LCDs on their sides...Is it weird to look at them?

[Josh7289]

I'm not sure if this is just me or what, but it seems to be that viewing an LCD that's turned on its side from its "native" orientation makes it kind of hard to focus on it. I think this has something to do with the differences between horizontal and vertical viewing angles; I mean the changes that happen to your view of the screen as you move horizontally around it are different from those that happen as you move vertically around it. When you flip it on its side, the vertical resolution is now the horizontal, and it all gets "weird".

One eye is seeing the screen at a certain contrast ratio while the other eye sees it at a pretty different contrast ratio, and it gives the appearance of being hard to focus on. Using just one eye, it looks fine, but with two, it gets weird.

I can see this most easily on smaller LCD screens, like turning my DS sideways or looking at a cell phone that has its screen already flipped on its side (like a 4:3 LCD panel that is oriented on the phone sideways in a 3:4 aspect ratio). I can also see it if I place my LCD monitor on its side, so I guess this would affect those monitors that can rotate, too.

I hope this isn't just me. Does anyone else notice this when viewing LCDs out of their "native orientation"?

 

[xtknight]

It's probably just a difference between horizontal/vertical viewing angles. The crystal matrix made to be viewed in one way (horizontal for a widescreen, for example).

 

[n7]

Sounds to me more like an issue of crappy LCD screens having poor viewing angles.

Poor LCDs (the majority of them out there) are indeed not that great when not in normal viewing mode.

Good LCDs look just as good from any angle

/typed from a Samsung 204T "on its side" aka portrait mode.

 

[Josh7289]

At least it's not just my eyes.

I mean, it really makes it kind of hard to play DS games on the side (like Brain Age). And phone's like my dad's and sister's RAZR has a screen that is on its side, so everything looks really hard to focus on, since its such a small screen. It's especially noticeable if the screen is showing something like a dark photograph, but with detail. Then things look really out of whack.

 

[xtknight]

I'm not sure that they even make MVA (wide viewing angle) panels for cell phones.

 

[Josh7289]

Well, I don't know about that ~ but what I can say is a common cell phone resolution is 176 x 220, which is just a 5:4 panel rotated on its side to make a 4:5 panel (I was wrong about my earlier 4:3 and 3:4 comments for the RAZR). With this set up, the LCD itself gives the impression of being hard to focus on because each eye is seeing the screen with a drastically different contrast ratio.