Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 80240	2007-06-16 04:39:00	Widescreen or square? Any advice?	annie (6010)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
559711	2007-06-16 04:39:00	I'm looking for a new monitor, and widescreen seems to be where all the retail action is at. It's easy to find lists of advantages, but has anyone found any annoyances? I know older games can get a bit stretched. Any problems with photo collection used as desktop or screensaver? Or anything else? I was thinking of 20" so height would be retained Thanks!	annie (6010)
559712	2007-06-16 04:48:00	The "square" screens are not really square at all..they have a height-to-width ratio that is less (or more, depends on viewpoint) than the wider screens. HDTVs being wide distort the picture and make everyone seem short..not a problem with movies like "Shrek" and "Wizard Of Oz" where some of the characters are really short anyway.... And I imagine if I had a wide screen LCD monitor, I'd complain too that the scenery is a little scrunched up. I just KNOW that someone here has the aspect ratios off the top of their heads...we'll see. And to your other point...if the height is increased, so the same ratio-value effect of stretching will go with it..so I think it's a lose/lose problem.	SurferJoe46 (51)
559713	2007-06-16 04:49:00	No problem at all with wide screen. It is great if your ever displaying two A4 docs side by side. You can never have too much screen real estate.	winmacguy (3367)
559714	2007-06-16 04:50:00	Thanks surferjoe - sorry, was being a little sloppy with the 'square' bit Should have said - won't be watching DVDs on it. Just office type applications, some gaming, internet. Would be good to be able to put two documents up at once, though, or see the end of an excel spreadsheet.	annie (6010)
559715	2007-06-16 05:00:00	You might consider then using a vidcard that can offer split screens, and use twin CRTs . The mouse can follow from one to the other and you can run two different programs at the same time on the two diff screens . . not that you cannot do that too on the LCDs and such . . . it's just the prices are so low right now on "obsolete" crt's that they are practically giving them away now in the US . . as I suspect in Upsidedown Land too . I like running two 'puters at the same time and swap and share files between them both . . I can keep F1 running here on this one with the "reload every 10 seconds" set on it while I work on the other 'puter . That way I can actually keep an eye on fresh posts and see them when they hit instead of waiting to see the notice in my GMail inbox .	SurferJoe46 (51)
559716	2007-06-16 05:21:00	but has anyone found any annoyances? I know older games can get a bit stretched. Thanks! Sometimes colours can be out of whack. Refresh rates with gaming/movies Backlight being very bright (My monitor is at 15% brightness & contrast) Dead/stuck pixels. Warrantys and getting places to honour them. And if your REALLLL picky... Aesthetics. (I don't live in Ponsonby or Newmarket so I don't care)	bob_doe_nz (92)
559717	2007-06-16 05:39:00	I've been using widescreen for a while, and once you get used to it, it's quite good. The only gripe I have is when viewing certain websites which stretch the text al the way across the screen (and I have my browser maximised), that you're having to read very long lines of text. Apart from that, the extra width is useful for multitasking without a 2nd monitor.	somebody (208)
559718	2007-06-16 06:00:00	Widescreen OK as long as your video driver/device has the required resolution for the monitor. No point having a wide screen if you can't put the picture on the screen at the screens native resolution.	berryb (99)
559719	2007-06-16 06:43:00	Thanks everyone, that's really useful. I'm upgrading my video card so that won't be a problem, the other points are worth thinking about carefully tho.	annie (6010)
559720	2007-06-16 06:50:00	DVDs are great on a wide screen :) Especially when you have a good speaker set up.	winmacguy (3367)
1 2 3