Monitor 16:9 or 16:10

[john5527]

What are people talking about when they say a monitor is 16:9 or 16:10. I read that it refers to the screen size, but how does this affect viewing? Would this matter on games or movies? How do you know if a monitor is one or the other?

[jackvdbuk]

aspect ratio..

games doesnt matter atall, most games today support mutiple resolutions in various ratios

movies IIRC its 16:10 (my monitor) you will see black lines above and below films and 16: 9 you will not...doesnt really bother me still looks excellent on a 24 inch

to work it out, it should usually say but if not .. actually i forgot how to work it out
check wiki

16:10 : 1900x1200
4:3 : 1280x1024

[john5527]

Thanks. Makes much more sense now.

[Webby]

aspect ratio..

games doesnt matter atall, most games today support mutiple resolutions in various ratios

movies IIRC its 16:10 (my monitor) you will see black lines above and below films and 16: 9 you will not...doesnt really bother me still looks excellent on a 24 inch

to work it out, it should usually say but if not .. actually i forgot how to work it out
check wiki

16:10 : 1920x1200
5:4 : 1280x1024

You could have at least got the examples right! Corrected in bold

16:10 (1.6:1) -> 1440*900, 1680*1050, 1920*1200, 2560*1600
16:9 (1.78:1) -> 1280*720, 1920*1080, 2048*1152
5:4 (1.25:1) -> 1280*1024
4:3 (1.33:1) -> 640*480, 800*600, 1024*768, 1600*1200

To calculate what ratio you have divide the first number by the second for example 1920/1200 = 1.6 so the ratio is 1.6:1 = 16:10 (see above in brackets for what you should get for each aspect ratio)

Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

To answer the rest of Johns questions, Movies tend to be 16:9 (but not all are although that is the largest they get) games can be almost any ratio you want. Advantage of 16:9 no black lines top and bottom when watching films, advantage of 16:10 more vertical pixels all the time. Only you can decide which is best for you.

[creed]

Most widescreen movies are in 1.75:1 or 2.38:1 so whether u watch on 16:10 (most pc monitors) or 16:9 (TVs) u will still get the letterbox effect.

[jackvdbuk]

sorry webby it was a quick botch job, late night e.t.c

webby correct

[Webby]

lol no problem just thought I better correct it in case we confused him further

And as Creed correctly pointed out a lot of films do not conform to the 16:9 widescreen standard but all 1080p content does, and as I mentioned the widescreen format for films does not exceed 16:9 so the black bars top and bottom when present will be smaller on a 16:9 screen than a 16:10.