Wider than 16:9

Question

I would like more horizontal width on my desktop. To date, the only wider than 16:9 monitor I can find is by AlienWare and costs $7000 and has a rubbish resolution.

I don't have enough room for two (or more) monitors on the tiny desk I have and I can't move the computer anywhere else. However I want more width than the 1920x1080 that I currently have.

Are there any monitors that are 2:1 (or more) and won't mean selling a kidney to own?

Answer 1

Doubtfully. The monitor resolutions are determined by certain standards that have to do with timings and such. 16:9 is pretty much as close to 2:1 you're going to get.

Your only affordable bet is going to be getting more monitors and making room. I'd try to find a triple monitor setup because then you don't have the gap down the middle of your field-of-view. It's going to take an insane setup to drive that high of a resolution though.

A good overview of standard resolutions can be found on Wikipedia:

Answer 2

Easiest way to get more width is to get a bigger monitor. For example a 30" Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP gives 2560x1600.

Don't know whether £1,763.68 is more or less than the going rate for a kidney -)

Answer 3

Many CRT monitors can be driven in non-standard modes (within limits set by the hardware). Configuring this is reasonably easy in linux (hack your Xorg.conf or XF86config file after reading the XFree86 Video Timings HOWTO (timing issues remain the same with X.org).

I don't know how one would do this under Windows or Mac OS, but it might be possible to edit the resources associated with the appropriate control panel.

In any case, there is a chance that doing this will

1. smoke your monitor (if you do it wrong)
2. cause horrible eyestrain and unbearable headaches (if you choose too slow a refresh rate, or push the scan lines too far into the recovery buffer)

This does not, of course, change the aspect ratio of the glass, but can get more "effective" width out of the display, none-the-less.

Answer 4

Dell have released a more affordable 27" wide screen that provides the same width res as the 30"