Widescreen vs. Normal Ratio
I'm considering upgrading my monitor from the CRT I currently have to an LCD monitor. I'm interested in the Widescreen version of the LCD's, but I've heard lots of things about them and I'm not sure if I should get one or not. I'm concerned about the slower response time on some widescreen monitors because I do not want to have any problems while I'm gaming. I'm also not sure what brand to get for either, though I love my Viewsonic CRT. Any recommendations would be excellent!
Also, I heard that built-in monitor speakers suck...is this true?
Also, I heard that built-in monitor speakers suck...is this true?
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I love Widescreen, more space to work with, I don't want the 4:3 ever again.
BenQ FTW!
I don't know much about built in speakers on monitors, but as a speaker fanatic, anything that is "built in" has to suck. There is no way those kinds speakers can belch out enough power to suffice even a flea's ears. For 1, they are cheaply made, and 2, they can only take so much power before they distort.
That's not true in the slightest. Most LCD (and by most I mean almost every single one) are no-where near the quoted response time and if you have even remotely decent eyesight you'll see the flaws in LCDs response times quite easily. It's less noticable in FPSs than most things (unless it's a game like XIII then it will be very obvious).
To pain a black and white picture of the response times, open up paint and make the canvas the entire screen size and make it the colour grey (experiment with different shades if you like) and then draw a red box (or blue, etc, fairly small, only say 1cm by 1cm) then cut it out and drag it around the screen. You'll see your response time is far from 16ms. If you don't notice ghosting during general gaming and such, well, then you're just not very observant.
Sorry, Trogdor.
No need to be a nasty person about it and on certain (lots of games) it's more than clear. It's not subjective, it's ****ing obvious most of the time.
Optical illusion? It's not an illusion, it just highlights how slow the actual response time is. Hell, if you want a real world example then try something like Worms Amageddon or XIII (It's more apparent on bold vivid colours).
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Watch the language. Necropolis
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BenQ sounds pretty good so far.
Bothered, Widescreen format (or 16:9) differs from the standard format (4:3) by giving you a larger viewable area horizontally over vertically.
For example, take a look at the attached image. The red box on the inside is the old standard 4:3 format, while the new 16:9 format is in blue.
Note how much more you can see in 16:9 vs. 4:3. This difference is what makes widescreen TVs and monitors more desireable.
Note: Movies are traditionally shot in 16:9 format. This is why you can get DVDs in "widescreen" format and view them on a 4:3 TV, only with black bars on the top and bottom of the image (and a much smaller image overall) while a widescreen TV will display the movie in all it's glory, without black bars anywhere on the screen. "Standard" format movies you view at home which are able to fit 4:3 televisions need to be re-edited to fit the smaller screens, and you lose quite a bit of the original movie (the stuff which gets cut off at the left and right of the displayed image) in the process.
The reason your new widescreen TV appears to be stretching the image really wide is because you're trying to view 4:3 format on a 16:9 screen. The solution to this is to set your TV to 4:3 format while watching these channels which appear "stretched out". This will leave two black bars on either side of the picture to make up for the difference in aspect, but the image itself will appear correctly. Look in the manual of your new TV to see how this is done.
When I say 'how does it work' I'm really asking about the stretching of the image when playing games etc. Is it like watching 4:3 on a widescreen TV? IE, do you have to change the aspect ratio or put up with the black side bars?
If you just have some windows open are they stretched or can you make use of the extra area? I've never looked at it on a monitor or a PC and haven't seen any settings to change the aspect ratio, do you only get them when you install a widescreen?
Sorry if my question was a little misleading.
Console games have been doing the same thing for years now but I couldnt tell you how long PC game developers have taken it into consideration.
A lot of game engines written over the past few years including the Doom 3 and Half Life 2 engines have the option to select 16:9 or 16:10 aspects, and the appropriate resolutions.
Older games without the capability or modifications to support widescreen monitors will give you the "stretched out" look though. Personally I couldn't stand to play a game like that.
Oblvion seems to do this as well... at least, I can't play the game at 4:3 resolutions any more (it gives me a headache), only widescreen resolutions are comfortable - I'm pretty sure the FOV is increased on widescreen. Most newer games can accommodate widescreen pretty satisfactorily, and the OS works with it even better.