This topic is intended to be a mini-FAQ on widescreen LCDs. Perhaps if it's good enough it will eventually get edited into the LCD Buyer's Guide sticky as an addendum or something.
Please no thread crapping. Feel free to post relevant, useful personal opinions and anecdotes if you feel that they will make a positive contribution to the FAQ. Debates are welcome but keep the polite and concise, and if it gets personal please take it the PM or email route. IOW I don't want 50 posts of tastes great/less filling arguments.
Community contributions are welcome!
NOTE: Before going further, you should understand aspect ratios:
What are the advantages of widescreens?
The major difference between widescreen and nonwidescreen monitors is obviously the aspect ratio. Content should almost always be viewed in the correct aspect ratio if image quality and accuracy are the primary concerns. Traditional desktop applications and some games tend to work best with more balanced aspect ratios such as 5:4 and 4:3 while many games and movies benefit from wider aspect ratios such as 16:9 and 16:10.
Widescreen afficianados will point out that the widescreen aspect ratio actually enables you to see more your games. I've always been frustrated with the inability to use my peripheral vision in racing games, for example. Gaming in a 4:3 or 5:4 resolution often feels more artificial and puts you at a slight disadvantage.
Balancing this out is the fact that not all games support widescreen modes, and even when widescreen modes are supported, they may not be supported very well. You should check your specific games before deciding to buy a widescreen monitor. Nonwidescreen displays generally don't have these problems, of course.
to be continued...
Is widescreen always a feature?
No, not necessarily. It really depends on the size of the display and your priorities.
20" LCDs
Carefully compare the specs for 20" 4:3 and 20" 16:10 LCDs:
20" 4:3
1600x1200 (native res.)
0.255mm (avg. pixel pitch)
20" 16:10
1680x1050 (native res.)
0.255mm (avg. pixel pitch)
The only real difference between the two specs above is that the 20" 4:3 has an additional 150 pixels height while the 16:10 has an additional 80 pixels width. Since the pixel pitches are identical, we can directly compare total pixel counts. 1600*1200=1,920,000 whereas 1680*1050=1,764,000. In this case widescreen isn't really a feature; it's a trade-off.
Why? Well, a 20" 4:3 can play games in the same 16:10 aspect ratio simply by going into the video card's drivers to: a) create a custom resolution of 1600x1000 and b) change the scaling mode to preserve the aspect ratio. You'll get 1600x100 pixels black border on top and 1600x100 pixels black border on the bottom, but that's how it's supposed to work.
Now, a 20" 4:3 in a 16:10 widescreen resolution has 1600*1000=1,600,000 pixels while a 20" 16:10 in the same aspect ratio has its full 1680*1050=1,764,000 pixels. However, the 20" 4:3 has the advantage in desktop applications with its greater 1600x1200=1,920,000 pixels. Widescreen gaming on a 16:10 monitor will require slightly more 3D power, too.
Recommendation: personal preference.
19" LCDs
Oddly enough, the picture changes when we look at 19" LCDs:
19" 5:4
1280x1024 (native res.)
0.264-0.294mm (avg. pixel pitch)
19" 16:10
1440x900 (native res.)
0.285mm (avg. pixel pitch)
There seems to be a great deal of variance in pixel pitch between panels, but it's similar enough to be considered equivalent. 19" 5:4 LCDs have 1280*1024=1310720 addressable pixels whereas 19" 16:10 LCDs have only 1296000 addressable pixels. This difference is also basically insignificant.
You could have a 19" 5:4 LCD use a 16:10 resolution, but (unlike the 20" displays) the dimensions would be smaller and thus somewhat inferior to a true 19" 16:10, and vice versa.
Recommendation: personal preference.
17" LCDs
I think there are only a handful of widescreen 17" LCDs. The ones I've found are limited to a 1280x720 resolution as opposed to the full 1280x1024 of a 5:4 17", which makes 17" 16:10 very hard to recommend unless they are much cheaper than their 5:4 counterparts.
Recommendation: avoid widescreens.
Are there any other options?
