Why was I so positive 16:10 was the future of gaming? ... 21:9 is king?

[EarthDog]

Were they even major players in the game when the transition happened a decade and change ago?

 

[Komshija]

I think they were. Besides them, who else could be considered as major LCD manufacturer? Sharp? NEC? Funai? The rest are below the radar.

 

[ShurikN]

Were they even major players in the game when the transition happened a decade and change ago?

Yes, for example almost all the Japanese makers had their own panels back in the day of 4:3. Now you have two behemoths, LG and Samsung, and a a bunch of noname Chinese who may or may not create something good from time to time.
Hell even Samsung uses LG panels in some devices (mostly tvs, not sure about monitors)

 

[StrayKAT]

Unconsciously, I just think of it as a cinematic thing, I guess (16:9 that is). Monitors and productivity come only second. And I'm OK with that.

 

[EarthDog]

No idea who made panels back 15+ years ago when 1920x1080 was becoming popular. I dont recall samsung being a major player way back then... nor LG. But i also dont know that market well. I just bought tvs in the late 90s and early 2k when the trend was starting.

I beleieve your statement to be true now, kom, just not back then...but again, i dont know who made panels inside other, more popular brands at the time.

 

[RCoon]

TV decides the ratio of displays. Consumers like continuity throughout their experience. We had 4:3 TV's for decades, and thus monitors followed the same suit/similar. When TVs switched to 16:9, we followed suit.

I actually know a lady who did an extensive scientific study on shapes. Her whole study was based around rectangles of varying sizes, and she'd sampled hundreds of thousands of people to ask which version of the rectangle people preferred. Of the 6 rectangular shapes provided, the top two rectangles were 4:3 and 16:9.

 

[StrayKAT]

Funny that the first iphones were like 1024x768, I think. So this wasn't even a concern for them either.

 

[EarthDog]

Its a phone though... the fringe imo and not a market driver for pc and tv monitors. Especially 10 years ago when iphone was released.

 

[StrayKAT]

Its a phone though... the fringe imo and not a market driver for pc and tv monitors. Especially 10 years ago when iphone was released.

Yeah, I'm just forgetting when even phones went widescreen., since you guys started mentioning Samsung years ago. It wasn't the early iphones at least.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I've been on 16*10 ever since the C2D E8400 was new (about 9-10 years ago). My first LED monitor was a 24" 1920*1200 Soyo Topaz S. For the price, I have to say I really enjoyed that monitor. From there I went to my current 30" 2560*1600 HP ZR30w. Great all around monitor IMHO. Great picture quality for gaming while also being able to basically split the 30" screen into 4 sections, each being equal to my laptop's 15" 1366x768 screen. I loved that for my online college assignments (one section for the assignment, one for the instructions, and two for research). I was also great for when I tried working at home for the same reasons (I tried doing tech support for Frontier FIOS, I'm not a customer service type of person.) I still have the Soyo and use it as a back-up in case something happens to my HP.

 

[l3nderb]

Have been using a Dell 3008WPF (30", 16:10) at home and a HP ZR30W (30", 16:10) at work for a number of years and cannot think of using something else, although I also use a 17" laptop (HP ZBook 17, 16:9) and switching between the ratios is very annoying.

On the other hand gaming on a 16:10 monitor can be less then perfect due to lots of games nowadays not supporting 16:10, instead just showing a black bar on the bottom and top of the screen (even though the resolution is set to 2560*1600). I truly hope my Dell will keep working for a couple more years (already about 8 years old) because replacing that will be a very expensive affair I'm afraid...

 

[Bill_Bright]

It's all about the golden ratio. The problem is, however, 1080P was the standard for TVs and most households have more TVs than computer monitors and they spend more for those TVs too. And the majority of consumers are more discerning TV image viewers than they are computer image viewers. Flesh tones, for example, must look natural on TV but because flesh tones are not viewed on computer screens near as often, they are not as important on computer monitors.

So the money for R&D goes into TVs first. And, for the most part, TV makers are the same as monitor makers. So TVs drive the display industry.

It costs a lot more (in terms of logistics, design, inventory and more) to support two very similar technologies so when possible, one falls to the wayside. This is exactly why HDMI pushed out DVI even though (at the time) no computer monitors had built in speakers. It just did not make sense to build TVs and monitors that support both DVI and HDMI. So DVI is going away.

 

[Vayra86]

No idea who made panels back 15+ years ago when 1920x1080 was becoming popular. I dont recall samsung being a major player way back then... nor LG. But i also dont know that market well. I just bought tvs in the late 90s and early 2k when the trend was starting.

I beleieve your statement to be true now, kom, just not back then...but again, i dont know who made panels inside other, more popular brands at the time.

Sharp, Sony, Panasonic

 

[Thefumigator]

I own an 21:9 AOC ultra wide and sometimes I feel I need more vertical space, but I'm on "productivity" not a gamer.

 

[jaggerwild]

1080 monitors are a dime a dozen, if you pay more then $100 you get took.

 

[repman244]

I've been on 16*10 ever since the C2D E8400 was new (about 9-10 years ago). My first LED monitor was a 24" 1920*1200 Soyo Topaz S. For the price, I have to say I really enjoyed that monitor. From there I went to my current 30" 2560*1600 HP ZR30w. Great all around monitor IMHO. Great picture quality for gaming while also being able to basically split the 30" screen into 4 sections, each being equal to my laptop's 15" 1366x768 screen. I loved that for my online college assignments (one section for the assignment, one for the instructions, and two for research). I was also great for when I tried working at home for the same reasons (I tried doing tech support for Frontier FIOS, I'm not a customer service type of person.) I still have the Soyo and use it as a back-up in case something happens to my HP.

I'm looking for a ZR30w as well, however I think I won't be able to part with the ZR24w I'm currently running (the only direct replacement would be the new Z24x which is still 16:10, all others are 16:9 AFAIK).

 

[Frag_Maniac]

After 16:10 was pretty much abandoned by most manufacturers and devs, I don't see how anyone could expect long term support for anything other than a 16:9 display. The sad fact is game development for the most part hinges on console game sales, and most console gamers use 16:9 TVs.