Good Programming Monitor: Actual Display Dimensions vs Diagonal "Marketing" Size?

Question

Hi All,

I am thinking about adding a third monitor to my coding station.

I currently run 1600x1200 on a dell 20.1", which is ok, but I am thinking to move to something that will do 1920x1200.

I'm doing the purchase on eBay, so can't really see the monitor beforehand.

Last time I bought a "Widescreen" (I read "ShortScreen") monitor, I hated it. In real space, I gained a couple inches width, but I lost a lot off the height. It was like getting my monitor cut in half.

I'm looking at the Dell 24" or a SOYO 26". I want to make sure that the height of the screen isn't less than what I have now, in actual inches, so that the 1200 I get will be the same as the 1200 I have now, and it will just be like adding an extra 320px to the side of my existing monitor.

Most of the monitors I have looked at include the HxWxD, but it's for the whole thing, including sides, stand, etc. For the life of me, I can't seem to find an actual measure of screen height and width, other than diagonal, which could be anything, depending on the diagonal angle.

Does anyone have experience with the Dell 24" 248WFP or the Soyo Pearl 26", or have any idea on a resource that would show how TALL the screen is or square inches?

At this point, I'd be happy if someone could just measure their screen height with a ruler for me =o)

---

EDIT:

Seriously!? The guy who wrote the post about Job Hopping Etiquette:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/48618/job-hopping-etiquette

felt the need to close my question because he doesn't think my monitor, on which I do all of my programming, which is the WINDOW into the WORLD IN WHICH I WORK doing my PROGRAMMING, is programming related?

Who here thinks that your programming tools have nothing to do with programming - anyone want to try in on the 6" monitors they have at the supermarket?

Answer 1

I very much recommend Samsung SyncMaster 245B. It's a great monitor for a reasonable price

Answer 2

Done.

Most 24 Inch LCD's that I've seen are slightly taller than a 1600x1200 screen, so the pixels are a bit bigger. I have some HP LP2065's (1600x1200) and LP2465's (1920x1200). The LP2465 is about the same size as other 24" LCD's (there are only a fairly small number of outfits that manufacture the LCD panels). The visible area of the panel on my LP2465 measures 52cm wide by 32.5cm high. The visible panel on a LP2065 measures 41cm wide by 31cm high.

Does that help?

Answer 3

Standard "TV" size monitors are always in the proportion 3:4.

The diagonal size is the hypotenuse of the right triangle. A^2 + B^2 == C^2 and 3x4x5 is a Pythagorean triplet.

So (diagonal size / 5) * 4 = width,

and (diagonal size / 5) * 3 = height.

Answer 4

The ratio of the resolution width/height should be the same as the ratio of the physical dimensions; I'm not aware of any modern monitors that don't have square pixels.

When I had to answer the same question for myself, I wrote up a quick spreadsheet for the math. It shows your 20" monitor to have a height of 12 inches. For 1920x1200 I get 11.7" height for a 22" monitor, and 12.7" height for a 24" monitor.

Answer 5

I've had great experiences with the Dell 24' monitors at 1920 * 1200. They are a great size, can be turned on their sides, good viewing angle and nice and bright. My one is pretty old now (one of the first dell 24') and has slightly slow response times, but I love it.

I can comfortably place two 80 column text windows side by side on it in normal orientation and code (i.e two eclipse sessions).

It is almost as tall as the two 19' screens that are oriented vertically and placed either side of it.

Answer 6

As some of the monitors will not be standard format (i.e. 3:4 ratio) use the following formula to get the height or width in inches:

HP=Height in pixels WP=Width in pixels DI=Diagonal in inches

Height (Inches)= (DI / SQR((HP x HP)+(WP x WP))) x HP

Width (Inches)= (DI / SQR((HP x HP)+(WP x WP))) x WP

Hope this helps...

(first time poster)