If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
I'm shopping for a wide screen monitor. The first ones I looked at
showed the images ( pictures of bubbles) streched horizontally whereas the 4:3 ratio screens had perfectly round bubble images. Then I saw some other wide screens father down the isle on which the bubble images were perfectly round, unlike the earlier wide screens. So my question is: Should a pc display images the same on a wide screen as on a 4:3 screen? Why were some of them at the store distorted and some not distorted? What else should I know? Thanks... |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
sofasurfer wrote:
I'm shopping for a wide screen monitor. The first ones I looked at showed the images ( pictures of bubbles) streched horizontally whereas the 4:3 ratio screens had perfectly round bubble images. Then I saw some other wide screens father down the isle on which the bubble images were perfectly round, unlike the earlier wide screens. So my question is: Should a pc display images the same on a wide screen as on a 4:3 screen? Why were some of them at the store distorted and some not distorted? What else should I know? Thanks... If installed and set up properly then the aspect ratio should be correct and round will be round. No doubt the stores in your area hire the same sort that are hired around here -- if something is unboxed and put on display correctly it only by random chance. Just make sure that your video card and drivers will support whatever the monitor's native resolution may be and you should be fine. -- John McGaw [Knoxville, TN, USA] http://johnmcgaw.com |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
sofasurfer wrote:
I'm shopping for a wide screen monitor. The first ones I looked at showed the images ( pictures of bubbles) streched horizontally whereas the 4:3 ratio screens had perfectly round bubble images. Then I saw some other wide screens father down the isle on which the bubble images were perfectly round, unlike the earlier wide screens. So my question is: Should a pc display images the same on a wide screen as on a 4:3 screen? Should? No. Why were some of them at the store distorted and some not distorted? I think you know the answer already. The distored images on the widescreen monitors were most likely displaying 4:3 resolutions, requiring them to be stretched to fill the wider area. What else should I know? What resolutions are available is a function of your graphics card's driver. Ideally it should offer the native resolution of your LCD monitor, and some lesser resolutions with the same aspect ratio. Previously I would have said that you don't have to worry much about 4:3 resolutions, but I just recently ran into a monitor that had a native resolution of 1400x1050, and I couldn't get the official ATI drivers to output to that. As for widescreen ratios, I would say they are generally less supported. The driver for my 9600XT, for instance, has these widescreen resolutions: 1360x768, 1920x1080, and 1920x1200. The one widescreen LCD I have is 1440x900. Good thing I don't intend to use it on this PC. A couple of things I'm unclear about, is if drivers tend to poll the monitor in question to determine reasonable resolutions, and if the monitor "drivers" (they're actually just preference information--no active code) you see with some devices can actually add to the resolutions list. Perhaps you can do a bit of research before you buy to make sure you card will easily support the monitor you're looking at. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
"sofasurfer" wrote in message oups.com... I'm shopping for a wide screen monitor. The first ones I looked at showed the images ( pictures of bubbles) streched horizontally whereas the 4:3 ratio screens had perfectly round bubble images. Then I saw some other wide screens father down the isle on which the bubble images were perfectly round, unlike the earlier wide screens. So my question is: Should a pc display images the same on a wide screen as on a 4:3 screen? Why were some of them at the store distorted and some not distorted? What else should I know? Know that if they have multiple monitors hooked up to the same source, you can't trust anything you see on display. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
On Oct 28, 7:17 pm, Grinder wrote:
sofasurfer wrote: What resolutions are available is a function of your graphics card's driver. Ideally it should offer the native resolution of your LCD monitor, and some lesser resolutions with the same aspect ratio. So, the resolutions available as a function of my graphics card would be the resolutions I find when I go to desktoppropertiessettingsscreen resolution? There are about 14 differant resolutions available. Previously I would have said that you don't have to worry much about 4:3 resolutions, but I just recently ran into a monitor that had a native resolution of 1400x1050, and I couldn't get the official ATI drivers to output to that. The native resolution, which I should match to one of the available resolutions under desktoppropertiessettingsscreen resolution, is the resolution number that I see in the monitor advertisment or store specification display card? Thanks... |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
