I don't remember that transition from 4:3 to widescreen LCD monitors because there never was one - the vast majority of LCD monitors were 5:4! It was the CRT monitors that were 4:3. I never could understand why we went from 4:3 CRT to 5:4 LCD.
@Horace Coker: The vast majority {i}became{i/} 5:4 (1280×1024) because 17-19in became the most popular size, but have you forgotten that the first LCDs were 800x600 or 1024×768 (both 4:3)? That high-end ones (i.e. everything over 19in) were 1600 x 1200 (4:3)? "there never was one" indeed.
As to your CRT point, that's even more flawed. In case you hadn't noticed, many of those were also 1280 x 1024 (5:4).
On my part, I should probably have mentioned 5:4, but part of the reason I didn't was that many people don't even realize it exists, and 'square-screen' is commonly labeled 4:3 when speaking of aspect ratio.
I don’t understand your reasoning why most LCD monitors evolved into 5:4 aspect ratio because 17-19in became the most popular size. The 17-19in dimension you refer to is the diagonal size of the screen and nothing to do with the aspect ratio! Why did the manufacturers choose 5:4 on this particular diagonal size? It doesn’t make sense – it could quite easily have been 4:3 just like the CRT monitors. It would have meant the horizontal width and vertical height of the screen would have had to be different but so what? The point I’m making is that any size of diagonal can be 4:3, 5:4, 8:5 or 16:9. There is nothing written in stone that a 17-19in LCD monitor has to be 5:4 aspect ratio.
I concede that the high-end LCD monitors were, in fact, 4:3 but these were priced out of most peoples reach, especially mine!! When I first looked at moving up to a LCD monitor from my CRT I was baffled as to why all the affordable ones were 5:4 with a native resolution of 1280 x 1024. And my question still stands – why did it happen? Why was this boring, even more ‘square’ aspect ratio foisted onto an unsuspecting public?
As to my ‘even more flawed’ reference to CRT monitors being 4:3 aspect ratio – yes I had noticed that ‘many of those were also 1280 x 1024’ which you go on to describe as 5:4. The trouble is, what you are talking about here is resolution aspect ratio and not the physical aspect ratio of the monitor itself which, believe me, was/is 4:3 on CRT sets. I found this out when I upgraded my old 17in CRT to a 19in Mitsubishi Diamond Pro CRT monitor a few years ago. I had the old monitor set at 1024 x 768 (4:3) and set the new one to 1280 x 1024. It soon became apparent that something wasn’t right as my photos looked stretched. I did the maths and discovered that I’d set the resolution to 5:4 (1280 x 1024). I changed the resolution to 1280 x 960 (4:3) and the pictures looked perfect. Not only that, drawing a circle in a graphics program was a perfect circle and not elliptical as it had been at 1280 x 1024 resolution.
This little experiment intrigued me as I had noticed all the 19in plus monitors at my place of work were set to 1280 x 1024 – that is the reason I initially set my new monitor to the same resolution! Once back at work I physically measured the horizontal and vertical size of the monitors and worked out their aspect ratio which, without exception, was always 4:3 - as I knew they would be. Yet they were all set to 1280 x 1024 which is 5:4 resulting in the images on the screens being distorted. I pointed this out to a few of my colleagues who, I might add, were in total ignorance of resolution and aspect ratio. They didn’t realise that the images were distorted or even care for that matter! Now we come to the point of my ramblings!! I couldn’t change the resolution on any of the monitors at work to 1280 x 960. The options went from 1024 x 768 (4:3) to 1280 x 1024 (5:4). How daft is that? Why was I able to change my own computer to the resolution aspect ratio that matched my monitor aspect ratio but not the ones at work? I eventually put this down to the fact that the computers at work had feeble ‘on board’ graphics, were as my own computer had a separate high quality graphics card.
This is why you think that some CRT monitors were 5:4, when in actual fact they were 4:3 monitors set at the wrong resolution. I’m pretty sure there’s no such beast as a genuine 5:4 aspect ratio CRT monitor.
I agree entirely with your last comment regarding most people not realising that the 5:4 aspect ratio even exists – you wouldn’t believe what the average bloke in the street doesn’t realise – myself included!
Anyway never mind all that now. Keep up the good work at TrustedReviews! Without doubt the best review site on the web!! I particularly liked the review of the Panasonic DMC LX3. So much so I went out and bought one. Now this little baby is an aspect ratio nerds dream come true. You can take pictures at 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9. Other cameras might also do this but not the clever way the LX3 does it! Notice how there’s no 5:4 in there – good old Panasonic!!
@Horace Coker: Wow, that's one long reply! :D
As to your first point, I've no idea to be honest - probably something to do with increasing profits somehow ;).
On the second, that's very interesting. I'm afraid I haven't encountered anything like that. My first CRT was a 17in, which ran at 1280 x 1024 as standard if I remember correctly, while my second was a high-end beastie running at 1600 x 1200. Unfortunately the first is now deceased, while the second has been in a box in the garage for years.
LOL, about the "average bloke in the street", I would believe, mate. I once (in the CRT days) walked into a computer shop where I asked if they had or could order any computer monitors that could do 1600 x 1200 at 85hertz or more, only to be told by no less than 3 staff together that such monitors didn't exist! :S
Glad you like the site, btw! The Panasonic DMC LX3 is a firm office favourite. Cheers :D
Ok, just purchased this monitor the other day and it works flawlessly when I connect it to my PC via DVI. That's about it.
I'm very dissatisfied with it's performance when I connect it to my Xbox 360 though... and that's the main reason I chose this one, being full 1080p and having a fast response time.
When I go to adjust the monitor settings, there is an option for "response time", which has three choices: "normal", "advanced", and "ultra fast". When I choose "advanced" or "ultra fast", any moving image causes discoloration of the pixels affected by the movement. They seem to turn a pinkish light purple color which looks absolutely horrendous. This is extremely noticeable when using "ultra fast". I tried connecting the Xbox using both VGA and HDMI and they both had this problem.
I have no idea what is causing this. I'll probably end up returning it for the BenQ E2200HD, which people seem to have no problems with.
Ardjuna, did you ever try "ultra fast" with HDMI by any chance?
@ Ben Haley: Sorry to hear about your trouble. No, I didn't try 'ultra fast' over HDMI, only in a PC game. Do you happen to have an HDMI-DVI adapter? Would be interesting to see the result of Console over DVI.
@Jabbajabba: Most monitors on the market are set way too bright by default, so toning brightness down is usually advisable. As to other tips, it really depends on your intended uses and lighting. Try playing a movie with subtle dark and light details in the same scene, and adjusting things like brightness and contrast to lose details in neither.
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