Are widescreen TFT's the future? Or A phase?

Pulsedriver

Pulsedriver

Pulsedriver

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Hiya,

Im not entirely convinced on a Widescreen TFT.

I currently have a Viewsonic VX924 19" monitor, and to be honest, didnt need to upgrade from my Viewsonic 17" to 19" as it still runs only @ 1280x1024.
I also felt my other Viewsonic looked much nicer.

I would like to run, say, 1600x1200, as that would be worth upgrading to, so I'd be looking at a 20.1" TFT, like the Samsung SM204B or Viewsonic's VP2030B.

I play games, but do a lot of work in Windows also, 1680x1050 is a good resolution also, but 1600x1200 has the edge I feel in terms of windows.
But what puts me off widescreen is;


A) Sometimes you have to 'hack' games to play in that resolution.
B) Size, takes up quite a bit of space.
C) Motion sickness, a few people report feeling sick using widescreen TFT's? Thats my most concerning! As I sometimes get nausea playing games like BF2 + HL2. (Any FPS really!) But not always, and it could be worse in widescreen!


Is it a mistake to get a 20.1" NON Widescreen TFT? Are they the future?


Discuss...

Sean :)
 
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WS TFT IMO is the future, less of CRT to TFT but 4:3 is so last century now, games are started to implement the WS ratio. A lot of the current crop of games already do, having a WS really do look nice. In Windows, with movies/TV, games. The problem is that compare to a 20" 4:3 TFT, you do lose the 150 pixels vertically, but you gain 80 pixels on the side. It's a minor trade off but a worthwide one. However, because of that reason, i would not think a 19" WS TFT is worthwhile, because a vertical diamension of 900 pixels is too limiting for me. 1050 is the minimum i would settle for, anda 24" WS Screen will be mine next time i upgrade.
 
I wasn't even convinced of TFT a couple of weeks ago!
then i built a system for someone and dropped in a 19" tft and that kind of sold me on TFT's.
However, after getting a 20" widescreen (philips) and setting it up i found i didnt like it much at all for some reason! :confused: so it's shoved back in its box atm :rolleyes:

As for being the future, well i'd probably say Yes to that as our vision is naturally widescreen anyhow so its perhaps more a case of getting used to the pc screen filling more of our FOV, i mean how long have we looked at 4:3 ratio screens? 10-20-30years? as the borg would say "resistance is futile" if the market goes that way we can but follow or put off widescreen for as long as they make the 4:3's
 
as already stated above

19" widescreen is pretty pointless since you loose so much vertical height

i think the biggest sellers in the WS format will be 20" and above. so i think in this size, the market will move more into this format

however, i think the 17" and 19" market will quite happily stay at 4:3

thus there will allways be still 4:3 20" and above TFTs both for professional use, and normal use

if you dont like widescreen, dont buy it. Your still gonna be able to buy 4:3 monitors in 10 years time i say.

just the choise of WS models will be much bigger.
 
Well, i find a 19'' TFT quite 'tall' for me. Quite overpowering! Odd i know but i do. So, having just ordered a 19'' Widescreen TFT i know it will be 'shorter' so it may be better for me in that respect!
 
Once larger ws tft's become cheaper ( £800 + for 24" is in my opinion way too much) they will sell like hot cakes - 4:3 will be phased out before long so that screen manu's can standardise on one shape making it easier and cheaper for them to produce
 
I have always used 4:3 ratio monitor's, but having bought a laptop with wide-screen display, i couldn't switch back now. Widescreen is the future :P
 
Well, the Widescreen arrived and it is awesome! What a difference a widescreen makes! Forget about the 'lost' pixels at the top, it is superb!! Fantastic in games, like BF2. So far, i am really happy with it (Acer 19'' WS TFT).

I will do more testing and report back.
 
I find Word processing and web surfing is pretty miserable on most wide screens though entertainment is fine.

Perhaps I should only use landscape paper from now on and maybe there will be widescreen websites one day!
 
Are there any widescreen monitors out where you can turn them 90 degrees to the right so you're looking at them vertically longer. This would be great for word processing and web surface as you would have much more to look at. A quick switch to turn them side ways is the future!
 
Flipster81 said:
Are there any widescreen monitors out where you can turn them 90 degrees to the right so you're looking at them vertically longer. This would be great for word processing and web surface as you would have much more to look at. A quick switch to turn them side ways is the future!
Click to expand...

can on the 2405FPW, would imagine you can on the 2005FPW too :D
 
Yes you can on the 2005w..

And a very nice monitor it is too (except the slight backlight bleed when the screen is totally black.. but then what use is a screen that's got nothing on it but black)

Slippery
 
They most likely are but it's not good unless you go for a larger (diagonal length) display than you would in regular configuration to make up for the increased width to height ratio. Rotating 90 degrees is cool, providing you can be bothered with it, though.

If it was 17"WS vs 17"Regular or 19"WS vs 19"Regular, I'd take the regular screen every time. More desktop PC software benefits from vertical space so it's not worth sacrificing it for width.

Ideally you want a regular screen with extra space bolted on to the sides, not a regular screen that's been squashed to make it wider.
 
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wush said:
If it was 17"WS vs 17"4:3 or 19"WS vs 19"4:3, I'd take the 4:3 every time. More desktop PC software benefits from vertical space so it's not worth sacrificing it for width.
Click to expand...

Shame the actual choice is between 16:10 and 5:4, not 16:9 and 4:3 :(

Not a dig, just an observation.
 
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