Most panels will scale, and it will be letterboxed. Not too challenging usually. Whether it is sharp or not depends in my experience on drivers. I have a game that will run in a few resolutions. Whenever Nvidia is involved it looks like shit. If I turn the Nvidia scaling off, sharpness improves dramatically (this is the panel's scaling) but unfortunately with the one I have it can't do it right and it just stretches 4:3 to 5:4. Still really sharp, though I refuse to play like that.

So, yeah. No idea how you know if a panel has the capability of maintaining aspect ratio while scaling, but I am sure some do. Sorry, I don't know which.

Every 1280x1024 TFT I've ever seen will stretch lower resolutions to fill the screen, geometry and integer scaling be dammed, they even introduce lag in the process. Some ThinkPads will do a 1:1 pixel tiny screen but I'm afraid I have no recommendations. Maybe such a display exists, there's no technical reason why it can't but they're certainly not common.

I know it's not 17" but 20" but I recently bought this HP 2035 monitor. It's 4:3 / 1600x1200 and very configurable - it has aspect ratio/1:1 pixel/full screen scaling options, and as a bonus it also has composite and s-video inputs which is nice if you want to use it for some older CGA stuff or 8-bit machines. Being a pro monitor it should in theory had a low input lag. It's a bit heavy but most monitors from this era are... It may not be perfect for 640x480 but on the other hand - in 800x600 you will nice 2x2 pixels (I don't know about Diablo, but at least Diablo 2 supports this resolution, many other games from this era like Red Alert 2 or StarCraft will support it too). You will get nice 320x240 or 320x200 (aspect ratio scaling) as well.

So maybe this a bit bigger monitor would suit your needs?

I have a dell one similar to that that has the same scaling optiosn as well as composite & svideo. However the problem is i'd like it to scale in the centre of the screen, but also compensate for the pixel aspect ratio for text-mode content. If I use the "fit to screen" option, that will give me the correct 4:3 streching, but obviously filling the entire screen, which I don't want.

Thanks for all responses so far.

@Han: Thanks for pointing that 20" inch model from HP out. I didn't know that one yet and will be on the lookout for it to measure input lag. So far I had very little luck with 20" models in that regard. All models I came across (ViewSonic, Eizo, Dell) had serious input lag > 30 ms, all of them being "pro" models (at least not cheap).

There are generally fewer choices on the second hand market compared to 17" models.

Thanks anyway

Locutus wrote:

Thanks for all responses so far. […]
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Thanks for all responses so far.

@Han: Thanks for pointing that 20" inch model from HP out. I didn't know that one yet and will be on the lookout for it to measure input lag. So far I had very little luck with 20" models in that regard. All models I came across (ViewSonic, Eizo, Dell) had serious input lag > 30 ms, all of them being "pro" models (at least not cheap).

There are generally fewer choices on the second hand market compared to 17" models.

Thanks anyway

I would measure it for you unfortunatelly I don't have any CRT monitors for comparison... I only have Dell U2412M (it supposed to have 2ms input lag and ~17ms overal lag) hooked up via DisplayPort so I can compare it to this monitor if you want...

@Han: Nah, that's ok. If the device pops up on eBay in my area I'll just buy it for a few bucks, check the input lag and re-sell it if it sucks. Thanks anyway.

Locutus wrote:

Hey guys, […]
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Hey guys,

since most 17-inch TFT models have a 5:4 resolution of 1280x1024 (at least all that I have seen) I wouldn't consider them for DOS gaming personally. However recently I came to the conslusion that they at least should be able to display 640x480 games like Diablo or Baldur's Gate in a pretty decent way IF they have an internal scaler that supports aspect-ratio-correct scaling.

That would optimally result in a (letterboxed) image with black bars at the bottom and top. Also 1280 is an integer multiple of 640, so pixels should appear super sharp without scaling artifacts.

Can anybody recommend a 17" inch TFT monitor with VGA/DVI inputs and preferably TN-type panel?

Thanks!

For those specs the closest monitor I know of is BenQ BL702A. It's a 17" TN that has aspect-correct display mode but it only has a analog D-sub input, no digital inputs.

Crank9000 wrote on 2019-07-08, 16:49:

For those specs the closest monitor I know of is BenQ BL702A. It's a 17" TN that has aspect-correct display mode but it only has a analog D-sub input, no digital inputs.

Nope, I got a BL702A recently and it did not integer-scale. It had a menu option for aspect-ratio correct scaling, but alas, it didn't do SHIT. 640x480 filled the screen.

D'OH!

Locutus wrote on 2020-05-01, 15:29:

Nope, I got a BL702A recently and it did not integer-scale. It had a menu option for aspect-ratio correct scaling, but alas, it didn't do SHIT. 640x480 filled the screen.

That's pretty sad 🙁 My current 144 Hz monitor (AOC G2590FX) offers two 4:3 image ratios (17" and 19") for its VGA input, and also supports 720x400@70 Hz (in addition to VESA modes @60 Hz) without frame dropping. It's a pretty nice choice if you can live with the black borders. Also has 1:1 input ratio which is nice.

EDIT: just to mention in case someone stumbles upon this thread that the OSSC + a monitor with a 4:3 option & accepting 70 Hz without frame dropping (here the AOC G2590PX) has completely solved my issues. For more details see Re: Widescreen monitors and 4:3 aspect ratio compatibility thread

cde wrote on 2020-05-01, 16:42:

That's pretty sad 🙁 My current 144 Hz monitor (AOC G2590FX) offers two 4:3 image ratios (17" and 19") for its VGA input, and also supports 720x400@70 Hz (in addition to VESA modes @60 Hz) without frame dropping. It's a pretty nice choice if you can live with the black borders. Also has 1:1 input ratio which is nice.

Thanks for the info, but not looking for a widescreen monitor. Most old games are 4:3.