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From: Von Fourche on 22 Nov 2009 16:49


My computer is a Dell E510. I"m using the monitor that came with it -
flat screen but square. It seems all the web pages and even programs I use
are too large horizontally and vertically to fit the screen. I'm ready for
one of those wide screen monitors.

So, what are my choices this Christmas? Are they all now LCD? I read
that some good deals on black Friday will be monitors.

So, I want a monitor. What's a good to go after? I want a big one. My
current monitor is 19 inches diagonally. I don't know how you measure those
new LCD monitors. But I want my new one to be at least 19 - the bigger the
better.

Also, I want to make sure I get a monitor where all the letters on the
screen are large. My current monitor I have to run at 800X600. When I use
my new National Geographic DVD's program, I can't see all the program on the
screen, so I have to change it to 1024x768. The program looks fine but when
I'm done all my desk top icons are small. I don't want that anymore.

My price range is around $400. Under would be better.

I really haven't had time to do my own looking because of work. If I can
get a good deal on black Friday then I want to jump on it.

Thanks!


From: Bob Levine on 22 Nov 2009 19:44
"Von Fourche" <khonakong(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:i82dndTQd9RFLJTWnZ2dnUVZ_sWdnZ2d(a)earthlink.com...
>
>
> My computer is a Dell E510. I"m using the monitor that came with it -
> flat screen but square. It seems all the web pages and even programs I
> use are too large horizontally and vertically to fit the screen. I'm
> ready for one of those wide screen monitors.
>
> So, what are my choices this Christmas? Are they all now LCD? I read
> that some good deals on black Friday will be monitors.
>
> So, I want a monitor. What's a good to go after? I want a big one. My
> current monitor is 19 inches diagonally. I don't know how you measure
> those new LCD monitors. But I want my new one to be at least 19 - the
> bigger the better.
>
> Also, I want to make sure I get a monitor where all the letters on the
> screen are large. My current monitor I have to run at 800X600. When I
> use my new National Geographic DVD's program, I can't see all the program
> on the screen, so I have to change it to 1024x768. The program looks fine
> but when I'm done all my desk top icons are small. I don't want that
> anymore.
>
> My price range is around $400. Under would be better.
>
> I really haven't had time to do my own looking because of work. If I can
> get a good deal on black Friday then I want to jump on it.
>
> Thanks!

LCDs have to be run at their native resolution and this is even more
important with a widescreen monitor. I would suggest looking at 22" models
which have a nice balance of resolution and size. Based on your remarks
above, the 24" models will likely yield text too small for you.

That said, I have a feeling you're not going to be happy with anything short
of a new pair of glasses. :)

Bob

From: William R. Walsh on 22 Nov 2009 22:12
Hi!

> So, what are my choices this Christmas? Are they all now LCD?

Yes, just about everything you can buy is an LCD. Only the very cheapest
computer bundles and displays are CRT based.

> It seems all the web pages and even programs I use are too large
horizontally
> and vertically to fit the screen.
> My current monitor I have to run at 800X600.

That's something you must consider, and a new monitor may not help you at
all, for two reasons:

1. If you still have to run 800x600, things will look the same (but possibly
stretched out to fit a wide screen) as they do now. 800x600 has been passed
by for many web sites and programs, unfortunately.

2. An LCD panel is a *fixed* resolution device. If you have a CRT-type
display right now, it will happily display almost any resolution you choose
and produce a sharp picture. An LCD either has to scale things up to fit
(makes things look blocky) or display an image that doesn't fill the screen
(very uncommon outside of laptops, where you can usually choose). Text and
images will only be clear when you run at the rated resolution of the panel.
I strongly recommend that you try to see the panel you plan to buy in
action, operating at several resolutions high and low, so as to determine
how big of a problem this is.

Windows has an ability to use larger fonts in rendering its user interface.
You can find these settings in the Display control panel. There are settings
for font size (large fonts or small fonts) and icon size (up to 48x48). This
will cause distortion in some icons and certain programs may develop user
interfaces that look "wrong". The distortion is likely to be only cosmetic
in nature, however.

> My price range is around $400. Under would be better.

You can probably do that no problem for a computer display.

> I really haven't had time to do my own looking because of work. If I can
> get a good deal on black Friday then I want to jump on it.

You should be sure that you can return anything that you might buy if you
are driven mainly by "getting a good deal and jumping on it". That's not a
recipe that will give you the best monitor for your needs.

