How much is enough?

[Jonathan]

Pick two! You are subject to the laws of physics and the realities of the current marketplace.

I guess I feel like 1080p is sufficient.

[quantus]

After using 1080p on our tv from my laptop, I'm pretty sold on having the extra resolution on one screen for movie watching and gaming. I wouldn't mind having dual monitor options for work though for side by side viewing... I guess a wide screen monitor and winsplit would work too. After using a laptop screen plus an external screen for several years, I feel like I've taken a step back now that I'm relegated to a single monitor again for work. With the bad economy, there's no way I'll get a second monitor for a while unless I buy it for myself. Speaking of which, I was thinking of bringing my wireless keyboard and mouse from home...

[Jonathan]

Shit, you're right. I technically use 2x16x12 at work, and would feel really cramped on 1080p (if I had one).

Hmm.

I've been thinking about driving two displays for a while, probably just to have Ventrilo/Teamspeak and Firefox open on the second monitor while I play Eve.

[quantus]

Games being full screened on one monitor tend to un-full screen when you click on another program on the other screen... I wish they were more multi-screen friendly.

[Jonathan]

Ah, but I'm running fullscreen in a windowed wine desktop. So I'm good to go!

[VLSmooth]

For gaming, I'll need to think about it some more, since some games suck at scaling text (read as, they don't).

Regarding multiple monitors, it's nice, as long as you have a monitor utility like WinSplit... At home I have my lcd + tv setup (now with 55 lb. bean bag!) and at work I have a 1 desk 2crt + lcd setup[1]. I would love to buy my own displays, but company policy won't allow that, nor will security considering where my office is. I'd need a program to get one for me (I'm not holding my breath).

Also, yes, the kicking out of fullscreen is highly annoying. Thank goodness for media player classic and third-party windowing tools.


[1] 2x Dell P1130s (21" crt), 1x Dell 1905FP (19" lcd), 1600x1200 and 1280x1024 respectively, 1 crt is on my classified PC, the other 2 displays are unclassified.

[quantus]

Thank goodness for ... third-party windowing tools.

Are you just referring to winsplit here or something else?

[Jonathan]

Changed my votes to bigger/bigger because I really do think dual (cheap) monitors is the only way to go.

[quantus]

I'm all about dual monitors, but one should be a 1080p tv for sure... at least for home use!

[George]

1080p is the only one acceptable for TV and gaming now. 720p and 1080i are significantly more common video sources, but 1080p is reasonable future-proofing, and can be taken advantage of immediately in most games. Nothing on the video horizon is going any higher-res for several years.

I use dual 22" ws monitors at work and am content with that. I don't remember their resolutions. I have a 24" ws at 1900x1200 at home, plus an old 19" 1280x1024 for my second computer. I wouldn't mind adding a second monitor to my main system, but I really don't run out of room on the 24". And I wouldn't go larger than 24 in a single monitor because 24 already fills my field of view.

[Dave]

I used to have Dual 20" 4:3 screens at work, now I have 1 22" WS and a 19" 4:3. Can't say I'm a huge fan of widescreen for anything other than movies. At work, most documents are 4:3 'portrait', not landscape and my company has a thing against powerpoint so I ideally I'd like 24" 4:3 but dont think they exist.

I just noticed that new smiley.

At home, I still use a lame 32" CRT 480i TV with a PC hooked up via SVideo. Have 20" 4:3 19" 4:3 and 22" WS as the PC monitors. For home useage, having multiple LCDs really doesn't do much, but I justify my owning lots of LCD by hooking them up.

[quantus]

I guess the back lights in the LCD's heat your house... good thing you live in warm places!