Can somebody tell me the appeal of wide screen LCD computer monitors?

Other then watching widescreen movies on your pc, what are the advantages over conventional 4:3 ratio monitors? It's getting very difficult to buy a 4:3 monitor now, especially at brick and mortar stores. I bought a new 19" LCD monitor in the beginning of the year. I did a lot of research and bought a 4:3 Viewsonic VP930b due to computer forum recommendations but now even the forum members seem to be on the wide screen kick.

By the way, I also bought a Colorvision Spyder2 Express hardware monitor calibrator for $69 and it has made a huge difference in the output over the stock settings.

The first time you work with a bright, 22" widescreen, you'll understand why...


:naughty:

I upgraded to a 22" recently. I LOVE it. So much room for toolbars and other windows and pallets and bits and pieces.

I use two widescreen monitors. The first one in normal widescreen mode is moderately useful for some games and shows that utilize the wide format. Plus, for large pictures and such it's more useful when they fit the width and you only have to scroll up and down. The second monitor is more useful, especially for browsing the forums here. I have it mounted sideways in Landscape mode. It gives me a much larger reading area on the screen at any one time and needs much less scrolling. This is especially useful for things like CPF where the vast majority of the content is text. It's more like normal reading of a book without so much scrolling.

I know I'm a developer - lines of code sometimes get VERY long, and being able to see more of the code without scrolling, or wordwrap (code formatting helps make code a lot more readable) is important

my guess is, it's because our eyes have more of a horizontal than vertical view.

so if you wanted more screen real estate, it would be better to add it horizontally than vertically.

Actually the 17" and 19" LCD monitors are 5:4, not 4:3. The 21" 1600x1200 are 4:3, as are the 15" 1024x768.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of widescreen myself. For a given diagonal size, you actually end up with a monitor which is physically less high than a 4:3 or 5:4. The reason widescreen is gaining popularity has as much to do with the defect rates being lower in wide panels as it does with seeing HD movies on your PC. What I'd really like to see are much higher resolution panels, on the order of 4000x3000 in maybe a 22" size, so as to eliminate "pixelization" of text. On my 19", the pixels can be very noticeable even with cleartype enabled. I can even see the subpixels if I look close enough.

geepondy said:

Other then watching widescreen movies on your pc, what are the advantages over conventional 4:3 ratio monitors?

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I used to wonder the same thing until I bought a system that came with a WS monitor. There's NO way of going back now. Two windows side-by-side. One window in the middle with all your desktop icons along both sides. Two page documents displayed perfectly side-by-side.

I don't ever watch movies on my monitor - there are plenty of reason that WS works for regular ol' computer work. I won't be going back anytime soon.

My wife does not like them because they add a few pounds to her pics.

Since most all my work is in text format, large font and high contrast, I'm going to try Don's solution of landscape mode.

I hate them because as mentioned they aren't tall enough. So you end up scrolling a lot.

I used to use two 4:3 monitors for working with office documents (word processing, spreadsheet, power point etc). Since getting a wide screen format, I can do the same with less clutter. I was originally a skeptic but now all of my monitors are wide format. It's like going from a CRT to an ultra bright LCD display. You'll wonder how you ever did it the "old" way.

I still like my CRT. Other than it's size. Color is way better and it can go to any resolution without looking funny

IsaacHayes said:

I still like my CRT. Other than it's size. Color is way better and it can go to any resolution without looking funny

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Not to mention there is no LCD display that can match the resolution of my 20" ViewSonic CRT (2560x1536) for anything resembling the price.

And what's with that idiotic shiny GLARE MONSTER finish that's gotten popular? Maybe on a big flatscreen "home theatre" display in a dim room, but on a laptop you might actually have to use in the real world?!

Both my 22" at work and my laptop are glossy, and I prefer it. It's brighter, and I don't notice a glare while in use.

Have a 24" wide screen and is worth it, you can have two documents side by side or 2 webpages. Watching movies is another plus. My laptop is a widescreen as well and would not go back to 4:3 because once you get used to widescree you will find it better.

I use mine in portrait mode for reading (in Windows). I can have code with really big fonts and still have 150-200 lines showing up.

Getting it working that way consistently in X has proven a little difficult (now, if it had 2 DVI inputs, I'd be set), but since most WMs make it difficult to be maximized a lot (multiple vertical maximized windows is neat, though), it makes it easy to have a few more small windows, and encourages more drag&drop activity because of it.

I don't think they're categorically superior to similar area 4:3 (1680x1050 ~= 1600x1200), they're not bad, like I expected, except for reading web pages. The worst part so far, for me, has been not having a sensitive enough mouse after the switch.

my laptop is a small (15inch) and i love it for watching movies after work is done, and my home media computer has a 25 inch widescreen its cool, but i could get by with a smaller one, this is just the one that my dad had surplus out of his office.

FurrBear said:

And what's with that idiotic shiny GLARE MONSTER finish that's gotten popular? Maybe on a big flatscreen "home theatre" display in a dim room, but on a laptop you might actually have to use in the real world?!

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It's perceived to be better, mostly of 'bling' factor. It yields a better contrasting video image because of the lack of anti-glare coatings. So, you also don't need to produce a panel of superior contrast ratio to get the same output performance.

Hence, it looks cooler, costs less to produce, and charge the public more for it.
Sadly, laptops are becoming less about work and more about personal entertainment these days.

I have a 24" widescreen and would never go back. It has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and I can view two word sheets on a screen at once instead of having to scroll. HD looks great on it also.

I love big screens, but I too fail to understand what's so good in wide ones, and I have occasionally used them.
I presently use a 21" 4:3 CRT.