Why Widescreen

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I have gamed for years on PCs with screens of the usual 4:3 ratio.
I will be buying a widescreen soon, but what size, i.e ratio of height/width of pixels are best?

I know that with widescreen TV, they simply chop of the top and bottom of the usual 4:3 TV picture, so you are actually seeing less on a widescreen TV (for programs like the News for example)

Do games work like that, or is more 'image' generated when you have a wide screen ?

Depends on the game.... the more sensible games add stuff into the FoV.... but a few chop off the top and bottom (can't recall which off the top of my head)
 
They're only so popular because no-ones been given a reasonable choice in the matter anymore per my first post....
That's wrong in my opinion, the switch has been driven by user demand. I can remember when the first widescreens launched and it was immediately obvious from the interest on these forums how popular widescreen was going to be. 4:3/5:4 are dying out because too few people want to buy them.

Games were an utter PITA for me in Widescreen. I found many of the hacks on WSGF wouldn't work, or would just upset my graphics drivers.
I've had a widescreen for well over a year now and I can't remember the last game that had problems with the widescreen aspect ratio / resolution. The few old games I play which are 4:3 only, my screen has a 4:3 mode for those, or nvidia cards can display them 1:1 or aspect stretched.
 
I know that with widescreen TV, they simply chop of the top and bottom of the usual 4:3 TV picture, so you are actually seeing less on a widescreen TV (for programs like the News for example)

That's not how it works...

Viewing widescreen on a 4:3 display either goes letterbox or it'll cut off the a bit left and right of the image.

If you view a 4:3 image on a widescreen display, it'll leave you with black bars down the sides.
 
before i went widerscreen i felt that i would have to move my neck more when using the computer for a range of things.

now i run dual monitor 19" widescreen and i can just scan from left to right without moving my neck around. i know it sounds silly and may be down to the desk i was using (and still am) but i find the widescreen more natural for viewing.

i can alsmost compare it to when you get late seats at the cinema and yopur right at the front you lose the top unless you crane your neck, widescreen monitors i compare to premium seats where you just sit and enjoy all the movie. strange analogy but i understand myself lol.
 
That's not how it works...

Viewing widescreen on a 4:3 display either goes letterbox or it'll cut off the a bit left and right of the image.

If you view a 4:3 image on a widescreen display, it'll leave you with black bars down the sides.

I don't think it meant it in the technical sense of how the signal is displayed on the screen.

More that the way it has been produced.

I remember a few films where you actually saw more in 4:3 than 16:9

I think it was trainspotting as one example, double sided DVD, one side 4:3 and the other 16:9. The 16:9 side warns you before you watch the film that it's a cropped version of the 4:3 version.

It's happened to a few other films too.

Lately though, none that I can remember - just about everything is filmed in true widescreen.
 
I think it was trainspotting as one example, double sided DVD, one side 4:3 and the other 16:9. The 16:9 side warns you before you watch the film that it's a cropped version of the 4:3 version.

It'll be cropped if it's on a 4:3 screen displaying a 16:9 signal yeah, so it'll be cutting the sides off.
 
It'll be cropped if it's on a 4:3 screen displaying a 16:9 signal yeah, so it'll be cutting the sides off.

Yeah (as happened to me when I used to watch ER years ago on a Sony TV back home :S)

But also the other way round with the likes of trainspotting ;)
 
I know that with widescreen TV, they simply chop of the top and bottom of the usual 4:3 TV picture, so you are actually seeing less on a widescreen TV (for programs like the News for example)
This is just plain wrong, there is no channel on Sky, Freeview or Virgin Media, or no DVD where you see less on a widescreen TV. Some widescreen TVs have a wide stretch mode for watching 4:3 signals stretched the fill the screen where some of the picture gets cut off, but all you have to do to see the whole picture is set the aspect ratio to 4:3 or 16:9. Your actual statement that widescreen is simply a 4:3 picture with the top and bottom cut off is simply wrong.
 
