Widescreen LCD Monitors

[Whiskey]

Does anyone here use a widescreen LCD monitor for PC gaming? Do you find that most games support these things, or is there noticeable distortion if you have to manually "force" the game into widescreen?

I'm getting tired of the space my big CRT is taking up on my desk, not to mention how much it weighs when I have to move it, so I'm thinking of going widescreen LCD, most of which seem to be widescreen these days.

Any comments welcome. Thanks.

[[MyIS]Spawndemon]

While I don't have a widescreen LCD (I have a 19" standard size LCD) I have seen widescreen LCD's and games played on them. First off, why do you still have a CRT Whiskey? :p

With any LCD, you are going to enjoy it 100x better than your CRT. On widescreen though, many of the older games don't support it but since it is become more of a norm now with widescreen you do see more and more games supporting it. I know the Battlefield games don't support widescreen but I saw my friend play BF2142 on a 22" widescreen LCD, where he had to force the resolution, it still looks great and the stretch doesn't look bad at all. My friend has this monitor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001096

With the size being a very nice 22" and having 2ms responses time (the best for LCD), that monitor is like perfect. The price for it is amazing as well. That for just over $300 and I got my 19" standard size LCD for over $400 when it came out. But yeah, I'd go widescreen if you're going to upgrade and with prices being so reasonable, may as well get a nice sized one with great response time. :)

[[2]Maj.Patton[HFM][V]]

Well let me say this...
My dad has his computer in the next room from mine, and he was the one who got me into the computer scene back when I was like 10 years old when AMD's newest chip was the AMD Duron (LOL Yes..old school).. Anyhow, up until my latest build, he would always have a faster computer than me, better everything; besides now.

He has a Chimei 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor that he bought for $300 around Christmas time. The monitor is absolutly brilliant, amazing color. Has 2 dead pixels in it, but with all LCD monitors, thats normal and they say you need at least 6 or something to send it back. Anyhow, the color is amazing, the contrast is amazing and the quality is TOP NOTCH!

So, I just ordered the same monitor on NewEgg at $249.00 w/ $30 Rebate which will make it $219.00. If you don't wanna spend $300+ but want a nice big 22", this is definitly the monitor. My dad has had it for about 6 months now and I can tell you this; everyday I was jealous of that thing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824252008

I saw him play BF2 on it, all High settings with his 6800GT (Which played the game on all high perfectly) and with that monitor; the crisp detail is so much better! I can tell you this now because I am playing on my 19" CRT on all high settings and I feel like I am playing Medium settings compared to the detail his monitor brings out. He has no problem with resolution; granted - he wishes there was a Widescreen res.... it's not distorted on standard resolutions

[solofowaffles]

More and more games are supporting widescreen resolutions,in CoH for example it looks absolutley beautiful on the widescreen.Soa widescreen lcd will be very nice.Also when i went to a friends house he had a crt and when i played dod:s on it he ran it on all high but it just looked liek there was a shroud on the screen.

[Jezzzay]

I've got a widescreen monitor, nearly all my games are distorted in some way, shape, or form. The distortion isn't horrible by any means, some stuff, like a round mini map would appear to be oval.

[WillRyan]

I'm running dual 19" Widescreens, and while there are a few games that look like *** when it's forced (ie BF2142), games like BF2 run beautifully on Widescreen when you give it the command line.

[[2]Maj.Patton[HFM][V]]

;2331']I'm running dual 19" Widescreens, and while there are a few games that look like *** when it's forced (ie BF2142), games like BF2 run beautifully on Widescreen when you give it the command line.

command line?

I just hooked up my 22" Widescreen LCD today, runs C&C3 beautifully along with BF2.. BF2 is a little distorted, but not much

[Whiskey]

Thx for all the comments so far, folks. Please keep 'em coming if you have 'em. :)

[WillRyan]

command line?

Right Click on the Icon, select Properties.

In the target line, replace +fullscreen 1 with:

+widescreen 1 +szx 1440 +szy 900

or whatever Resolution you're running. Select Apply and OK.

[DJanon]

I have a 26" Samsung.

[Spik3d]

Does anyone here use a widescreen LCD monitor for PC gaming? Do you find that most games support these things, or is there noticeable distortion if you have to manually "force" the game into widescreen?

When I force a game into widescreen one way or the other, it isn't distorted at all (excluding the HUD). I have a Hanns-G 22" widescreen, got it off newegg.com.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254020

There is very little back light bleed, quick response time, color is good (to my eyes), 1680x1050, very steady stand.

[[MyIS]Dan]

I have a 19" widescreen (1440x900) and a 22" widescreen (1680x1050) and games that do support widescreen look so much more impressive than your normal sized screens.

