitor (1280x1024) for Photoshop and 3D Studio Max, and never had a problem.

 

[halfadder]

Even the Anadtech site has mentioned the aspect ratio skew:
http://www.anandtech.com/displ...oc.aspx?i=2289&p=2

 

[PliotronX]

Originally posted by: halfadder
Even the Anadtech site has mentioned the aspect ratio skew:
http://www.anandtech.com/displ...oc.aspx?i=2289&p=2

I'm going to have to disagree with it because the LCD panels with a native resolution of 1280x1024 are already a 5:4 ratio, that is they're a bit wider than the 4:3 CRT's and LCD's with native resolutions of 1024x768, 1600x1200, and so on. Running 1280x960 on a 1280x1024 native LCD would result in interpolation being used to fill in the missing pixels thereby degrading quality. In short, a 17 incher will be fine.

 

[Ritt]

I think you still might be a little confused on the ratio. Read the link more carefully.

 

[Accord99]

There's no problem, because an LCD with a resolution of 1280x1024 has a physical aspect ratio of 5:4. The pixels remain square and there is no distortion. As long as you run a 5:4 resolution, or set the LCD so that it doesn't scale 4:3 resolutions to 1280x1024.

 

[fr]

The AnandTech guide assumes that physical ratio of a 17" screen will be 4:3 running a 5:4 resolution, but that is not the case with 99% of the 17" LCDs that you can buy now. They are 5:4 running 5:4. Like what the people above have said, a circle will still look like a circle.

 

[sat]

look at it this way - and others jump in and correct me if I am wrong:

RULE : the LCD pixels *HAVE* to be square - hence for a given desired screen resolution (x- and y-) and desired diagonal size, the pixel size is fixed.

Width % X-resolution = Height% Y-resolution, where height and width are in inches, and resolution is in number of pixels.

And since the pixels are square, if I render a square with sides of 50 pixels - the 50*pixel size should be the same both along the height and width of the monitor - and hence the square should render as a square.