Monitor recommendations

[airtj]

What is a good monitor for both FSX & FS9 that won't distort the 2d panel?

Thanks

[DaveB]

Hello Mate..

Put simply, a monitor with a standard resolution (eg, 4:3) NOT a widescreen. Problem is that 4:3 monitors are becoming increasingly hard to find these days as almost all new monitors are widescreen format. It's widescreen that stretches the 2D panel, most of which were designed and made on 4:3 format monitors;) Neither format changes what you see in VC as they're 3D:)

ATB
DaveB:)

[Francois]

But you can adjust the display of your monitor and change it from widescreen to 4:3.... of course you have two black bands on the sides, or a blown up image with some parts not visible.

[DaveB]

That's very true Francois. I guess much depends on just what you want to see and what you want from your monitor (eg, do you watch videos or tv on it too);) Ultimately, he may have to go down that route anyway. From my point of view, nothing really beats the colour and display from the old CRT's though their physical size was a big disadvantage:(

ATB
DaveB:)

[TARPSBird]

About a month ago my old Dell CRT monitor began to flicker and shift colors on start-up. I figured it was only a matter of time before it went out completely so I bought a LG 22" LED monitor. Very nice display but I've never liked the wide-screen format because of what it does to the 2D panels in flight sim. If anybody has some suggestions for a screen resolution that doesn't distort the panels too much I'd like to try it out.

[pfflyers]

I dealt with the issue a little differently. I changed the aspect ratio of my 2D panels to make them widescreen compatible.

Most aircraft I fly now I fly in vc mode, but there are a few in which I still use the 2D panel. In those cases I modify the panel bitmap by trimming off some of the top or bottom or by adding on to the sides to make it 16x9. Then of course you must adjust the config, but I get a kick out doing stuff like that.

[MarkH]

I am only pointing this out as nobody has mentioned the obvious, which is that you can resize the 2D panels. In other words you don't have to have the main panel distorted, you can just resize it to make the gauges round again. I don't use the 2D panels but if you don't want gaps at the sides you could fill them in with some of the other pop-up panels - radio, GPS, whatever, depending on the aircraft. Seems like a poor reason to limit the choice of monitor to me.

[manfredc3]

Also, for a lot of aircaft you can find many 2D panel adjustment files for both FS9 and FSX to make the gauges no longer show oval on a wide screen monitor.

That is what I did when using 2D panels on my widescreen monitor.

Or, if you use a second monitor for your panel, then you can just unlock the panel window, move it to that monitor, and re-size that screen to make the gauges look right.