Wide Screen Monitors Vs Standard Monitors

I am confused by these different formats in relation to software. Is software made to be viewed in widescreen or in standard format? With television, Unless the channel is in high definition you have to stretch the picture to fit the entire screen causing it to look distorted. Otherwise you get panels on each side of the picture. If I load a game for example do I lose full screen viewablilty. Does the graphic card adress this automatically.

Thanks,
Peter

Upgrading to a widescreen is really simple, for any games that don't do it automatically just change the resolution to something in 16:10 resolution. These are the most common 1440x900 and 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 and finally the best of all 2560x1600, there are more of them and some of them have worse looking numbers but those are the most common. As a matter of fact most things are built for widescreen and adapted to standard (like DVD movies) so yes, you'll be fine.

Resolutions are not the issue. Field of view is. BF2 can be forced into any weird resolution you want, but the FOV can't be changed without poopbuster kicking you from servers for cheating. Without FOV changes, things look stretched, especially the GUI.

Scaling and FOV are different. At native resolution, scaling doesn't happen. But the image can still be stretched if the FOV is too low and/or the ingame interface/HUD doesn't scale itself properly. It is the problem with the game, not the monitor.

most new games are made for widescreen... i highly doubt crysis was developed for 4:3

I played the demo in 4:3

What I'm wondering is how games would react to a standard 1080P resolution. I'm thinking of getting the Acer H213H 21.5 at Newegg in February along with an LG Blu-ray drive. Most games support a 24" LCD's 1920 x 1200, but will 1920 x 1080 pose image problems?

The 21.5" 1080p is cheaper than the 24", which is why I'm considering it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824009157