Transition to widescreen monitor

[SimonW]

Dear All,

I am buying a new monitor in the next few days, I have some concerns

I understand the need for wide screen for movie purposes, but for web browsing and using word??.... The lack of height will mean I will have to scroll more, anyone got any experiences?

What are the specifications to look for?, what are the pitfalls to avoid?

Your feedback is valued.

Simon

 

[Hardwire]

I don't think there will be a lack of height. It's just wider, but still as high as a regular monitor. If you get a decent model you should still be able to get ~1000 pixels vertical at it's optimum resolution. Look for something that can handle at least 1000 pixels in the vertical and at least 500:1 contrast ratio.

 

[justDIY]

the widescreen monitors I've experienced are a little less "high", but not noticeably so.

for example a 19" 4:3 screen might support 1280x1024 resolution
a 20" 16:9 wide screen would support 1440x900 ... so you have lost 124 pixels height wise, no big deal.

your screen might have circuitry in it to "fit" a 1280x1024 picture on to the 1440x900 screen, but I don't recommend that - the resizer circuits do fine for movies and games, but suck for general desktop use like word processing and surfing.

 

[Stellarcore]

Heres a tip if your looking for a widescreen monitor: buy one that can be easily swivelled into portrait mode.

I've used this at work for coding and general document writing, and it is great. If you're lucky enough, you'll also manage to find a monitor with working drivers that lets you just rotate the monitor on the fly between the two positions and it will automatically adjust your resolution. The end result is that you have almost no wasted space on the sides and lots of room to display webpages or documents, and then when you want to watch a movie or play a game, just rotate it back to landscape.

 

[things]

i have an LCD monitor that rotates 360 degrees, you can have it on widescreen for movies and such, then you just "twist" it around for other things, it's a great monitor

 

[Stellarcore]

i have an LCD monitor that rotates 360 degrees, you can have it on widescreen for movies and such, then you just "twist" it around for other things, it's a great monitor

how often do you use it rotated upside down? he he he