But if you are going to get a high res widerscreen, make sure you have a GFX card that will support the games running at the res. ;)

[Gunsnipe43]

First off w00t first post in the call of duty 4 side of total, but now to the point...

I have a 28 inch (27.5 viewable) widescreen viewsonic monitor. The games that support widescreen do look really awesome and much better than my old 17 inch standard lcd. It runs at 1920 by 1200 and that makes everything look better too. I can't say much for the stretching part of it though because at the time I had linux installed and I was able to get 2142 at that rez but I also didn't have any textures and that was quite distracting...not related to the monitor though.
So I think that a good widescreen monitor is really worth the buy and I am very satisfied with mine, I mean c'mon 700 bucks for 28 inch is really quite cheap, relatively speaking. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116084)

[catar]

22" is the sweet spot .best way to get nice picture is to run high resolution so its if you have 30" monitor and your card supports 1600x2500 or something it would look better on 22". Also make sure your video card is up to date

[imported_Shadow]

Running on a 'small' 20" Dell Wide screen LCD. So far no problems at all, and the color is bloody brilliant. got it back in Jan. for a around 250, best deal I could find ... and one of the best deal I could ask for, considering the quality and expariance. /luv wide screen

[Kingkat54]

19" ViewSonic LCD..........1440 X 900. Looks good, saves lots of space.
But what Dan wrote is true. You need a graphics cards that can support the resolution.
Throw that old CRT out..............makes a good door stop...:P

[Whiskey]

Thanks for all the opinions, folks. I went with this puppy about a month ago when it went on sale: Clicky (http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10089669&catid=#)

It was weird for the first couple days, but now I'm McLovin it. My desk has so much more room now, too. :)

[sike3000]

now the question is, will COD4 havewidescreen support, i would relly like to play it at 1600 x 1050

[Whiskey]

Sike3000;4959']now the question is, will COD4 havewidescreen support, i would relly like to play it at 1600 x 1050

You can run the COD4 demo in 1600x1050, and there are 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio selections in the options.

[Iwantcable]

Yes, unlike DICE, IW supports pretty much all widescreen resolutions.

[redrider]

Im running a 27 inch Olevia and yes it is a LCD TV but it does just fine. I just ran the demo at 1080 by whatever and it looked great. The main advantage to a LCD TV over a monitor is that it costs less but you have to watch the specs on the TV. You need at least 8 millisecond responce time and the ability to do 1080I. I think I paid $540 for my LCD TV just over a year ago. My Olevia has a VGA connector on the back so I just plugged my Nvida 7800 GT OC right into it and was up and going in no time, that simple.

If you dont want to or cant spend a lot of money and still want a big wide screen monitor this is the way to go! Good Luck. . . . . . . .Red

[TheDesert_Fox]

Not a widescreen owner myself, but a friend of mine is. We both have 19" monitors and let me tell you, don't buy a widescreen unless it's a few inches bigger than your old 4:3! Everything will feel very small, as if it was actually 2" smaller. This is because the height will obviously be less, at at sizes like 19" for WS the screen becomes noticeably thin, let me explain.

A person's vision has limits, about 6" in any direction from the point you're looking straight at makes up your main vision. With most PC screens on a 4:3 ratio this space is pretty well filled. Not completely until you hit about 24", but mostly, and evenly. With a ~19" sized WS monitor you completely fill the horizontal, yet are noticeably lacking on the vertical. This imbalance affects a person's depth perception, so as long as the screen doesn't adequately fill the vertical size it will seem skewed, as if you were running 6:11. Another fun thing about our brain: we assume thin things are smaller. Unless you have great spacial perception, the screen will seem smaller than it's rated size. Sure, you will eventually get used to it, but it will be a sharp contrast at first.

Overall moral, go big if you want widescreen.

[redrider]

Yes thats right (the post above). Thats one thing that I forgot to mention in my last post. If you have a 19 inch 4 by 3 and want everything to be just as tall as it is now, on the new wide screen, you will need a 26 inch monitor.

I did some searching on the net because I have a 52 inch 4:3 TV, in my living room, and want to replace it with a wide screen. To have the picture the same height I will need a 65 inch wide screen. The number that you need to mutiply by is 1.38. So the formula for a 19 inch will look like this 19x1.38=26.22. I had a hard time finding the right formula thats why I posted it here. Hope it helps someone else. . . . . . . . . . .Red

[Ezekiel]

Yea i was going to get a widescreen monitor but changed y mind, seems quite pointless seen as though not all games support it.

[Spik3d]

Yea i was going to get a widescreen monitor but changed y mind, seems quite pointless seen as though not all games support it.

