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Anybody gone ultrawide for monitor? (1 Viewer)

ManW_TheUncool

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Just ordered and received this w/in their $250 rebate window that ends tomorrow if anyone's interested:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1280769-REG/dell_u3417w_34_screen_led.html

Anyone else gone ultrawide? What did you go with? How do you like it?


I probably wouldn't rely on such a big rebate to pan out if it weren't Dell+B&H or the like (and they're even processing it online instead of by mail)...

Actually missed out on a potentially better (supposedly HDR-capable, FreeSync) LG model for sale at $400 (no rebate) a week ago -- it was a one-day-only deal at B&H, but sold out midday while I mulled it over (and couldn't find any reviews for it)...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1478388-REG/lg_34bl850_w_34_uhd_monitor_with.html


Planning to use the WQHD monitor for all-around, general purpose primarily w/ an old, but modestly upgraded, i7-4770 Dell XPS 8700 as the family share machine in the home office -- probably serves fine for some lite gaming on top of regular stuff, maybe occasional dual source use (possibly even for lite gaming?), and (just for me) probably remoting into my new Ryzen 7-3800x build (located elsewhere in cooler part of the house) for most tasks (probably including video editing) other than (aRGB) photo PP (that would be better on my NEC PA272W instead) and occasional(?) heavier(?) gaming (that would benefit from the new build's GTX 2070 Super).

IF it all works out, including remoting into my new, more powerful build for most tasks, I'll likely move my dedicated music listening headphone setup into the home office as well... :D

_Man_
 
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Sam Posten

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I bought a really nice one. Installed it for a few hours. Hated it. Boxed it up and shipped it back. Just like the TV panels the curved monitors are terrible. I might go ultrawide if you could do it flat, but no thanks on curved.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Sam, you tried curved for an ultrawide? Thought you tried it for the Samsung(?) HDR 16x9 a year ago... I just doublechecked that thread, and that Samsung also used slightly(?) more aggressive curvature (1800R) than this (1900R) -- there are less curved ones (like 3800R), but don't seem as common.

Don't think I'd wanna try curved for smaller or more regular AR-shaped monitors. This one is ~32" wide (or ~8" wider than my 27" NEC at roughly same height) at 21:9 AR (pretty close to 2.35:1). Too bad it's only HDCP 1.4 capable though or it might work well for playing some occasional 4K UHD Scope AR flicks (in SDR of course). Weren't really looking to splurge beyond this price point, so...

But yeah, will have to see how we like it...

_Man_
 

JohnRice

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What's the benefit to this over dual monitors? Are there actual applications that would require a single monitor rather than two? At home at least, I like the ability to have wide gamut on one and standard on the other, for image processing and assessment.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Not sure yet, John, although it might work better for video editing from what I gather... unless you go 4K-plus w/ something big enough for similar PPI, so stuff like the editing timeline fits better on one screen.

I just never got all that used to dual monitor setup myself... though that could largely be because I never had matching size and rez (at least height-wise) when I've tried -- actually, dual worked fine enough for me when I had separate PCs using them.

Of course, 2x 16x9 would be wider than this single 21x9 and probably too much (at 27" QHD each) for our modest home office. Also, not sure I can find 2x 27" QHD of similar quality for this ballpark. IF it was only for my use, not family, I'd probably just add another 27" QHD to go alongside my NEC as you indicated -- maybe I might still eventually do that I guess, especially if I actually get more into gaming...

_Man_
 
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John Dirk

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I bought a really nice one. Installed it for a few hours. Hated it. Boxed it up and shipped it back. Just like the TV panels the curved monitors are terrible. I might go ultrawide if you could do it flat, but no thanks on curved.
Same here. I found the curved ultra-wide monitors annoying at best, and I tried a few.

What's the benefit to this over dual monitors?

For me it was desk space. I previously had 3 monitors. One 24 inch that I shared between my work and home PC's and single 12 inchers on either side dedicated to each PC.

