How good is aspect ratio 21:9 (3440 x 1440) ?

[Hi P]

I'm used ro 16:9 aspect ratio, so 21:9 sounds really weird for me

 

Do most games support that aspect ratio?

 

What about most videos / movies / etc?

 

 

[RONOTHAN##]

Most games support it, some require mods in order to not get black bars but that's not that common any more. 

 

Videos/movies/whatever depends on the source, but usually there are some sort of mod that gets it to work (Chrome extensions exist for Netflix, for example). 

 

Personally I'm not that big a fan, I'd rather have multiple 16:9 panels for the type of workflow I've got, but there are plenty of people I know (in person and on here) that swear by it and think it's a significantly better gaming experience. It is very much a personal preference thing. 

[CommanderAlex]

As what @RONOTHAN## mentioned, I personally, love my 21:9 more than when I had a 27" 1440 16:9. I did try out triple monitor gaming once with 3-27" monitors and felt that is was pretty wasteful and not to mention, the graphical horsepower to power all those pixels was something I was not looking at. 

 

I had a 29" 1080 21:9 ultrawide once by LG and it was good, some drawbacks at the time were lower refresh rate and the resolution, so I sold it and got the 27" 1440 I mentioned above. Afterwards, I decided to look back at the ultrawide market to see how they have improved and decided to settle for the one I got. 34". 3440x1440, 165Hz, curved VA panel (one problem here I'll get to), was way better than the LG ultrawide I had back then as 2560x1080, 75Hz. 

 

One thing with ultrawide monitors on the budget/cheap end use VA panels that have terrible ghosting, requiring overdrive to try and smear out that issues, mainly from white to black. Higher end models such as from Samsung like the G9 use better panels that minimize this as much as possible. 

[Andrewtst]

This depends on user. 

 

I love as wide as possible. I from 16:9 to 21:9 to 32:9.

 

For first time trying Ultrawide, I suggest go for 21:9 due to compatibility issue on games. 

 

For streaming platform, now Netflix and Amazon Prime is fully supported Ultrawide aspect ratio if the movie is 21:9. Others streaming platform may not support yet. 

 

For physical disc 4K UHD Blu-ray or Blu-ray it is always on 16:9 even the movie is 21:9 as physical disc was design for TV. You can have some player that can zoom out smoothly, for example PotPlayer, VLC player and etc.

[Hi P]

53 minutes ago, Andrewtst said:

I love as wide as possible. I from 16:9 to 21:9 to 32:9.

But don't you have issues when consuming media content? (Youtube, Netflix, etc) Due to them not being 21:9 / 32:9 for the most part

 

Same question for @CommanderAlex

[Andrewtst]

19 minutes ago, Hi P said:

But don't you have issues when consuming media content? (Youtube, Netflix, etc) Due to them not being 21:9 / 32:9 for the most part

 

Same question for @CommanderAlex

It is just black bar on left and right. I am OK with it. YouTube is support 21:9 but not many this aspect ratio video. Same as Netflix have movie in 21:9 as well and Netflix is support Ultrawide for quite sometimes already.

 

It is same black bar top and bottom in 16:9 aspect ratio display when viewing 21:9 aspect ratio film. Just in Ultrawide display the top and bottom black bar became left and right if watching 16:9 aspect ratio film. 

 

But if the streaming platform not support, then a 21:9 aspect ratio movies will have top, bottom,  left and right with black bar. This one not OK. 

[Stahlmann]

Ultimately it's not worth it imo.  big screen 16:9 like a 42" 4K model will always have better immersion as it fills up more of your fov. Plus you don't have to get through the hassle of making some games compatible with 21:9. I used ultrawide for years and only switched back to 16:9 about 2 months ago.

 

Contrary to what others already said, game support was a very mixed bag for me. About 60% of the games i played worked without any further tweaks. The other 40% needed mods, editing the .exe file using hex edit, 3rd party programs that need to run in the background (basically memory hacks) or straight up didn't support ultrawide period. As soon as any anti cheat software is involved you can obviously forget about any of these fixes unless you want to get banned.

 

It got so bad that i cought myself making game buying decisions based on whether or not the game supports 21:9. (or if there is a known fix)

 

So basically, big screen 16:9 monitors offer even more immersion (imo) and come with the added advantage of being generally hassle-free in terms of game support.

[CommanderAlex]

7 hours ago, Hi P said:

But don't you have issues when consuming media content? (Youtube, Netflix, etc) Due to them not being 21:9 / 32:9 for the most part

 

Same question for @CommanderAlex

For me, Netflix will display in 16:9 and with black bars on the side. Also, it seems for me that Netflix will stream any video at 1080 and not try to do 4K unless you have a 4K 16:9 panel. Some movies on Netflix will output to 21:9, depending on if they have it or not.

 

YouTube, it depends on if 16:9 was the original size the video was recorded in and uploaded. If I watch a video where they use an ultrawide and recorded in 21:9, it will output at 21:9 1440 and fill the whole screen. 

[Andrewtst]

2 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

For me, Netflix will display in 16:9 and with black bars on the side. Also, it seems for me that Netflix will stream any video at 1080 and not try to do 4K unless you have a 4K 16:9 panel. Some movies on Netflix will output to 21:9, depending on if they have it or not.

 

YouTube, it depends on if 16:9 was the original size the video was recorded in and uploaded. If I watch a video where they use an ultrawide and recorded in 21:9, it will output at 21:9 1440 and fill the whole screen. 

