Screw widescreen monitors....I want my non-WS back!!

[nOOky]

I just bought a new monitor a few months ago. Playing on several variations, ws and regular aspect made the choice easy. I went with the Samsung 204B. In addition to the problems getting some games to run at widescreen resolutions, a widescreen takes up more horizontal desk space, in addition to looking to short on my desk. The 204B has a native resolution of 1600 x 1200, any game supports it. In addition, if you think about it, your mouse movement in fps shooters is skewed a bit also. If you set the sensitivity to allow you to move side to side very quickly, it will also do that up and down, and with a long squashed monitor I found it noticable. Maybe most people aren't sensitive enough to tell the difference, but I could.

 

[nOOky]

I was one of the first people I know to buy a widescreen hdtv that I know of also, years ago. They still don't make every movie in widescreen, and some movies give you that "this film has been formatted to fit your screen" 4:3 nonsense.

As of right now I'd still buy a regular aspect 4:3 monitor. Currently most games still are 4:3, and while they can be stretched to run in widescreen, it's not a native resolution merely a stretching effect. It's like buying a direct X 9 or 10 card, it will be years, yes years, before the majority of games are put out using direct X 10.

 

[HannibalX]

I have a Samsung 225BW (22" wide screen).

Certain newer games look great, many older games looks terrible. It's my experience that game hacks and work arounds sometimes cause more trouble than they are worth.

I would like to move to a 21.3 solution but don't really want to spend the $$$ right now. The Samsung 214T looks really nice.

 

[apoppin]

yeah ... i *adjusted* my mouse too

big deal ... if you are stuck with LCD, WS *looks* nice

 

[PingSpike]

I don't really have the mouse problem, I guess I noticed it was different at first but it seems fine now. I think I just adjusted. I like being able to see guys sneaking up on my out of the corners of my eyes.

A lot of the widescreen hacks aren't worth doing. The worst ones are the ones that give you a vertical minus. Yeah! Instead of feeling like I have horse blinders on I can pretend I'm wearing a welding helmet!

 

[quattro1]

Originally posted by: nOOky
I was one of the first people I know to buy a widescreen hdtv that I know of also, years ago. They still don't make every movie in widescreen, and some movies give you that "this film has been formatted to fit your screen" 4:3 nonsense.

I dont think you understand what "this film has been formatted to fit your screen" means and who is doing that. Every film made for the "big screen" is filmed in some widescreen format. Been like that for years. When you see "this film has been formatted to fit your screen", it means you are either watching a movie on VHS, or a non-HD channel movie which the cable company has decided not to letterbox and instead "this film has been formatted to fit your screen", nothing to do with the film as its original version is widescreen.

If you have an HD set, I would have assumed you would know that you are only going to get the correct format from either DVD's or HD channels.

 

[gramboh]

With the Dell 2407WFP on for $649CDN today I'm extremely tempted to buy one (building a C2D/8800GTS 640MB system in the next week or two). I have a 19in CRT right now (up to 1600x1200x75hz).

I will mainly be playing the following games on it:

CS 1.6/DOD 1.3 (HL1 engine)
CS Source/HL2/Team Fortress 2/Fortress Forever (when it's out)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Gothic 3
TES4: Oblivion
Test Drive Unlimited

It appears all the above (except CS 1.6/DOD 1.3) support 16:10 native widescreen properly? As in the FOV doesn't get screwed?

 

[nOOky]

Originally posted by: quattro1

Originally posted by: nOOky
I was one of the first people I know to buy a widescreen hdtv that I know of also, years ago. They still don't make every movie in widescreen, and some movies give you that "this film has been formatted to fit your screen" 4:3 nonsense.

I dont think you understand what "this film has been formatted to fit your screen" means and who is doing that. Every film made for the "big screen" is filmed in some widescreen format. Been like that for years. When you see "this film has been formatted to fit your screen", it means you are either watching a movie on VHS, or a non-HD channel movie which the cable company has decided not to letterbox and instead "this film has been formatted to fit your screen", nothing to do with the film as its original version is widescreen.

If you have an HD set, I would have assumed you would know that you are only going to get the correct format from either DVD's or HD channels.

Some dvd's also do this, and it means instead of showing the video in it's original widescreen aspect ratio, it is cropping it for the still-average 4:3 aspect television. That is what I was complaining about.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Morrowind is the easiest non-widescreen game ever to mod to widescreen mode. Really, it's not hard at all, don't give up so easily...

Here is the optimizer.

 

[CP5670]

I don't care for a widescreen monitor unless it's one of the very few that has its own internal fixed aspect scaling options. I play a lot of old games, and if I picked a random game out of the ones I have installed, chances are that widescreen would not work in it. Even getting 20x15 to work can sometimes be tricky.

That being said, I definitely like how modern games look on widescreens. The scaling options need to become a standard feature of widescreen monitors. The Nvidia video card scaling is dodgy and ATI has nothing at all.

 

[quattro1]

Originally posted by: nOOky
Some dvd's also do this, and it means instead of showing the video in it's original widescreen aspect ratio, it is cropping it for the still-average 4:3 aspect television. That is what I was complaining about.

Heh, that means you are buying the wrong DVD ;-p
Read the package before you buy!

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: gersson

Yeah, you're right. But the only example of that I can think of that *I* have played is BF2. But that game was crap anyways.

Oh no you didn't...


BF2 is prob in the top 10 best games of all time, IMO -- up there with Mario Bros 3 and Super Metroid

i dunno. the clan i joined recently was big in the bf series, now we just pub 2142 and play 5v5 until quakewars comes out - and they say what almost any bf series player i see says - that bf2 is the worst.

all i had to hear about was the super noob friendly cone of fire thing in bf2 to realize the crap potential of that. cone of fire? wtf.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: gersson

Yeah, you're right. But the only example of that I can think of that *I* have played is BF2. But that game was crap anyways.

