To buy Widescreen or not??

[sphenx]

Trying to decide whether or not to go widescreen or not of course......convince me one is better than the other.

 

[V99]

Whatever is cheapest for you is what you should buy..If you can afford a widescreen then buy one. They look cooler =P

 

[Indolentron]

Trying to decide whether or not to go widescreen or not of course......convince me one is better than the other.

Humans have a higher horizontal field of view than vertical.

If you're willing to fiddle with settings with games that don't support widescreen out of the box/ play ones that dont support it at all blackbarred or stretched, then there's no other downside that I can think of. Not that I've even used widescreen yet though... another couple days yet.

 

[liqdfire]

I love mine. I finally got BF2 and CSS to play at the native res of the monitor and it is great.

 

[c1001]

i love my widescreen. love it for work even more than for gaming. it is great to have two full size windows open side by side.

 

[[LYL]Homer]

I always say that once you go wide you'll never go back.

 

[swatbat]

I've had my 23 inch widescreen apple lcd for a while now. I must say that I love it. For my notebook I still prefer normal screens due to size but on the desktop it doesn't matter. Hell I've been depating ditching the 23 inch for 2 wide screen 21 inch lcds. Figure I could always add a thrid down the road......

 

[Huggles]

Trying to decide whether or not to go widescreen or not of course......convince me one is better than the other.

Depends, EA wants to make every game in 4:3 mode, so switch to Widescreen only if you like to surf wide screen gaming forums to find solutions to their crap games.

 

[Asian Dub Foundation]

widescreen is just more pleasing to the eye, and more productive (gaming and working)

 

[Battle_Rattle]

I went from a 19in Sony CRT to the Gateway FPD2185w .... I'll never go back to 4:3

Some points:

-Try to view a monitor before you buy
-It WILL take an hour or so to get used to widescreen
-Get a well shielded digital cable if yours doesnt come with one

 

[wpeng]

Depends, EA wants to make every game in 4:3 mode, so switch to Widescreen only if you like to surf wide screen gaming forums to find solutions to their crap games.

Except friggin' BF2, where no matter how long you surf the widescreen gaming forums, you still won't come up with a solution.

 

[k1pp3r]

Except friggin' BF2, where no matter how long you surf the widescreen gaming forums, you still won't come up with a solution.

Your BF2 Solution

 

[Huggles]

Except friggin' BF2, where no matter how long you surf the widescreen gaming forums, you still won't come up with a solution.

Yeah, not a TRUE solution... you get widescreen by them cutting out the top and bottom.

 

[Greenwit]

Trying to decide whether or not to go widescreen or not of course......convince me one is better than the other.

If you play games in a widescreen format I would say yes. You have a larger field of view and it's a view that you can use to your advantage. Not only to see more but to use your landscape vision to take in more of the scene before you. It is pure falicy to suggest it is better or more natural for everyday work tasks. You are focused on a point on the screen, a word or an object as you would when browsing web pages or writing a memo. Widescreen format is irrelevant as you are not using your natural binocular or landscape field of vision. Of course, if you work on wide spreadsheets a widescreen can come in handy, but at the expense of vertical space (i.e., the Dell 2001fp vs Dell 2005fpw).

 

[c1001]

If you play games in a widescreen format I would say yes. You have a larger field of view and it's a view that you can use to your advantage. Not only to see more but to use your landscape vision to take in more of the scene before you. It is pure falicy to suggest it is better or more natural for everyday work tasks. You are focused on a point on the screen, a word or an object as you would when browsing web pages or writing a memo. Widescreen format is irrelevant as you are not using your natural binocular or landscape field of vision. Of course, if you work on wide spreadsheets a widescreen can come in handy, but at the expense of vertical space (i.e., the Dell 2001fp vs Dell 2005fpw).

It's not a FALLACY. If someone says they find it preferable to work on a widescreen then accept their opinion at face value. It's easier to juggle multiple apps (email and Word) or to do photo or video editing (where you may have mutliple windows open) with a widescreen. You may not find it to be the case, but that doesn't make it false or untrue.

 

[sphenx]

thanks for the replys everyone. As soon as I can, im going to be grabbing a 2005fpw. I beleive im going to wait until after xmas to see if they have some coupon codes for it.

and I guess my next question is....is whether or not i should go for it now or wait until after xmas to see if they drop the price.....i heard from a friend that the prices prolly wont drop due to a policy change or something.

 

[Greenwit]

It's not a FALLACY. If someone says they find it preferable to work on a widescreen then accept their opinion at face value. It's easier to juggle multiple apps (email and Word) or to do photo or video editing (where you may have mutliple windows open) with a widescreen. You may not find it to be the case, but that doesn't make it false or untrue.

