Computer Monitor Question...

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Ok so...

I hate the screen on my laptop. When I'm at home I use a Dell monitor I got and it looks great. (1280x1024 resolution)

So, I went out today to get me a new monitor for when I am at work. I walk into the store, which is a Micro Center so they have a lot of selection. All they have are 'Widescreen' monitors. I asked a sales guy if they had any 'normal' monitors. He told me no and that most stores don't even stock them anymore. So, I asked him if I could use a widescreen monitor? He told me no that most laptops don't have the video processing to run widescreen or look good on an external monitor, which seems strange to me since I run it almost all the time on an external monitor. (Then he proceded to tell me about there new laptops which will run great with a widescreen monitor. I politly told him to go **** himself and left the store. Then after going to several other stores I've found pretty much no one that can answer my question. Nor did I find a single store that stocked a standard ratio monitor. Anyway, I've got a pretty new Toshiba laptop which is widescreen (IIRC) on it's built in monitor. It also has nVidiea (spelling?) 5700 or something built into it, I don't have it with me right now but I will look later.

So, my question is the guy a retard or is he right?

Also, what desktop monitors do you guys use? Where did you get them?

Thanks,

-Joe

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[DeViOuSoNe 10+ year member]

I use my 22" Dell monitor on my Laptop with no problem. It AUTO adjusts for me. So I would think he is wrong. But not 100% sure.

 

[GearGuy2001 10+ year member]

Ive never used my desktop monitor (22" samsung widescreen) but I have used my 40" Samsung LCD Widescreen TV, which looks awesome with my HP 14.3" Widescreen Notebook

also yes the guy was right mostly youll find widescreen monitors but here is a Link to 4:3 LCD Monitors (non-widescreen)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020+1301922115&name=No

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

i have a 19" 4:3 lcd FS in the misc section

is your laptop a 4:3? if so the native resolution is going to be a mulitple of that(i.e. 800x600, 1024x768)

if you drisplay it on a widescreen it will stretch the picture to fit(1024x768 -> 1360x768) which is barely noticeable

you could also try going into the advaced section of your video adapter and forcing it to display the correct resolution

i have onboard video on a P4 machine and it can display a 1900x1200 res on my 24" lcd so video card performance shouldnt matter unless you wanna game

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

Most LCD manufacturers have moved over almost exclusively to widescreen as the demand for standard 4:3 and 5:4 ratio monitors has fallen dramatically over the last couple of years.

Your laptop's screen is likely a 1280x800 widescreen unit (8:5 ratio), so it should have no problems scaling to a widescreen monitor. However, the screen will probably have a different native resolution than your laptop, so if you want to use both screens at the same time, the monitor may have some scaling artifacts (depends on the quality of the scalar used in the monitor and the type of connection).

If you are just using the monitor, it shouldn't make any difference at all as you can just set the output resolution to the native resolution of the monitor. Note that the graphics unit may not necessarily support all resolutions, but a modern laptop should support all the major ones (i.e. 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1200).

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for all the info.

I figured you guys on here would know what was what...