Oh no you didn't...


BF2 is prob in the top 10 best games of all time, IMO -- up there with Mario Bros 3 and Super Metroid

LOL gersson!

You and I never agree on games.

IMO BF2 is just plain awful. Any game that allows you to hop around like the freakin easter bunny and still shoot the M203 GL with deadly accuracy will find a quick home in my trash can. Not to mention the fact that when I was playing it, Dice managed to break more features than they fixed. Add in the fact that they refused to add WS support, maybe the worst game I have played on my PC in the last 3 years.

Originally posted by: nOOky

Originally posted by: quattro1

Originally posted by: nOOky
I was one of the first people I know to buy a widescreen hdtv that I know of also, years ago. They still don't make every movie in widescreen, and some movies give you that "this film has been formatted to fit your screen" 4:3 nonsense.

I dont think you understand what "this film has been formatted to fit your screen" means and who is doing that. Every film made for the "big screen" is filmed in some widescreen format. Been like that for years. When you see "this film has been formatted to fit your screen", it means you are either watching a movie on VHS, or a non-HD channel movie which the cable company has decided not to letterbox and instead "this film has been formatted to fit your screen", nothing to do with the film as its original version is widescreen.

If you have an HD set, I would have assumed you would know that you are only going to get the correct format from either DVD's or HD channels.

Some dvd's also do this, and it means instead of showing the video in it's original widescreen aspect ratio, it is cropping it for the still-average 4:3 aspect television. That is what I was complaining about.

It's because the original widescreen aspect ratio is actually wider than 16:9.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
I don't really have the mouse problem, I guess I noticed it was different at first but it seems fine now. I think I just adjusted. I like being able to see guys sneaking up on my out of the corners of my eyes.

A lot of the widescreen hacks aren't worth doing. The worst ones are the ones that give you a vertical minus. Yeah! Instead of feeling like I have horse blinders on I can pretend I'm wearing a welding helmet!

that's what makes WS gaming Forum so useful ... at a glance you can tell which games are true WS and which ones are Suck s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to absurdity

i am *done* with old games ... i am trading all of them
*who cares* about BG2 in WS? - but BG fanboys - Replaying BG1 or 2 now it looks like *crap* on ANY screen.
nevermind your nostalgia

i didn't upgrade my rig to play 90s games
:roll:

 

[m21s]

Widescreen FTW!

 

[cubby1223]

This is why when I bought my 24" widescreen, I got a model that supported different video scaling options. I can either have everything stretch to the full 16:10 ratio, I can have everything with a 1:1 pixel mapping, or I can have everything zoomed as far as it can fit while still keeping the same aspect ratio.

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: m21s
Widescreen FTW!

Poor cable management FTL!


Seriously, though, that's an excellent display! :thumbsup:

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
This is why when I bought my 24" widescreen, I got a model that supported different video scaling options. I can either have everything stretch to the full 16:10 ratio, I can have everything with a 1:1 pixel mapping, or I can have everything zoomed as far as it can fit while still keeping the same aspect ratio.

Agreed.

1:1 pixel mapping FTW!

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: thefonz
www.widescreengamingforum.com is your friend, workarounds for a lot of older games to get them into wide screen.

I haven't really kept up to date on monitors so I can't recommend 1 over another.

Good luck.

Agreed. I check that website for any game I have tried playing it always works great....

 

[nOOky]

 

[nOOky]

Originally posted by: quattro1

Originally posted by: nOOky
Some dvd's also do this, and it means instead of showing the video in it's original widescreen aspect ratio, it is cropping it for the still-average 4:3 aspect television. That is what I was complaining about.

Heh, that means you are buying the wrong DVD ;-p
Read the package before you buy!

I never buy dvd's, I rent them. And sometime you gots to take whatever they have on the shelf.

 

[quattro1]

Originally posted by: nOOky

Originally posted by: quattro1

Originally posted by: nOOky
Some dvd's also do this, and it means instead of showing the video in it's original widescreen aspect ratio, it is cropping it for the still-average 4:3 aspect television. That is what I was complaining about.

Heh, that means you are buying the wrong DVD ;-p
Read the package before you buy!

I never buy dvd's, I rent them. And sometime you gots to take whatever they have on the shelf.

Ok, that means you are renting the wrong DVD's, and at the wrong place. If you know you are doing this, no reason to complain, your fault. Just pick up the correct DVD's. I mean who carries 4:3 DVD's anymore?

 

[cheap]

Originally posted by: nOOky

Originally posted by: quattro1

Originally posted by: nOOky
Some dvd's also do this, and it means instead of showing the video in it's original widescreen aspect ratio, it is cropping it for the still-average 4:3 aspect television. That is what I was complaining about.

Heh, that means you are buying the wrong DVD ;-p
Read the package before you buy!

I never buy dvd's, I rent them. And sometime you gots to take whatever they have on the shelf.

Look for the DVD box to say "Wide Screen" on top instead of "Full Screen". I rent in Hollywood Video and they usually stock both versions. Have to be carefull which one you grab off the shelf since they all sit side by side. And another thing, some DVDs will have both versions on the same disk just different sides, if you get that kind make sure you use the right side. It would be a bummer to blow couple Gs on an HDTV set and have to watch cropped DVDs which is in turn get stretched back to full screen.

 

[miri]

This is not really a issue for me, for games that do not run in widescreen I simply run them at 1280x1024 which looks fine on my 1680x1050 monitor. Just a little black bar on the sides, not really a issue when nearly every new game out now has widescreen.

 

[Matt2]

OP- I bet you have a 22" TN huh?

Spend a little more money and get a monitor with 1:1 pixel mapping next time and you can have the best of both worlds.