Hi everyone. I'm thinking about getting a widescreen monitor but I
have some questions before I seriously look into it.
What are the typical widescreen resolutions? I'd like to see if the
games I play even support those resolutions. What does a widescreen
monitor show if a game is displaying a standard resolution (say
1024x768) ?
How much bigger is a 23" or 30" widescreen compared to a 21" (20"
viewable") CRT? How much more viewable space do you see vertically?
Is it just the same viewable vertically and lots more horizontally?
I do realize that the 30" widescreen monitors require special
connectors that only the latest video cards support.
Any info would be appreciated!
You should really look at the model you want to buy to see the
resolutions. In the past the few widescreens had price in the
stratosphere and had high resolution. The thing I noticed was
a flood of low cost LCD TV widescreens are now dumped on the mkt
and they have much lower resolution. They look OK though surprisingly
for even PC use.
Id read that this was the year makers would push widescreen models for
PC too. With the flood of generic HDTV wide LCDs , I started seeing
CHEAP PC monitors widescreen 19-20+ with fairly low resolution similar
to HDTVs . However I noticed initially there was a gap with many
generics using the low res panels and the more well known brands using
higher res panels. However now even the generics are starting to use
higher res panels so they are much more similar to the name brands and
prices are falling even on the higher res panels.
For example my Olevia 26" TV LCD is 1366x768 and I saw even lower res
on HDTV LCDs. I started seeing these kind of panels used on wide PC
monitors initially but I guess the once low production wide higher res
panels are now being mass producced as wide catches on so all the
prices are falling. You should check as I saw even fairly recently
some sales on some monitors with fairly low res. At this rate Id like
to replace my 19" LCD Im using with my LCD HDTV too -- I have both
hooked up with a 20-23 inch wide PC monitor with higher res if prices
keep falling.
One thing they measure the screens diagonally as you know so a 20" can
look smaller than a 19" . Also with my HDTV Im using 1280x720. You
use whatever res is available and looks normal on your screen. Other
resolutions tend to stretch the screen abnormally wide. It adapts
whatever res you choose to fill up the whole screen so things can seem
squashed and stretched wide if you dont get the right res. With my
HDTV at that res things look a bit larger than my 19" LCD so its
actually easier to read.
23" DELL
1920x1200
20" 1680x1050
Viewsonic
VX2025wm 20.1-inch LCD Monitor
1680 x 1050 $400
30" DELL $2200
2560x1600
30" Apple $2500
2560 x 1600
20" COMPUSA generic brand $250
1440 x 900
19" Acer
1440x900
20"
1680x1050
