Why Widescreen?

[stanb17]

Why wide screen? http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html

The reality is that the human field of focus is much closer to the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio. Our peripheral vision is widescreen... not our clear focal range. It's a Darwinian thing that we have peripheral vision to catch predators sneaking up on us in the caverhood.
The reasons for wide screen or 16:9 as an aspect ratio is more of a result of Hollywood trying to pack more people into theaters and have a bigger till at the end of the night. While it does provide a wider create palette to tell stories on, it has little or no valid reason to be in you office space. That is unless you are gaming wide screen, editing audio or video (because it allows you to stretch out that time line.
In a standard, non-movie or audio related job application... 4:30 is the way to go.
I'm quite pissed off that it is getting so hard to find a good, low cost, 20 inch LCD in 4:3. I just bought a 20 inch wide screen and I HATE IT. Since I am a movie and audio editor.. I have another application for it... but for my regular, every day web development stuff I want a 20+ inch 4:3 aspect ratio, monitor with at 5ms response time, 800:1 contrast ratio LCD for under $200. This trend toward non-conforming aspect ratios is driving us web developers crazy. Specially when our clients are all saying it looks different on their non-conforming wide screen with some convoluted screen resolution like 2480 by 1047 pixels. The vast majority of screens are still 1024 by 768.. yes.. and 4:30 aspect. Why these are becoming the hardest monitors to find under $200 is beyond logic.

If anyone can find me one with a good name.. please post a reply.

 

[cleeve]

Try a 24" Widescreen...
From a development standpoint, it's like having two 19" monitors side by side.

No compromises!

 

[bydesign]

Human vision is more like 16x9 just as you said, peripheral vision can't be excluded. Wide screen viewing has scientifically been proven to lead to a more realistic and stimulating experience when watching movies or gaming. For applications I agree with you. I have resisted the WS monitor for the PC but think that my next purchase will be a 24 or larger WS LCD.

 

[roadrunner197069]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3334041&CatId=2815 comming Thursday. Cant wait to hook up my PC. Sold my 21" so I could get the last $100 i needed for this puppy. I'm stuck on a 15" CRT til it gets here. CRT = instant headache for me.

 

[skittle]

because 16x10 (1.6) is close to the golden ratio of ~1.618.

 

[starcraftfanatic]

Just wish IE 7 would allow you to have 2 tabs open at once, so you can fully use the WS space for apps.

 

[drcroubie]

I recently changed from two 1280*1024 17" CRTs to one 1680*1050 20" Samsung 206BW.
And i love it. I can get two documents, firefox/konqueror windows, spreadsheets, xterms, whatever, next to each other on the same screen without having to turn my head. Perfect for reading something and writing something else in a different app without changing window focus.

 

[SirCrono]

I completely agree with the OP, I hate widescreen with a passion and wish for nothing more than a good 20+" 4:3 ratio monitor, that's why I still use a 19" CRT.

I hope screen makers get into their senses soon.

 

[Kwyx]

I used to think I wouldn't like wide screen, but got a 22" last summer as a gift. I absolutely love it for gaming. For web-browsing, I generally "tile windows vertically" so I can be browsing 2 different sites at the same time. I wont ever go back.

 

[TSIMonster]

I use to hate widescreen, but now I can't live without it. I have a 19" 4:3 Samsung LCD at work, but I plan to switch it to widescreen very shortly. 4:3 just doesn't cut it. 16:9 or 16:10 is the way to go. Stop whining!

 

[ganpachi]

hmmmm... that's funny. Your rant almost sounds identical to that time when web page developers whined about how they had to start coding pages to look good on resolutions higher than the 800x600 "standard".

 

[aevm]

The reality is that the human field of focus is much closer to the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio. Our peripheral vision is widescreen... not our clear focal range. It's a Darwinian thing that we have peripheral vision to catch predators sneaking up on us in the caverhood.

This trend toward non-conforming aspect ratios is driving us web developers crazy.