Now I have this and absolutely love it. No curves just ample screen real estate. About the only caveat would be you need a fairly large desk to comfortably use it.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._oc9S3Tuk0Nlr97R1O633QNjTKbRwlRgaApwfEALw_wcB


IMG_0637.jpg
 

JohnRice

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I've typically had monitors with matched resolution, but my current home setup has an sRGB 1920x1200 24" and a 2560x1440 27" wide gamut monitor. The difference in the bezels (the QHD is newer) makes them physically almost the same size. So I just orient them to have the centers at the same point. More OCD people might have a problem with that, but it works fine for me. I'll probably update the sRGB to a 27" QHD some day.
 

dpippel

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What's the benefit to this over dual monitors? Are there actual applications that would require a single monitor rather than two? At home at least, I like the ability to have wide gamut on one and standard on the other, for image processing and assessment.

It depends on what your goals are. If you just want more desktop real estate, wide monitors don't have bezels cutting through the middle of your display area, which is nice.
 

JohnRice

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It depends on what your goals are. If you just want more desktop real estate, wide monitors don't have bezels cutting through the middle of your display area, which is nice.
That's essentially my question. I'm not aware of what would actually take advantage of that wide of a single image. In Photoshop (like a lot of people do), I set up my desktop to display the image only to fill the QHD monitor, and put all the menus on the other monitor. It really makes no difference that there's a gutter in between the two things. It seems that video production works the same way.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Niiiice! But yeah, that thing is huge! Don't think it'd pass the WAF criteria, haha, especially since she thinks she'll be the primary user... :lol:

Also, maybe I am OCD enough not to make good use of the tremendous extra height. I find the height (and rez) of 27" QHD to be just about right for me from typical distance at this point -- and the 34" WQHD would be about the same in that regard.


I've typically had monitors with matched resolution, but my current home setup has an sRGB 1920x1200 24" and a 2560x1440 27" wide gamut monitor. The difference in the bezels (the QHD is newer) makes them physically almost the same size. So I just orient them to have the centers at the same point.

Last time I tried that (using both on one PC) didn't work so well. Everytime one monitor (usually the smaller, less used one) goes into sleep mode, it completely messed up my Win 10 desktop -- guess I shoulda just tried to make sure they only sleep (and wake) at same time. Also wasn't too crazy about cursor behavior switching between 1440p and 1080p, but maybe it was some quirk in my setup...

More OCD people might have a problem with that, but it works fine for me.

Hahahaha... I resemble that! :laugh::laugh::laugh:

I definitely am a bit OCD w/ my Win desktop. That's partly why I'm trying the 34" WQHD, so remoting into my new build will hopefully not mess up my Win desktop on there too much, if at all, since vertical rez is the same. :P

_Man_
 

JohnRice

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Last time I tried that (using both on one PC) didn't work so well. Everytime one monitor (usually the smaller, less used one) goes into sleep mode, it completely messed up my Win 10 desktop -- guess I shoulda just tried to make sure they only sleep (and wake) at same time. Also wasn't too crazy about cursor behavior switching between 1440p and 1080p, but maybe it was some quirk in my setup...
This is Mac OS, and it's always worked quite well. I don't think you can even configure it to sleep/wake the monitors separately.
 

dpippel

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That's essentially my question. I'm not aware of what would actually take advantage of that wide of a single image. In Photoshop (like a lot of people do), I set up my desktop to display the image only to fill the QHD monitor, and put all the menus on the other monitor. It really makes no difference that there's a gutter in between the two things. It seems that video production works the same way.

Absolutely, which is why I qualified my post. Not everyone who needs a lot of display area is doing Photoshop or video production. Gamers, for instance, might find one large display better than a dual monitor setup.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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In Photoshop (like a lot of people do), I set up my desktop to display the image only to fill the QHD monitor, and put all the menus on the other monitor. It really makes no difference that there's a gutter in between the two things. It seems that video production works the same way.

True that at least for Photoshop... although I don't usually find that much need for extra width w/ that though... since I don't often do wider than 3:2 or 5:3 format (which are narrower than 16x9 of course). If anything, I find Photoshop work can more often benefit from additional screen/rez height than width for me at least -- I'm more likely to deal w/ portrait orientation than go wider than 3:2... though I haven't felt compelled so far to try rotating my 27" NEC to do so for that (and that would totally mess up my desktop, haha, unless I keep everything other than Photoshop closed I guess :lol:)...

Hmmm... what tools do you generally put in the other screen? I probably could use some improvement in my rather spartan workflow... and I don't expect to do much in Photoshop w/ the 34" ultrawide... Maybe I'll give my old, modest 23" 1080p another try alongside the NEC...

