Display size

[Wp100]

Not a true design problem but thought this forum the most relevant.

Currently still use a LG 1953 19" 4:3 ratio lcd screen for typical design work and generally home office / web stuff and feel comfortable with it.
Don't do games or sit watching movies on it etc

However there are few background flickers that might mean I will soon need a replacement.

While the trend is for the 16:9 wide screens , have been looking and seems there are still a lot of new 19" 4:3 screens around including makes like iiyama, dell, benq, aoc , all for around £100.
They only have vga and dvi inputs, but assume they must still be making them, as the widescreen came out so long ago , these cannot surely be 'old stock' ?

Wondered what opinions are regarding using 16:9 screens for design work, its it something you get used to or always have that desire that you should have stayed with 4:3 ; or am I still being a luddite and should move to wide screen ?

 

[geko]

I much prefer the widescreen format. At home I have dual screen setup with an old 17" 4:3 display and new 24" 16:9. Use the wide screen for working and the second screen so I can have email or a PDF document open for reference while working.

One thing to keep in mind, it's obvious and not at the same time, but a 19" widescreen is much smaller than a 19" 4:3 ratio screen. That is to say my 17" 4:3 display has about 10.7" in the vertical where the 24" widescreen is only 11.7" high.


We bought some 19" 16:9 screens at work and honestly they're like looking through a letter box, fortunately I don't have to use them but I would say if you go wide screen you want 24" minimum.

 

[MikeMl]

Pity you dont live in my neighborhood. Here abouts I can go to the Surplus Store at my local University and buy 21" Dell monitors for $5. I have bought four there, all were like new, and am running them with the video cards they gave me for free...

Oh, and a HP laserJet 2600 was $5, too

 

[Wp100]

Thanks, take the point about the 24" widescreens height, my 19" is 12".

MM, you could always pop a screen over the pond in your Piper and spend a weekend in the little old UK, the local airport is close to Nigel G as well.

 

[Tony Stewart]

I use a 25" LG and a 55" Hitachi both in 1920 x 1080 mode
They are cheap now. Although I don't do CAD, if I were working on a desk, I would use a two 25"'s in vertical or Portrait mode instead of traditional Landscape mode side x side., That way CAD could use both screens or you can read long webpages on one while long emails on another. Then side by side you get around 22x24" of work space.

I found any card will do as all you need is 32MB of VRAM to do 2D stuff, but I prefer MATROX which also make triple output cards and they are cheap 16MB surplus MATROX on EBAY which are very fast and lean ( Even 8MB is enough for most 2D people) ( Wont support Aero)

You can also use the onboard VGA and the PCI VGA and HDMI for the other pair and set bios to use both. ( If you have onboard VGA) Video cards usually have adapters for VGA and Monitors these days still have both.

When the old LCD monitor flickers and changes tint in corners, you can also repair them with dexterity. Digikey has dozens of tube lengths usually in 2mm diam for laptops and desktop screens. Tubes Are ~$7 each so I bought extra for laptop at one time.

Always keep monitors at the minimum brightness that you can tolerate. Your eyes will thank you.

Most cheap monitors these days are still 96 dpi. Smart phones are almost 4x this now.
Next gen monitors now on the market support 4x as many pixels for twice the resolution in x,y so instead of 2megapix, ( 1920x1080) they are 8megapix. So watch out for those if you can afford.

Old CRTs were a little easier on the eyes because of the phosphor remnance. Even tho you cant see the flicker on moving LCD images at 60 or even 120, your eyes can sense it so 240+ are high end types, which can cause eye strain with high brightness. But for this application doesn't need it.so just FYI.

 

[RadioRon]

I switched over from 16:9 to a couple of Dell 16:10 aspect ratio monitors and find that a bit taller is quite useful. I recommend the IPS technology Ultrasharp models.

 

[Tony Stewart]

I recall when we were on MAC's in the mid 90's our secretary had a vertical, portrait mode big screen for word processing worth $3k
Now these are only $700 https://www.hardwarecanucks.com/for...-bl3200pt-32-professional-monitor-review.html
With Windows you can change the mouse orientation by training it with certain drivers. So if you rotate your primary monitor the mouse is rotated too with nVidia but may not be what you expect.

But in your budget range of £100,
These are Amazon's picks
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=s9_a..._rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=548007907&pf_rd_i=428652031

3 left in stock on HANNs 4x3

• 1280 x 1024 SXGA Resolution

But if you watch free TV over internet (HD and use same for PC, 1080p is minimum I would use. KODI works in UK with 1 ch with appropriate setup for UK.