Must admit I haven't been in that many caverns lately. Still, as a Web developer I can tell you I use two widescreen monitors (think of it as 3360x1050) and I love the arrangement. It really improves my productivity.

 

[Conumdrum]

SirChrono, I hated planes till I found out it takes 3 weeks to cross the USA in a wagon. You should be able to buy 4:3 for a few years still, so no worries.

 

[StevieD]

I hate widescreens. I hate LCD.

Guess what I got?

Dell 2407. Yep widescreen and a LCD.

The good part. And there really is a good part.

The good part is being able to handle two Word documents side by side in full 11x8 glory. Try it. You can display two documents in actual size onscreen. It is wonderful for editing and comparing documents without straining my eyes. And a 22" widescreen actually might not be big enough by time one adds the application headers etc, so the 24" is the way to go.

Spreadsheets. How nice. One key advantage is having a print size page shown on-screen with extra data or comments visible on the side.


Now to the real world. I size most of my applications down to traditional 4:3 ratios. While I do use the widescreen view from time to time, 95% of the time I am using a 4:3 or something close to that ratio.


But.... Movies are fantastic. I am sitting just slightly under arms length from the monitor. Damn Nice for movies. (BTW, I wear a 35" sleeve for those that must know the actual distace from the screen)


I have developed more than a couple websites, and I am my company's official webmaster. Wide screen is just overload for web development. And there is the problem with my screen versus your screen kind of BS, thus I am still writing websites for 800x600 pixel displays. I know, just about nobody uses a small monitors anymore. But the simple fact is writing for a larger display is not always easy and it sure makes viewing text very difficult...... remember way back when when we were taught typing in college.... there was something about display presentation.... the width of the words/paragraph on the page and why words presented in what we call landscape was difficult to read..... the eyes had to scan back and forth rather than reading the line of text in a single view. Text shown in widescreen, without proper optimization, is difficult to read.

 

[CNeufeld]

I completely agree with the OP, I hate widescreen with a passion and wish for nothing more than a good 20+" 4:3 ratio monitor, that's why I still use a 19" CRT.

I hope screen makers get into their senses soon.

Newegg lists about 130 non-widescreen monitors, ranging in price from $150 to $1500. You should be able to find something you like in there...

Clint

 

[runswindows95]

After staring at a HP w2408 at work, my 19" 4:3 LCD is getting quite small. It's nice to see two full pages of text side by side at 100% with no issues on that w2408.

 

[n8dogg]

I just got a 24 inch BenQ FP241W, it was on the pricy side but it's freakin huge! lol coming from a samsung 19 inch flat crt, was a bit to get used to but now, I'm a fan boy for sure.
Though I only use mine for gaming and surfing the web, I don't think I could live without it now.
Playing COD4 online with a 24 incher is grrrrrrrrrrreat!
I'm also a video snob and was surprised that most games don't have a very bad ghosting effect but you need the horsepower to run at 1920x1200 (which I have) but still can be a pricey switch.

 

[stanb17]

Thank you all for your replies.
You're cracking me up.

I just spent the last 48 hours on the phone and email with the owner/CEO of tomshardware.com. Apparently something was wrong at their hosting company that blocked tomshardware.com, pkpublishing.com and bestofmedia.com (the actualy owners of tomewardware.com) from being see by anyone in the US using Comcast. This was HUGE. Antoine lost tens of thousands of ad generated dollars in that time.

Back on subject: I do think the 24 inch idea is good. Given the fact that our Kenmore front loading washer just kicked and would cost $500 to fix... so we're buying new, means that fund for a 24 inch just evaporated.

There are some good points made in your replies and some insightful ideas I will consider... next time I have some cash.

To ganpachi... I actually cheered when the teeter tottered to 1024x768. More real estate and easier on the eyes. My beef is really with these crazy, non-conforming aspect ratios that resemble 16:9 but often have pixel ratios that are whacked out. Also... the field of available 4:3's is but a speck compared to the WS's. The WS's are now cheaper. The good 4:3's are getting hard to find at the same price point.

