Topic: Dead pixel check.

[Pugnate]

I am considering purchasing an LCD in a few days. Just wondering if anyone can recommend a program that scans a monitor for dead pixels? If I do decide to buy, I'll be using the programs to scan for faults before purchasing.

[iPPi]

Dead pixels, if any, should appears in the first week of use on the monitor.  Check the manufacturer's warranty though... most say it is not a defect if it has like 0.01% of dead pixels or something like that.

Hell, my 21" Widescreen LCD has one dead pixel and I don't notice it.

[Pugnate]

Speaking of wide screen, how annoying is it to game with a wide screen? I really want a wide screen monitor, and will probably end up purchasing one, but I noticed there still isn't as much support as there should be. 

[iPPi]

Uhhh, I have no problems whatsoever.  Every game I have played that has been released recently (as far back as Doom 3), support widescreen.

[Xessive]

I found this app a while back: Dead Pixel Buddy

I don't have a widescreen yet, but I've played a couple of games with one. If the game supports it I love it, like in Half-Life 2. It almost compensates for peripheral vision

Ideally I would love to play a game in a CAVE™. Ooh Wikipedia has a good entry.­

[Cools]

Plus you could always switch it to regular 4:3 if you need to and have the bars on the left and right.

[Xessive]

Plus you could always switch it to regular 4:3 if you need to and have the bars on the left and right.

True. That's how most will games go anyway, at least on the laptop I was using.

[ren]

I can play 4:3 games stretched to 16:10 and not really notice much. It's different with movies since they have a much wider aspect ratio, but with games, 4:3 to 16:10 isn't enough distortion to bother me.

[iPPi]

Seriously, what games are there that still only play at 4:3 ratio and not support 16:10 ratios?  I haven't really encountered any.

FEAR is an exception, but you were able to modify and CFG file and force the resolution up, and they released widescreen support in a later patch.

[Xessive]

I can play 4:3 games stretched to 16:10 and not really notice much. It's different with movies since they have a much wider aspect ratio, but with games, 4:3 to 16:10 isn't enough distortion to bother me.

Do you mean 16:9? Anyway, I haven't seen 4:3 games stretched to 16:9, but I remember with my movies even the slightest stretch really bugs me. I remember when ATi messed with the Theatre mode proportions and switched them from 640x480 (4:3) to 720x480 (4.5:3) that little stretch made a noticeable difference. It was pretty irritating, so now I've stopped using Theatre mode (even though it was convenient, I could browse while my girl watched a movie/show), and I just use basic overlay to set the proportions of my videos.

EDIT:
I just checked, you're right most widescreen monitors are 16:10 (or 8:5), but widescreen TV's and HDTV's are 16:9.

[WindAndConfusion]

Do you mean 16:9?

16:10 (1440*900) is fairly common for laptops.

I've owned four LCDs over the years and have had only ever had one dead pixel - I didn't even notice it was there until several months after I bought it.

[ren]

Yeah, most monitors are 16:10 like you said. That's why PC games stretched aren't a big deal. If it was 16:9 then it would be slightly worse.

[scottws]

I never understood the who decided what widescreen will be.  16:9?  Are there even 16:9 movies (other than porn)?  I don't think there are.  And then you have that monitors are usually 16:10.  Who comes up with this shit and why isn't there any standard?  Even widescreen movies are in different aspect ratios, though none are 16:9 or 16:10 that I know of.

[Xessive]

I never understood the who decided what widescreen will be.  16:9?  Are there even 16:9 movies (other than porn)?  I don't think there are.  And then you have that monitors are usually 16:10.  Who comes up with this shit and why isn't there any standard?  Even widescreen movies are in different aspect ratios, though none are 16:9 or 16:10 that I know of.

Haha it bugs the crap out of me too! We can make a bolt made in Canada fit in a nut made in Japan, but we can't agree on a standard aspect ratio!

Hopefully in the future aspect ratio won't be an issue. We'll have superior framing technologies that can sort the content to fit appropriately on whatever screens we have

[Pugnate]

One more question. To those with 21'' widescreens, does something of that size bother you when working? I mean I am sure it is great for gaming/movies, but what about actual work?

[WindAndConfusion]

If your experience is anything like mine, you'll quickly learn to treat your monitor like a book, with two opposing pages. You won't need more than half your horizontal space for all but a few applications.

Oh, yeah, and make sure you tell VLC to keep the original aspect ratio when playing back videos.

[Pugnate]

What widescreens do you guys have? I am probably going to be getting the VX2025WM, which has gotten brilliant reviews everywhere and is a pretty good price. The only issue for me is that it doesn't have HDCP, but the more I read about that, the more I realize it will just be hacked.

edit:

Hey W&C, had a question. Do you have any issues with eye strain when staring at such a monster?

edit:

Just some thoughts on some of what you guys said. From what I read, the monitors have an aspect ratio of 16:10 but movies and TVs come at 16:9.

If you are looking to go widescreen and are worried about not having support for 1650x1050, or not willing to go to a resolution that high because of lack of graphical power then you can always play at a standard 1280x1024 with black bars on the side. However you can only do this properly with NVIDIA cards. They have software that supports scaling by forceware., but ATi doesn't.

[iPPi]

I have an HP f2105 21" widescreen LCD.  Max resolution 1680x1050.

At first, it took a little getting used to reading on the LCD for me, but once I got used to it, it was fine.  For gaming and movies, not problems whatsoever.  For work, I use about like... 2/3 of the screen horizontally.  For example, this Firefox window is about 2/3 the size of my screen, and the same would be about with Word, MATLAB, Visual Studio, etc.  Works great.

[Pugnate]

The following is why I want to game widescreen. The pics are from the hardocp forums.

[Quemaqua]

20 FPS in Oblivion?  Ouch.

[iPPi]

Oblivion is a relatively slow moving game anyway, so an extremely high framerate is unnecessary.  I play Oblivion at 1680x1050 everything maxed (or close to), with the exception of Shadows on Grass, which is turned off and the game runs (I think) around 25-30fps, which is completely playable.

[Pugnate]

Yes at 1680x1050 I am not too surprised with the lower frames. But I couldn't find the other screenies. Basically he was playing the game at 1280x1024 with bars on the sides. It worked seamlessly with the NVIDIA cards, but wouldn't work well with ATi.

Edit:

iPPi, thanks for the info. I actually got a 24'' CRT a while back and returned it in 24 hours because of the massive eye strain.