LCD PC monitor size advice

[mike c]

I went from a samsung 17" LCD monitor to my current Viewsonic VX2025WM 20.1" widescreen LCD.

I feel that I gained nothing by way of an increase in usable screen size ... sure, it's wider, but when reading documents, it's about the same height with my old 17" monitor. (you're not actually reading MORE of the same page) and I dont want to resize to a smaller resolution, because I need the font size to remain constant.

I'm thinking of replacing my existing monitor with the Viewsonic VG2021M 20.1" NON-wide LCD.

when computing the viewable area, the non-wide version is indeed bigger by 11.84 square inches than the wide version.

it's also cheaper, am I missing something here?

 

[Sheep]

Widescreen is for movies, period. At friend of mine bought a Widescreen LCD and it blows for gaming.

4:3 man, 4:3.

SheepStar

 

[mike c]

so I'm a GO on the non wide screen monitor?

 

[Hi Ho]

I have a 20.1" Westinghouse 4:3 LCD monitor and I love it. It was a major upgrade from my old 17" el cheapo CRT and it is great for gaming. I agree that 4:3 is the way to go for PC's. Most games either require a hack to make them run in widescreen or don't work at all.

 

[j_garcia]

If you aren't gaming or doing CAD, I'd say go back to 4:3. Actual area is larger on a 16:9 screen, but as you noted, not vertically.

 

[mike c]

great, thanks HI HO. will post pictures of them both side by side when I get a new monitor.

 

[mike c]

john, yup ... will give the widescreen to my brother who does a lot of corel stuff.

 

[Sheep]

If you aren't gaming or doing CAD, I'd say go back to 4:3. Actual area is larger on a 16:9 screen, but as you noted, not vertically.

Erm, what?! GAMING needs 4:3. If you research the extended features in the doom movie, they talk about how it was hard to make the FPS scenes look real using the 16:9 format (Gun placement etc etc).

Mike, you game, 4:3.

SheepStar

 

[Wafflesomd]

Gaming widescreen is much better than 4:3.

And sheep, games are easily made into widescreen, I don't know a game today that doest have 16:10 or 16:9 ratios.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I've had an Olevia 4:3 20" LCD for the past few years and love it. I recently got my folks a high end 20" Acer 4:3 for Xmas on Black Friday and it's outstanding (much better than my LCD).

I recently hooked up my kids PC to our 37" Olevia HD LCD in the family room, and was blown away by the pq. The Olevia centered the pic and allowed every resolution but 19XX and up. The text was amazing. Now I'm thinking of getting an Olevia 26" LCD for my pc, and giving this 20" LCD (has a built in NTSC tuner) to the kids to replace their 17" CRT. I'd love to keep their PC in the family room, but they'd take over the TV and I'd never get to enjoy HD.

 

[mike c]

just remember 26" widescreen MIGHT not be a lot bigger than your 20" 4:3

from my measurement, my 40" wide is just about 34" 4:3

 

[Sheep]

Gaming widescreen is much better than 4:3.

And sheep, games are easily made into widescreen, I don't know a game today that doest have 16:10 or 16:9 ratios.

Yeah, but they're gay. The over all picture is MUCH smaller. It's pointless, and NOT better.

SheepStar

 

[Wafflesomd]

Yeah, but they're gay. The over all picture is MUCH smaller. It's pointless, and NOT better.

SheepStar

What? Smaller? Where are you getting that from?

It's not smaller at all. Your just rendering the same amount of pixels along a different aspect ratio. No size is lost.

 

[furrycute]

I too still prefer the old 4:3 aspect ratio. To this day, I still do not see the point of making 14inch widescreen notebooks. 4:3 ratio 14inch screens have acceptable vertical screen real estate. But 16:9 ratio widescreen 14inch screens are just pathetic. You have to scroll on and on and on to read anything on the web.

 

[j_garcia]

14" wide is kind of pointless I agree. Larger screens though do give you some benefit.

SHEEP! My LCD at home is wide and games look just fine on it, but I pretty much never game on my PC anymore...all PS3 and PS2

 

[Nick250]

I went from a samsung 17" LCD monitor to my current Viewsonic VX2025WM 20.1" widescreen LCD.

I feel that I gained nothing by way of an increase in usable screen size ... sure, it's wider, but when reading documents, it's about the same height with my old 17" monitor. (you're not actually reading MORE of the same page) and I dont want to resize to a smaller resolution, because I need the font size to remain constant.

I'm thinking of replacing my existing monitor with the Viewsonic VG2021M 20.1" NON-wide LCD.

when computing the viewable area, the non-wide version is indeed bigger by 11.84 square inches than the wide version.

it's also cheaper, am I missing something here?

I could have any screen size I want, and I have a chance to spend time with different sizes at the office. It turns out I like the standard 17" display the best. Others at the office like the standard 19" better. We have one 24" wide screen, yuck, it's not for me. Different strokes.

Nick

 

[jonnythan]

Gaming widescreen is much better than 4:3.

And sheep, games are easily made into widescreen, I don't know a game today that doest have 16:10 or 16:9 ratios.

QFT. I recently moved to widescreen gaming, and life is *way* better there. It's better for movies and it's better for gaming. I can't imagine why everyone would think that widescreen is better for movies but somehow worse for gaming.

However, Madden '07 does not have any widescreen mode whatsoever. It sucks.

 

[jcPanny]

Widescreen LCD

A 17" or 19" widescreen monitor can be convenient for running multiple programs side by side. Most new computers are capable of multiple monitors, so you could achieve the same effect with two of the 15" or 17" 4:3 LCD monitors.

 

[Sheep]

At a recent LAN party we compared a 19inch widscreen LCD (LG L194WTX-BF) to my 19inch CRT (Hansol 920D), and there was no comparison. If you want a squashed picture and pretty much no overhead viewing, go widescreen. That upper realestate is priceless for gaming. The 4:3 has more surface area then its equivilent in 16:9, this is a fact. The only time widescreen monitors are useful is when they are 20.1inches or larger.

SheepStar

 

[jonnythan]

At a recent LAN party we compared a 19inch widscreen LCD (LG L194WTX-BF) to my 19inch CRT (Hansol 920D), and there was no comparison. If you want a squashed picture and pretty much no overhead viewing, go widescreen. That upper realestate is priceless for gaming. The 4:3 has more surface area then its equivilent in 16:9, this is a fact. The only time widescreen monitors are useful is when they are 20.1inches or larger.

SheepStar

You're being a luddite. The gaming world is moving (in fact, has moved) to widescreen gaming. Look at the Wii, PS3, and XBox 360. I play COD2 and Supreme Commander all the time in widescreen and it really is way better.

Movies are widescreen. High def games are widescreen. Widescreen is better because humans operate more efficiently horizontally than vertically. It's better for movies, and it's better for games.