_Man_
 
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Scott Merryfield

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I just never got all that used to dual monitor setup myself... though that could largely be because I never had matching size and rez (at least height-wise) when I've tried -- actually, dual worked fine enough for me when I had separate PCs using them.

I'm the same -- just never really took to using two monitors. When I was working, I saw quite a few colleagues with dual monitor setups and saw where it could be helpful, but I just always was used to a single display setup.

When I upgraded my home monitor a couple of years ago, I did dabble with the idea of keeping the old monitor attached to my PC, but I just couldn't make it fit on my desk along with everything else. I am not a Photoshop user -- I used to use Lightroom exclusively, but have moved to DxO PhotoLab for my photo processing. A single monitor works fine for me.
 

JohnRice

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Hmmm... what tools do you generally put in the other screen?
Here's an example of my PS workspace. The image is the 2560x1440 wide gamut monitor, and the menus are on the 1920x1200 sRGB monitor. This is using a photo I did last year for an old Architect client, who contacted me for a magazine article follow-up to his house, which I shot 20+ years ago. I blurred the image to prevent it from being pirated.

Screen-Shot(2).jpg
Screen-Shot(1).jpg
 

ManW_TheUncool

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I'm the same -- just never really took to using two monitors. When I was working, I saw quite a few colleagues with dual monitor setups and saw where it could be helpful, but I just always was used to a single display setup.

Yeah, that became very common in my work in IT, especially in the financial world it seems — you see that all the time in movies too though that wasn’t quite as common for dev folks until maybe the last decade and half...

In my case, even when I had 2 (albeit non-matching) monitors for 2 separate dev machines, I tended to lean on one more than the other and just remote into the other machine much of the time instead of using them simultaneously. But of course, that’s w/ 2 separate machines that aren’t typically used to do closely related tasks (that would be helped much w/ dual monitors).

I suppose one could also be left w/ an open browser, etc for misc stuff as well.

I think dual monitor setup was definitely more useful/helpful before large, especially QHD-plus, 16x9 became so common. When your single monitor was typically a squarish 1024x768 or 1280x1024, definitely made more sense to want dual monitors me thinks — our QHD ones are basically 2x those in width w/ some useful extra height added.

When I upgraded my home monitor a couple of years ago, I did dabble with the idea of keeping the old monitor attached to my PC, but I just couldn't make it fit on my desk along with everything else. I am not a Photoshop user.

The (mismatched) duo barely fit (w/out overhang) on my nearly-25-yo(?!?!), (IKEA!) dedicated workstation desk — IKEA didn’t seem to carry this SoHo-ish(?) industrial(?)-looking type for long (as it probably didn’t quite match their evolving sensibilities). 2x 27” QHD would likely overhang a bit though.

But with a duo setup, I also couldn’t easily keep my dedicated audio gear on the same desk — currently, I have an Oppo 95 plus modest Yamaha AVR sitting stacked where the old 23” 1080p monitor sat. They all sit on a recessed platform maybe 1/2 ft above the main desk area, so I could probably place the Oppo 95 below that I guess, if I clear the area of misc stuff, including a small clock radio, LOL — I suppose I could also try just sitting the 23” monitor on top of the Oppo 95 alone.

I also used to have a separate, matching, smallish, square platform that attaches (and swivels) to either side of the desk frame that I could maybe use for the amp though it might not be wide enough for the AVR — it’s probably fine for a dedicated head amp though, which I’ve put off building so far.... The design seemed meant for very modest size, SoHo(?) printer or the like, but I didn’t really care for it too much and removed it when we moved to our current house after spending several years w/ the desk — our eventual AIO lasers have been way too big and hefty anyway, especially our current Oki color laser that sits completely elsewhere.

Anyway, I haven’t been a big Photoshop user in recent years... and actually been just mostly getting by w/ PS Elements plus Nikon’s own software instead — I have a very old version of the complete CS suite (sans Premiere Pro) that I haven’t touched in a long while and didn’t like their ACR (for Nikon) back then. I may just switch completely away from Adobe software (other than Acrobat I guess) now that I’m trying out the competition for video editing — I was only using Premiere Elements anyway, which definitely seems to lag behind the competition...

_Man_
 
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