Maybe you're right, but your post didn't help him either.

Did i say i want/am able to?

Thanks very much for your valuable help in this matter.

I think upon reflection, a 20" screen might be just a bit too big for my requirements. I think I'd be happier with a 19" screen.

Do you know of any 19" LCDs which allow DOS games to be displayed "properly", and are not extremely expensive? When I say "properly", I'd be perfectly happy if say a 800x600 game was positioned in the middle of the display / and you get black borders around the image.

Many thanks,
-Robert.

Just about any video card these days can be set to not stretch (within Windows that is). DOSBOX can be set to your native res at full-screen, but not to scale so that it's 1:1. And then most LCDs (all?) I've used also have their own scaling options in their setup menu. The way to make sure would be to try to go a look at their user's manual. It will probably tell you about the LCD's setup options. Or, even better, just go to a store and look at them in-person.

My Dell widescreen LCDs have 3 options. 1:1, Aspect, and Fill. The "Aspect" mode stretches output at its aspect ratio. So if I'm running a 1024x768 resolution, it fills the screen vertically but has black borders along the sides.

Scaling isn't all that bad. I find it acceptable usually. You can always try out DOSBOX scalers too to see what looks best to you. Assuming you're going to use DOSBOX, anyway.

For a "pure" retro box, CRTs really are the best way to go unfortunately.... They give a better picture for numerous reasons.

Your Dell monitor sounds really good. I'd be very happy with one that had 1:1 and aspect options. I don't want a widescreen though, and I think 19" is good from a size point of view.

If you know of any models, pls let me know, thanks,
-Rob.

btw, I got an LG LCD 19" and ran Dark Forces on it (using a d-sub 15 pin cable), and I'm quite happy with the results. This was in pure dos mode. I couldn't see any black borders, so I guess it was stretched but to my eyes it seemed ok to look at.

I'd like a 2nd monitor though, for old dos stuff, but I'd like to get a different brand other than LG, just in case I find something better that I like - there's a few things about the LG I don't like - it's too bright for instance. If you turn down the brightness, the electronics panel in front of you makes a humming sound.

retro games wrote:

Your Dell monitor sounds really good. I'd be very happy with one that had 1:1 and aspect options. I don't want a widescreen though, and I think 19" is good from a size point of view.

One of the nice things about Dell is that they have manuals for just about everything they sell inside the support area of their web site. So you can go see exactly what the LCDs can do before you buy them. I have a 2005FPW 20.5". I'm not sure what the newer screens can do so it would be a good idea to go look their manuals up.

In order to get an aspect ratio monitor of 4:3 to play DOS games, I was thinking of getting this monitor -

NEC MultiSync LCD2070VX-BK 20" TFT Monitor 1600 x 1200 300 cd/m2 800:1 5 ms DVI-D/VGA Black

It's quite big (20") however. It has 5ms response time. I've seen a handful of user comments on dabs com saying that they like it.

Any thoughts on my choice? I'm a bit clueless about all of this, so if this idea seems daft, please let me know.

Thank you, regards, Robert.