Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
Display aspect ratios have changed as time has passed, and while I believe that the transition from the 4:3 aspect ratio to the 16:10 aspect ratio was a logical decision, as the human field of view is wider than it is tall (as our eyes are side-by-side), but the transition from the 16:10 aspect ratio to the 16:9 aspect ratio was very unwise and illogical to me. The first change was a great increase in resolution, but the second change was actually a decrease in resolution, which makes no sense at all, to me.
What does everyone else say about this? Why did manufacturers switch to an inferior aspect ratio, and is there any chance that the 16:10 aspect ratio may regain popularity if a sufficient number of people support it? I await your responses.
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
I use a 2048*1152 monitor on my main PC, and personally I found the 16:9 ratio a big improvement over my older 16:10 unit. It allows me to have two 100% zoom documents side by side, and 16:9 videos (like YouTube, iPlayer and most movies) fit my screen without any wasted space.
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Blibbax
I use a 2048*1152 monitor on my main PC, and personally I found the 16:9 ratio a big improvement over my older 16:10 unit. It allows me to have two 100% zoom documents side by side, and 16:9 videos (like YouTube, iPlayer and most movies) fit my screen without any wasted space.
But you lost vertical resolution from one monitor to the other; for example, with a horizontal resolution of 1,920 pixels, the vertical resolution would be 1,080 with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1,200 with a 16:10 aspect ratio. That is a very significant difference, so how is it possible that the image is better on the 16:9 monitor than on the 16:10 monitor?
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DemonDragonJ
But you lost vertical resolution from one monitor to the other; for example, with a horizontal resolution of 1,920 pixels, the vertical resolution would be 1,080 with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1,200 with a 16:10 aspect ratio. That is a very significant difference, so how is it possible that the image is better on the 16:9 monitor than on the 16:10 monitor?
An image does not become better/worse on a 16:9 over a 16:10, it just becomes harder to fit on-screen (size depending ofc).
As for why 16:9 is preferable over 16:10, the easiest answer is probably industry standard unfortunately. I could be wrong, but DVDs and BD_DVDs both have a native aspect ratio of 16:9. Again, why it is so, I couldn't tell you.
Also I've heard that letterboxing (in games) gets skewed on a monitor with a 16:10 aspect ratio, although when I had a 24" samsung that was 16:10 I never experienced it. I've since moved to a 23" samsung w/ a 16:9 aspect ratio. While I notice I have less real estate, the loss of 120 pixels is negligible to me.
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DemonDragonJ
But you lost vertical resolution from one monitor to the other; for example, with a horizontal resolution of 1,920 pixels, the vertical resolution would be 1,080 with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1,200 with a 16:10 aspect ratio. That is a very significant difference, so how is it possible that the image is better on the 16:9 monitor than on the 16:10 monitor?
That's like saying that you lose horizontal resolution going the other way because when you have a vertical resolution of 1080 on a 16:9 monitor you have a width of 1920, whereas when you have a vertical resolution of 1080 on a 16:10 monitor you have a width of 1728.
Admittedly the standard HD resolution at 16:10 was 1920*1200, and at 16:9 1080p has become the standard, which is a loss of pixels. However, there's nothing to stop you getting a bigger monitor. If you upgrade from a 1920*1200 monitor to a 2048*1152 monitor you will gain 55,296 pixels overall, and imo it's a more practical space.
At the end of the day it depends a lot on usage, though. For general web browsing and gaming I'd go 16:10. For movies, YouTube and office work I'd go for 16:9.
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Blibbax
Admittedly the standard HD resolution at 16:10 was 1920*1200, and at 16:9 1080p has become the standard, which is a loss of pixels. However, there's nothing to stop you getting a bigger monitor. If you upgrade from a 1920*1200 monitor to a 2048*1152 monitor you will gain 55,296 pixels overall, and imo it's a more practical space.
At the end of the day it depends a lot on usage, though. For general web browsing and gaming I'd go 16:10. For movies, YouTube and office work I'd go for 16:9.
At this current time, I am using a monitor with a resolution of 1,920 X 1,080 pixels (a 16:9 aspect ratio), and while it is very satisfactory, I would like to get a 16:10 monitor at some point in the future, but doing so will not be easy, as such monitors are currently less common, more expensive, and not as widely-supported as are monitors with a 16:9 aspect ratio. I am interested in this monitor here, as it not only has a 16:10 aspect ratio, but it also has a DisplayPort interface, a visual interface that I am eager to use, as I have heard that it is a very good interface. It is expensive and has not received many reviews currently, so I may wait for it to become less expensive and receive further reviews. It also is not as sleek and shiny as my current monitor, but that is a minor issue, and perhaps a more aesthetically appealing 16:10 monitor shall be released in the future.