Yes, actually. Remember how the Parhelia supported triple-head gaming? The card died off at least in the gaming market because of its subpar performance, but the triple-head gaming idea is still alive and IMO even better. If you can acquire three monitors, then Matrox may have an innovative solution for you called TripleHead2Go.
Basically, you hook up three monitors to it, and it appears to your video card as a single widescreen monitor with a maximum resolution of 3840x1024. It also comes with a utility to modify your games for widescreen support (as this would otherwise editing config files and/or applying patches in many cases).
Here's a good review and demonstration with plenty of images. Jaw-dropping, IMO. Check out the Oblivion screenshots! If you have a large gaming budget, you might actually be better served to ditch the second GTX or XTX and go for TripleHead2Go. I know I would!
Remember that driving a 15:4 display at 3840x1024 is quite demanding on your video card as there are 3840*1024=3,932,160 pixels as opposed to 1280*1024=1,310,720 pixels with just one 5:4 display. You may also not enjoy viewing movies as much as on a single widescreen display because of the bezels.
Can I avoid the tradeoffs of a widescreen display for desktop applications?
Yes, they can be surprisingly versatile. Here are some ideas:
Pivoting
Some displays will pivot 90 degrees, giving you the chance to use a 900x1440 or 1050x1680 resolution for viewing large word processing documents, web sites, or whatever you've a mind to read. Even if the display doesn't support pivoting, monitor arms can be added per the VESA spec. to allow pivoting and potentially much more.
Both nVidia and ATI drivers support display rotation.
Tiling
You can also put two documents side-by-side - possibly with a display utility to manage the windows so that you can just drag them and hit the maximize button to make them take up one-half of the screen.
Virtual Desktops
Using software to create multiple virtual desktops may also help. With hotkeys or a taskbar toolbar, you can switch between sets of windows that you've grouped by task. Usefulness of virtual desktops extends far beyond widescreen monitors, of course, but it could certainly be useful here.
This concludes the mini-FAQ. Good comments, corrections, and questions are welcome!
Note: this version is far from finished. In particular, it could use some software utility links and suggestions as well as some additional questions to further explain widescreen displays.
Please no thread crapping. Feel free to post relevant, useful personal opinions and anecdotes if you feel that they will make a positive contribution to the FAQ. Debates are welcome but keep the polite and concise, and if it gets personal please take it the PM or email route. IOW I don't want 50 posts of tastes great/less filling arguments.
Community contributions are welcome!
NOTE: Before going further, you should understand aspect ratios:
Now we can proceed to the widescreen mini-FAQ.
What are the advantages of widescreens?
The major difference between widescreen and nonwidescreen monitors is obviously the aspect ratio. Content should almost always be viewed in the correct aspect ratio if image quality and accuracy are the primary concerns. Traditional desktop applications and some games tend to work best with more balanced aspect ratios such as 5:4 and 4:3 while many games and movies benefit from wider aspect ratios such as 16:9 and 16:10.
Widescreen afficianados will point out that the widescreen aspect ratio actually enables you to see more your games. I've always been frustrated with the inability to use my peripheral vision in racing games, for example. Gaming in a 4:3 or 5:4 resolution often feels more artificial and puts you at a slight disadvantage.
Balancing this out is the fact that not all games support widescreen modes, and even when widescreen modes are supported, they may not be supported very well. You should check your specific games before deciding to buy a widescreen monitor. Nonwidescreen displays generally don't have these problems, of course.
to be continued...
Is widescreen always a feature?
No, not necessarily. It really depends on the size of the display and your priorities.
20" LCDs
Carefully compare the specs for 20" 4:3 and 20" 16:10 LCDs:
20" 4:3
1600x1200 (native res.)
0.255mm (avg. pixel pitch)
20" 16:10
1680x1050 (native res.)
0.255mm (avg. pixel pitch)
The only real difference between the two specs above is that the 20" 4:3 has an additional 150 pixels height while the 16:10 has an additional 80 pixels width. Since the pixel pitches are identical, we can directly compare total pixel counts. 1600*1200=1,920,000 whereas 1680*1050=1,764,000. In this case widescreen isn't really a feature; it's a trade-off.
