Comments on: Widescreen vs Standard Monitors

By: cdg

cdg — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:41:49 +0000

If you are upgrading, you may find that you can’t use the widescreen without also replacing your video card.

By: Bilbs

Bilbs — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:22:41 +0000

I just upgraded from a 17″ 4:3 Crt to a 22″ 16:9 – Truly amazing compared to the 4:3, i dont care if webpages are made for a 4:3 screen, at 1680×1050, i still have more webpage area verticaly than my old 1280×1024 resolution (even if it is only 26 pixels) But i have gained an extra 400 to the side of it, widefox is a great solution to fill these extra pixels, and, i gain several more at the top of the page again, or i can just have my IM or sys monitors to the right of the browser. I admit, if you were going from say 19″ 4:3 to 19″ 16:9, you are loosing out, but considering that a lot of upgrades at the moment are from smaller monitors to larger ones, then you are gaining anyway, and with the cost of them falling, now large LCD’s are getting into the price range of Basic users, which is a great thing all round

By: Governor

Governor — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:22:04 +0000

Just gave up and got a Widescreen.

No, it is not better. In fact it looks pretty goofy with the stretched images.

The battle is lost, though, because someone decided that the normal monitors would no longer be made.

By: Aneres

Aneres — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:46:42 +0000

hate widescreen, and cant seem to find any standard ones :/ that arent meant for industrial applications lol

By: karlkrist

karlkrist — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:35:48 +0000

Two monitors is the best way to go for programming.

I *just* got a widescreen monitor for home. So far it’s not so great. Web pages are tall- not wide!

By: homeboy8181

homeboy8181 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:16:55 +0000

well in my opinion i like wide screen better although my screen 1440 X 900 i will amitt is not the greatest for web browsing. i usually need to make the page smaller so i can see all the content. but i might be getting a larger monitor so the web browsing issue should be fixed.

By: Binky

Binky — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:53:47 +0000

I agree, this widescreen nonsense is getting out of hand. It’s great for movies, I guess, but that’s what TVs are for. I don’t watch movies on my PC, play games on my cell phone, work on spreadsheets on my TV, make coffee on my camera, wear shoes on my hands, etc.

But what bugs me more is widescreen English. For example, people who think “heighth” is a word. Why make it a letter wider than the “classic” word “height”, which actually has a definition? Or how about “irregardless”? Even if there were such a construct, it would be a double negative. And then there’s “pre-existing”. More and more people are using it in place of the existing word “existing”. (See how that sentence made sense without the “pre”?) By definition, “pre-existing” would mean “not yet existing”. So then an object that’s in its (notice the classic version of “its” rather than the widescreen version, “it’s”, which is a contraction of “it is” or “it has”) “pre-existing” state is what, an idea?

People complain about overseas tech support workers because they don’t speak English properly. That’s pretty funny when you look at how the average supposed English-speaking person speaks it.

Silly race, the humans.

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 22:13:14 +0000

Even for programming widescreen isn’t as good unless your widescreen monitor is larger than your standard. I just switched from a 19inch widescreen monitor to a 19inch standard, I can actually see more code this way and the wide screen only gave me like an inch and a half more width but a lot less height… and I think it was like 13 square inches smaller in total area than the standard. I need realestate. Now, I’d take a 21 inch wide screen over a 19 inch standard, but that wasn’t my option. ;-)

By: David

David — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:06:09 +0000

During my lunch break I was wondering at a nearby mall, in an electronic store. I saw some widescreen monitors besides standard ones. Take off the movies part (which I don’t use my computer for anyways) and the widescreen monitors are complete crap, even when calibrated properly. Someday perhaps they will be better when all applications support them they will be better, but this pretty much made up my mind for a standard 19″ monitor for the applications of TODAY!

By: David

David — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:06:09 +0000

By: Phil Lembo

Phil Lembo — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 21:56:22 +0000

Like Jeff says above, widescreen monitors and laptop screens are a gimmick. In fact, you could even call it a racket. I just blogged on my own site about why i won't be buying a laptop this year to underscore my disappointment in all the major laptop manufacturers for offering only widescreens on their reasonably priced models. So much for consumer choice!

By: starvinmarvin

starvinmarvin — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:43:08 +0000

Recently purchased a new 22-inch widescreen monitor. Previously, we were using a very good 17-inch standard 4:3 model. The new widescreen is absolutely GREAT for gaming! We chat with friends every day while surfing the internet, so being able to have a webpage open as well as an instant message chat window beside it at the same time is very convenient.
Regarding features, the new monitor includes several contrast/brightness/color temp. presets for Text, Internet, Game, Sports, Movie, and Custom. Very convenient, and we find them very useful. Calibration software is also provided. None of this was readily available when we were shopping for the previous monitor.
Pricewise, the new 22-inch cost about the same as the older 17-inch cost when we bought it 3 or 4 years ago.
Everything considered, we’re very happy with the widescreen.

By: David

David — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:36:14 +0000

I am actually in the same delimma. I’ll be upgrading my computer in a month or two and I’m really wondering what to do. Take a 19″ 4:3 or go 22″ widescreen (I’m still on a 17″ 4:3 so both would be upgrades for me).

On the one side, I think its cool to have more “widespace” for multiple windows and play new games with their widescreen option and all.

But that’s just it, what about my older games? Heck I still play Master of Orion 2 sometimes. I really feel I’m going to lose out on this since I have a lot of older games that I have, at home, but have yet touched (don’t ask). I would love to enjoy those as well. I don’t have many games that offer widescreen resolution. I still want to play my diablo, RCT3, Starcraft, etc from time to time. It seems to me that we are pushed at to this direction but game manufacturers aren’t all jumping on board yet.

So do I get a 19″ 4:3 for 3 to 4 years and wait until these issues are all resolved and more games support widescreen? Are my fears totally off? Still need to think….

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:31:18 +0000

you don’t need widescreen, UNLESS YOU ARE A PROGRAMMER!! Every try using Visual Studio 2005 on a normal screen? Even Dreamweaver? Sucks! VS has two verticle menus on either side and DW has 1, so this extra real estate really comes through.

Or do Photo editing w/photoshop and you get to move your tool windows around. Helps A LOT when you have to zoom in to remove blemishes, crop someone from a background, etc. While the resolution sucks ass on these widescreens (you need zoom lenses in your glasses), the productivity gain is great.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:31:18 +0000