Widescreen Gaming Forum

Welcome, chilibaka.

You've already received excellent advice on screens from guys with more knowledge than me, but I thought I would mention an idea.

Have you considered running older games in windowed mode? This would allow you to play them non-stretched, and it could open up a number of other buying choices since the pixel-mapping wouldn't be so important. I have the same scaling problem (8800GTS on XP) and use this method for the games that need it.

It all comes down to your own priorities and feature wish list, but if other uses for your monitor take precedence over non-stretched older games, it may be worth considering.

The vast majority of games support windowed mode, fyi.

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

I'll go ahead and offer the NEC 20WMGX2. I've seen them for pretty cheap now. its an IS-IPS screen, amazing color, tons of inputs and 1:1 scaling built in!

Its a 20" but I think it looks nicer since its the same resolution as the 22's

I'm not sure I'm getting this right but my Gateway HD2201s can have scaling so does my XHD3000 with can display 4:3 right in the screen just has the black borders and it works the same way with the 22" and 24" gateway monitors.

Does it automatically if Scaling is off.

Bah, visited the local computer store today. The clerk told me that the monitors I was interested in seeing/testing are all considered special order items and they cannot get one to the store to put on a shelf. He kindly offered to contact the distributors and ask if there are any demo units of the displays available for me to view. Now I just have to wait for his email to see how it turned out.

In the highly likely situation that they cannot get a demo unit, he suggested that I order a monitor through their website and use COD as a payment method. The trick with the COD payment is that after getting it from the post office, I have 14 days to return the monitor if I am not satisfied with it. I'm well aware that there are other computer stores in Finland but I like to buy my displays from this particular store because of their pixel guarantee: if you buy a monitor from them and it has even one dead pixel, you can exchange it for a new one.

Too bad I'm not rich enough to order all the monitors, try them out, pick one and return others. So I have to order just one and hope I'll get lucky. I'm leaning toward ordering NEC 2690WUXi, the three reviews I read on this forum were all positive. And I stared at a 24" monitor in the store and to be honest I really couldn't feel the difference between it and my 22".

Can someone make a comparison between 2690WUXi and a gaming-orientated TN? How noticiable is the difference in input lag? In the colour department the NEC should be a clear winner over any TN and the 33ms of lag it has should have a minimal effect on movies, right?

Better news, received the email from the store. They can get an unopened 2690WUXi demo unit from the distributor for me to stare at. And the fact that it is unopened means that if I end up buying it, I can take that one with me. :D

The 2690WUXi finally arrived from the distributor to the store.

Went there to check it out. It was the factory settings right out from the box, but the colours looked sooo nice. I did some testing with the help of few websites and some test videos the store offered and the display didn't seem radically slower than my current one. To be honest, I really couldn't find much of a difference in the input lag based on the short time I played with the monitor. The scaling worked perfectly, even my friend who I took with me was amazed of that feature. Now he thinks I'm nuts, though, because I'm planning to spend 1200 euros on a computer monitor.

Cheers to everyone for your posts. Now I'm finally finding the path of widescreen enlightenment, thanks to you guys and this forum. You've earned your hugs and cookies. :wink:

Congrats. When it's up and running post some pics so we can be jealous. :wink: :mrgreen:

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

I'm not the best photographer, but I'll try to provide some pictures for the curious eyes. My desktop (no, not the one in Windows) is rather horrible, though.

Questions to the colour experts: should I bother with picking up Spyder2express? I'm able to get one from another computer store for just under 100 euros. Is it a worthwhile investment?

Congrats! :D

I haven't been able to write much due to high workload again, or I would answer this post earlier.

Its a high prized screen, but I love it myself. It has the best scaling I've seen so far (there are only a few with custom scaling option and the NEC being one of them).

If you would have gotten the older revision, then I would say that you should get the spyder2express. With the older revision, you can LUT calibrate the screen by downloading a free test version of the EU Spectraview profiler (and change a setting in the hidden menu). The only problem is that you have to compensate for white point, since any calibrators that doesn't support wide gamut will get it wrong. It works well with the sRGB preset though and doesn't need compensating there.

Spyder2express software isn't adjustable enough to get a result that would warrant the purchase. Spyder3elite is better in that regard and also is one of the few that supports wide gamut. (I have both).

For now, I would wait, since you don't do any color critical work. Instead, I would do as following:

Buy a light bulb of the type "daylight". In Norway, I couldn't find it in photo stores, so I had to go to a store which has a lot of lightbulb selections. This is one of the things that gives anyone who has an LCD most joy out of their screen. Its more important then what most are aware of. If you find one thats called D65, it would be the best, but any daylight bulbs will improve much. They are usually blueish in color and gives out a very white light. Direct it so that light doesn't go directly into your eyes.

Use the color profile that comes on the CD. Enter the advanced menu (turn off screen, then power it on while holding the input button in).

Turn down brightness to comfortable level. Don't mind how it looks, it will take time for the advanced brightness and color stabilization feature to adjust. Select gamma 2.2 (it activates 12-bit gamma correction with the standard value of 2.2). Select color preset 5 and make it color temp 6507K (closest to D65).

As for color comp, make a full white screen. If it looks a bit "dirty", then you can adjust this with color comp.

Use overdrive on/off as you please.

Under screen saver, you can use something called gamma on on. This will prevent and even cure any uniformity issues you can get by minor and major image percistance. I called for a return of my screen once earlier, due to EXTREME clouding (backlight bleed that looks like clouds on screen). I turn this feature on and after 30 minutes tops, the screen was totally uniform again. I was amazed and tried to call off the support, but they've already sent me a new screen. :P Great support though.

There are lots more, but this is a good starting point. :)