Standard or Widescreen monitor?

I will be buying a new monitor but which type should I buy?
I will admit I am not widescreens biggest 'fan', however what I
like is pretty immaterial as I can't control the format in which
other people produce 'media'.
I currently have a bog standard 14" CRT monitor but I think I will
be going flatscreen (LCD etc) because I want a good sized monitor
and CRT takes up too much room really.
Even now some sites seem to be standard and other widescreen so
whatever I get it wil be 'wrong'. (Thanks to the 'inventor' of widescreen).

Do any of you have a WS monitor?

Do you like them?

I kind of see a big problem with them because obviously they are too sort in
height.
For example, many PDF documents are A4 page size, this is a problem in say
Adobe Acrobat because even on a standard monitor you can only see about half
the page, it will be much worse on a WS. I feel like turning my monitor
through
90 degrees, can you do this with some monitors?

Also there is all the toolbars etc (google norton etc...) which reduce the
vertical
height of the screen anyway, making my standard monitor, widescreen in a
way,
on a true widescreen monitor doesn't this look kind of ridulous? The
'useable'
screen area must be 5.75 by 10.75 which is a ratio of 1.86:1
on a WS monitor the situation will be even worse, I am thinking it is going
to
be close to 2.5:1 or even 3:1.

Can anyone with a WS monitor tell me the ratio of the free screen area, its
a bit
har d for me to work out. I am working on the basis you have 3 (tool)bars
at the top and the start button bar at the bottom. There is also a
'mini-bar'
above both these bars, in a normal set up.


Another point is 'native resolution', or whatever, will this affect things?

I am probably thinking a big standard shape monitor would be best?
I incidently I have a Freecom DTTV stick so I sometime watch TV
on my PC, but the monitor shape is not really a problem as you watch in
a nicely framed box, you don't get black ugly bars wasteing space as you
do on a proper TV.

The 'useable' screen area must be 5.75 by 10.75 which is a ratio of
1.86:1 on a WS monitor the situation will be even worse, I am thinking it
is going to be close to 2.5:1 or even 3:1.

I doubt its as much as that.

Well considering my 1.33:1 went to 1.86:1 thats + 0.53 so on a
16:9 (1.77:1) that's 2.3:1, and I believeit would be worse than that
because you have less height to lose in the first place.
I will do the 'proper maths' later when I have more time and less beer :O)

Can anyone with a WS monitor tell me the ratio of the free screen
area, its a bit har d for me to work out. I am working on the basis you
have 3 (tool)bars at the top and the start button bar at the bottom.
There is also a 'mini-bar' above both these bars, in a normal set up.

I cant see that it matters much given that so few web
pages even attempt to fit on the screen vertically.


It is when reading text you have to scroll horizontal ever line, vertically
it
is only every 20 lines or so.

I incidently I have a Freecom DTTV stick so I sometime watch TV on my PC,
but the monitor shape is not really a problem as you watch in a nicely
framed box, you don't get black ugly bars wasteing space as you do on a
proper TV.

You do get ugly black bars at the top and bottom when you
watch widescreen format movies and TV on a conventional monitor.


Well you do sometimes if they are actually transmitted with black bars,
but if it is a standard 4:3 or 16:9 the 'Stick' I have puts it in the
correct
shaped box for you.


Actually I am thinking I would be better off ditching the TV altogether,
and having a PC with two (or three?) monitors, if thats possible?

Bazzer Smith wrote:
Can anyone with a WS monitor tell me the ratio of the free screen
area, its a bit har d for me to work out. I am working on the basis
you have 3 (tool)bars at the top and the start button bar at the
bottom. There is also a 'mini-bar' above both these bars, in a
normal set up.

I cant see that it matters much given that so few web
pages even attempt to fit on the screen vertically.

It is when reading text you have to scroll horizontal ever line,
vertically it is only every 20 lines or so.

OK, but the better browsers fix that horiz scrolling problem.

Bazzer Smith wrote:
I incidently I have a Freecom DTTV stick so I sometime watch TV on
my PC, but the monitor shape is not really a problem as you watch
in a nicely framed box, you don't get black ugly bars wasteing
space as you do on a proper TV.

You do get ugly black bars at the top and bottom when you
watch widescreen format movies and TV on a conventional monitor.


Well you do sometimes if they are actually transmitted with black
bars, but if it is a standard 4:3 or 16:9 the 'Stick' I have puts it
in the correct
shaped box for you.


Actually I am thinking I would be better off ditching the TV
altogether, and having a PC with two (or three?) monitors, if thats
possible?

Yes, its certainly possible.

I still have a massive great widescreen TV on both of the main PCs tho.

"Bazzer Smith" wrote in message
...
I will be buying a new monitor but which type should I buy?
I will admit I am not widescreens biggest 'fan', however what I
like is pretty immaterial as I can't control the format in which
other people produce 'media'.
I currently have a bog standard 14" CRT monitor but I think I will
be going flatscreen (LCD etc) because I want a good sized monitor
and CRT takes up too much room really.
Even now some sites seem to be standard and other widescreen so
whatever I get it wil be 'wrong'. (Thanks to the 'inventor' of
widescreen).

