5:4 aspect ratio garbage

K

kalmon

n00b
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
17
Ok can anyone give me any reason why all the LCDs i've looked at are 5:4 instead of the normal 4:3 ratio? Every time i sit in front of one of these screens it looks like everything is stretched. Is there some advantage to this "Streched" screen. The only thing i've noticed is image distortion.
ALSO
I'm looking at buying a new monitor as my Haitachi Superscan elite .22 is dying after 6 years of faithfull service. I'll be mainly gaming on this system but i also and a graphic snob and would prefer richer colors and darker blacks to .0001 nanosecond pixel times (i know that does not exist...yet), but i dont want really bad ghosting. Most of the games i play are RTS and MMORPG anyways, with the occasional Quakefest. I really have no preference as to brand or screen type TN PVA/MVA S-IPS, But from what i've read S-IPS seems like the best. Money is not an issue as i have no problem investing $500+ in an LCD that wil last me for 3+ years.

Can anyone reccomend a good quailty LCD that fits this discription, Preferably 4:3, and if not a reason why 5:4.
 
Only 17" and 19" are 5:4.

Get a 20" where you can get 4:3 (1600x1200, or 1400x1050 if you are vision challenged) or 16:10 (1680x1050).

I think the best option right now for the money is:

HP 2065: Latest generation S-IPS. 1600x1200. Comes with FOUR! cables. 2 DVI, and 2 VGA. It is about $400.
 
thanks for the quick reply

A friend of mine has a Samsung 204b that looked nice how does that compare?
 
The screen shouldn't be stretched at the native resolution. Those monitors are designed to be used at 1280x1024.
 
Mathmatically how is this possible? there are 1280 pixel wide and 1024 pixels down, if the pixels are the same number but the distance is in a different ratio how could the image not be slightly stretched vertically? i'd be interested to see a side by side picture orf a 19" LCD 5:$ and a 19" CRT 4:3. A good old fasion ruler could solve this mystery by measuring the with and heigth of a standard desktop icon 32x32 pixels. I'd guess that on the Lcd the icon will be a different size ratio. Again I know little about Lcds and if this is not the case i'd be interested in a 19" screen LCD probably the new samsung 971P or 931C or even the viewsonic VX922.

I wanted 19" because i wanted a native 1024x768 to improve performance in games, my videocard cant handle 1600x1200 in 3d.
 
kalmon said:
Mathmatically how is this possible? there are 1280 pixel wide and 1024 pixels down, if the pixels are the same number but the distance is in a different ratio how could the image not be slightly stretched vertically?
Click to expand...

Because pixels don't stretch.

If a 100x100 pixel square image is displayed on LCDs using 1024x768 (4:3) native resolution, the square will appear as a square. Similary, if the square image is displayed on LCDs using 1280x1024 (5:4) native resolution, the same square image will also appear as a square. This means all pixels are square pixels regardless of the native resoution and the physical aspect ratio.

So if you display 1280x960 (4:3) video on a LCD that uses 1280x1024 (5:4) native resolution, you will simply get 1280x960 (4:3) video without stretching plus two horizontal black bars (think letterbox). Of course this may not be the result you will get. To ensure no vertical stretching occurs, you need to set your LCD video scaling to 1:1 or fill to aspect ratio. This setting should be available in the OSD control panel. If your LCD monitor does not provide scaling control then you are screwed (unless your video card driver also provides similar scaling option).
 
that was the info i was looking for. Now as a side note why on a CRT does 1024x768 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 all have the same geomety on the screen?
 
1280x1024 on a CRT gives you a slightly vertically squashed image. The correct resolution for a CRT is 1280x960.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top