sofasurfer wrote:
On Oct 28, 7:17 pm, Grinder wrote: sofasurfer wrote: What resolutions are available is a function of your graphics card's driver. Ideally it should offer the native resolution of your LCD monitor, and some lesser resolutions with the same aspect ratio. So, the resolutions available as a function of my graphics card would be the resolutions I find when I go to desktoppropertiessettingsscreen resolution? There are about 14 differant resolutions available. Yes, but with a possible caveat. The driver may be able to poll the monitor, or information cached about the monitor, to add resolutions to the list. I don't know of this happens, but it's possible. Previously I would have said that you don't have to worry much about 4:3 resolutions, but I just recently ran into a monitor that had a native resolution of 1400x1050, and I couldn't get the official ATI drivers to output to that. The native resolution, which I should match to one of the available resolutions under desktoppropertiessettingsscreen resolution, is the resolution number that I see in the monitor advertisment or store specification display card? Native resolution (sometimes Optimal Resolution or Maximum Resolution) is a property of the LCD monitor. It is the actual number of elements in the LCD panel. CRT monitors do not have a corresponding "sweet spot." |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
A lot of the monitors I look at in the store have a native resolution
of 1440x900. I looked at the possible settings for my video card (ASUS N6200LE) under startcontrol panelNvidia Control Panel and I see that there is no 1440x900. The closest settings are 1360x768 and 1600x900. Does this mean... 1. I have a crappy video card that doesn't have enough resolution choices to match a reasonable monitor 2. The monitors I looked at were crappy and didn't have a native resolution that matches a reasonable video card 3. The process of matching a video card to a monitor is a time consuming process that doesn't always work out What do you recommend? Do you like my video card or did I buy the wrong one? Am I supposed to just keep looking until I find a matching monitor? And one final question. Is the refresh rate something that I can safely change? I alway though it was dangerous to the monitor to change it but in the doc. for my video card there is a control to change the refresh rate and it says that all it does is to help eliminate flicker, as if it is something that can be set to your preference. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
sofasurfer wrote:
A lot of the monitors I look at in the store have a native resolution of 1440x900. I looked at the possible settings for my video card (ASUS N6200LE) under startcontrol panelNvidia Control Panel and I see that there is no 1440x900. The closest settings are 1360x768 and 1600x900. 1440x900 is very common resolution for a 19" widescreen LCD. Try new drivers as your video card does support 1440x900 and quite a bit higher. http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_93.71_2.html Does this mean... 1. I have a crappy video card that doesn't have enough resolution choices to match a reasonable monitor You have an entry level video card which does not support HDMI nor DX10. For general purposes it's fine. http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...=0&share=txt/2 And one final question. Is the refresh rate something that I can safely change? Yes. 60-75 Hz is common in LCD monitors. Unlike CRTs flicker is not so much an issue so higher refresh rates are unnecessary. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
sofasurfer wrote:
A lot of the monitors I look at in the store have a native resolution of 1440x900. I looked at the possible settings for my video card (ASUS N6200LE) under startcontrol panelNvidia Control Panel and I see that there is no 1440x900. The closest settings are 1360x768 and 1600x900. Does this mean... 1. I have a crappy video card that doesn't have enough resolution choices to match a reasonable monitor Not necessarily. The list of possible resolutions may be (in part) determined by the monitor connected. Earlier I said that I didn't know of this every happens, but I recently saw it in operation. I connected a 1440x900 monitor to the PC, and 1440x900 showed up in the list of resolutions. After I disconnected it and reconnected a 1280x1024 monitor, the 1440x900 was gone. This machine was running an 2-3 year-old ATI card with an even newer version of catalyst. It does seem odd, though, if *your* display driver is trying to match your monitor, that it would include some widescreen resolutions. Is your currrent monitor widescreen or the more traditional 4:3 or 5:4 ratio? Is it LCD or CRT? 2. The monitors I looked at were crappy and didn't have a native resolution that matches a reasonable video card 1440x900 is a fairly common native resolution for widescreen monitors. 