Wide Screen Monitors

[CarlMetro]

For a number of years I've been very happy with my square 19" TFT monitor. That was until about a week ago it went through the various motions of a dying monitor and finally gave up the ghost completely on Thursday.

So a quick trip into around various internet stores and high street retail outlets left me with a simply conclusion, nobody seems to make decent sized square monitors anymore :dozey: It's fine if you want 15", but who has 15" anymore?

So here I am with a sparkly and new 22" wiiiiiiiddddddeeeeeessssscccccrrrrrreeeennnn POS and I hate it! What is this obsession we seem to have as consumers with widescreen? What was wrong with square? I liked square. It meant that when I wrote an email it wasn't 400 chracters long per sentence, it meant that games and picture didn't look all squashed and it meant that the sreen where I'm writing this now wasn't surrounded by 5 acres of white background on either side.

Rant over.

[janneppi]

I moved from a classic ( ;) )19" crt to a 22" wide screen. It does take some getting used to, I don't use fullscreen mode on most programs, just big enough they don't run out of space.
It's nice to have free space for "smaller" programs.
I had a 17" monitor at work, it sucked major donkey bits to do anything 3d with it after getting used to this.

[Macd]

You obviously haven't set it up properly. I'm running a 22" wide-screen here and nothing is squashed this website covers the entire screen and it gives me plenty of space to run programs side by side.

[Dave B]

You do get used to it, in fact I'd never go back, but remember you don't have to have your browser maximised: you can run it in "squarevision" and use the remaining space for other applications. My sidebar gives me Twitter and Facebook updates, for example.

[Wade91]

i have a 21.5" widescreen moniter that i got with my new Windows 7 computer for christmas, and i love it :D

[CaptainRaiden]

I think on the proper "widescreen" resolution, like mine is on 1440X900 right now, it's the best thing. I mean I play all games on that resolution, and don't miss the old squared monitors.

Had to work on an old square monitor recently, felt very weird. Seemed like I was back in the late 90s. :D

[Mark]

For a number of years I've been very happy with my square 19" TFT monitor. That was until about a week ago it went through the various motions of a dying monitor and finally gave up the ghost completely on Thursday.

So a quick trip into around various internet stores and high street retail outlets left me with a simply conclusion, nobody seems to make decent sized square monitors anymore :dozey: It's fine if you want 15", but who has 15" anymore?

So here I am with a sparkly and new 22" wiiiiiiiddddddeeeeeessssscccccrrrrrreeeennnn POS and I hate it! What is this obsession we seem to have as consumers with widescreen? What was wrong with square? I liked square. It meant that when I wrote an email it wasn't 400 chracters long per sentence, it meant that games and picture didn't look all squashed and it meant that the sreen where I'm writing this now wasn't surrounded by 5 acres of white background on either side.

Rant over.

If you get a widescreen monitor that has the same vertical size and resolution as your old one, you haven't lost anything.

[Daniel]

If you get a widescreen monitor that has the same vertical size and resolution as your old one, you haven't lost anything.

Wot he said :) Think of it like this. You can get a 20" 1600*1200 monitor but you can also get a 24" 1920*1200 monitor so all that's changed is that you're got another 160 pixels width each side of your original screen.

The biggest problem I have with widescreen monitors is the obsession with 16:9 (a tv resolution) over 16:10 (A proper PC resolution).

16:9 is great for widescreen TV as you don't get black bars, but 16:10 is a ****load better as you have more vertical resolution which means more fits on your page basically. I've got a 24" Samsung SM2433BW and I love it, but I feel robbed when using a 16:9 monitor.

Carl, sounds like you haven't changed your desktop resolution to me. Change that to the native resolution of the monitor and all will be good in the universe again :)

[Daniel]

Oh and also, if you reeeeeally want a 4:3 monitor they still do 'em Carl

http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=19%22+monitor+4%3A3

[Daniel]

Oh and some pics of what i've got (not my pics btw)
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h14/duckdodgersuk/DSC03315.jpg

http://images.novatech.co.uk/ev-sam-sm24335.jpg

[CarlMetro]

Oh and also, if you reeeeeally want a 4:3 monitor they still do 'em Carl

http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=19%22+monitor+4%3A3

Bu**er, now you tell me..... :rolleyes:

.........and I did all the resolution things, still hate the damn thing though, although I have taken Daves idea on board and it's not so bad as it was.

[Daniel]

Bu**er, now you tell me..... :rolleyes:

.........and I did all the resolution things, still hate the damn thing though, although I have taken Daves idea on board and it's not so bad as it was.
Most shops don't really sell 4:3 monitors anymore because the unwashed masses see widescreen/16:9/1080p and cream their pants.

Widescreen does have its advantages though, compared to a normal 4:3 1280*1024 (1.3 megapixels) my 1920*1200 monitor has almost twice the resolution (2.3 megapixels) and still ~15% more than the silly TV's that they're pushing on people as monitors so there is a lot more space on the screen for things and rather than maximising one application and having to alt tab you can have 2 or 3 windows open and drag and drop things between the screens.

[slorydn1]

Speaking of wide screen, My 17 year old messed up and taught me how to connect my laptop to my 46" Samsung LCD TV.

All I can say is, WOW. I can read this site from 20 feet away, but its kind of a pain to walk all the way back to he computer to scroll up and down :p :

Actually, I really only do that when I am running multiple apps for special occasions, like the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor last week. Then I'll have NASA-TV, the orbital tracking map, the launch blog, and one or more of the timelines or checklists open all at the same time. I'm it works so well for me I'm trying to talk my bosses at work into going the large screen TV route and doing away with the( 4) 19 inch monitor set up we use now.

