The consumer market drives demands for 16:9 monitors, but there are still times when a 4:3 monitor is a better fit.
As people get more acclimated to technology change in their personal life, it often spills over into their professional life. While this is generally a good thing, we’re seeing one area where the change doesn’t always make sense. This came up recently on a request to substitute a monitor for a project under construction. I thought the issue might have wider appeal and was worth bringing up here.
The project in question involves replacing the digital video recording system, for various reasons. All of the existing analog cameras are in excellent shape and are remaining. They will be connected to multi-channel encoders and recorded on the new NVR-based system. Since the cameras all have a 4:3 aspect ratio, we specified 19″ 4:3 format monitors, which were the biggest size commonly available in that aspect ratio and will fit into the existing monitor console.
The integrator wanted to substitute a different monitor, as the one we specified only had a VGA connection. His reasoning was that he couldn’t find a video card that met our specifications and had VGA connections. DVI, he also claimed, would allow the client enjoy higher resolution images.
The problem was that the proposed substitute monitor was a 16:9 (widescreen) format monitor instead of the 4:3 format we had specified. In comparing the specifications, we noted the following:
- Image Size: As all video images on this project were 4:3 aspect ratio, a monitor with the same aspect ratio format provides a larger picture size. With the proposed 16:9 aspect ratio monitor, a full screen 4:3 image will be seen in a 12.4″ X 9.3″ viewing window, versus a 15.2″ X 11.4″ viewing window on the 4:3 monitor specified. This means a viewing area that is 50% larger on the specified monitor (171 square inches versus 115 square inches).
- Resolution: The proposed widescreen monitor had a resolution of 1366 X 768, translating to a pixel count of 1,049,088. The 4:3 monitor had a pixel count of 1,310,720 due to its 1280 X 1024 resolution. However, viewing a 4:3 image on the widescreen monitor further reduces the pixel count to 786,432 as the effective resolution becomes 1024 X 768 due to the aspect ratio.
- Interface: While a VGA connector is analog and a DVI connector is digital, the VGA connection is capable of resolutions as high as QXGA, or 2048 X 1536. This translates to 3,145,728 pixels, well above the demands of this particular project. Sure, there are other advantages to a digital connection, but none that relate to resolution, and none that would be visible viewing encoded analog cameras.
Another option that had not been considered by the integrator was to use a DVI to VGA adaptor or an adapting cable. These adaptors are currently available for between $3 and $7, and adapting cables cost under $12 each for a 10′ cable. Alternately, there are still 4:3 monitors available with DVI connections.
Now, I fully understand that 4:3 format monitors are going away, as the economies of scale provided by consumer TV sales ultimately have an impact on commercially available products. But it is important to consider the reduced image size when viewing 4:3 images on a 16:9 monitor. In the case of the 19″ monitor described here, a 24″ widescreen monitor is needed to provide a comparable image size. While not everyone understands or recognizes differences in color depth, contrast ration, refresh rate, or the dozens of other monitor specifications, no one wants the picture to get smaller!
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