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DemonDragonJ
But you lost vertical resolution from one monitor to the other; for example, with a horizontal resolution of 1,920 pixels, the vertical resolution would be 1,080 with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1,200 with a 16:10 aspect ratio. That is a very significant difference, so how is it possible that the image is better on the 16:9 monitor than on the 16:10 monitor?
You loose space vertically in 16:9 but gain horizontal space using 16:9. Imo the horizontal space is more important.
Just as Blibbax and Yeticorn I prefer 16:9 over 16:10. The main reason why I bought myself a 16:9 monitor instead of my old 16:10 was to gain horizontal space and get rid of the black bars. Even many games today dont support 16:10.
16:10 will higly unlikely become more popular in the future. Most people are grown up with the 4:3 aspect ratio and still most prefer 16:9 which owns the market. With a new generation that are used to 16:9, 16:10 will just feel odd.
The difference between a TV and a computer also is being more vague so I cant really see one aspect ratio for TV:s and another for compouter displays.
A few years ago the 16:10 aspect ratio was started to be replaced by 16:9 and it seems to continue that way. Allready 16:10 monitors are pretty hard to find. I actually doubt there will be any decent 16:10 monitors on the market 5 years from now.
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rover
You loose space vertically in 16:9 but gain horizontal space using 16:9. Imo the horizontal space is more important.
Just as Blibbax and Yeticorn I prefer 16:9 over 16:10. The main reason why I bought myself a 16:9 monitor instead of my old 16:10 was to gain horizontal space and get rid of the black bars. Even many games today dont support 16:10.
16:10 will higly unlikely become more popular in the future. Most people are grown up with the 4:3 aspect ratio and still most prefer 16:9 which owns the market. With a new generation that are used to 16:9, 16:10 will just feel odd.
The difference between a TV and a computer also is being more vague so I cant really see one aspect ratio for TV:s and another for compouter displays.
A few years ago the 16:10 aspect ratio was started to be replaced by 16:9 and it seems to continue that way. Allready 16:10 monitors are pretty hard to find. I actually doubt there will be any decent 16:10 monitors on the market 5 years from now.
The ASUS monitor to which I provided a link above is a brand-new model, which is proof that some corporations are still manufacturing 16:10 monitors, even if far less frequently than 16:9 monitors. However, it does seem that 16:10 displays are becoming much more scarce, so if I am unable to ever own one, I shall not worry about it.
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
Like Yeticorn mentioned, 16:9 rose to popularity because it is an industry standard video resolution...the same reason 4:3 became the standard non-widescreen resolution.
Personally, I prefer 16:9 for watching widescreen video content because the letterboxing is either less nonexistent.
Other than that, personally ratio matters much less to me than resolution. I have a 2048x1152 monitor and I actually like it better than the 1920x1200 resolution. Unfortunately, nobody makes that resolution monitor anymore.
If you're looking for 16:10 monitors, or 4:3 monitors for that matter, look for professional grade monitors. That's pretty much the only place that those resolutions have held firm. This also means, however, that the monitors you find will not be as 'sleek and shiny' as you put it, they will probably also be thicker and heavier, and they will definitely be more expensive. On the plus side, though, they will be much better made and have much nicer panels. TN panels are very rare in professional grade monitors. Usually they're IPS, AFFS, or the like.
Incidentally, $400-$500 is a normal price for a 24" 1920x1200 IPS panel pro-grade monitor. I doubt very much that that Asus will drop much in price.
Re: Will the 16:10 Aspect Ratio Regain Popularity?
16:10 monitors won't ever go away completely I think. They are loved by power users and pros and the best monitors out there are still 16:10.
The big reason why there are so many 16:9 monitors is that it is the standard for widescreen TV. TVs are purchased more and replaced more often, so in the current push for HDTVs the supply of 16:9 panels has been high so monitor manufacturers have been using them.
Also consider a few other forces at work. Many people use their monitor for movies, videos, etc. and 16:9 will be ideal for that. On top of this, many of our favorite monitor manufacturers also make TVs. Finally, the panel manufacturers have limited capacity. The best way for these factories to make money is to make a lot of one thing to reduce the cost of production. When demand for one kind of panel is higher than for another, they will default to that one even if there is still significant demand for the other until they feel that the market is too flooded or the competition is getting too high.
For me though, I like 16:10 because because getting three 16:10 monitors and turning them 90 degrees for an eyefinity setup looks much better than three 16:9 monitors.
