LCD Widescreen or not.

captain_twinkie · Post by **captain_twinkie** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:15 pm

Well im looking into getting a widescreen lcd for my desktop, my laptop has a widescreen on it, and ive noticed when i play some games on it it distorts the game a little bit, is there any way to not get that distortion, or would i be better off saying with a non-widescreen?

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:50 pm

Each game handles widescreen differently. I know there was a huge row about BioShock recently when people installed it and found out that it simply blew up the standard 4:3 picture and cropped the top and bottom.

It really depends on what you do. The 16:10 ratio on my Mac is absolutely wonderful for working in Photoshop. On the other hand, the dual 16:10 monitors in the comp sci lab are really unnecessary, as they don't help with programming or reading documentation at all.

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:27 pm

DCrazy wrote:Each game handles widescreen differently. I know there was a huge row about BioShock recently when people installed it and found out that it simply blew up the standard 4:3 picture and cropped the top and bottom.

Descent 3 does the same if you configure it for WS. I just told the V driver to use fixed aspect ratio and keep D3 in 4:3 -- the black bars left & right virtually disappear during gameplay.

If a game doesn't support 16:10, 16:9, 5:4, best you can do is trying to set up your vid card/monitor combo not to stretch the picture. For nVidia cards, set the flat panel scaling to "Use NVIDIA scaling w/ fixed-aspect ratio" or try "Use my display's built-in scaling" (for my card I have to run the fix to get it to work).

You may be able to set up some older games for WS, in D3 eg. you would have to add the following command line switches:

-width 1920 -height 1200 -aspect 1.6

This would be for a 16:10 1920x1200 display. Note that the HUD graphic still looks distorted (bug in the game.)

Since I didn't like having the top & bottom of the picture cut off I use the following switches:

-width 1600 -height 1200 -aspect 1.333

captain_twinkie · Post by **captain_twinkie** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:40 pm

Are there any recommendations on what brand I should buy? And is there a option on most LCDs to turn it to full screen mode?

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:00 am

captain_twinkie wrote:And is there a option on most LCDs to turn it to full screen mode?

Huh?

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:11 am

He might mean 4:3 = \"full screen mode\"? Whatcha talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Brands..Viewsonic, Toshiba, Samsung, Philips. Maybe Westinghouse? Don't buy Sony, even if they are great, 'cause Sony as a company is undeserving of any consumer attention whatsoever.

captain_twinkie · Post by **captain_twinkie** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:27 pm

Either im retarded or im stupid, but basicly, the issue i stated earlier with the distortion on my laptop, on some games that is, i just want to know if if put the screen resolution to lets say 1600x1200 if it wont stretch my game, or is there a setting that i can apply so i can have the black bars ont the side of the monitor to avoid the stretching. Or am i just rambling about something that is default on the monitor?

Foil · Post by **Foil** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:52 pm

Yes, some games can be played without distortion/stretching (e.g. using black bars on the side so you can play a 4:3 screen on a widescreen monitor).

For example, Grendel gave the command-line settings to do this with D3 above, and I've seen it done with other games as well.

I think it really depends on the game.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:02 pm

Viewsonic here. I find they are the best I've had or anyone I know have had.

captain_twinkie · Post by **captain_twinkie** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:21 pm

Thanks, thats what i thought, so what all do you peeps have? I saw a Acer on sale from tiger direct, any people have anything acer here?

TechPro · Post by **TechPro** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:44 pm

No Acer here (thank the stars!)

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:24 pm

I believe Apple displays are Sony, so that's what I'm using.

I used to use two 4:3 Dells, which were Philips. Color contrast was pretty bad, even after gamma adjustment. The 16:10 ones in our CS lab are also Dell, but if I recall correctly they're the same Sony panels as Apple uses. Much, much better color.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:50 pm

You can snag the Samsung 226BW for a decent ammount if you're interested in a single large display instead of dual monitors.

captain_twinkie · Post by **captain_twinkie** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:35 pm

Right now im looking at getting something around the size of a 22\" with my bonus that im getting from work latter in the month.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:08 am

Get a 24! You get much better resolution.

22\" are 1680 x 1050

24\" are 1920 x 1200

captain_twinkie · Post by **captain_twinkie** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:09 pm

Well I just got my new LCD widescreen, it is a Acer x221w it was on sale at Officedepot, right now im running into a weird issue, well i think its wierd considering its my first lcd, when my resolution is set to 1680x1050, my monitor when im on the menu screen shows that the desktop is using 1600x1200 res, so now i have to scroll to see my whole desktop. My video card is a Geforce 7950 GT OC from BFG, and when my res it at anything other then 1680x1050 i can see my whole desktop, right now on the right side, bard of my taskbar is cut off and i cant see my clock, and ideas?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:17 pm

Update your video card and monitor drivers.

captain_twinkie · Post by **captain_twinkie** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:25 pm

Done both, well the monitor driver is only availible is for vista, and i even tried using that. Im running XP SP2

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:28 pm

Try this GF/X card driver.

captain_twinkie · Post by **captain_twinkie** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:31 pm

I fixed it, found a suggestion in this forum post, http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/in ... 30981.html

I feel retard, GOOGLE before you ask questions!

LCD Widescreen or not.

LCD Widescreen or not.

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