Dumb LCD question

[Despy]

Okay, time for the proverbial dumb question...

Yesterday I discovered that I needed to get a new moniter. Mrs. Despy cleaned my good ol' CRT and managed to scrub part of the reflective coating off. The result was like looking thru a torn screen door.

I have been out of the monitor 'loop' for sometime, and don't know a lot about LCD screens. The local Best Buy has an Envision 19" widescreen on sale for a good price, but I have never used a WS monitor before. Do I need to worry about proper support for the widescreen aspect ratio? Do programs and games that do not support the WS format get automatically stretched, or do they put 'black bars' down the sides?

The computer is used for Word, Excel, Internet, and the occasional session of Civ 4.

Any advice would be welcome!

Despy

 

[LittleNemoNES]

You may be interested in a widescreen monitor that can be pivoted into portrait, landscape modes

Civilization 4 has proper widescreen support, so no worries there. Most new games have widescreen support too, so no problem there either.

Go for it!

BTW, DO check out xtknights excellent monitor sticky on the video forum

 

[imported_Rogie]

Widescreen should be no problem. Your office applications and web browsing will be fine.
Civ 4 has widescreen support. And for any other games that don't have it built in, Widescreen Gaming Forum should help you get that game doing widescreen.

 

[Despy]

Thanks for the info. I have been convinced.

Now if I can just keep Mrs. Despy away from the Windex...

 

[LittleNemoNES]

best way to clean LCDs is mix some Alcohol and clean water in a small spray bottle. Clean with microcloth (glass cleaning cloth)

 

[Viper GTS]

If you finish removing the AG coating the monitor will probably be quite usable. I've done it, it's not that bad. Since the monitor was apparently fine before she used the windex the glass is probably in fine shape (much better than being removed due to abrasion or physical damage).

Of course if you'd rather it be an excuse to upgrade you can ignore this.



Viper GTS

 

[Despy]

I normally use alcohol wipes to clean monitor/TV glass. Unfortunately I ran out and its been long enough to accumulate a bit of gunk. In her defense she tried to be careful and spray on the cloth and then wipe the moniter. It may be that the anti-glare coating just finally gave out with the mild cleaners since the monitor is 8-9 years old.

I did think about just cleaning off the rest of it and continuing use, but it is a good excuse and LCDs are so damn cool! I will probably scrub it down and see what I can get on Craigslist.

Despy