Widescreen LCD or 4:3? Advice appreciated!

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: VooDooAddict
Depending on what you are working on the 6-bit TNs can still be a great improvement over a CRT on general office tasks (unless it was a really high end CRT).

With the current cost of 20"/22" LCDs, it seems a no brainier that it's the value point right now for gaming. For the stretching issue, just be sure to get a unit that uses DVI, that way you can use 1:1 pixels with black bars to keep crisp picture and proper aspect (the there are a few models out there with just VGA which makes this near impossible).

The Battlefield Series (1942 / Vietnam / 2 / 2142) is the big offender in lack wide screen support ... though it seems that popularity in the series is waining, I'm hoping in some part due to the refusal to support wide screen.

An important cavet on the maintain aspect ratio scaling or "black bars" is that ATI doesn't support this in their drivers. So if you have a ATI card, you'll need a higher end monitor that can do that type of scaling itself or its going to be stretch city when wide screen resolutions aren't an option.

As I understand it, the nvidia 8 series currently can't do aspect ratio scaling either at the moment, but nvidia has a better track record here and a future driver will likely enable it. ATI however, it doesn't seem is particularly concerned with the fact their drivers don't do this so I wouldn't hold my breath. This is particularly puzzling since some of their mobile GPUs do the job and I heard some one say way back in the 8000-9000 series era their drivers did it. (I don't know for sure on that last bit)

 

[postmortemIA]

how hard is it to figure out that 17" and 19" non-widescreen LCDs are 5:4, not 4:3 ???????

 

[dennilfloss]

You can see here that things don't line up.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/dennilfloss/size21vu.png

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: dennilfloss
You can see here that things don't line up.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/dennilfloss/size21vu.png

Pretty lame they forgot 20" 4:3, 21" 4:3, 23" and 30" wide. Could now also add the 26 and 27" wide.

 

[vanvock]

Originally posted by: Imp
Anything 5:4 or 4:3 over 17" just seems too tall and thin to me. I'm planning on going widescreen soon, just need to decide on a good monitor (i.e. wait till hell freezes over for a 22" non-TN). Also, maybe someone could fill this in; how well does a WS scale in terms of resolutions? A 5:4 with 1280x1024 native actually displays 1024x768 pretty well. I'm not too familiar with the WS resolutions, but do scaled down resolutions look ok or is it native or nothing?

Mine's 1280X1024 native & I use it at 1024X768, looks fine to me.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: vanvock

Originally posted by: Imp
Anything 5:4 or 4:3 over 17" just seems too tall and thin to me. I'm planning on going widescreen soon, just need to decide on a good monitor (i.e. wait till hell freezes over for a 22" non-TN). Also, maybe someone could fill this in; how well does a WS scale in terms of resolutions? A 5:4 with 1280x1024 native actually displays 1024x768 pretty well. I'm not too familiar with the WS resolutions, but do scaled down resolutions look ok or is it native or nothing?

Mine's 1280X1024 native & I use it at 1024X768, looks fine to me.

*cringes*

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: vanvock

Originally posted by: Imp
Anything 5:4 or 4:3 over 17" just seems too tall and thin to me. I'm planning on going widescreen soon, just need to decide on a good monitor (i.e. wait till hell freezes over for a 22" non-TN). Also, maybe someone could fill this in; how well does a WS scale in terms of resolutions? A 5:4 with 1280x1024 native actually displays 1024x768 pretty well. I'm not too familiar with the WS resolutions, but do scaled down resolutions look ok or is it native or nothing?

Mine's 1280X1024 native & I use it at 1024X768, looks fine to me.

Go see an optometrist.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: vanvock

Originally posted by: Imp
Anything 5:4 or 4:3 over 17" just seems too tall and thin to me. I'm planning on going widescreen soon, just need to decide on a good monitor (i.e. wait till hell freezes over for a 22" non-TN). Also, maybe someone could fill this in; how well does a WS scale in terms of resolutions? A 5:4 with 1280x1024 native actually displays 1024x768 pretty well. I'm not too familiar with the WS resolutions, but do scaled down resolutions look ok or is it native or nothing?

Mine's 1280X1024 native & I use it at 1024X768, looks fine to me.

Go see an optometrist.

 

[vanvock]

Yep I'm due for that, Thanks for the concern

 

[Mem]

Speaking of scaling ,I think it depends on the LCD in question,my Belinea 10 20 35W 20" scales very well(1680x1050 native res) 1280x1024 looks very good and even 800x600 looks half decent.

If you are using Win XP and Nvidia drivers you can also do 1:1 scaling even if your LCD does not support 1:1 natively.

I don't know if AMD/ATi drivers now support 1:1 scaling ,last time I checked awhile back they did not,but I'm sure somebody will let me know if they now do.

 

[guptasa1]

A few notes - I'll be running Vista on the new machine, and it will be using nVidia video cards (probably latest generation in SLI, but still deciding for sure).

Another question I had. I was planning to go with a 22", but based on what I'm seeing here, I'm getting the impression there are no really great options out there because they all use the TN that everyone appears to hate. So am I stuck between either 19", 20.1", or 24" basically? Any new 22"ers coming on the market soon that'll resolve this? Since I'm using a 19" CRT now, I really hate to go smaller if I go widescreen (in 4:3 surface area), ya know...so that means at least a 22" WS... I was considering this Viewsonic before I read about people not liking TN:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116064

Oh, and one other question - is it still normal for there to be a very few dead/stuck pixels on any LCD? Any way or technology that avoids this?