I was pretty specific with what I said.....which you neglected to address alltogether. There are certain tasks/games where your natural widescreen vision is used, like games for example. Taking in the whole field of view with your vision to assess the gameworld in FPSs. Then there are uses like Word where you are doing word processing or webpages. And you are focused on particular words or points on the screen. You don't need peripheral vision for these things. It's mostly common sense which apparently is elusive to you. Instead of being a widescreen lemming and saying everything RoxxxoRs, maybe you should do a little bit of thinking and use your gray matter. BTW, I stated clearly that widescreen can be beneficial for wide spreadsheets and other uses where horizontal space is important. But keep in mind you lose vertical space with something like a 2005fpw where the vertical dimension is similar to only a 17" screen. That is a fact which not debateable. A widescreen is not perferable in all cases to a conventional screen. If you cannot see that I cannot help you. The 2005fpw is a 17" screen vertically....understand? Is that a good in all circumstances? Duh.

 

[c1001]

I was pretty specific with what I said.....which you neglected to address alltogether. There are certain tasks/games where your natural widescreen vision is used, like games for example. Taking in the whole field of view with your vision to assess the gameworld in FPSs. Then there are uses like Word where you are doing word processing or webpages. And you are focused on particular words or points on the screen. You don't need peripheral vision for these things. It's mostly common sense which apparently is elusive to you. Instead of being a widescreen lemming and saying everything RoxxxoRs, maybe you should do a little bit of thinking and use your gray matter. BTW, I stated clearly that widescreen can be beneficial for wide spreadsheets and other uses where horizontal space is important. But keep in mind you lose vertical space with something like a 2005fpw where the vertical dimension is similar to only a 17" screen. That is a fact which not debateable. A widescreen is not perferable in all cases to a conventional screen. If you cannot see that I cannot help you. The 2005fpw is a 17" screen vertically....understand? Is that a good in all circumstances? Duh.

You seem to have some confusion distinguishing between facts and opinions, and are getting personal. Not appreciated.
Enjoy your little adolescent tizzy and mudpit.
Gotta go back to work on my WIDESCREEN, which BTW really rocks!

 

[TheRapture]

Trying to decide whether or not to go widescreen or not of course......convince me one is better than the other.

1. widescreen gaming is the bomb
2. two pages side by side are the bomb
3. your eyes see more side to side than top to bottom
4. watching dvd in (mostly) native widescreen is the bomb
5. it's l33t
6. see all the above

Seriously, it's one of those subjective things, you really won't be able to understand it until you try it, kind of like having a dual core cpu

I know I will not be going back to single cores OR plain displays....

 

[melomania]

widescreen owns! at least I hope so!

My Viewsonic VA1912WB is laying under the tree as we speak. Can't wait!

 

[Greenwit]

You seem to have some confusion distinguishing between facts and opinions, and are getting personal. Not appreciated.
Enjoy your little adolescent tizzy and mudpit.
Gotta go back to work on my WIDESCREEN, which BTW really rocks!

You make it appear as if widescreen has no disadvantages which is disingenuous. As I addressed and you ignore all together, you gain horizontal size at the expense of vertical (total space being roughly equal), which is certainly not always adventageous. The OP poster I think is in need of considered opinion, something more than it 'rocks.' He is getting a 17 inch vertical screen and someone should point out the disadvantages to that. This explains my comment that it is falacious that it is always preferred over 4:3. And it is also the case that widescreen is not always applicable to the task. BTW, I have two widescreen high definition TVs so I am not anti-widescreen.

 

[Emission]

Widescreen is friggin' awesome for DVDs and daily work. My laptop has a 16:10 UXGA 1920x1200 and its a friggin big workspace considering that its a 15.4" Monitor. Dual screens are awesome for workspace reasons. It feels SO much more free with THAT much space. Not to mention its 1337

 

[porplemontage]

I got my 2005FPW about a week ago and I must say that I love it. I feel so limited using standard 4:3 monitors now.

 

[SLee]

Widescreen is friggin' awesome for DVDs and daily work. My laptop has a 16:10 UXGA 1920x1200 and its a friggin big workspace considering that its a 15.4" Monitor. Dual screens are awesome for workspace reasons. It feels SO much more free with THAT much space. Not to mention its 1337

It's a big workspace because it has lots of pixels, not because its widescreen. A WXGA screen gets very cramped, very fast.

I got my 2005FPW about a week ago and I must say that I love it. I feel so limited using standard 4:3 monitors now.

Which 4:3 monitors are you comparing to? A 20" 4:3 screen is bigger and has more pixels.

 

[TheRapture]

Which 4:3 monitors are you comparing to? A 20" 4:3 screen is bigger and has more pixels.

Depends on the native resolution as far as pixels go...

If I remember correctly, the 21" widescreen 1680x1050 res displays have about 35% more pixels than a 19" display....they are about the same height, but lots more side to side in comparison....


And let's not all forget that a 19" LCD is the same basic viewable area as a 21" CRT.

 

[SLee]

Depends on the native resolution as far as pixels go...

The comparison was for the 20" 4:3 vs the 20" 16:10.

If I remember correctly, the 21" widescreen 1680x1050 res displays have about 35% more pixels than a 19" display....they are about the same height, but lots more side to side in comparison....

Why compare it with a 19" screen that cost 1/3 -1/2 the price?

