Wide Screens

[Pythias]

Why exactly are widescreens better? How exactly is it going to affect my entertainment experience?

 

[Phantronius]

Read and learn

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[Pythias]

Originally posted by: Phantronius
Read and learn

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Thanks for taking the time. Appreciate the link.

 

[Stangs55]

I'm running BF2 at 1920x1200....most people probably run it at 1280x1024 or 1024x768. The more serious gamers will run it at 1600x1200 on better rigs. In every case, I have anywhere from 896 to 320 more pixels to the side of my screen than others will. What does this mean? It means I can see you before you can see me. Which means I win.

 

[BW86]

Originally posted by: Phantronius
Read and learn

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Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Stangs55
I'm running BF2 at 1920x1200....most people probably run it at 1280x1024 or 1024x768. The more serious gamers will run it at 1600x1200 on better rigs. In every case, I have anywhere from 896 to 320 more pixels to the side of my screen than others will. What does this mean? It means I can see you before you can see me. Which means I win.

I was under the impression that Battlefield 2 didn't properly support 16:9/16:10. If so, those "extra pixels" aren't actually enhancing your FOV - they're simply stretched so that everything looks weird and "fat".

-Erwos

 

[imported_driver]

BF2 doesn't stretch to achieve WS, it crops the top and bottom. But you're still right about the FOV.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: driver
BF2 doesn't stretch to achieve WS, it crops the top and bottom. But you're still right about the FOV.

This is correct, but most modern games do properly support WS. Personally, I've played Doom3, HL2, WoW, UT2004, Riddick, Splinter Cell:CT in widescreen. Technically, my widescreen monitor is a bit smaller then my old 1600x1200 CRT, but I don't miss the height at all. The width more then makes up for it.

There really isn't a technical argument for widescreen, but it's more of a user feel/preference sort of thing. I just prefer widescreen for both TV and PC.

 

[jevans64]

Most WS LCDs will support 4:3 with black bars on the sides. For instance, switching the Dell 2005FPW ( 20" WS ) to 1:1 pixel mode turns it into a 17" 4:3 LCD as far as visible area goes. I have the Dell 2405FPW so doing this turns it into a 21" 4:3 LCD. The advantage is gaining MORE real estate on the desktop or with widescreen material. Widescreen is useful for putting two pages of text side-by-side or widening your browser window while leaving space for the desktop objects on the left side.

 

[jiffylube1024]

I'm a big fan of WS gaming because you get a better field of view. Although you can play on a 4:3 or 5:4 screen with a zoomed out FOV, it does not emulate the playing experience like gaming in widescreen does.

Widescreen gaming (eg 16:9 on consoles, or 16:10 on most widescreen monitors) come closer to the actual human field of vision, or rather where we can focus on. Although we can 'see' up and down quite a bit, our actual focus is something like 10 degrees up and down, while the horizontal view focus is wider.

It's tough to explain because a.) I can't give a truly accurate scientific explanation, and b.) it's different and subjective for every person, however if you're at all interested in Widescreen gaming, here's a good primer:

if you've got Half Life 2, this is a piece of cake. Play the game in its normal 4:3 or 5:4 resolution on your screen (eg 1280X1024 for a 17" to 19" LCD). Then, go into the settings and change the resolution to 1280X760. You might have to slide the screen closer because this will obviously yield a much smaller screen. Play with the game at this setting for a little while and see how the increased field of vision gives you a wider view on everything, and gives you a much more 'open' feeling of playing the game. Switch back and forth at several scenic places to really appreciate the difference --- taking some screenshots and examining them in Windows can help. Do not worry about the fact that the widescreen image is smaller -getting a nice 20" widescreen display (or bigger ) will completely fix that .

Now, if you really are convinced about the Widescreen difference, go out and buy a widescreen display.


In terms of movies, it's a no brainer. About 50% of today's movies are done in a 1.77-1.85:1 ratio, and anamorphically stored and compressed to fit a 16:9 widescreen TV (1.77:1) . These look significantly better on a widescreen display because they fill the entire (or almost the entire) screen.

For the other 50% of movies, they are in a 2.35-2.40:1 aspect ratio. These obviously don't fill a full 16:9 or 16:10 screen, but nonetheless do still look better than on a 4:3 screen, since they give you more viewing area.


So, to go back to your original point: widescreen will improve your entertainment experience tremendously (oh, btw, next gen consoles all support widescreen/HDTV out of the box, so hook up that Xbox360 to your 2005fpw and be happy (that is unless you've got an even better widescreen HDTV ). Widescreen isn't going to make your workspace a hell of a lot more productive, although there is suprisingly enough extra room for toolbars (eg photoshop), small menus (eg MSN) and other little pop-up screens. It won't really hurt your workspace, either, except that you might be lusting for some more widescreen gaming from time to time .

Best of luck!