Widescreen Monitors

[psoucaco13]

Hello,
I am thinking of buying a widescreen monitor. I do not watch many dvd's on my computer, but I play games and run many programs.
On widescreen tv's almost everything besides dvds gets stretched.... I know desktop apps will run ok, but what about games? Do you think a 24" (crt) wide is worth buying or should I buy a regular 21" (crt) ?


Thanks

 

[jjlawren]

I have a widescreen monitor. With my Radeon 8500 at least, you have an option to stretch to the full screen size, or just play games with bars on the sides. For example, running a game at 1600x1200 will fill up my 1920x1200 screen vertically, but there are bars on the left and right.

At first it was kind of annoying/disorienting, but now that I'm used to it I prefer it, especially with normal desktop apps.

 

[Bar81]

And well programmed games like FarCry have native widescreen support. It's *much* more immersive playing a FPS in widescreen. I have a 17" philips widescreen and wouldn't trade it for a 4:3 if you paid me. ATI's drives support widescreen resolution and in games the minor stretch is fine. On mine since the native resolution is 1280x768, any game I play in 1024x768 looks great and it doesn't "look" stretched in the least.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: jjlawren
I have a widescreen monitor. With my Radeon 8500 at least, you have an option to stretch to the full screen size, or just play games with bars on the sides. For example, running a game at 1600x1200 will fill up my 1920x1200 screen vertically, but there are bars on the left and right.

At first it was kind of annoying/disorienting, but now that I'm used to it I prefer it, especially with normal desktop apps.

Apple Cinema Display, or the Sony?

 

[jjlawren]

Apple. Only problem I have with it is that it doesn't turn on until Windows starts to load. I have to use a backup monitor to change BIOS settings. Pretty sure it's the Radeon that's causing it.

 

[Bar81]

No problem here, may be your monitor.

 

[imported_Aelius]

Actually you want this:

http://www.formac.com/p_bin/index_uk.html?cid=solutions_displays_gallery2010

This is virtually the exact same monitor as the Apple Cinema but it is a newer revision. It has far better contrast, 50% more color depth so you will see better blacks and whites, which has the effect of reducing ghosting to almost nothing, and you can buy a DVI version of the monitor which was designed for PCs. This also means you can use the 3 button display menu on the monitor and it will power off correctly, which you cannot do with the Apple one (you gota unplug it or put it into sleep mode).

Plus it costs less.

The only reason its getting poor reviews is cause it shuts down randomly or won't boot up at all. That's cause its extremely power sensitive so you gona have to either plug your PSU directly into the wall and not a power strip or into a UPS (which is what I'm getting).

And because of this sensitivity there is an exact step by step way to connect the cables to your monitor/computer or else the above problem will result. That can be found on their FAQ section of their site.

Even with this quirk its the best LCD I can find on the market.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Hey, could we get some links to widescreen monitors. A 24" CRT? That musta cost a doozie.

I am in the middle of trying to find a new display and would be very interested in widecreen monitors.

 

[Bar81]

What I have (in case you change your mind and consider an LCD):
Philips 170W4P LCD

Review:
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=philips17wide&page=1&cookie%5Ftest=1

 

[darkswordsman17]

Wow, I found a site showing a 24" Sony and um yeah, $1999. Not bad really considering its 24" and is a CRT so it shouldn't ghost at all.

How is that Formac monitor widescreen? The resolutions listed under its specs show 1600x1200, 1024x768, and 800x600.

Thanks Bar, looks quite nice.

Oh, I'm not limiting it to CRTs, in fact, from what I can tell is only the Sony 24" exists for widescreen CRTs. I've seen several widescreen LCD/TVs that I thought about.

One was the Sceptre Naga 17" LCD TV. Its got every type of input you could want, but I'm not sure about the image quality and ghosting. Its only $500 so its appealing for that price point too.

 

[Alkali]

I nearly got the WD900 24" Sony Widescreen CRT.... until I realised it was nearly TWICE as much as my Mitsubishi 22" CRT, lol...

Shame I wanted widescreen gaming, but at these prices it was silly.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Hey, look at what I found.

Its refurbed and beige, but 25% of the price that it goes new is pretty nice. Also free freight shipping to a commercial address.24" Sony

 

[Bar81]

damn, 90 lbs! That thing makes my old Mitsu 900U seem svelte by comparison