 

[porplemontage]

Which 4:3 monitors are you comparing to? A 20" 4:3 screen is bigger and has more pixels.

The greater width-to-height ratio is just nice. A 20" 4:3 monitor and a 20" widescreen monitor are hard to compare because, yes, the 4:3 monitor is bigger and has a larger viewing space. The 4:3 wins there. A 20" widescreen is like a smaller monitor, only wider, which doesn't bother me. I didn't buy a widescreen monitor for more viewing space, I bought it for its aspect ratio.

 

[Greenwit]

The most obvious comparison is the two Dells.....2001fp and 2005fpw. The 4:3 monitor is approximately 1.5 inches larger on the vertical plane and 1 inch shorter on the horizontal plane. Overall the 2001fp is slightly larger. I've tried both and prefer the 2001fp but really dislike 'em both. The widescreen is just too short north and south. It is a 17 inch monitor in that regard and I feel too cramped for most uses. The 2001fp doesn't have the backlight bleeding of the 2005fpw in the corners but the contrast ratio just sucks. Doom3 is a joke. I just couldn't get into it on the 2001fp. Not enough blacks and the 2005fpw isn't much better. Neither of these monitors float my boat....both are badly flawed for different reasons. Haven't tried the 2405. That would at least fix the cramped vertical dimension.

 

[porplemontage]

I've been on a 15" laptop monitor (1400x1050) for a while, so I'm going to like pretty much anything larger than that. As far as resolution goes, the 2005FPW is just wider (1680x1050), so it wasn't too big of a change for me.

 

[Rash]

Im waiting to see what 23" xblack widescreen monitors will be like for games, but id rather surf or do office work on 2-4 19" monitors rather than 1-2 23" widescreen monitors! So eventually ill have

 

[Russ]

holy crap.... Spend enough money in that pic? Must be many thoughsands of dollars of electronics there. Imagine if I just took a hose and....

20" (Or 20.1" specifically) 4:3 = 1600x1200
20" 16:9 (or 16:10 or whatever it is) = 1680x1050

1,920,000 pixels compared to 1,764,000 pixels. Not tooo much of a difference, but still more for the 16x12 display. ~.8 inches wider and 1.5 in shorter.

It's too bad that there's such a split in the game industry now. Even though I have a 4:3 monitor that I spent a lot of money on and it would suck if it was obselete, it would be nice if all games were always widescreen. I'd take the bars, since it would mean I'm pretty much exactly the same as someone on a 2005fpw, and later I'd switch for a 2405fpw or something.

The larger fov is really nice i think. Real hard to go back to 4:3 after you're used to widescreen.

 

[Emission]

It's a big workspace because it has lots of pixels, not because its widescreen. A WXGA screen gets very cramped, very fast.


Which 4:3 monitors are you comparing to? A 20" 4:3 screen is bigger and has more pixels.

If it wasnt widescreen than it would be 1600x1200, which in turn, less pixels, less workspace. Most widescreens have a big resolution. The higher the resolution, the more workspace you have. A widescreen with a resolution like 1280x1024 isnt any better than a 17 or 19" monitor with that same resolution, because of the amount of pixels. Its more about the amount of pixels than the monitor size. Ease of viewing increases when its on a bigger monitor..

 

[TheRapture]

Its more about the amount of pixels than the monitor size. Ease of viewing increases when its on a bigger monitor..

Yep, and more pixels = more detailed images in most cases.....like playing Far Cry, I run it at 1680x1050 with everything in the game control panel set to the highest it can go, EXCEPT I only run 2x AA....I don't need any more than that, in fact, it looks pretty good even with no AA at all....

High res gaming is awesome.....and widescreen makes it even better....

 

[Molingrad]

i just bought a widescreen tv and this is my logic behind getting one

If you buy a big normal square screen when you go to watch a dvd or HD it will be displayed in a widescreen aspect (16:9) giving you black bars on the top and bottom essentially wasting the inches that you paid for in getting the large normal screen

when you get a widescreen you are getting it already in the widescreen aspect which since there are no black bars would probably be the same image if not larger than the normal screen because since there would be no inches being wasted. This would allow you to get a smaller widescreen tv saving money and getting the same visable image that a normal larger more expensive tv would display.

streching an image to fit a widescreen isnt as bad as it might sound i watch 4:3 streched to fill my widescreen sony and dont mind it much at all.

+ = image
- = black bar

fullscreen ______ widescreen
-----------------------
++++++++++++ ++++++++++++
++++++++++++ ++++++++++++
-----------------------

or maybe your talking about a monitor but even still if you plan on a widescreen resolution it still applies

 

[Emission]

Yep, and more pixels = more detailed images in most cases.....like playing Far Cry, I run it at 1680x1050 with everything in the game control panel set to the highest it can go, EXCEPT I only run 2x AA....I don't need any more than that, in fact, it looks pretty good even with no AA at all....

High res gaming is awesome.....and widescreen makes it even better....

I want to get a sony 23" SDM-P234/B Here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824006084
But thats not quite in my budget , at least not yet, lol.