Why? Well, a 20" 4:3 can play games in the same 16:10 aspect ratio simply by going into the video card's drivers to: a) create a custom resolution of 1600x1000 and b) change the scaling mode to preserve the aspect ratio. You'll get 1600x100 pixels black border on top and 1600x100 pixels black border on the bottom, but that's how it's supposed to work.
Now, a 20" 4:3 in a 16:10 widescreen resolution has 1600*1000=1,600,000 pixels while a 20" 16:10 in the same aspect ratio has its full 1680*1050=1,764,000 pixels. However, the 20" 4:3 has the advantage in desktop applications with its greater 1600x1200=1,920,000 pixels. Widescreen gaming on a 16:10 monitor will require slightly more 3D power, too.
Recommendation: personal preference.
19" LCDs
Oddly enough, the picture changes when we look at 19" LCDs:
19" 5:4
1280x1024 (native res.)
0.264-0.294mm (avg. pixel pitch)
19" 16:10
1440x900 (native res.)
0.285mm (avg. pixel pitch)
There seems to be a great deal of variance in pixel pitch between panels, but it's similar enough to be considered equivalent. 19" 5:4 LCDs have 1280*1024=1310720 addressable pixels whereas 19" 16:10 LCDs have only 1296000 addressable pixels. This difference is also basically insignificant.
You could have a 19" 5:4 LCD use a 16:10 resolution, but (unlike the 20" displays) the dimensions would be smaller and thus somewhat inferior to a true 19" 16:10, and vice versa.
Recommendation: personal preference.
17" LCDs
I think there are only a handful of widescreen 17" LCDs. The ones I've found are limited to a 1280x720 resolution as opposed to the full 1280x1024 of a 5:4 17", which makes 17" 16:10 very hard to recommend unless they are much cheaper than their 5:4 counterparts.
Recommendation: avoid widescreens.
Are there any other options?
Yes, actually. Remember how the Parhelia supported triple-head gaming? The card died off at least in the gaming market because of its subpar performance, but the triple-head gaming idea is still alive and IMO even better. If you can acquire three monitors, then Matrox may have an innovative solution for you called TripleHead2Go.
Basically, you hook up three monitors to it, and it appears to your video card as a single widescreen monitor with a maximum resolution of 3840x1024. It also comes with a utility to modify your games for widescreen support (as this would otherwise editing config files and/or applying patches in many cases).
Here's a good review and demonstration with plenty of images. Jaw-dropping, IMO. Check out the Oblivion screenshots! If you have a large gaming budget, you might actually be better served to ditch the second GTX or XTX and go for TripleHead2Go. I know I would!
Remember that driving a 15:4 display at 3840x1024 is quite demanding on your video card as there are 3840*1024=3,932,160 pixels as opposed to 1280*1024=1,310,720 pixels with just one 5:4 display. You may also not enjoy viewing movies as much as on a single widescreen display because of the bezels.
Can I avoid the tradeoffs of a widescreen display for desktop applications?
Yes, they can be surprisingly versatile. Here are some ideas:
Pivoting
Some displays will pivot 90 degrees, giving you the chance to use a 900x1440 or 1050x1680 resolution for viewing large word processing documents, web sites, or whatever you've a mind to read. Even if the display doesn't support pivoting, monitor arms can be added per the VESA spec. to allow pivoting and potentially much more.
Both nVidia and ATI drivers support display rotation.
Tiling
You can also put two documents side-by-side - possibly with a display utility to manage the windows so that you can just drag them and hit the maximize button to make them take up one-half of the screen.
Virtual Desktops
Using software to create multiple virtual desktops may also help. With hotkeys or a taskbar toolbar, you can switch between sets of windows that you've grouped by task. Usefulness of virtual desktops extends far beyond widescreen monitors, of course, but it could certainly be useful here.
This concludes the mini-FAQ. Good comments, corrections, and questions are welcome!
Note: this version is far from finished. In particular, it could use some software utility links and suggestions as well as some additional questions to further explain widescreen displays.
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