Do any of you have a WS monitor?

Do you like them?

I kind of see a big problem with them because obviously they are too sort
in height.
For example, many PDF documents are A4 page size, this is a problem in say
Adobe Acrobat because even on a standard monitor you can only see about
half
the page, it will be much worse on a WS. I feel like turning my monitor
through
90 degrees, can you do this with some monitors?

Also there is all the toolbars etc (google norton etc...) which reduce the
vertical
height of the screen anyway, making my standard monitor, widescreen in a
way,
on a true widescreen monitor doesn't this look kind of ridulous? The
'useable'
screen area must be 5.75 by 10.75 which is a ratio of 1.86:1
on a WS monitor the situation will be even worse, I am thinking it is
going to
be close to 2.5:1 or even 3:1.

Can anyone with a WS monitor tell me the ratio of the free screen area,
its a bit
har d for me to work out. I am working on the basis you have 3 (tool)bars
at the top and the start button bar at the bottom. There is also a
'mini-bar'
above both these bars, in a normal set up.


Another point is 'native resolution', or whatever, will this affect
things?

I am probably thinking a big standard shape monitor would be best?
I incidently I have a Freecom DTTV stick so I sometime watch TV
on my PC, but the monitor shape is not really a problem as you watch in
a nicely framed box, you don't get black ugly bars wasteing space as you
do on a proper TV.


Get a 19 inch or larger CRT that can display up to 1920x1440 resolution or
over. Then you will be able to watch HD movies at 1920x1080 and tile 4
wordprocessor or internet explorer windows on the screen at the same time
and have no problems with loss of usable area. (LCD's only go up to
1600x1200 which is not big enough.)

The problem with widescreen monitors is that they are not wide enough. If
they'd been in Panavision you'd be able to tile 2 wordprocessor windows side
by side without loss or usable area, and if they were in Cinemascope you'd
get 2 wordprocessor windows side by side without loss or usable area. What's
more 16:9 is a horrid ratio to watch TV on because the screen ratio feels
completely wrong. It's too wide for the golden ratio and its too narrow for
Panavision so films cropped to fit into it look odd. If you are using it to
play DVD's on then you are going to get black bars at the top and bottom of
the screen irrespective of the screen ratio since Panavision and Cinemascope
are shown at full ratio like they should be and its about time that they
were shown that way on TV too.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Bazzer Smith wrote:
Can anyone with a WS monitor tell me the ratio of the free screen
area, its a bit har d for me to work out. I am working on the basis
you have 3 (tool)bars at the top and the start button bar at the
bottom. There is also a 'mini-bar' above both these bars, in a
normal set up.

I cant see that it matters much given that so few web
pages even attempt to fit on the screen vertically.

It is when reading text you have to scroll horizontal ever line,
vertically it is only every 20 lines or so.

OK, but the better browsers fix that horiz scrolling problem.

Such as which browsers?
Do they do the scrolling for you by mindreading or reformat the screen?

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Bazzer Smith wrote:
I incidently I have a Freecom DTTV stick so I sometime watch TV on
my PC, but the monitor shape is not really a problem as you watch
in a nicely framed box, you don't get black ugly bars wasteing
space as you do on a proper TV.

You do get ugly black bars at the top and bottom when you
watch widescreen format movies and TV on a conventional monitor.


Well you do sometimes if they are actually transmitted with black
bars, but if it is a standard 4:3 or 16:9 the 'Stick' I have puts it
in the correct
shaped box for you.


Actually I am thinking I would be better off ditching the TV
altogether, and having a PC with two (or three?) monitors, if thats
possible?

Yes, its certainly possible.


That would be handy, do I need some sort of card?
Would come in handy for playing multi-table poker.
I will probably end up with something like a recording studio!!


I still have a massive great widescreen TV on both of the main PCs tho.

Get a 19 inch or larger CRT that can display up to 1920x1440 resolution or
over. Then you will be able to watch HD movies at 1920x1080 and tile 4
wordprocessor or internet explorer windows on the screen at the same time
and have no problems with loss of usable area. (LCD's only go up to
1600x1200 which is not big enough.)

Well thats an idea I like the sound of, but the room I will be using it in
aint that big and
a 19 inch CRT is fairly large.

The problem with widescreen monitors is that they are not wide enough. If
they'd been in Panavision you'd be able to tile 2 wordprocessor windows
side by side without loss or usable area, and if they were in Cinemascope
you'd get 2 wordprocessor windows side by side without loss or usable
area.

True, but you could equally have the two screens stacked vertically which
would
suit me because I have more vertial free space than horizontal.


What's more 16:9 is a horrid ratio to watch TV on because the screen ratio
feels completely wrong. It's too wide for the golden ratio and its too
narrow for Panavision so films cropped to fit into it look odd. If you are
using it to play DVD's on then you are going to get black bars at the top
and bottom of the screen irrespective of the screen ratio since Panavision
and Cinemascope are shown at full ratio like they should be and its about
time that they were shown that way on TV too.

Yea its neither one thing nor the other.
Personally I think they should have stuck to making films in 4:3 then we
would
not have this format conflict nonesense.