William


From: Christopher Muto on 23 Nov 2009 12:42
you made no mention of the size of your current monitor.
if you have a 17" square then a 21" or 22" wide will be roughly the same
height.
if you have a 19" square then a 24" wide will be roughly the same height.
basic 24" monitors can be had for $200 if you watch sale prices (which are
often).
some of today's monitors are the glossy high contrast type that are great
for viewing photos or movies, but are also highly reflective so can be
annoying in certain settings as the mirrow what is behind you.
be aware that not all monitors have all type of ports on them. your current
one is probably analog with a 15 pin connector. your computer may have a
video card with both a 15pin analog conenctor and a digital dvi connector.
check what your current computer can support and make sure your new monitor
has that same kind of port (of course it could have additional ports for
future use). the really new one have dvi ports or what are called display
ports and you may have trouble connecting these to your current computer.
the monitor size and capable resolution is seperate and distinct from font
size. sure a monitor set at a high resolution can display very small text
or icons sharp and clearly, but it could also display that same text large.
windows allows you to change the size of the general text and icon size in
display properties. other applications also let you adjust the size of the
text within that application (internet explorer, word, excel, etc).

"Von Fourche" <khonakong(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:i82dndTQd9RFLJTWnZ2dnUVZ_sWdnZ2d(a)earthlink.com...
>
>
> My computer is a Dell E510. I"m using the monitor that came with it -
> flat screen but square. It seems all the web pages and even programs I
> use are too large horizontally and vertically to fit the screen. I'm
> ready for one of those wide screen monitors.
>
> So, what are my choices this Christmas? Are they all now LCD? I read
> that some good deals on black Friday will be monitors.
>
> So, I want a monitor. What's a good to go after? I want a big one. My
> current monitor is 19 inches diagonally. I don't know how you measure
> those new LCD monitors. But I want my new one to be at least 19 - the
> bigger the better.
>
> Also, I want to make sure I get a monitor where all the letters on the
> screen are large. My current monitor I have to run at 800X600. When I
> use my new National Geographic DVD's program, I can't see all the program
> on the screen, so I have to change it to 1024x768. The program looks fine
> but when I'm done all my desk top icons are small. I don't want that
> anymore.
>
> My price range is around $400. Under would be better.
>
> I really haven't had time to do my own looking because of work. If I can
> get a good deal on black Friday then I want to jump on it.
>
> Thanks!
>


From: vbDavidC on 23 Nov 2009 19:08
On Nov 22, 9:12 pm, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgrou...(a)idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> > So, what are my choices this Christmas?  Are they all now LCD?
>
> Yes, just about everything you can buy is an LCD. Only the very cheapest
> computer bundles and displays are CRT based.
>
>
>
> > It seems all the web pages and even programs I use are too large
> horizontally
> > and vertically to fit the screen.
> > My current monitor I have to run at 800X600.
>
> That's something you must consider, and a new monitor may not help you at
> all, for two reasons:
>
> 1. If you still have to run 800x600, things will look the same (but possibly
> stretched out to fit a wide screen) as they do now. 800x600 has been passed
> by for many web sites and programs, unfortunately.
>
> 2. An LCD panel is a *fixed* resolution device. If you have a CRT-type
> display right now, it will happily display almost any resolution you choose
> and produce a sharp picture. An LCD either has to scale things up to fit
> (makes things look blocky) or display an image that doesn't fill the screen
> (very uncommon outside of laptops, where you can usually choose). Text and
> images will only be clear when you run at the rated resolution of the panel.
> I strongly recommend that you try to see the panel you plan to buy in
> action, operating at several resolutions high and low, so as to determine
> how big of a problem this is.
>
> Windows has an ability to use larger fonts in rendering its user interface.
> You can find these settings in the Display control panel. There are settings
> for font size (large fonts or small fonts) and icon size (up to 48x48). This
> will cause distortion in some icons and certain programs may develop user
> interfaces that look "wrong". The distortion is likely to be only cosmetic
> in nature, however.
>
> >  My price range is around $400.  Under would be better.
>
> You can probably do that no problem for a computer display.
>
> >  I really haven't had time to do my own looking because of work.  If I can
> > get a good deal on black Friday then I want to jump on it.
>
> You should be sure that you can return anything that you might buy if you
> are driven mainly by "getting a good deal and jumping on it". That's not a
> recipe that will give you the best monitor for your needs.
>
> William

Thanks for all the good info William.

My Dell Latitude laptop has a square LCD and is 1400x1050. I am in my
mid forties and icons and text are too small for me. I changed the
DPI from normal to large (120 DPI I think) and that works for me
although I have 2 problems with that. First some text in some apps do
not look right because they assumed a normal DPI. The other problem
is when I use IE7 the graphics are very fuzzy and apparently it is
related to the 120DPI. I use FireFox and it looks fine there.

The other day I googled my IE7 problem and they mention that Vista
(and Win7) handle this resolution issue somewhat differently than XP
which is what I have.

For the OP I would question why you are using 800x600. If you are
using it to see better be careful when buying a new one. Maybe you
can go to a store and have them show it to you running a real OS as
opposed some demo screen.
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