Standard aspect ratio vs. 16 x 9

[eganders]

My 1280 X 1024 ProView monitor quit. I have an HP computer with a 2.53
GHz Pentium 4 that is about 4 years old. I got a ProView 16 X 9, 1440
X 900 wide screen monitor (PL926Wbi) from Computer City.

The computer display is set up as 1280 X 1024 which is one of the
selections it seems to default to.. The controller is Intel(R)
82845G/GL Graphics Controller

My questions are:

Does a wide screen monitor like this make sense for this computer?

What are the range of prices for 19 inch screens in standard aspect
ratio and the 16X9?

What is driving the use of 16 X 9 monitor screens on a PC? Just
movies?

My son just gave me a Mac G4. What monitor would be best for it?
Probably use it for Internet, Word, Photoshop, Video editing.

 

[Tomcat (Tom)]

My questions are:

Does a wide screen monitor like this make sense for this computer?

I personally like a standard monitor instead of widescreen since I
don't watch videos on my PC or play many games. When working with
text, I would rather see more vertical lines than horizontal lines and
you will see more vert lines (taller) on a standard monitor compared to
a widescreen monitor of the same size. I suppose if you like putting
two windows side by side the widescreen would be better.

 

[Tomcat (Tom)]

I personally like a standard monitor instead of widescreen since I
don't watch videos on my PC or play many games. When working with
text, I would rather see more vertical lines than horizontal lines and
you will see more vert lines (taller) on a standard monitor compared to
a widescreen monitor of the same size. I suppose if you like putting
two windows side by side the widescreen would be better.

meant to say more horizontal size on the 4:3 monitor.

Also, you get more total screen size (more pixels) on the 4:3 monitor
vs the 16:9 of the same size so I like the 4:3 for the best value for
general computing needs.

 

[Clint]

I use a widescreen 20" LCD. I no longer really notice the ratio too much,
but I do find it useful for software development. VS2005 (and other IDE's
like it) have the tool panes and explorer panels along both sides, eating
into the code display areas. Having the widescreen helps keep my coding
area bigger than 2" wide.

Clint

 

[Tomcat (Tom)]

I use a widescreen 20" LCD. I no longer really notice the ratio too much,
but I do find it useful for software development. VS2005 (and other IDE's
like it) have the tool panes and explorer panels along both sides, eating
into the code display areas. Having the widescreen helps keep my coding
area bigger than 2" wide.

In VS2005, I would rather see more lines of code, as opposed to more
screen space on the sides. You can set tool and explorer windows as
tabs so they don't take up space on the sides.

 

[eganders]

I forgot the value a wide screen would have for toolspace for things
like Photoshop. Most of our use of the PC is on the internet. I do
some Visio and Photoshop work on it. I have done a "split
horizontally" and that has been useful.

I think I do have a "native resolution" problem, but I need to check it
out further. If you look at the characters on the screen, they don't
all look crisp. There is a "greying" out of some of the strokes of the
characters. I think that means that the resolution of the card needs
to be aligned with the resolution of the display. They are not too
clear on this point in the setup info. I am using the 15 pin VGA
connector (which is all that is supplied with this Proview monitor).

I have to choose monitors for both the PC and the Apple G4 that my son
got me. I am thinking that the Apple would benefit from the wide
screen more than the PC because it would probably be used for the
Photoshop and things like that.