Why are all LCD monitors now widescreen?

[MasterC]

I used to have a 15" 4:3 CRT, and once I got my two 20" widescreens, I never looked back. Sure, 4:3 displays are taller, but that's why there's scroll bars. :p Or you can just get a 30" and not worry about height - I can pull up code from projects I'm working on and not have to scroll at all. Plus there's room to run 3 different browsers for testing. :)

[Impact]

I love my 22" widescreen. I would never go back to fullscreen for any reason! Everything is so much better in 16:10 lol.

[theyarecomingforyou]

I love my 22" widescreen and wouldn't go back to a 4:3 / 5:4 monitor. It took a while to get used to websites but it didn't take long before it felt completely natural - it's only to be expected that change takes some getting used to. Widescreens are great for movies, gaming, creative work (Cubase, etc) and just seem more "right" (it's more natural to look along the horizontal plane than the vertical). I'd love to go for a 24" monitor or bigger but it's just too demanding for games, as I'd need at least two graphics cards to maintain an acceptable framerate. Two monitors are out of the question for desk space because I'd have nowhere to put my speakers.

[stockwiz]

so would you go EVEN WIDER? Do you see monitors and LCD televisions that are 2.35 to one on the horizon? Given that most movies are released in this resolution, I could see it happening.

[DaDude]

Two monitors are out of the question for desk space because I'd have nowhere to put my speakers.

That I forgot to mention. Now that I have a widescreen monitor, there's not enough room for my speakers. So, i had to put them behind the monitor. If it were 4:3, there would've been plenty of room.

[_dandy_]

For coding, widescreen is terrible. You end up with less vertical space and a massive excess of horizontal space. I'd rather have a widescreen turned 90 degrees for coding, actually.

To each his own.

My older monitor can do 1280x1024 at the most, while my 24" does 1920x1200. I certainly have not lost any space in terms of vertical resolution, but TBH that's a bit comparing apples to oranges.

I find it to be the perfect size to have two code files loaded side-by-side in the IDE without ever having to scroll horizontally.

In fact, I liked it so much I got a second one (identical) for all my floating toolbars and other windows. I tried both monitors rotated vertically for a short while...The vertical space was nice, but I definitely prefer having the extra room for the other axis. Maybe if I had a third one... :-)

[sachleen]

But that's the point. In 4:3 monitors, you can maximize the window and no white spaces are there. It's hard to believe that I'm the only person standing on this earth that prefers 4:3. There's a reason why the first monitors were 4:3. It's because they're better. But for some reason, today people got the idea that wider is better, when in reality, it's not. I don't mind them selling widescreen monitors, but at least sell 4:3 as well to give people some option.

As for Neowin being centered. I'll check that out when I get home. I'm not using my home computer at the moment. Right now, I using a nice 4:3 monitor.

You can get the same effect with a smaller wide screen monitor as well. Or, you can see that whitespace with a large 4:3 monitor.. that's just your screen size, you'll get used to it unless you try not to, in which case, you're screwed lol.

[Mosqutus]

more appealing to the human eye, Golden Ratio

[PaulCabby]

girlfriend got me a 20" wide screen monitor (1650x1050). I love it! prefer it to 4:3

[Des]

Maybe it's cheaper for them (technically less pixels per screen). I know Apple's reasoning is that the brain reads horizontally, so having windows open side by side makes more sense. Also DVDs look better.

I really find this to be a great answer. Makes perfect sence.. btw I love widescreen monitors.

WIDESCREENS FTW!! :p

[DaDude]

Funny how everyone here loves them. Yet all my friends and relatives thought I was weird for getting one. Can't say I blame them but widescreen is all they sell now.

BTW- I'm at home now and Neowin is indeed centered. I hate it. On a 4:3 monitor, this site fills the entire screen

[shakey_snake]

I regularly use this bookmarklet to resize my browser window for proper use:

java script:self.moveTo(0,0);self.resizeTo(1152,screen.availHeight);

Might be helpful to anyone else using a widescreen monitor.

[edit]WTF, why won't neowin allow me to say "javascript" as one word above?!?

[PixilEyes]

In the past I've owned a 15" crt and 17" crt's.

In the last few years I've owned a 17" lcd w.s. and 19" lcd w.s

I now use 2 Dell 20" w.s.'s.

The Widescreens just feel more natual to me. Like currently I'm watching a movie on the one and on the other I have room for webpage and aim chat windows.

4:3's are not for me any more. I have one at work and hate it. I feel less productive on it.

[Malfunctional]

When I went out to get a monitor I was looking for a standard full screen but was forced to get the widescreen because that's all the stores sell. I wasn't happy about it at first but I got used to it and would never go back, it just began to feel more natural and they are great for gaming.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Funny how everyone here loves them. Yet all my friends and relatives thought I was weird for getting one. Can't say I blame them but widescreen is all they sell now.

BTW- I'm at home now and Neowin is indeed centered. I hate it. On a 4:3 monitor, this site fills the entire screen

I love it when websites are centered.

[Dave Diller]

Funny how everyone here loves them. Yet all my friends and relatives thought I was weird for getting one. Can't say I blame them but widescreen is all they sell now.