 

[postmortemIA]

Last generation of 22" TN panels ( LG L226WT and Samsung 226BW) is as good as 22" will get, since there's any non-TN 22" panel. You should check that two, picky people don't like Tn, but majority doesn't notice the difference.

 

[sodcha0s]

I went WS ~6 mos. ago and won't ever go back. Yes it is awesome for games, most games that don't natively support WS have workarounds so for the mosty part that argument is invalid. Another advantage that I've mentioned in other threads, and seems to be eluding some people in this one is the fact that you can run 2 windows side by side and usually not have to scroll horizontially to work with them. One example is when I'm paying my bills online I have my bank account open in my browser, and a spreadsheet with my checking account entries open in a seperate window. I can work with both easily, not so with 4:3. If you read a lot of PDFs, just get a WS monitor that pivots and you'll be able to see a page and a half at once and still be able to read it from 6 feet away if you want... The ONLY drawback that I can see is it takes up more space, and for me that isn't a problem at all.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: guptasa1
A few notes - I'll be running Vista on the new machine, and it will be using nVidia video cards (probably latest generation in SLI, but still deciding for sure).

Another question I had. I was planning to go with a 22", but based on what I'm seeing here, I'm getting the impression there are no really great options out there because they all use the TN that everyone appears to hate. So am I stuck between either 19", 20.1", or 24" basically? Any new 22"ers coming on the market soon that'll resolve this? Since I'm using a 19" CRT now, I really hate to go smaller if I go widescreen (in 4:3 surface area), ya know...so that means at least a 22" WS... I was considering this Viewsonic before I read about people not liking TN:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116064

Oh, and one other question - is it still normal for there to be a very few dead/stuck pixels on any LCD? Any way or technology that avoids this?

Don't take the TN critisism to hard. Some of us pour over monitor details for hours on end in clone to mode to pick them apart and certainly TN has it's weaknesses. But most consumers won't even notice it's flaws instead thinking they look fantastic. Hence thier overwhelming popularity... After all - they are thin, do deliver color, big, fast and cheap. It's only if you put a IPS next to it your average user may begin to notice some weaknesses and sensitive guys like me will find them unusable.

As always try it yourself. I tired 20 or so LCDs before finding one OK compared to my Diamondtrons. Most people find thier huckleberry much earlier than that/

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: dennilfloss
You can see here that things don't line up.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/dennilfloss/size21vu.png

Pretty lame they forgot 20" 4:3, 21" 4:3, 23" and 30" wide. Could now also add the 26 and 27" wide.

Here is a more exhaustive one I found a few weeks ago on another forum:

http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lcdsizeyp4.gif

 

[guptasa1]

I dunno. I'll probably purchase online since there aren't a lot of good stores in the area to check out LCD's, and I do tend to be pretty picky, so I'm worried I won't like it if I go with a TN model.

It was mentioned that there won't be any non-TN 22" LCD's coming out anytime soon - why is this out of curiosity? Does it have something to do with size being an issue for the other forms of technology?

 

[dennilfloss]

Originally posted by: BernardP

Here is a more exhaustive one I found a few weeks ago on another forum:

http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lcdsizeyp4.gif

Cool. Saved this more recent one. Thanks.

 

[DaveLazell]

Hello, I am running a 21" Trinitron CRT at the moment. After building a system for a friend I fell in love with widescreen LCD's. They are so nice and bright and sharp, and watching movies is better in native widescreen( I always watch the widescreen versions even on my CRT). Going back to the CRT everything feels washed out and blurry. I did not want to give up the monitor. I wasnt planning on a new monitor purchase yet (wanting to wait until 117% color space LCDs became affordable), but after using one I want one NOW hehe. I will probably be getting the BenQ FP2341W 24" LCD. It has about the same height as my CRT but wider, and has gotten good reviews. I will also be keeping the old CRT for compatibility with old games and for the debugging programs. So.. my vote is widescreen even though I dont have one yet

 

[guptasa1]

Thanks all. Finally decided widescreen's the way to go!

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: guptasa1
Thanks all. Finally decided widescreen's the way to go!

Good for ya and it's the right decision.
I expect most if not all 4:3 displays to be phased out by end of 2008 at most.

 

[ebeattie]

Originally posted by: guptasa1
I dunno. I'll probably purchase online since there aren't a lot of good stores in the area to check out LCD's, and I do tend to be pretty picky, so I'm worried I won't like it if I go with a TN model.

It was mentioned that there won't be any non-TN 22" LCD's coming out anytime soon - why is this out of curiosity? Does it have something to do with size being an issue for the other forms of technology?

If your picky and u get a TN, you wont be happy. I gotta say though that I wasnt really picky with my new monitor choice. I got a Sceptre 22" which is a TN panel and by the end of the time the I owned it, couldnt stand owning it.

Pony up the extra bucks for a 24" panel. Do the research though because I heard that some company just released a TN 24". ANYTHING thats not a TN panel is better. Good luck.

 

[guptasa1]

I posted another thread about this very thing. Right now I'm leaning towards the Dell 24" (really good reputation) or possibly a BenQ, but still researching. Thanks for the tip!