16:9 Widescreen Feedback

[Bandit Bill]

If you have a 16:9 widescreen monitor can you please share your likes and dislikes of the aspect ratio.

[slickrick]

I'm not a big fan of 16:9 displays. I think it throws my brain off or something since I'm so use to regular size screens. 16:9 is great for movies, but crappy for computer displays. However, I wouldn't mind having a 20" Cinema Display. Are you looking to get one?

Edit - if so what resolution?

[Bandit Bill]

Yes, I've been thinking of getting a 20" Cinema display, or a silver widescreen from someone else like Samsung.

I don't think I will get the Dell as I'm not fond of the looks, and Dell is just too PC'ish.

I purchased a Samsung 193P Plus thinking it was a widescreen. Here are the photos of it coming out of the box.
http://homepage.mac.com/banditbill/193P_Plus/PhotoAlbum23.html

I took it back to Bestbuy the next day, but now I'm wondering if I made a mistake. It was so beautiful. Higher specs than the Cinema Display. It is height adjustable, which is nice being I'm 6'3" and it rotated to portrait mode. It was also $700 CDN and the Apple is $1000 CDN. I know it's expensive for a 19" 4:3 monitor, but it is high quality.

I thought I would ask others what they thought of their widescreens to help decide.

I understand that widescreens will be nice for DVD movies. But I'm wondering if they are annoying for web surfing etc. I may get a 16:9 video camera down the road.

[ninjamini]

I got the Dell PCish or not. It was $475 (delivered) vs $799 for the 20" cinema. That sounds like almost half price ($475 vs. 847 cinema w/ tax).

The plus of the dell:
vga input
svideo input
compunet input
DVI also
and it does video switching.
It also has picture in & out of picture. I also got built in speakers for $20 to keep cable clutter down.
usb hub

The down side to the dell:
Its black
no apple logo
That iSight cammera does not stick to it.
No firewire hub.

The real difference is the styling of the apple and the video inputs on the dell.

I like the 16x9 display cuz i can put two full page docs next to eachother and fill the screen. Makes it easy to do text docs and vies 2 web pages at ounce.

I also do alot of excell and it allows alot of collums of data to be viewed.

Thats my 2 cents.

[Bandit Bill]

DellApple,

What's it like when you're surfing 1 web page at a time?

My thinking is 16:9 will be in everyones future. We'll all get used to it. I've noticed more and more websites use side menu bars etc.

Are any websites optimized for 16:9 viewing yet? Do any have a click here to view in 16:9 and the entire page takes on a different layout?

[Susurrus]

The design of webpages are pretty much all modular now or created at a fixed resolution, normally 800x600. If the website is using a fixed-resolution format, you'll see no change between any monitor, let alone widescreen. If the website is using a resolution-independent design, then you'll see the website as if it was designed for your resolution, well, if they did a good job with the coding. These websites will not use the horizontal space as efficiently as they could considering there is a lot more horizontal space in a widescreen that isn't planned for.

The short answer for if websites are designed for a 16:9 is no, none that I have seen and none for the forseeable future. The number of people that have a widescreen is not a big enough market, yet.

Another note about the difference between the Dell and Apple monitors: both monitors use the exact same LCD panel. The only difference is the backlight and other features. If you are concerned about image quality, there is virtually no difference.

I know that my mom loves her Dell widescreen laptop (15.4"). She's a website designer so that extra horizontal screen real estate helps her a ton.

[andp]

1280x1024 is really my preferred resolution. I have a hard time with resolutions larger than 1280 wide. The text becomes too small for my taste and everything gets blurry once you get away from the display's native resolution. If you increase the text size it messes up tables for website that are formatted for 1024 wide and below.

[iMav]

Anyone have one of these?? <drool>
_________________
-=iMav=-
http://geekhack.org

[Bandit Bill]

[idave]

[billabong]

Cnet just added a video review of the 24" Dell. That thing is huge for the money!

http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_UltraSharp_2405FPW/4505-3174_7-31335738.html?tag=viddet

[Bandit Bill]

I'm glad you posted that link. I had visited that page last night, but I hadn't noticed the video clip. I never knew that monitor pivoted to portrait. That feature eliminates any fear of purchasing a 16:9. I like the fact that it can be raised to 7 " above the desktop. This monitor is clearly leading the race for a value priced big screen 16:9.

Toms hardware just rated the Dell
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/display/20050706/professional_lcd-10.html

They say they will be reviewing the 23" cinema display in a few weeks.

[Susurrus]

Frankly, until the pixel densities approach those on my 1600x1200 on my 15" laptop LCD, any of those LCDs are pieces of crap. Suriously, now that I love the size and how much stuff I can fit in 15", why would I want to fit that same stuff in 19" or 20" LCDs? Once you find a 20" Cinema Display with the resolution of the current 23", I'm out. Unless it's a gift. Then I'm in.
_________________
Computer Engineer
Junior, Brown University
15" NC8430 HP Laptop
1.42Ghz PPC Mac Mini, 1Gb RAM, 1st Gen
40GB G4 iPod
2GB Black iPod Nano

[slickrick]

Bandit - It sure has a lot of nice features for the money. That reporter looks small standing next to it. I didn't realize it had a media card reader on the side. If you get one take some pic's!

[iMav]