From 1680x1050 to 1920x1080 or 1920x1200?

[DaveElls]

Currently I have a 22" monitor with a 1680x1050 resolution. I was thinking of buying a 24" 1920x1080 but I know a lot of people prefer monitors with 1920x1200 because of the extra vertical 'real estate'. I guess I'm curious coming from a 1680x1050 resolution if I'll miss the extra vertical from a 1920x1200 or if I'll simply notice more horizontal real estate. I play a variety of games (including wow) and I do watch HD movies.

I'm looking at buying the ASUS VK246H

I'm a bit unsure if I should get that or not, I figure my budget is about $250 and that one is $220 /w free shipping until monday. I might be able to squeeze that up to a $300 budget but I'm trying not to.

There is another asus monitor thats $260 after MIR with a 1920x1200 resolution, though I hate MIRs lol.
ASUS MK241H

I found the SAMSUNG ToC T240HD a tempting offer at $80 off and free shipping it sounds like a nice deal with a tv tuner, just not sure I can spare the extra cash. Think the samsung would be worth it over the asus monitors? It does have a 5 ms response time instead of 2.

I guess I'm just very indecisive with limited time on the sales it makes it tough! Any opinions?

 

[yh125d]

I watch lots of movies and TV on my 1920x1080 Asus, play a lot of COD1-5, WoW and HL:2, and I strongly prefer the 1080 to a 1200 screen. Just seems a more proper ratio to me

 

[dfuze]

I bought a 24" 1920x1200 using the logic of when I'm just doing basic pc things that I get the extra real estate. I figure if I watch a movie on it I'll deal with a couple of bars on the screen but I don't watch movies on it nearly as much as I game/regular work on it. That was my reasoning.

 

[DaveElls]

hm, how well does the 1920x1080 resolution work on older games? Obviously widescreen support is needed but I'm not sure I'm not sure how much support there has been for a 16:9 screen vs a 16:10

 

[fffblackmage]

I love my 1920x1200 T260HD. ^_^

The 1080p resolution is pretty high enough that you probably won't miss the extra vertical real estate. Seems like the 1080p monitors are a bit cheaper anyways, considering your budget.

 

[nitromullet]

Generally I prefer 1920x1200 for a PC monitor. The main thing I really like the 16:9 aspect ratio for is FPS games (wider FOV). I never watch movies on my PC, and a game like WoW that has a lot of UI works better with a 16:10 aspect ration IMO. WoW is unique because you can adjust your FOV on the fly with the mouse wheel, so I prefer to have the extra vertical space for the UI.

That being said, I've been using my 20" 1680x1050 screen again lately, and initially I really missed the 1200 vertical space. However, I decided to try putting the taskbar on the right hand side instead of the usual bottom location, and I'm kinda liking it. I'm using Win 7, and the layout and functionality of the taskbar is a little bit more geared towards using it vertically than the taskbar in XP or Vista. I also keep my window borders and taskbar completely clear, so it doesn't make the desktop any smaller visually like an opaque taskbar would. Just a thought if you decided to go with the 1920x1080 panel to mitigate the loss of vertical 120 lines.

Originally posted by: DaveElls
hm, how well does the 1920x1080 resolution work on older games? Obviously widescreen support is needed but I'm not sure I'm not sure how much support there has been for a 16:9 screen vs a 16:10

I imagine that any game that natively supports 16:10 will also support 16:9, for those that don't support widescreen resolutions natively, there are often config files that can be edited to add support. For these games, http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/ is your friend.

 

[DaveElls]

At this point I think I am leaning toward a 16:10 screen. There's the SAMSUNG ToC T240HD($320) even though it'll cost me more I do like it with a tv tuner and samsung screens are often very good. There is also the ASUS MK241H($260 after MIR, $280 before). The asus has a lower response time and also a higher horizontal viewing angle, though not sure if thats really going to matter for me or not.

The other difference I noticed is the asus has a 450 cd/m2 on the brightness vs the 300 cd/m2 on the samsung. I'm not sure how much of a difference that'll make, any input on that?

 

[fffblackmage]

Hmmm, I guess the Samsung T260HD I have isn't as bright as some other screens. When I first started using my laptop, I thought the screen was almost blindingly bright. The T260HD wasn't like that. Still, it's bright enough for me. My room isn't terribly bright anyways.

Also this: T260HD @ PCConnection for $330 and free shipping

I think one of the flaws the T260HD has is no 1:1 pixel mapping. I have the T260HD connected to my comp using DVI and it seems to only stretch to fill the screen, or force 4:3.

 

[DaveElls]

Hmm, thats definitely a good price for the 26" screen, unfortunately there is a $20 tax so it brings it up to $350, though $30 for the larger screen still isn't a bad deal. I wonder why there is tax, they're based in NH so that seems odd as I'm not in NH. I didn't think there was supposed to be a tax unless they operate within the state you're ordering from.

So it stretches everything? Movies and such? that seems odd, though most dvd/movie software would add the black bars themselves.

 

[fffblackmage]

Well, that's for DVI connection. I find it really odd that there's no 1:1 pixel mapping mode. It's not too big of a deal, since I don't need it very often, but it would have been nice to have it when I do need it though. I'm pretty sure I can fix aspect ratio via software means. Just a bit inconvenient though.

It's different for TV mode, on the other hand. In TV mode, I get these options:
wide - this stretches 720p and 1080p stuff to 16:10 to fill the screen
16:9 - black bars on top and bottom
wide fit - zooms in, cropping out a bit on all sides
4:3 - forces/squishes to 4:3
Just Scan - displays native resolution, but this option doesn't seem to show up unless I get 1080p TV input, which seems pointless, since "16:9 mode" does the same thing.

I don't know what display modes are available using VGA or HDMI though, as I haven't tried. And the biggest feature missing is picture-in-picture. I would not have minded sacrificing some desktop space so I could also watch TV....

I got my T260HD from Amazon a month ago for $450, no tax, no recycle fee, and free shipping. It had a $100 rebate to bring the final price to $350, which I'm still waiting for. It's actually a bit pricey for me and I was actually looking for a $250 24" LCD. But I thought, I'm using this monitor for a long time. It's not too bad paying a bit more for something nicer that I'll end up using for several years.

 

[geepondy]

Do you think the 16:10 monitors are going to dry up much like the 4:3 monitors have? From a brick and mortar store standpoint, they are now quite scarce compared to the 16:9's. I have yet to make the move from my trust 19" Viewsonic VP930b, but when I do, I sure hope the 16:10s are still available as I can't see any advantage of the 16:9's other then watching DVDs without black bars.

Also for the unchanged 1920p horizontal size, it seems the screen size has shrunk from 24" to 23".

 

[DaveElls]

The monitors I currently have don't have a 1:1 pixel mapping mode from what I've been able to tell. The nvidia drivers have an option to use a fixed aspect ratio which helps a bit to avoid stretching. Not quite the same but I've used it for games that don't support widescreen mostly. Theres also an option not to use any scaling.

I believe the ATI drivers have similar options but I'm not 100% sure on that.

 

[BFG10K]

A 1920x1200 device can display 1920x1080, but the reverse does not apply. Get the 1200p display.

 

[crazylegs]

Love my BENQ 24" 1920x1200 monitor, hands down my best hardware purchase.

Am extremely satisfied whether i am gaming, watching movies or doing boring day to day windows / inet / forum stuffs

Comes with a nice selection of inputs, notably DVI + HDMI (which i am yet to use) atm i just use DVI from my PC, but in the future can either hook in a console or route devices through a HDMI pass-through reciever.