monitors

[wilderness]

Haven't bought a new monitor in at least five years.

The one I have is non-Wide Screen, thus I haven't really had to deal with WS.
Had to adjust the brightness to max setting recently.

The museum that I've done some pro-bono for had a WS on the master computer and all the images were distorted. I never could determine how to change the setting.

Is it possible on a WS to set a standard view?
Will it fill the screen?

Prices have come down more than a third.
I paid $140 for a 17" (and it was good price then) and today 20's are less than a $100.

[raybo]

Haven't bought a new monitor in at least five years.

The one I have is non-Wide Screen, thus I haven't really had to deal with WS.
Had to adjust the brightness to max setting recently.

The museum that I've done some pro-bono for had a WS on the master computer and all the images were distorted. I never could determine how to change the setting.

Is it possible on a WS to set a standard view?
Will it fill the screen?

Prices have come down more than a third.
I paid $140 for a 17" (and it was good price then) and today 20's are less than a $100.

Images are not distorted on widescreen monitors now days. You can, of course size the windows any way you want, widescreen or not. If you're talking about movies or videos, they open in windows also so they can be sized or you can select "full screen".

You're really being concerned about nothing.

[wilderness]

Many thanks raybo.

My primary computer activity is scanning of old harness racing periodcials, which contain images.

Everything on my computer (including the monitor) must function correctly with my scanner.
In fact, my entire OS/hard drive is being reformatted next to week. It's the only way to resolve an incompatibility with the scanner software that has reared its ugly face. (attempting to locate the conflict in the registry is a lost cause, nor was the WWW any help. Even the scanner software folks.).

When I made the monitor transition (analog to whatever their called now) there was a considerable difference (negative) in how black and white images were displayed. I did not care for the difference at first, however have grown accustomed to it.

Many thanks again.

[GameTheory]

Any modern monitor (flat, digital, probably LCD) should be run in only one resolution -- its "native" resolution, i.e. with a digital connection you've got 1:1 pixel mapping. Distortion doesn't exist -- there are no geometry controls (unless you use older analog VGA-style connection). A bigger monitor doesn't necessarily make the things it displays bigger (although it does that too generally), but gives you more real estate to work with.

[wilderness]

GameTheory,
The museum master monitor displayed images with an inaccurate "perspective ratio".

Most image software's have a setting for perspective ratio and upon sizing with that turned off the image becomes distorted.
Since I'd only been required to use the thing for moments, I had no desire to read through the manual and determine the correct settings. Especially since the owner had no clue where the manual was. All he cared about about was if the thing came on.

[Dave Schwartz]

Wilderness,

One issue might be "How old is your video card?"

I mean, if you are using an 8 year old computer, with an 8 year old video card, instead of buying a new monitor maybe it is time for a whole new rig.


Dave

[GameTheory]

GameTheory,
The museum master monitor displayed images with an inaccurate "perspective ratio".

Most image software's have a setting for perspective ratio and upon sizing with that turned off the image becomes distorted.
Since I'd only been required to use the thing for moments, I had no desire to read through the manual and determine the correct settings. Especially since the owner had no clue where the manual was. All he cared about about was if the thing came on.They've just got a setting mismatch. Even if you are forced to run it on an analog connection, there still should be a way to set the video card to output the correct aspect ratio (and resolution, hopefully). Assuming Windows XP or similar, just right-click on the desktop and you're a couple clicks away from the video settings. But it is possible if their video card is really ancient that it just can't drive the monitor properly, in which case they should either upgrade the computer or downgrade the monitor. (The latter should cost nothing or next to it -- Craigslist.) I've got an old CRT-monitor, works perfectly fine -- I've been trying to give it away for free and no one will take it...

[wilderness]

I've got an old CRT-monitor, works perfectly fine -- I've been trying to give it away for free and no one will take it...

Year before last I needed an extra monitor to do something on another machine.
I'd seen CRT's for $15-20 all over the place, however when I wanted one there were none to be found.

Bought a 17" LCD at a used store for $7 untested and without a power supply.
Came home and found a power supply close and the thing worked good enough to do what I wanted.
Still use the thing when I need a second machine, in fact last week used on a Dx2-66 with an AMD-K2, a whopping 300-meg CPU.