Monitor advice please

[sandar]

I am one of those who adhere to the if it ain't bust don't fix it philosophy, which in this instance means I still have an old fashioned 17" monitor, but I am thinking it won't be long before it gives up.

With this in mind I am looking at replacement monitors, but most of the flat screen monitors are wide screen 16:9 with very few 4:3 'square' monitors. Now I had a wide screen television a while ago and got fed up with either black bars on the sides or turnip headed people, neither of which were acceptable to me, so I am reluctant to buy a wide screen monitor without impartial advice.

Why are 16:9 monitors more popular than 4:3 monitors?
What relevant advantages/disadvantages?
What are do I need to look for for best performance, reliability etc?

Thanks and a happy new year

[stansdds]

Widescreen monitors have become more popular because they more closely match the format of movies. Widescreen monitors usually run at higher resolutions than 4:3 monitors, so if your video card is old or in the economy class, you may get low frame rates with games. If you do go with a new flat screen, make sure it has a high contrast ratio and a fast response time (most are now around 5 milliseconds).

[sandar]

Thanks for the response Standds. I didn't know about the response time, so that titbit was useful and explained why some monitors are cheaper than others. I just might have fallen into that trap and bought a monitor that was too slow.
It looks as if I will have to buy a WS monitor as there is little alternative. The 4:3 monitors are as rare as rocking horse crap and look as if they will be discontinued soon, so even if I did buy one, the next one would have to be WS.

Space is at a premium, but I think I will buy one with built in speakers so I can get rid of the bulky ones I have now.

[warchild]

Widescreens also approximate the human eye more closely. Our vertical fiels of vision is only about 60 degrees, but our horizontal fiels of vision is around 170 degrees. whereas a 4:3 ratio breaks down to to a 1.25/1 ratio, our vision wants to see, 170/60 or 2.83/1. it's just more natural. The original 4:3 ratio was used because of the RCA standard for television developed before i was even born ( and thats quite some time ago ). The reason they used it with computers is that the first computer monitors used standard cathode ray tubes, which were readily available at a reasonable cost. But times have changed..
I currently run my computer to my television, which is a 52" hd widescreen, and i love it. it frees me from the desk chair, and lets me do everything from watching movies to flying in fsx in relative comfort, from my recliner. In the long run, it's a worthwhile investment, but, i can say that simply because i'm single and live alone.. I'm not sure what would happen if someone else lived with me and wanted to watch V, while i was flying.. it could get messy.. :D
Pam

[sandar]

Warchild, thanks for your input. One thing I ommited to mention is that my left eye is next to useless, so my field of vision is not as wide as it should be. On a positive note, with a wide screen I will get plenty of neck exercise, that or I will develop a head shaking twitch:icon_lol:

[Greystone]

Hey guys, haven't been back for a while-- some wackos lured me into LOMAC over the last two years, but I find I still enjoy CFS2.

So. I have upgraded to a widescreen 26" monitor and a new box. But now after reloading the program, my CFS2 has funky colors (some purple) and some squat (out of round) gauges in the cockpit. FSX has a Widescreen=True command in the CFG to help with this, but I don't see one in CFS2. I see these commands in the CFG:

FULL_SCREEN=2
FULL_640=1

Is there a tweak for my widescreen? I'm running an NVidia 8800GTX card with 1920x1200 resolution capability.

Thx in advance