WideScreen TFT Laptop Advice

Jd

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I'm looking to buy a new laptop, and was in the store looking at the various
offerings. Next to me I heard the sales person telling a customer to avoid
the widescreen Toshiba models, because the way they acheive the widescreen
is by stretching everything into shape. For example a circle would appear
distorted. He specifically said they are no good for photo editing.

Is this statement about stretching true?, I would have thought the extra
screen space, would just allow you to spread out more on the desktop?

Many thanks

JD
 
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"JD" <nospam@toomuchspam.com> wrote in
news:HHKlc.2852$7R6.1748@doctor.cableinet.net:


> Is this statement about stretching true?, I would have thought the
> extra screen space, would just allow you to spread out more on the
> desktop?

the only place where it's an issue is with gaming; for example, i just got
a new Aspire 2001, which is 1280x800 widescreen resolution..... but when I
play a game, I really only have the regular choices of 1024x768 or
1280x1024 from within the game menu.... so in that case, the games do
stretch.

to get around that, i just hook up to a regular size monitor and play that
way....
 
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JD <nospam@toomuchspam.com> wrote:
> I'm looking to buy a new laptop, and was in the store looking at the various
> offerings. Next to me I heard the sales person telling a customer to avoid
> the widescreen Toshiba models, because the way they acheive the widescreen
> is by stretching everything into shape. For example a circle would appear
> distorted. He specifically said they are no good for photo editing.

Well, there are plenty of idiotic sales people.

Any software that fills the screen, and does not take into account
the driver reported screen dimensions, but assumes a 'standard'
aspect ratio screen will have problems.
This is not the case for nearly all non-games software.
 

Jd

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"Ian Stirling" <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:GXLlc.37284$h44.5625118@stones.force9.net...
> JD <nospam@toomuchspam.com> wrote:
> > I'm looking to buy a new laptop, and was in the store looking at the
various
> > offerings. Next to me I heard the sales person telling a customer to
avoid
> > the widescreen Toshiba models, because the way they acheive the
widescreen
> > is by stretching everything into shape. For example a circle would
appear
> > distorted. He specifically said they are no good for photo editing.
>
> Well, there are plenty of idiotic sales people.
>
> Any software that fills the screen, and does not take into account
> the driver reported screen dimensions, but assumes a 'standard'
> aspect ratio screen will have problems.
> This is not the case for nearly all non-games software.
>

This is what I thought would be the case.

The shop was PCWorld, so you are quite right, expertise and knowledge are
not two words that spring to mind! I was only there to have a physical
"look" at the machines, before getting one elsewhere.

The guy was probably thinking about what his "tele" does to the pictures on
screen.

Thanks
 

Jd

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That's fine. I won't be using it for games.

Now my next concern is to make sure I don't buy one of those Compal
Toshibas. The last laptop I bought was a Compaq Presario 700 Series, it has
all sorts of overheating problems, so much so, you can't even put official
Compaq memory into the thing, without it crashing!

The damn thing is less than two years old, and has been steadily cooking
itself to death. Compaq/HP don't care at all, even though it's a common
problem. (So there's my Compaq rant out the way!)

Therefore I want to be more cautious this time round!

Thanks

JD

"Good Man" <heyho@letsgo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns94DF6A4C59D08sonicyouth@216.196.97.132...
> "JD" <nospam@toomuchspam.com> wrote in
> news:HHKlc.2852$7R6.1748@doctor.cableinet.net:
>
>
> > Is this statement about stretching true?, I would have thought the
> > extra screen space, would just allow you to spread out more on the
> > desktop?
>
> the only place where it's an issue is with gaming; for example, i just
got
> a new Aspire 2001, which is 1280x800 widescreen resolution..... but when I
> play a game, I really only have the regular choices of 1024x768 or
> 1280x1024 from within the game menu.... so in that case, the games do
> stretch.
>
> to get around that, i just hook up to a regular size monitor and play that
> way...
 
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Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Good Man <heyho@letsgo.com> wrote in
news:Xns94DF6A4C59D08sonicyouth@216.196.97.132:

> the only place where it's an issue is with gaming; for example, i
> just got a new Aspire 2001, which is 1280x800 widescreen
> resolution..... but when I play a game, I really only have the
> regular choices of 1024x768 or 1280x1024 from within the game
> menu.... so in that case, the games do stretch.

There's an option with almost all of the laptop video card drivers to
either stretch or use the center of the display. I believe both ATI
and nVidia put it under the monitor settings, where you configure
multi-display. Try setting the display properties for the laptop
screen, and you should be able to find it. That'll cover you for
anything Windows (including games).

Whether or not DOS/BIOS/Linux/etc. apps stretch is generally controlled
by a BIOS setting that you can change on bootup.

Geo
--
George Mealer
geo@snarksoft.com
 

Daniel

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> the only place where it's an issue is with gaming; for example, i just
got
> a new Aspire 2001, which is 1280x800 widescreen resolution..... but when I
> play a game, I really only have the regular choices of 1024x768 or
> 1280x1024 from within the game menu.... so in that case, the games do
> stretch.
Good Man, if you don't mind, how much do games appear to be distorted on the
widescreen compared to the CRT? Had my heart set on a HP ZD7145 with a
widescreen, then again I only ever play flight simulator and the extra
desktop space such as documents side by side could come in handy for uni
work so unless its a huge difference in quality...

Cheers

Daniel
 
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"Daniel" <daniel@nospamhalliwell1.plus.com> wrote in
news:7kSlc.37424$h44.5648614@stones.force9.net:


> Good Man, if you don't mind, how much do games appear to be distorted
> on the widescreen compared to the CRT? Had my heart set on a HP ZD7145
> with a widescreen, then again I only ever play flight simulator and
> the extra desktop space such as documents side by side could come in
> handy for uni work so unless its a huge difference in quality...


first, regarding another poster's suggestion of being able to "center"
displays, i could not find an option on my laptop (an Aspire 2000 with
ATI Radeon 9200 Mobility 64MB).... i'm not sure what the HP uses for
its graphics chip. i hope its dedicated video memory though - you'll
need it for flight sim stuff.

regarding your question, the distortion is enough to bug me... it sort
of makes things look that chunky 640x480 style (uggh!!!)... i was
looking forward to seeing how my new laptop would smoke my desktop in
terms of graphics options and details in games.... and the resolution
was never up to snuff. but, like i said, i've started to hook up my
19" CRT to my laptop when I want to play a game, and indeed, the
graphics rock, and there's no stretching at all.
 

Daniel

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>i'm not sure what the HP uses for
> its graphics chip. i hope its dedicated video memory though - you'll
> need it for flight sim stuff.

The one I'm looking at has 128mb Nvidia FX5600

>
> regarding your question, the distortion is enough to bug me... it sort
> of makes things look that chunky 640x480 style (uggh!!!)... i was
> looking forward to seeing how my new laptop would smoke my desktop in
> terms of graphics options and details in games.... and the resolution
> was never up to snuff. but, like i said, i've started to hook up my
> 19" CRT to my laptop when I want to play a game, and indeed, the
> graphics rock, and there's no stretching at all.
The external monitor is always an option I suppose, I did a search on a
website which has a forum all about the HP laptop and quite a few people say
most games run quite good on it inc flight sim so it looks like my mind is
made up, if it turns out to be not so good I can always go plug it into
someone's monitor :)

Cheers

Daniel