I think it was trainspotting as one example, double sided DVD, one side 4:3 and the other 16:9. The 16:9 side warns you before you watch the film that it's a cropped version of the 4:3 version.
Are you sure it didn't mean that the 16:9 version would be cropped if you watched it on a 4:3 display? There's no good reason to put out widescreen films that are just cropped from the 4:3 version, which will have been cropped itself from the widescreen master since pretty much everything is filmed in widescreen (including Trainspotting). In the early days of DVDs such things did occasionally happen when companies would produce DVDs with as little effort and expense as possible, sometimes mastering from a laserdisc or even VHS version (which could have been a 4:3 version) and not using the original masters at all. I'd be surprised if there's more than a handful of films like that though, 99% of the time if you buy a widescreen DVD you get the whole frame as filmed (although they're not always anamorphic).
 
People complained about moving to widescreen when 16:10 screens first came out.

It has since been proven widescreen is the way forward.

Some people still argue widescreen is not worth it!

Those people are insane and stuck in a time loop.
 
fish99 said:
I've had a widescreen for well over a year now and I can't remember the last game that had problems with the widescreen aspect ratio / resolution. The few old games I play which are 4:3 only, my screen has a 4:3 mode for those, or nvidia cards can display them 1:1 or aspect stretched.

Yeah but who wants their games stretched or letterboxed?

If I bought a widescreen monitor it would be because I wanted to enjoy my games in widescreen. Hence the point of WSGF - to get games working using the full space and aspect of the monitor.

I didn't find many of them worked though. Apart from WoW, having a widescreen was a total pain in the bum.
 
Just view in OAR then. My monitor supports OAR/non stretch for 4:3 resolutions. Most people who dislike widescreen is because they don't understand it.
 
i got a widescreen a while back, and find it a lot better for movies, games, working, pretty much everything
 
WRONG... lmfao - you can't call someone's opinion wrong

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Bit of theory, but I reckon people generally are used to moving their eyes from side to side rather than up and down..Panorama/panoramic...You feel like u can see more, or u actually do...

If you think about application windows, lets say just web browsers, I would rather have 2 side by side than 2 on top of eachother..

Sad as it sounds sitting here trying it, but its actually quite hard/tiring moving your eyes up and down compared to left and right or not as natural... ;p
 
Bit of theory, but I reckon people generally are used to moving their eyes from side to side rather than up and down..Panorama/panoramic...You feel like u can see more, or u actually do...

If you think about application windows, lets say just web browsers, I would rather have 2 side by side than 2 on top of eachother..

Sad as it sounds sitting here trying it, but its actually quite hard/tiring moving your eyes up and down compared to left and right or not as natural... ;p

In military sims like Operation Flashpoint and Armed Assault, etc, a wider FOV helps with scanning the horizon.
 
I have a compaq 2025 20" 4:3 LCD and it's fantastic. The widescreen equivelent would be a 24 inch at 1920x1200. Which I Also have in the form of the Sony 24" CRT, which isthe same height screen wise and pixel wise. It's a great match.

But recently I have keep the Widescreen, and rotated the 20 inch into portrait mode for web pages. I found at 1600x1200 most of the screen was empty space or wasted. Not now.
 
This is just plain wrong, there is no channel on Sky, Freeview or Virgin Media, or no DVD where you see less on a widescreen TV. Some widescreen TVs have a wide stretch mode for watching 4:3 signals stretched the fill the screen where some of the picture gets cut off, but all you have to do to see the whole picture is set the aspect ratio to 4:3 or 16:9. Your actual statement that widescreen is simply a 4:3 picture with the top and bottom cut off is simply wrong.

Have you watched any movies by James Cameron?
 
I have a compaq 2025 20" 4:3 LCD and it's fantastic. The widescreen equivelent would be a 24 inch at 1920x1200. Which I Also have in the form of the Sony 24" CRT, which isthe same height screen wise and pixel wise. It's a great match.

But recently I have keep the Widescreen, and rotated the 20 inch into portrait mode for web pages. I found at 1600x1200 most of the screen was empty space or wasted. Not now.

Your LCD is not 4:3 its 5:4.
 
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