3. The process of matching a video card to a monitor is a time consuming process that doesn't always work out I hadn't really run into a problem until that 1400x1050 monitor I told you about, but I'm starting to agree with you. What do you recommend? Do you like my video card or did I buy the wrong one? I've been happy enough with Asus products. In fact, I'm currently using one their ATI chipset cards right now. I've not really had any problem with nVidia-based cards either. In fact, the solution to my 1400x1050 problem might have been to use an nVidia card. Am I supposed to just keep looking until I find a matching monitor? Contact the manufacturer, or participating in an nVidia-specific forum would be a good next step. And one final question. Is the refresh rate something that I can safely change? I alway though it was dangerous to the monitor to change it but in the doc. for my video card there is a control to change the refresh rate and it says that all it does is to help eliminate flicker, as if it is something that can be set to your preference. I don't think it's the risk it once was. I've never had any problem with the recommend settings, though, so I've not really chanced it. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Wide screen monitor distortion/stretch
On Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:43:19 -0800, sofasurfer
wrote: A lot of the monitors I look at in the store have a native resolution of 1440x900. I looked at the possible settings for my video card (ASUS N6200LE) under startcontrol panelNvidia Control Panel and I see that there is no 1440x900. The closest settings are 1360x768 and 1600x900. Does this mean... 1. I have a crappy video card that doesn't have enough resolution choices to match a reasonable monitor no It means you either see the resolution when monitor is hooked up, or you can set a custom resolution with any semi-recent video driver (from http://www.nvidia.com) in one of the Display Properties Menu items, there's some button you click to get to it after wading through a few menu choices, IIRC. 2. The monitors I looked at were crappy and didn't have a native resolution that matches a reasonable video card No, although 1440x900 may not be such a desirable resolution as it is not a very large screen nor much detail today, but of course it would take up less desk space and cost less than a larger monitor. 3. The process of matching a video card to a monitor is a time consuming process that doesn't always work out With some brands and/or older drivers this might be true but you should have no trouble with your video and any semi-recent full version of driver from nVidia's website. As for a 3rd party driver provided by motherboard manufacturers, it may or may not have all the features and may or may not be a very recent driver even if a date seems to suggest it is as new as some others. What do you recommend? Do you like my video card or did I buy the wrong one? Am I supposed to just keep looking until I find a matching monitor? Install recent driver, it should work. And one final question. Is the refresh rate something that I can safely change? Not really except within the range the monitor spec sheet states which is generally around 60-70Hz which is fine because LCDs don't have the same flicker problem that CRTs do at these refresh rate ranges. 60Hz is a good value to use until you have reason to use another. I alway though it was dangerous to the monitor to change it but in the doc. for my video card there is a control to change the refresh rate and it says that all it does is to help eliminate flicker, as if it is something that can be set to your preference. Many years ago CRTs had no facility to check and reject using the wrong refresh rate, and running at wrong rate could damage them. Nothing CRT made recently has this problem and LCDs never would. In other words with any monitor that allows using the rate you're trying to set, it is fine to do so but you should notice little if any improvement on an LCD by increasing it because it is a different display technology. On an LCD the larger improvement usually comes from using DVI instead of D-sub analog connection, though 1440x900 is only a moderate resolution, as the resolution gets higher it makes even more of a difference. |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Wide Screen Monitor Displays | DJT | Homebuilt PC's | 4 | June 10th 07 07:07 AM |
Wide Screen Monitor | DJT | Homebuilt PC's | 6 | May 23rd 07 01:07 AM |
LCD monitor weird pixel distortion/noise, see pictures! | Simon Simonsen | General | 2 | July 8th 06 03:08 AM |
Dell 20" wide-screen LCD monitor (2005FPW) | [email protected] | Dell Computers | 0 | December 5th 05 10:35 AM |
Dual monitor - Very wide screen | John Smith | Ati Videocards | 1 | October 24th 05 12:14 PM |