Other than that, I don't do it much, it is overkill for surfing the net.

[Daniel]

Speaking of wide screen, My 17 year old messed up and taught me how to connect my laptop to my 46" Samsung LCD TV.

All I can say is, WOW. I can read this site from 20 feet away, but its kind of a pain to walk all the way back to he computer to scroll up and down :p :

Actually, I really only do that when I am running multiple apps for special occasions, like the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor last week. Then I'll have NASA-TV, the orbital tracking map, the launch blog, and one or more of the timelines or checklists open all at the same time. I'm it works so well for me I'm trying to talk my bosses at work into going the large screen TV route and doing away with the( 4) 19 inch monitor set up we use now.

Other than that, I don't do it much, it is overkill for surfing the net.
At the place I'm working at we have a few of these which are great for monitoring networks and also the communal inbox that we use. :)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EVH2SPHQL.jpg

For desktop use though you're better off with a nice 24" 1920*1200 monitor though.

[Mark]

Very nice. Here we have a rag tag bunch of whatever could be afforded. A couple of people have 22" widescreens, but even they are quite old now.

I'd like a nice high res widescreen monitor, as I always have dozens of terminal windows open at once.

[Daniel]

Very nice. Here we have a rag tag bunch of whatever could be afforded. A couple of people have 22" widescreens, but even they are quite old now.

I'd like a nice high res widescreen monitor, as I always have dozens of terminal windows open at once.
Sadly a lot of IT people don't see the value of this sort of thing. Fools!

[Jag_Warrior]

A buddy of mine has a triple monitor setup he uses for trading. That seems pretty extreme for the average person. But does anyone here have a double monitor setup at home... Daniel maybe?

[Daniel]

A buddy of mine has a triple monitor setup he uses for trading. That seems pretty extreme for the average person. But does anyone here have a double monitor setup at home... Daniel maybe?

Personally I prefer a nice big single monitor for home use though I have used dual monitor setups when working and they are good in some situations though can be annoying sometimes too. But if you absolutely need a screen showing your stock prices and another for email then it's a worthwhile setup.

[Hazell B]

I've been through two monitors this week.
Blew up one, then another (which was given to me luckily, so didn't cost anything) and finally I bought a massive old fashioned one with too big a screen. I hate it already. Want the old 18ish inch normal frame one back .... from the tip :mark:

[Daniel]

I've been through two monitors this week.
Blew up one, then another (which was given to me luckily, so didn't cost anything) and finally I bought a massive old fashioned one with too big a screen. I hate it already. Want the old 18ish inch normal frame one back .... from the tip :mark:
Bah. Just buy an LCD hazell, the power savings over time will mean it pays for itself.

[Hazell B]

Not when I keep getting them given :p :
Anyhow, I switch everything off when not in use, so it's bits of pennies however long I keep a ten quid old style monitor.

I think it's down to the cold in here. No heating in the office.

[Jag_Warrior]

Personally I prefer a nice big single monitor for home use though I have used dual monitor setups when working and they are good in some situations though can be annoying sometimes too. But if you absolutely need a screen showing your stock prices and another for email then it's a worthwhile setup.

He runs his technical analysis and charts on one screen and the trading platform on another. Very cool. But for what I do, that's overkill.

But I am becoming rather fascinated with the idea of watching a race on one screen and having live timing & scoring up on the other. Hmm, that would be pure racing/geek porn. :s mokin:

For Monaco, I could even add a third monitor just for the uh... "harbor shots". ;)

But as long as this computer lasts another year, I might go with a dual setup on whatever computer I buy next year. Even larger monitors are SO cheap these days!

[PuddleJumper]

What was wrong with square? I liked square. It meant that when I wrote an email it wasn't 400 chracters long per sentence, it meant that games and picture didn't look all squashed and it meant that the sreen where I'm writing this now wasn't surrounded by 5 acres of white background on either side.
How on Earth does your screen size or resolution have any effect on the number of characters in a sentence in an email? :p :

[Dave B]

But I am becoming rather fascinated with the idea of watching a race on one screen and having live timing & scoring up on the other. Hmm, that would be pure racing/geek porn. :s mokin:
The only trouble you might find with that is online video tends to lag a few seconds, by when the live timing may have indicated something about to happen!

I've just written a page which will give me F1 live timing on one side and a live Twitter feed of F1 types down the right.

I'll stick to 2 TVs for world feed and onboard :D

Here's how it looks with Autosport's page, it should look better with the f1.com black Java app:

[Daniel]

How on Earth does your screen size or resolution have any effect on the number of characters in a sentence in an email? :p :
Carl meants the number of characters in a line.

[Dave B]

For Monaco, I could even add a third monitor just for the uh... "harbor shots". ;)
Like this?

(Apologies for the crappy cameraphone shot!)

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs008.snc1/4440_99897352268_627167268_2763048_4072169_n.jpg

This is what we set up at the in-laws' last year. We do a similar (but bigger :D ) setup at home, I'll do some photos once the season starts!

[Jag_Warrior]

Like this?

(Apologies for the crappy cameraphone shot!)

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs008.snc1/4440_99897352268_627167268_2763048_4072169_n.jpg

This is what we set up at the in-laws' last year. We do a similar (but bigger :D ) setup at home, I'll do some photos once the season starts!

Yes! That's what I'm talking about!

The fans approve!!!

http://intendo.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/thumbs_up_man_smalljpg.jpg