I have yet to find a game I have played that doesn't support widescreen that you can't modify something (game path, config file, etc.) to force it into widescreen.

[TheDesert_Fox]

I have yet to find a game I have played that doesn't support widescreen that you can't modify something (game path, config file, etc.) to force it into widescreen.But forcing it still causes distortion, like circles to ovals, which some people, like myself, can't stand...

[airs0ft_s0ldier11]

I have a 19" widescreen, to me i think its better than normal screen, when i go upstairs on the office computer its like somethings missing being so used to widsscreen. On newer games it is no problem such as COD4, you can change it in the options (for example mine is 1440x900) On older games like battlefield 2, you need a command line, and only the intro movies and minimap are a bit stretched. Also games older than battlefield 2 may not even be compatible with widescreen, for example Delta Force:Black Hawk Down, all the scops are shaped like ovals for example.

[TheDesert_Fox]

On newegg.com, two Hanns-G monitors, each the same design, one widescreen, one not, both 19", both $179. The 4:3 ratio model has about 280 square inches of screen, the 16:9 model has about 260 square inches of screen. Same price, 20 square inches more. I know which one I'd get.

[Spik3d]

But forcing it still causes distortion, like circles to ovals, which some people, like myself, can't stand...

You mean the HUD?

All the games that I've done that will only have the HUD stretched. And it doesn't take that long to get used to.

[TiGHT]

I've got a 23" Apple HD Monitor and it's just beautful.

I recently upgraded to a Nvidia 7800 GS and suddenly no longer had a widescreen while gaming. I changed the access code in the shortcut and
it went back to full wide screen, but now I'm having CTDs and the blue
screen of death and can only play for like...20 minutes at a time.

What gives?? Anyone know?? :hmm:

[redrider]

Yes it sounds like a heat or power problem. The reason I say this is that windows is designed to start shutting down unnessary programs when you have to much heat in one of your main processors, CPU, video, sound. Since the game is probably a resorce hog, most new games are, and the new card needs more bits its probably causing the CPU to heat up some. So windows, knowing that it can run fine without the game, shut it down. Of course thats the redneck version but still thats basicly what happened. What you need to do is try the game with all the video settings at the lowest setting and see what happens.

I had the same thing happen, in BF2, and I fixed it by closeing all unneeded programs during game play. Like the printer programs and all instant message stuff. Also when Im playing games, thats all Im doing on my computer. No downloading video, MP3 files, etc. What allowed me to go to higher video settings was moveing all the work that the CPU was doing away from the CPU. All the video is controlled by the video card, all the sound is controlled by the sound card and so on. All the CPU does now is act like a traffic cop and make sure that everything is in sync, as much as is possible. I also added a bigger power supply and went up to 3 gigs of ram ( thats all that windows Xp home will use, 32 bit program). My mother board will hold 4 gigs of ram but I need to mod XP or go to windows vista (64bit) to get it to use all 4 gigs of ram.

I know this is a long post but you cant put the latest game on a 1 year old stock computer and expect it to run on all high settings like everyone else does. Most of us have machines that we built from scratch (I do) to run games and they still might have some problems. Next time post your specs and when you get your next computer dont get the 300 dollar Dell special. Good Luck. . . . . . . . . . . . .Red

[TiGHT]

...when you get your next computer dont get the 300 dollar Dell special. Good Luck. . . Red

Well I thought that part was a bit uncalled for. :confused:

However i do agree with you about the heat problem.
I've got an Alienware Aurora 5500
AMD 64 processor
2Gs of memory
etc, etc.

I appreciate your time.

[Kradath]

More and more games are supporting widescreen resolutions,in CoH for example it looks absolutley beautiful on the widescreen.Soa widescreen lcd will be very nice.Also when i went to a friends house he had a crt and when i played dod:s on it he ran it on all high but it just looked liek there was a shroud on the screen.

Really? I'm also thinking of buying a 22' widescreen...

[BigHAZE]

I play WS @ 1080P on my new 42" Philips LCD. COD4 is SWEET and plays very smoothly.

8800GTX
QUAD CORE CPU
4GB RAM
VISTA ULTIMATE 62
CREATIVE X-FI FATAL1TY

[davespanzer]

I play WS @ 1080P on my new 42" Philips LCD. COD4 is SWEET and plays very smoothly.

8800GTX
QUAD CORE CPU
4GB RAM
VISTA ULTIMATE 62
CREATIVE X-FI FATAL1TY


Nice rig, but VISTA ULTIMATE 62

[nemes1s]

21" LCD widescreen is the way to go, although some games don't support WS, it's still worth getting, slim, sleek and looks good on the kitchen table.