BIG Monitor Frenzy

dtrarch

Hello all

Equipment heads up.

It was time the get all the CRT elephants of the desks and I did a full court press on the thin screens.
Surprise here is a 26 inch 1920x1200MS refresh with HDMI and VGA input.
Razor sharp,well saturated colors and all the real estate one could ever want.
$379 US @ Best Buy

Don't laugh it is a Westinghouse

Less $$$ than most 24's and the best screen image I saw at any price.

IMO a real diamond in the dung.

dtr

juju

Care to share some URL's so we can compare specifications?

dmatho

I Googled it and found this:
http://www.westinghousedigital.com/details.aspx?itemnum=180

Gimme 2 please
Better yet, with one of these, http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/, make it 3!
And, if getting "frenzied" is what it is all about, make it 30, http://www.9xmedia.com/products/videowall/index.php?PHPSESSID=849a2790c8542171d8196e52f83bd13a

Cheers,

Diego -

juju

Thx for links Diego, I did a Google search as well but maybe my search terms were poorly defined as I was a little overwhelmed by the results.

Some good specs there. Looks like a monitor to keep in mind, pity it's only available in Canada and USA.

Dave R

On your recommendation, Dave, I bought one of these monitors. It's so big I have to sit out in the yard and look in through the window when I use it.

One thing I have yet to resolve is how to fix the display so that stuff doesn't look a little squashed. The display is set to 1600x1200 and it seems that all is set right from the video card but alas, all is stretched left to right. Any suggestions from anyone would be appreciated.

Stu

Dave,
The native resolution of any LCD screen is pretty much what you are stuck with....and as far as I know any screen, 24" or above, will be using 1920X1200 as native rez. so you should be looking to use this rather than 1600X1200.....you should be able to change this in the display settings.

Dave R

Stu, I don't think the video card in my computer will handle more than 1600x1200. If I set it higher in the nVidia control panel, the display goes black. I'm not going to worry about it though. By the time I get home from work, there'll be the parts for a new computer waiting for me. That monitor will be used on the new computer once I get it built. If the 15" monitor on the old PC finally goes belly up, I'll get another small monitor for it and maybe a newer video card.

Stu

OK Dave, looks like the video card. You will need a new card to support the wide screen resolution....but you will find it's worth it

Dave R

Problem is, I barely have room for the one wide screen and the 15" monitor. I ended up building a sort of wall to mount on the back of my desk to mount the big monitor on. I'll probably end up building a support arm for the small monitor, too. (I know I can buy one but they cost too much for what you get. I can build one from scraps for nothing.)

solo

Dave

How are you connected?

Using the PC option?

Does your monitor and video card have DVI and/or HDMI options?

I use a 42" LCD and use a HDMI to DVI cable to connect, my resolution is 1920 x 1080.

Dave R

The new monitor has that cable and an analog cable. When I used the cable you show and tried setting the resolution to even 1600x1200--black screen. I had to switch to the analog input to be able to see anything. I ended up uninstalling the nVidia driver software and reinstalling it to get the digital video to work. In the end I hooked up the small monitor again and am using that. Once I get the new computer together, the big monitor will be used with it.

dtrarch

Hi Dave the first and all

The ratio must be 6:9 [large/small = .625] or the images will not be "square" and distorted.
(just check circles to see this)

A repeat of my personal to Dave R just to make sure.
Hi #1

We have been off the the Masters Nat Rowing Championships so apologies for the late reply

First use the VGA option and connect to VGA on both monitor and graphics card.
Otherwise the monitor will not have the native screen res of 1920 x 1200 (6:9 ratio) to keep images square.
Even though it is recommended to use the native res you may set another as long as it is 6:9 and on my wife's monitor we saw no degradation in image with a different setting.
there is a super free utility called multires the will give you more options and will allow a higher refresh as well.
http://www.entechtaiwan.com
Dave this copy is blessed with a much needed spellcheck.

#2

dtrarch

DUH !!!
ERROR

not 6:9 but 9:6 per my previous post

dtr

dtrarch

Resolution ratio correction and update.
DUH!

The 25.5 Westinghouse monitor has a ratio of %(#FF0000)16:10
It is a WUXGA video standard format.

For reference see.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_display_standard.

Just pilot error here but wike wins.

dtr

Dave R

Thanks for that update Dave.

I got the new machine put together last night and XP loaded. This morning the drivers for the video card. At 1900x1200 that big monitor looks sweet. I have a few more drivers to load and then SketchUp. I'm looking forward to seeing what the new machine will do with it.

remus

Any more specs on the new machine dave? sounds like a bit of a beast (going by the monitor, and a videocard beefy enough to power it.)

Dave R

Remus, let's see if I can remember what I bought.

The video card is the GeForce 9800GT.
Memory: 4GB DDR2 in two sticks.
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Brisbane 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
Two 250 GB hard drives and a DVD burner. All in a case with 4 fans and an 850 Watt power supply.

The case is big enough so I'll be able to fit that Chevy small block in with no trouble. Actually, if there was space for a second mother board, I'd move the guts of my old PC into this case.

dtrarch

Dave

I must be esl and not know it.

d