19" vs 20" - worth the inches?

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Phrantic

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I'm looking to get myself a widescreen TFT monitor. I currently have a 17" normal TFT screen. I'd want it maybe one inch higher but particularly wider.

Now I've been looking around, and I'm not asking which one to get since there are plenty of reviews and opinions to find. I just want to know if it's worth getting a 20" screen... or just sticking with a 19" one.

I've learnt that 17" and 19" widescreens use the same resolution but the 19" model just stretches the image. Same goes for 20" and 22". I would guess that you would see a slight quality loss in the bigger versions, but would it really matter? I mean, would I be better off spending an extra $60 on an inch bigger just to get a higher native resolution, or does 19" produce a great image anyway?
 
It depends on how big/small and how far/near you want everything. So your going to have to figure out the right mix and match of the two to get your answer.

If you leave the distance that you use the monitor from the same, then if you want to work with objects that look bigger then use the 19", and use the 20" if you don't mind icons, text, and everything else to be smaller, but show more.

I won't go into the next one, but I'll simplify everything down to a less wordy format.




Keep distance from monitor the same,
19" = icons, text, windows, everything in general will look bigger at native resolution
20" = icons, text, windows, everything in general will look smaller, but you can view more desktop space.


Keep the image size the same
19" = lets you sit farther away from the screen compared to your 17" monitor
20" = I didn't do the research on the pixel size, but if the 20" at native resolution has a smaller pixel pitch than your 17" then you might have to sit closer to the screen, to get the same image size, but you do get more workable desktop space.

kapish?

This forum needs a sticky on pixel pitch, resolution, distance from monitor etc. or maybe someone can come up with a calculator that can have people leave all the variables except one input and spit out answer to fill in that unknown.
 
Well I kind of figured that part out, but I was wondering since 19" screens have a bigger pixel pitch as you call it than a 20", does this result in any quality loss? Because normally you'd expect that a 19" screen has more pixels than a 17" screen and less than a 20" etc.

I'm happy with sitting farther away from the screen, I don't mind that, I just don't want pixels to apppear slightly more fuzzy if you know what I mean. I'm used to 1280x1024. Would it look weird if I had a 19" widescreen? Because it loses some pixels in the vertical axis but I believe that the screen is about as high as a 17" no?
 
If you sit the correct distance away from the monitor as a ratio to pixel pitch, then you shouldn't notice any big difference in quality.

Here's a more extreme example since your not quite believing what I say. If you view a video at 640x480 resolution on your current monitor at 1 to 1 pixel pitch meaning 100% video size and not full screen, the picture is around 4 inches wide and 3 inches tall. Now look at a normal tv screen and sit far enough away so that it appears to be 4 inches wide and 3 inches tall. This means your probably about 20 to 30 feet away. Do you ever notice how low resolution the tv is? Does it look fuzzy to you or does it really look fuzzy only up close?

IMO, people who are complaining about the pixels being too big on a 19" or the sparkles due to an antiglare coating are sitting way too close to their monitor. They should probably get their eyes check for near sightedness or for the older folk, use reading glasses.

The more pixels and less pixels phenomena has actually been around for a long time. It's just more obvious on LCD technology due to every pixel being so square. CRT "pixels" do blend in better on non native resolutions because of the analog input and also because each phosphor that gets hit by an electron actually has a brightness mapping more like a gaussian curve.
 
Widescreens don't stretch the image like youre saying. A 19" widescreen may have roughly the same amount of pixels as a 17" but in a different format, say 1440x900 compared to 1280x1024. If you try and set a widescreen monitor to a normal aspect ratio resolution then of course it will streth things, but not at widscreen resolutions.

The image quality loss thing is also the opposite most of the time. Moving from a 19" to a 20" will usually give you better quality due to the higher nativer resolution like 1680x1050.

I personally have a 19" widescreen, but only because I got a great deal on it. If I was buying a monitor right now I would definately throw in the extra to get a 20" or 22" just to have the higher native resolution. I changed to this monitor after have a Samsung 204B 1600x1200 4:3 LCD and i miss all the desktop area I had.
 
@Rix: It's not that I didn't believe you, just your explanation wasn't precisely what I needed to know. However, your second post did remove some question marks for me, so thanks for that.

@Bob Gates: Your post is convincing me to get a 20" for the extra pixels. It is pretty much the same dilemma I am in. Although I didn't say that from 19" to 20" you get stretched pixels (since the native resolutions are different) but rather from 17" to 19" (both of these have a 1440x900 resolution).

I understand now that although a 19" puts just as many pixels on a bigger surface, it does not result in quality loss. (p.s. I am a little short-sighted ;) so the bigger pixels might be a welcome addition) but I think I'm going to get a 20" anyway for the extra pixels so I can run more stuff on my screen.

Thanks for sharing the experiences. :)
 
Definitely go with 20 inches over 19. You get a bigger resolution, which means there will be ALOT more workspace than 1 inch because pixels are alot smaller on the 20 inch monitor. To be technical, 20 inch widescreen has 1,764,000 pixels, while 19 inch widescreen has 1,296,000. That's about half a million more pixels. 27% more space on 20 inch monitor.

It's just like choosing between 24 inch and 22 inch monitor. 24 has alot more workspace if resolution is higher than the one of 22 inch which it usually is.
 
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