Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi, I've been considering purchasing a cheap 19" Widescreen (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828823) just to get my foot in the door, but there's one thing holding me back - how do Widescreen LCDs deal with 4:3 and 16:9 resolutions? For example, a lot of games are only going to work in 4:3, right/ Are tehse games going to be stretched to fill the entire screen? Because that would really bother me. If so, is there any way to compensate for it? From what I've seen, I assume this to be the case - my dad uses a 5:4 LCD adn it stretches all the 4:3 resolutions to fill it, which really bugs me.

Is there any way around this if this is the case? I'd love to try widescreen gaming, but the though of 4:3 content being stretched bugs me - I'd much rather see black bars. Also, how picky are LCDs about native resolutions? My GeForce 6800 isn't capable of 1440x900 for games like FEAR, so will other 16:10 ratios, like 1280x800 still look okay?

Any help would be really appreciated, hopefully within the next couple hours as the sale on the monitor I want ends tonight and thiswill determine if I do try widescreen gaming. Thanks.

Widescreen LCDs CAN have up to 3 options for what your asking about.

Full scaling
Aspect Scaling (4:3 but its stretched to the top of the screen with 2 black bars on the sides of the image)
1:1 (black bars on all four sides) ( http://www.mike65.f2s.com/uploads/files/at1440x900.JPG )
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gaming_with_Blackbars_%28Pillarboxing%29

Each Monitor is different, Many only can stretch witch is where your video card comes in and thats a different story.

Btw you may never see that MIR from Tiger direct again after you send it.

A call to HannsG resulted in me being told that the monitor will stretch everything. Got any suggestions for an affordable monitor with the three (or at least first two) options you suggested? Also, are there any that can maintain a 16:9 ratio by putting thin black bars on the top and bottom?

I'm hoping for 19" wide with 8ms or better for $200 - is that unreasonable?

I know nothing about 19"er's sorry :/

You can still try to find out if your video card will allow you to maintain the aspect ratio.
This might help:
HelpfulUrl.com


You get what you pay for in LCD Land.

In that case, I'm going to hold out and save up for a monitor that can appropriately handle and display 4:3 and 16:9 resolutions. If anyone has any suggestions in the under $250 range, let me know.