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Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Fri 03 Dec, 2010 21.50
by m-in-m
Does anyone know of a retailer (ideally online) selling non widescreen monitors in sizes beyond 19" - a TV with VGA input or at a push HDMI (though why would one exist) would also do the trick.

Thanks

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Fri 03 Dec, 2010 22.15
by Neil Jones
Does anyone know of a retailer (ideally online) selling non widescreen monitors in sizes beyond 19" - a TV with VGA input or at a push HDMI (though why would one exist) would also do the trick.
If truth be told, since widescreen became the norm, it's almost impossible to find anything that isn't widescreen now on the TV front.

PC input is pretty much standard now on a TV, and HDMI is guaranteed on anything with a HD Ready sticker on it. In non-widescreen, I think I might have to say it isn't going to happen, unfortunately.

Is there a reason why you want a standard monitor and not a widescreen one?

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sat 04 Dec, 2010 01.26
by Chie

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sat 04 Dec, 2010 09.50
by bilky asko
m-in-m wrote:Does anyone know of a retailer (ideally online) selling non widescreen monitors in sizes beyond 19" - a TV with VGA input or at a push HDMI (though why would one exist) would also do the trick.

Thanks
At a mere £1096.66, yes.

Or you could get a widescreen monitor that will pillarbox 4:3 for you.

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sat 04 Dec, 2010 20.18
by m-in-m
Neil Jones wrote:
Does anyone know of a retailer (ideally online) selling non widescreen monitors in sizes beyond 19" - a TV with VGA input or at a push HDMI (though why would one exist) would also do the trick.
If truth be told, since widescreen became the norm, it's almost impossible to find anything that isn't widescreen now on the TV front.

PC input is pretty much standard now on a TV, and HDMI is guaranteed on anything with a HD Ready sticker on it. In non-widescreen, I think I might have to say it isn't going to happen, unfortunately.

Is there a reason why you want a standard monitor and not a widescreen one?
It is for someone at work who needs a larger monitor because of an eye condition. Unfortunately 19" was not sufficient and the problem with going to widescreen is that it needs to be significantly larger than the equivalent conventional shape. A number of applications we use require a reasonable depth. To make matters worse it is likely that in the future we will implement dual screens - on widescreens this will be ridiculous.

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sat 04 Dec, 2010 21.43
by Alexia
Have you tried rotating it so it's 9:16 ? You get the desired width, with a little extra height... problem solved?

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sun 05 Dec, 2010 00.37
by Pete
Alexia wrote:Have you tried rotating it so it's 9:16 ? You get the desired width, with a little extra height... problem solved?
I was going to suggest that might be the easiest and cheapest compromise.

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sun 05 Dec, 2010 10.37
by bilky asko
m-in-m wrote:
Neil Jones wrote:
Does anyone know of a retailer (ideally online) selling non widescreen monitors in sizes beyond 19" - a TV with VGA input or at a push HDMI (though why would one exist) would also do the trick.
If truth be told, since widescreen became the norm, it's almost impossible to find anything that isn't widescreen now on the TV front.

PC input is pretty much standard now on a TV, and HDMI is guaranteed on anything with a HD Ready sticker on it. In non-widescreen, I think I might have to say it isn't going to happen, unfortunately.

Is there a reason why you want a standard monitor and not a widescreen one?
It is for someone at work who needs a larger monitor because of an eye condition. Unfortunately 19" was not sufficient and the problem with going to widescreen is that it needs to be significantly larger than the equivalent conventional shape. A number of applications we use require a reasonable depth. To make matters worse it is likely that in the future we will implement dual screens - on widescreens this will be ridiculous.
Have you tried a screen magnifier?

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sun 05 Dec, 2010 12.14
by cdd
Alexia wrote:Have you tried rotating it so it's 9:16 ? You get the desired width, with a little extra height... problem solved?
Only problem with that, which may not matter, is that ClearType depends on the way pixels are constructed (red, green, blue from left to right). Rotating the monitor 90 degrees would also rotate that pixel construction, and thus you get aliasing and halation on the text.

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sun 05 Dec, 2010 13.04
by Pete
cdd wrote:
Alexia wrote:Have you tried rotating it so it's 9:16 ? You get the desired width, with a little extra height... problem solved?
Only problem with that, which may not matter, is that ClearType depends on the way pixels are constructed (red, green, blue from left to right). Rotating the monitor 90 degrees would also rotate that pixel construction, and thus you get aliasing and halation on the text.
Although using Cleartype Rotator and the XP Cleartype Tuner powertoy (which IIRC is built in to Vista/7) should help fix this with a bit of faffing.
http://www.dragonseye.com/blog/pages/CTR.html

Re: Non widescreen monitors

Posted: Sun 05 Dec, 2010 13.10
by Pete
Pete wrote:
cdd wrote:
Alexia wrote:Have you tried rotating it so it's 9:16 ? You get the desired width, with a little extra height... problem solved?
Only problem with that, which may not matter, is that ClearType depends on the way pixels are constructed (red, green, blue from left to right). Rotating the monitor 90 degrees would also rotate that pixel construction, and thus you get aliasing and halation on the text.
Although using Cleartype Rotator and the XP Cleartype Tuner powertoy (which IIRC is built in to Vista/7) should help fix this with a bit of faffing.
http://www.dragonseye.com/blog/pages/CTR.html
Actually from what I've read, using the tuner should be able to fix it full stop if the monitor is permanetly in portrait mode.

On a note of pure curiosity, if you had two monitors, one portrait and one landscape, can you have separate cleartype profiles for each?