Thanks for all the input.
SB

 

[rgeist554]

The good part is being able to handle two Word documents side by side in full 11x8 glory. Try it. You can display two documents in actual size onscreen. It is wonderful for editing and comparing documents without straining my eyes. And a 22" widescreen actually might not be big enough by time one adds the application headers etc, so the 24" is the way to go.

This is one of my favorite things about my Sammy245BW... that and I can watch Blu-ray and HD movies in all their glory.

I agree with the others 24"+ is the way to go. (22" is still acceptable imo, but 24" is... bigger! )

*edit* I also have to admit, that I too didn't like widescreens at first. I always went to BB or somethign and looked a 20" 4:3 and a 20" 16:10 and just though the 16:10 looked silly. A few weeks ago, I plunged and bought the 24" sammy 245BW (coming from a 17" 4:3 here) and wow... I don't think I'll ever use a smaller monitor ever again. The workspace, as mentioned above, is fantastic. Especially since I have to compare documents often, and it just makes it easier when you don't have to continuously scroll or alt+tab to reference where you left off. Anyhoo, that's my $0.02.

 

[zyberwoof]

This trend toward non-conforming aspect ratios is driving us web developers crazy. Specially when our clients are all saying it looks different on their non-conforming wide screen with some convoluted screen resolution like 2480 by 1047 pixels. The vast majority of screens are still 1024 by 768.. yes.. and 4:30 aspect.

Don't forget that while 1024 x 768 is the norm now, it a little while it would move up to 1280 x 1024 (just the natural progression of things). And then that 4:3 ratio would be gone anyways.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I just spent the last 48 hours on the phone and email with the owner/CEO of tomshardware.com. Apparently something was wrong at their hosting company that blocked tomshardware.com, pkpublishing.com and bestofmedia.com (the actualy owners of tomewardware.com) from being see by anyone in the US using Comcast. This was HUGE. Antoine lost tens of thousands of ad generated dollars in that time.

LOL... And I thought I was going completely nuts last night... Had me deleting cookies, checking my firewall logs, running anti-spyware apps most of the evening! Really irked me when I got in to work and the site came up fine. Now I know.

Back on Topic. Work on a 19" 4:3. Have another one at home. Also have a 22" Widescreen that I absolutely love for games; not so much for surfing... until I remembered I didn't have to run the browser window full-screen.

-Wolf sends

 

[tomasf]

what i really hate about lcd is its color reproduction. those are the worst displays for any graphic desing work.

 

[Flakes]

, every day web development stuff I want a 20+ inch 4:3 aspect ratio, monitor with at 5ms response time, 800:1 contrast ratio LCD for under $200. This trend toward non-conforming aspect ratios is driving us web developers crazy. Specially when our clients are all saying it looks different on their non-conforming wide screen with some convoluted screen resolution like 2480 by 1047 pixels.

well then your not very good at creating websites, use css to make everything centre then scale it so it looks good on your lowest acceptable resolution i use 1024*768... once thats done no matter what resolution your customer uses it will look the same, i personnally think a widescreen is awesome for web design, Scite on the right and mozilla/IE on the other half so i can see what changes im making... its a brilliant platform for web design.

i agree with the person above about colour reproduction an lcd just doesnt really cut it.

end of the day if you use CSS properly in your web design you will only need to design for your lowest acceptable res.

 

[Scotteq]

While it does provide a wider create palette to tell stories on, it has little or no valid reason to be in you office space.

yeah... Try and tell that to anyone who spends their days with their noses jammed in Spreadsheets.... No Joke: Widescreen monitors are a godsend for that.

 

[SirCrono]

Newegg lists about 130 non-widescreen monitors, ranging in price from $150 to $1500. You should be able to find something you like in there...

Clint

Now if I lived in USA that'd be great, sadly where I do live all new screens are LCD widescreens.

And Newegg be damned for not shipping internationally.