BTW- I'm at home now and Neowin is indeed centered. I hate it. On a 4:3 monitor, this site fills the entire screen

I am on a 4:3 monitor and it doesn't fill the whole screen - it's centered. Change your resolution, if it really bugs you that much, as that's the problem. It isn't necessarily the aspect ratio as much as the resolution you have it on is what's causing it to be centered.

Note: I'm running 1280x1024 on this monitor which causes it to be centered. A lower resolution yields the results you're looking for.

[x-scratch]

i enjoy my 19 inch widescreen i tried a reg lcd moniter & just could not get use to it

[Budious]

I still like CRT for FPS games, Quake3 at 2048x1536 @ 85Hz on a 24" CRT is awesome fun. If the refresh rates were higher on LCD's, I'd like them better for the old style fast action FPS. Of course, modern FPS games have a slower pace so maybe the Hz doesn't matter as much.

[non.sequitur]

only a couple pixels really, I personally LOVE my 19' widescreen, my dad has a 4:3 19 inch and I hate it. I find widescreen better for gaming and there is more room to put apps/windows side by side which makes me more productive.

Widescreen is also MUCH better for movies.

Wow, a 19 foot widescreen!!!!11 Bet you that costs a pretty penny...

[Kupo-Cheer]

I'm still using my old Dell 4:3 19" LCD. Widescreens only advantage is when it comes to movie playback, where most things are shot in 16:9. Modern games support widescreen, also, but some of the older titles don't.

Fullscreen is better for just about anything else; mostly productivity software.

The main reason I'm sticking with my 4:3 is because I just can't fit a much larger widescreen on my computer desk. I've only got a few inches to work with, and if I fill them with a widescreen monitor, I'll basically have to use a smaller monitor anyway because the horizontal size will be inherently bigger. Even if I could fit a slightly larger widescreen here, the cost of getting another monitor that isn't *that* much different just isn't worth it.

Besides, my laptop is widescreen, and being only 1440x900 resolution, reading websites can be a pain in the A with the need to constantly scroll, yet I've got this huge horizontal space completely unused.

[Mordkanin]

For coding, widescreen is terrible. You end up with less vertical space and a massive excess of horizontal space. I'd rather have a widescreen turned 90 degrees for coding, actually.

Put two pages side by side. Or open a window designer next to some code. Rethink your IDE layout. Widescreen opens up some really nice options.

I have a 24" monitor. Having it in 4:3 would not work as well, IMO.

[+StevoFC MVC]

But that's the point. In 4:3 monitors, you can maximize the window and no white spaces are there. It's hard to believe that I'm the only person standing on this earth that prefers 4:3. There's a reason why the first monitors were 4:3. It's because they're better. But for some reason, today people got the idea that wider is better, when in reality, it's not. I don't mind them selling widescreen monitors, but at least sell 4:3 as well to give people some option.

As for Neowin being centered. I'll check that out when I get home. I'm not using my home computer at the moment. Right now, I using a nice 4:3 monitor.

lmao, do you realize how foolish you sound?

"there's a reason why the first monitors were 4:3. It's because they're better"

You do realize that as time goes by technology gets better, right? 16:9 (or 16:10 in the case of most monitors) is the new standard. It's a simple fact. Get used to it.

You go around acting like your opinion is the only thing that matters. We get it. You love cheap, old technology. But you have to understand that millions of other people are willing to change with the times. Many more people obviously like widescreen or else nothing would have changed over. It's simply just technology progression.

Overall, wider is better. You can do many more things on the screen at once due to the aspect ratio. That's not my opinion, that's just a simple fact.

[_dandy_]

BTW- I'm at home now and Neowin is indeed centered. I hate it. On a 4:3 monitor, this site fills the entire screen

Are you also one of those people who see the black bars at the top/bottom of a widescreen movie on a 4:3 TV and think, "fill my screen, dammit!"

At least unlike movies, you can use the additional space for other things...

[HawkMan]

Actually the reason old screens where 4:3 had nothign to do with it being better, rather than easier. shorter "frames" in film rolls. the TV " tbe" doesn't have to be as long. Remember on a widescreen the depth of the tibe id determined bt the widest part of the TV. And peple didn't really have that much space.

As for productivity, no way 4:# is more productive, tr doing ANY spreadsheat of database work on a 4:3 as opposed to widescreen. For other pgorams the extras side space for tools is invaluable.

and yeah, our vision IS wider, not circular. I suppose it could be argued that each eye has a circular field of view, but you can disprove that with a simpe test, hoewver even if they where, we have two eyes, and they're not in the same space, this alone makes our field of view eliptical.

oh and even before LCD's at least one possibly two high end worksation monitor makers started making widescreen monitors for the business market.

Are you also one of those people who see the black bars at the top/bottom of a widescreen movie on a 4:3 TV and think, "fill my screen, dammit!"

At least unlike movies, you can use the additional space for other things...

in additoon Neowin is just as centered on a high res 4:3 screen.

[El-Diablo]

I've had a 20inch wide monitor at home for the past 3 years, and i can't say anything more than i love it. I will never buy a non widescreen monitor again. We got widescreen monitors at work and now i'm just totally happy, i got wide at home/work now, no adjustment periods when i frst get into the office.

Once you go wide you'll never go back.