Originally posted by: OCNewbie
Other than being ideal for watching movies, what's so great about a wide-screen format monitor? (and this is not intended as a thread crap, just curious). I'm wanting to buy an LCD monitor sooner than later. It'll be my only monitor used, mainly will be gaming, and will also be watching movies, browsing the web, other typical entertainment uses.
Basically, nearly everything is migrating to a wide format, including Windows and computers. In games you end up with more viewable area depending on the game. For instance in an FPS, your field of view is wider and you're only losing the vertical, which for quite a bit of them isn't really a loss at all.
Check out Widescreen Gaming Forum and you'll get a lot more info about what it means for games. They'll let you know all about what games natively support it and how to get widescreen support for those that don't. If you only play the original CS or older games, then it might not be for you, but if you play quite a bit of newer titles, then its nice.
A lot of people seem a little iffy about widescreen, but hardly anyone (I can't recall having seen a single person) doesn't like it after actually using one. You'll see some people make a big deal about the aspect ratios and how you're losing a some pixel real estate, but most of them haven't used a widescreen either.
So, if gaming and watching movies is a big part of how you use your computer then I say go widescreen. Even if its not, you probably won't regret it (especially if your monitor can swivel so that you have a higher vertical display which is nice for webpages or tall pictures).