19 inch crt vs 20 inch widescreen lcd?

Bobmunkhouse · 20 Feb 2006 at 14:26

Hi I am looking at getting a 20inch wide screen LCD for gaming etc I am just wondering how much bigger the lcd will be compared to my 19inch crt as its hard to visualise this in your head does any one have any pic's that would help? Also would the wide screen be good for gaming it does look cool? I have looked at all the threads but cant find any pics and I have also googled it.

Thanks a lot

caff · 20 Feb 2006 at 16:11

At a rough guess, a 20" widescreen TFT will be roughly the same height as a 19" CRT vertically. Horizontally you will notice a big difference.

Widescreen is great, I hate using 4:3 ratio at work now

Games look awesome (more movie-like) and everything else looks sexy too.

PieEater · 20 Feb 2006 at 16:21

caff said:
At a rough guess, a 20" widescreen TFT will be roughly the same height as a 19" CRT vertically. Horizontally you will notice a big difference.

Widescreen is great, I hate using 4:3 ratio at work now Games look awesome (more movie-like) and everything else looks sexy too.

I'm in full agreement with caff, though most of the 20" widescreens seem to suffer with backlight bleed so do a bit of research before settling on which model you get. If you play games that involve dark backgrounds then the poor backlighting may spoil the experience for you, for general usage though they are fine.

Bobmunkhouse · 20 Feb 2006 at 16:27

Yeah I have seen the backlight issue's im thinking of the NEC or the new Viewsonic coming out have you ever found any pic's of a 19inch CRT next to a 20inch LCD?

igors · 20 Feb 2006 at 16:57

Bobmunkhouse said:
Yeah I have seen the backlight issue's im thinking of the NEC or the new Viewsonic coming out have you ever found any pic's of a 19inch CRT next to a 20inch LCD?

My vote for WS also. I upgraded from 17" CRT and it's like night and day in every aspect. If you want to see some screens from the wide screen games in flesh, you may check out my NEC monitor review and sample pics there. All I can say is that wide screen gaming is really new experience and I don't mind the wide screen desktop also (it's really cool actually).

One thing that I forgot to say is that for me, field of view with the wide screen monitors is much more preferable. It's somehow more natural to the eye then 4:3 box.

Now, I may help you with the 19" CRT size. Think that one of my colleagues at work is using the Nokia 19" CRT monitor for semi graphic design. I may take the picture tomorrow and compare side by side with the NEC pictures I have at home. Will see about that ... but believe me that you can't go wrong even if you don't have the exact comparison.

Vegeta · 20 Feb 2006 at 17:19

caff said:
At a rough guess, a 20" widescreen TFT will be roughly the same height as a 19" CRT vertically. Horizontally you will notice a big difference.

Widescreen is great, I hate using 4:3 ratio at work now Games look awesome (more movie-like) and everything else looks sexy too.

Bobmunkhouse · 21 Feb 2006 at 09:05

igors said:
My vote for WS also. I upgraded from 17" CRT and it's like night and day in every aspect. If you want to see some screens from the wide screen games in flesh, you may check out my NEC monitor review and sample pics there. All I can say is that wide screen gaming is really new experience and I don't mind the wide screen desktop also (it's really cool actually).

One thing that I forgot to say is that for me, field of view with the wide screen monitors is much more preferable. It's somehow more natural to the eye then 4:3 box.

Now, I may help you with the 19" CRT size. Think that one of my colleagues at work is using the Nokia 19" CRT monitor for semi graphic design. I may take the picture tomorrow and compare side by side with the NEC pictures I have at home. Will see about that ... but believe me that you can't go wrong even if you don't have the exact comparison.

Thanks for that mate now all I have to do is save that cash

powned · 21 Feb 2006 at 10:36

Bobmunkhouse said:
Hi I am looking at getting a 20inch wide screen LCD for gaming etc I am just wondering how much bigger the lcd will be compared to my 19inch crt as its hard to visualise this in your head does any one have any pic's that would help? Also would the wide screen be good for gaming it does look cool? I have looked at all the threads but cant find any pics and I have also googled it.

Thanks a lot

i just started work on a little tool that lets you compare any combination monitor sizes from 15" to 30" widescreen. i literally started last night so its just a photoshop psd at the moment. if you have photoshop i could mail you the psd (not sure how big it is) or i could make a jpeg of the 19" with the 20" widescreen. up to you.. pm me your email addy ..I cant guarentee its 100% accurate but it will give you an idea.

i was having the same problem trying to visualise the size difference

igors · 21 Feb 2006 at 12:28

powned said:
i just started work on a little tool that lets you compare any combination monitor sizes from 15" to 30" widescreen

That's excellent contribution! We are grateful for your time.

Magic Man · 21 Feb 2006 at 12:33

Also, bear in mind that a 19" CRT is probably more like 18", or even slightly less viewable so the difference in screen area is even greater.

Bobmunkhouse · 21 Feb 2006 at 18:00

powned said:
i just started work on a little tool that lets you compare any combination monitor sizes from 15" to 30" widescreen. i literally started last night so its just a photoshop psd at the moment. if you have photoshop i could mail you the psd (not sure how big it is) or i could make a jpeg of the 19" with the 20" widescreen. up to you.. pm me your email addy ..I cant guarentee its 100% accurate but it will give you an idea.

i was having the same problem trying to visualise the size difference

A JPEG would be really great I tried to send you a private message and it said .......

"Bobmunkhouse, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation."

lol what ever that means lol!!! But if you can post the jpeg up that would be cool thanks mate

UOcUK Poopscoop · 21 Feb 2006 at 18:31

You can't PM on this forum.

fish99 · 21 Feb 2006 at 19:43

You can work it out with a little math. Assuming a 19" CRT is 18" viewable and 4:3 ratio, and assuming a 20" LCD (which are of course 20" viewable) is 16:10 ratio (they don't seem to be 16:9 surprisingly - see the OcUK 20" LCD page), then they work out at-

19" 4:3 CRT (18 viewable)

14.4" by 10.8"
(155.5 sq inch)

20" 16:10 LCD

16.96" by 10.6"
(179.8 sq inch)

So, the 20" LCD has 15.6 % more area, it's 18 % wider, and the only drag it's that it's about 2 % shorter, which is nothing. All the stats say go for the 20" LCD. Just make sure it's a quality screen.

powned · 21 Feb 2006 at 22:05

bob, send an email to *removed* and ill reply with a jpeg when i get a chance.. didnt know there was no pms here soz.. ill post a link to my little tool (oo-er!)when i get it running

edit: infact, here it is.. seems to ring true with fishs maths! (click for bigger)

powned · 21 Feb 2006 at 22:21

and heres a side by side