Fullscreen woes

C

cApNhOwDy

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 15, 2007
Messages
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As much as I'd like to get a widescreen monitor, the choice of games that I mainly play makes it harder for me to choose a good work/play monitor. My primary games dont support widescreen resolutions. I'm a little hurt that they wouldnt include some widescreen loving support, but I'll manage. Anyways, I'm here for opinions on monitors, and I'm always open to more suggestions. Right now I'm using an HP f1703 17" fullscreen LCD monitor. I'd like to buy a larger monitor that supports higher resolutions. I've spent a few hours reading reviews and trying to decide which fullscreen monitor would be the best for me to upgrade to, and I'm torn between my primary candidates for CRT and LCD monitors. It's basically boiled down to these two.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116121
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16824116372

So, which one should I get? Should I go with the CRT that hasnt had alot of reviews and is also a freaking mammoth but also has crisp clear text and awesome resolutions and better viewing angles and true black colors and greatly reduced chance of dead pixels? Or should I go with the LCD that has a bigger screen but maxes out at 1600x1200 but also saves a ton of desk space and is sexy and has a high contrast ratio but runs the risk of ghosting and dead pixels (pet peeve) and etc.

OR if anyone wants to throw out any more options, I'd be more than happy to take them into account. I just want a fullscreen monitor that'll be sufficient for the next 3-4 years.
 
Take a look at this thread - another poster looking for a 20" 4:3 monitor.

Can't really help you with the CRT, my last one was stuffed so I havn't seen a good one in a long time.

Another place to checkout is http://www.widescreengamer.com/, you may find that a lot of the games you play can be forced to run widescreen resolutions with a few tricks.
 
I've looked at that website, but I still cant run the primary games I play in a widescreen resolution. I'm going to be forced to buy a bigger fullscreen.
 
The primary games I play arent listed on that website either. If there was a way to play in widescreen, I would have heard about it since I'm an active part of those games' communities.
 
cApNhOwDy, do you realize you can run 4:3 on a widescreen monitor in a best-fit-without-stretching mode, with black bars on each side? I don't know about ATI, but nvidia supports that.
 
zzz - do you realise that doing so completely defeats the purpose of having a widescreen monitor in the first place?
 
zzz said:
cApNhOwDy, do you realize you can run 4:3 on a widescreen monitor in a best-fit-without-stretching mode, with black bars on each side? I don't know about ATI, but nvidia supports that.
Click to expand...

I'd have to check that out, but that'd be great if I could do that. I have an ATI card, so that feature might not be supported. Does it have a verbal name so that I can do some research on it? I'd have to ask around to see if it would work with the primary fullscreen games that I play.

And Destroid, if I was able to do what zzz says I might be able to do, then whenever I wanted to play widescreen games or watch widescreen DVDs then I would have that option available. Of course, being able to play my primary games in fullscreen resolution without stretching is still a higher priority than watching movies.
 
cApNhOwDy said:
Does it have a verbal name so that I can do some research on it? I'd have to ask around to see if it would work with the primary fullscreen games that I play.
Click to expand...
Names for the driver setting are "fixed aspect ratio scaling" or "maintain aspect ratio". "pillerbox" refers to black bars on each side. Other key words are "widescreen", "stretching", and "resolution".
 
That's just weird.. I have never been out of the US.. but I spell it 'realise'. I think that's because a lot of books I have read spelled it that way.. But a lot of them also use 'colour' instead of 'color', and I still spell that and other similar words the US way. :D
 
Destroid said:
zzz - do you realise that doing so completely defeats the purpose of having a widescreen monitor in the first place?
Click to expand...
It's kind of funny...he implied that the whole purpose of having a widescreen monitor is so that your 4:3 games can be stretched.
 
Hilariously enough I spend most of my time on my 2007WFP in portrait mode these days, only switch back to wide to play games or watch movies.

The only real reason I can see for cApNhOwDy to get a widescreen monitor is cost.
 
Destroid said:
Hilariously enough I spend most of my time on my 2007WFP in portrait mode these days, only switch back to wide to play games or watch movies.
Click to expand...
That sounds very odd. Why wouldn't you use all those pixels on the left and right sides, for day-to-day tasks in your OS?

The main benefit of widescreen is being able to have two side-by-side windows open. Also, widescreen fits the eye's natural vision range much better.
 
I find webpages are formatted better for tall narrow displays and since I dont do work on my computer for the most part I don't need to view two things at the same time.
 
Oh I get it, you physically rotate the screen 90". I didn't catch that. I thought you were running at 1400x1050 to counteract the widescreen and waste the side pixels!
 
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