Author Topic: wide screen monitors vs. regular screen monitors  (Read 3855 times)

tandemrx

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wide screen monitors vs. regular screen monitors
« on: October 01, 2007, 12:43:56 PM »
Looking at buying a new large monitor for my home poker room.

I usually have 2 or 3 LCD monitors (19-21 inch) going at the same time during a tourney (with a video splitter).

Most bigger LCD monitors are now only coming out in the widescreen format.

Am I going to run into troubles sending TD to different format monitors (say 1 regular format & 1 widescreen) in terms of how the TD screen is being displayed?

I don't own any widescreens to test it on.

tandemrx

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Re: wide screen monitors vs. regular screen monitors
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2007, 05:46:17 PM »
bump,

Corey you know how this would work?  Problems?

Jedi Master

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Re: wide screen monitors vs. regular screen monitors
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2007, 12:43:45 AM »
tandem,

SEVERAL screens for tournament ?  How many tables are you using for your tournament ?

I do a 2 table tournament.  I use a 17" widescreen (WUXGA 1920x1200) on my Dell laptop and a same resolution 24" Dell monitor.  Laptop facing one table and 24" facing the other.  Tables are in two rooms end to end with a double door between the rooms opened.  Its 2 conference rooms at my office building.

Anyway . . .  Your computer can handle 2 monitors without buying more video cards.  In a laptop you are stuck with one video card.

You can use a splitter to several external monitors but as far as the computer is concerned, its only one monitor and one resolution.  I think you'd have to set the second monitor to the lowest resolution of all the monitors.  Which means the image is smaller on the higher res monitors getting the same signal.  So . . .  it would be best if ALL were wide screen.  Otherwise the result may be unpredictable on different resolutions using a split signal.
 
If you are looking for visibility for everyone . . . Just get one 37" Westinghouse 1080p (1920x1080) HD monitor (about $1000 on eBay).  If you were looking for an excuse to buy a 1080p HD TV,  here is your excuse !!  An excellent 42" Westinghouse 1080p monitor can be had for around $1400 !!   I have one and I love it !!  What are you waiting for !!

I don't know if I was any help . . .  but I love buying new toys . . .  don't you????

 ;D 

tandemrx

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Re: wide screen monitors vs. regular screen monitors
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2007, 09:29:42 AM »
I already run multiple monitors off a splitter from my laptop and resolution is not the issue.

I am concerned with the format of the screen.  Widescreen (16:9) format mixed with regular (4:3) and how the screen will be displayed.

Even with 1 table I use 2 monitors as someone will always have their back to the monitor if I used one - even if it was 100 inches diagnal  :).  With 2 tables I use 2 or 3 monitors.  I always have the laptop monitor in addition to that, but few can see it because it is small and sitting behind me so that I can run the tourney while I play.  So I don't even consider it part of the viewed monitors.

I use dedicated dealers (often 2 at a table sitting opposite one another), so depending on how the tables are sitting in the room I like to make sure that both dealers can see a monitor easily.  They have enough work to do without having to crane their neck around to confirm the blinds/time from a monitor that is behind them.

I currently have three 4:3 format 21 inch monitors, so I haven't had to deal with widescreen issues.  I would like to get another monitor and am wondering how TD will handle the screen being split to a 16:9 and a 4:3 monitor at the same time.


Corey Cooper

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Re: wide screen monitors vs. regular screen monitors
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2007, 11:17:23 AM »
Frankly, I don't know because I haven't done what you are describing.  But, I would say that resolution is the *entire* issue.  If you've got the same resolution running on your 4:3 and your 16:9 monitor, one of them is going to look out-of-whack.  The widescreen will either look stretched, or the traditional will look skinny, depending on the resolution.

It's funny to me, because widescreen displays for PCs and laptops are all the rage, and what you are really getting in those is NOT a wider screen, but a shorter one!  The resolution, instead of being higher, is usually lower.  Resolution on my LCD monitor on my desktop (not widescreen) is 1280x1024.  For the widescreen on my laptop it is 1280x768.  Widescreen?  Try "chopped-screen".

If you are outputting different resolutions on your 2 monitors that are running from the same video card, then sorry but I can't help, because I just don't know how that works...


tandemrx

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Re: wide screen monitors vs. regular screen monitors
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2007, 01:48:07 PM »
I totally agree about the widescreens Corey, but then again, I don't watch movies on my computer where I guess a person might benefit.

I work on documents and while a widescreen rotated 90 degrees can give a lot of realestate for a document - I still get better document working area by rotating a 4:3 screen 90 degrees (I use PivotPro portrait display software).

Actually, my standard working set up is two 21 inch 4:3 screens off of a video card with 2 monitor outputs.  One is regular set up, the second is rotated 90 degrees (tall way).  I hate having to work on a single monitor any more for work.

So, for me, I still search out regular screens over widescreens.  They are just getting tougher to find in larger format (>19 inches).

Even laptops are now getting to be all widescreen (and that really makes it tougher on me because I can't rotate the screen, so then I have very little document to look at).  So, I am not a fan of widescreens.