LCD monitors (screen ratios)

I read that Jin Kim, Director of TFT LCD Market Research at market research
firm Displaysearch, advises buyers to skip the 19-inch LCD monitor segment
completely, since these LCDs make use of a 5:4 screen ratio. He says that
the next step higher, 20-inch LCD monitors, return to the 4:3 ratio and that
prices for 20-inchers should continue to come down.

I'm not a monitor expert, so what does the 5:4 vs. 4:3 ratio mean? I have a
Samsung 915N (19-inch) and it works fine and looks great to me. Why does Kim
seem to be less than enthusiastic about the 5:4 screen ratio for 19-inchers?

Fungi wrote:
I read that Jin Kim, Director of TFT LCD Market Research at market research
firm Displaysearch, advises buyers to skip the 19-inch LCD monitor segment
completely, since these LCDs make use of a 5:4 screen ratio. He says that
the next step higher, 20-inch LCD monitors, return to the 4:3 ratio and that
prices for 20-inchers should continue to come down.

I'm not a monitor expert, so what does the 5:4 vs. 4:3 ratio mean? I have a
Samsung 915N (19-inch) and it works fine and looks great to me. Why does Kim
seem to be less than enthusiastic about the 5:4 screen ratio for 19-inchers?




That's interesting, got a link or know why he prefers that size?

Obviously he has a favorite ratio size. I read some where the first use
of the 4x3 ratio was by an assistant of Thomas Edison when developing on
photo slides.

Current common ratios in use by TV, digital cameras, monitors, and photo
print include:

4x3 - CRT monitors, most digital cameras
5x4 - most LCD monitors
3x2 - some digital cameras and the most common photo print size (4x6)
16x9 - high definition television

And isn't there an even wider movie format in use by Hollywood?

Personally I prefer the 5x4 ratio of most LCD monitors. I spend a lot
of time editing program code, viewing digital images, and web surfing -
and usaully have the current application full screen. I have tried the
16x9 ratio in some stores, and found that trying to read wide lines of
text very distracting, and screwing around trying to resize every
application window a waste of time.

The 4x3 ratio displays too few lines of code for me. I much prefer the
5x4. When I use my 19" CRT, I run it at 1280 x 1024 and put up with the
distorted images just to get more lines of code.

Roger

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 23:16:31 -0400, Fungi wrote:

I read that Jin Kim, Director of TFT LCD Market Research at market research
firm Displaysearch, advises buyers to skip the 19-inch LCD monitor segment
completely, since these LCDs make use of a 5:4 screen ratio. He says that
the next step higher, 20-inch LCD monitors, return to the 4:3 ratio and that
prices for 20-inchers should continue to come down.

I'm not a monitor expert, so what does the 5:4 vs. 4:3 ratio mean?

It means that the width to height ratio is non-standard. You can measure
the two, and the diagonal to confirm. If the panel supports it and you can
select 1280 x 1024 resolution and circles are round, then there is no
issue.

Brad H

Hi everyone.

I'm Jin, but I would like to express my personal views. Not
DisplaySearch's. I hope that is okay with all of you.

The reason why I like 4:3 aspect ratios is that I am more used to the
way fonts, icons, etc. look. 20.1" 1600x1200 is also a 4x3. I like
that too. Nowadays, wide is getting to be a bit more popular. I'm
personally using a 20.1" wide (1680x1050) to write this. The aspect
ratio is 16:10, which is my preference for wide PC monitors.
Everybody has their own tastes, and that is perfectly okay.

The reason why I don't like 17" and 19" is because they skew the fonts
and icons a bit due to the 5:4 aspect ratio. Really, 17" and 19" are
the only monitors with this aspect ratio. Let's look at some sizes
and aspect ratios:

13" 4x3
14" 4x3
15" 4x3
17" 5x4
19" 5x4
20" 4x3 or 16x10
21" 4x3
23" 16x10
24" 16x10
30" 16x10

Let's also look at the common notebook sizes and aspect ratios:

14" 4x3
15" 4x3
15.4" 16x10
17" 16x10

Let's look at some LCD TVs:

13" 4x3
15" 4x3
17" 5x4
19" 5x4
20" 4x3
26" 16x9 (HD aspect ratio)
32" 16x9
37" 16x9
40" 16x9
42" 16x9

As you can see 17" and 19" SXGA have abnormal aspect ratios in a world
of 4x3s and 16x10s (and 16:9 for TVs).
Somebody mentioned "number of lines". That has nothing to do with
aspect ratios and is completely depended on the number of vertical
pixels or horizontal lines a monitor has. I hope that answered some
of your questions.