Widescreen or no?

MikeReiner

Golden Master
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I want to get an LCD monitor.. I've had it with these big, bulky, heavy, and hard on the eyes CRTs...

I have found two good monitors, nice response times, good contrast ratios, DVI, both are 19".

However.. one is widescreen and one is standard...

Standard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824014117

Widescreen:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824112002

Notice that the BenQ has a native resolution of 1280x1024.. and the Sceptre has a native resolution of 1440x900..

Now, i'm sure this widescreen resolution would be great for the desktop, movies, etc.. but what about games?.. the only two games I know of that even supports widescreen are: Half-Life2 (and any other game made on it's engine for that matter) and quake4... I'm kinda afriad that if I play a game that doesn't support widescreen the aspect ratio will be all stretched out and stupid looking..
 
Well to me personally the only need for a widescreen monitor would be if you watch a lot of movies on your monitor. I just did a quick search on google for widescreen games and most games dont support widescreen formats. Some games can be edited for force a widescreen picture but most dont support it natively. If you mainly play games on your computer then i woudl say get the standard monitor, however if your main use is movies and just normal uses then I would say the Widescreen woudl be good.
 
Go with standard. Bigger screens can get a burn-in if your playing games, and it screws up your screen. The only good thing about 16x9 sets are that they play widescreen dvds without the little black bars.
 
I'm pretty sure all LCD's can get burn ins. However, it takes a lot of time for a image to get burnt into your monitor. But yeah I agree, standard is the way to go.
 
Hmm I've never heard it called that before but it makes sense. No matter what you end up getting, dont let any image stay on the monitor for an extended period of time. Even the black bars that are well known with wide screen formats can cause damage to your monitor. A screen saver would defiently help fight against this. Another reason you woudl might want to go with the BenQ that you picked is that it has slightly better response times. If you are a big gamer you might notice a slight difference.
 
PerfectSK said:
Go with standard. Bigger screens can get a burn-in if your playing games, and it screws up your screen. The only good thing about 16x9 sets are that they play widescreen dvds without the little black bars.

No no, only tube moniters and TVs can get burn ins. LCDs will NOT!

Although, for that matter even a plasma can get a burn in.
 
Ok, just so ya'll know, i'm conservative. I use a pictures slide show for my screen saver, so EVERY SINGLE PIXEL is going to change colour atleast once every 10 seconds.

secondly, I have the habit of turning off my monitor when I get off my pc.
Thirdly, if I run a game and/or movie in widescreen, it's not going to have those black bars...

With all that in mind.. I don't think i'll have to worry about causing image persistance or whatever it is.
 
As for my two cents, I personally like widescreen. That is a pretty reputable brand. So, I say widescreen all the way! And the nice thing is that even in games, you can set it square, and it will only use the middle of the moniter.

Although, I dont think there is any need to worry.
 
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