For Netflix to output great quality (I not sure what is the resolution), you need to install HEVC Video Extensions by Microsoft Corporation. 

[CommanderAlex]

6 minutes ago, Andrewtst said:

For Netflix to output great quality (I not sure what is the resolution), you need to install HEVC Video Extensions by Microsoft Corporation. 

Ah, the $0.99 cent app offered by Microsoft lmao. Thanks for letting me know! 

[CommanderAlex]

@Andrewtst

 

Actually, I've had the other version installed all along that is free, HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer, but I've never noticed any difference. 

[Nick Brennan]

I lub me some ultrawide. I have a 34inch 3400x1440p monitor and gaming is bomb on it.

[Andrewtst]

54 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

@Andrewtst

 

Actually, I've had the other version installed all along that is free, HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer, but I've never noticed any difference. 

I think that free version no longer work after Microsoft ask for money on the latest version. 

[CommanderAlex]

1 hour ago, Andrewtst said:

I think that free version no longer work after Microsoft ask for money on the latest version. 

It must be then lol. So then it would work even if played in chrome or does it have to be the outdated apps the streaming companies have?

[Stahlmann]

2 hours ago, CommanderAlex said:

For me, Netflix will display in 16:9 and with black bars on the side. Also, it seems for me that Netflix will stream any video at 1080 and not try to do 4K unless you have a 4K 16:9 panel. Some movies on Netflix will output to 21:9, depending on if they have it or not.

 

YouTube, it depends on if 16:9 was the original size the video was recorded in and uploaded. If I watch a video where they use an ultrawide and recorded in 21:9, it will output at 21:9 1440 and fill the whole screen. 

 

17 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

It must be then lol. So then it would work even if played in chrome or does it have to be the outdated apps the streaming companies have?

 

The browser you use also impacts streaming quality. Netflix only goes as far as 720p on Chrome afaik. Firefox will also support 4K, Edge even supports 4K HDR.

 

Or just use the Netflix app form the Microsoft store.

[CommanderAlex]

2 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

 

 

The browser you use also impacts streaming quality. Netflix only goes as far as 720p on Chrome afaik. Firefox will also support 4K, Edge even supports 4K HDR.

 

Or just use the Netflix app form the Microsoft store.

That's pretty ironic, considering Chrome is known in past history for being a memory hog and only allows 720p .

 

Then I'll switch to Edge for streaming now as the apps are pretty old and aren't up to date with features/buggy. 

[Andrewtst]

6 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

That's pretty ironic, considering Chrome is known in past history for being a memory hog and only allows 720p .

 

Then I'll switch to Edge for streaming now as the apps are pretty old and aren't up to date with features/buggy. 

The best player for Netflix in windows is installing the Netflix apps from Microsoft Store. I suggest you use that.

 

[CommanderAlex]

2 minutes ago, Andrewtst said:

The best player for Netflix in windows is installing the Netflix apps from Microsoft Store. I suggest you use that.

 

~Snipped~

Netflix hasn't updated it in years and I refuse to use it if there is newer and better versions, hence the website. 

[Andrewtst]

5 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

Netflix hasn't updated it in years and I refuse to use it if there is newer and better versions, hence the website. 

Not update not means it is bad. It stream the best quality to me compare with Microsoft Edge.

But still if you want the best quality, don't use Windows. Smart TV Apps or Google Certified TV Box (example CCwGTV, Nvidia Shield Pro 2019) or Apple TV 4K (2017 or 2020 version) Box did much much better.

[CommanderAlex]

5 minutes ago, Andrewtst said:

Not update not means it is bad. It stream the best quality to me compare with Microsoft Edge.

But still if you want the best quality, don't use Windows. Smart TV Apps or Google Certified TV Box (example CCwGTV, Nvidia Shield Pro 2019) or Apple TV 4K (2017 or 2020 version) Box did much much better.

Of course, watching on a 4K smart TV is the best picture quality and cannot even be compared to anything on a computer. Nothing competes with Blu-Ray compared to streaming but I'll leave it at that as I don't want to derail the topic of this thread.

Edited October 14, 2022 by CommanderAlex
Typo

[Andrewtst]

Just now, CommanderAlex said:

Of course, watching on a 4K smart TV is the best picture quality and cannot even be compared to anything on a computer. Nothing competes with Blue-Ray compared to streaming but I'll leave it at that as I don't want to derail the topic of this thread.

I just give you solution for the best, you Blu-ray also bring out? It is call Blu-ray not Blue-Ray. Now is 4K era, you should upgrade to 4K UHD Blu-ray.

[CommanderAlex]

Just now, Andrewtst said:

I just give you solution for the best, you Blu-ray also bring out? It is call Blu-ray not Blue-Ray. Now is 4K era, you should upgrade to 4K UHD Blu-ray.

Yeah Blu-Ray, my bad (focusing on other things at the moment). 

 

Yeah I have a 4K UHD Blu-Ray player. 

[tikker]

5 hours ago, Andrewtst said:

I think that free version no longer work after Microsoft ask for money on the latest version. 

Microsoft doesn't own HEVC. There's licensing fees attached to it per user and Microsoft simply stopped eating those fees for you. The "free" from Device Manufacturer version exists, because other companies do still provide you with one. Of course that's less easy to find, because why not get an extra dollar.

[Andrewtst]

9 minutes ago, tikker said:

Microsoft doesn't own HEVC. There's licensing fees attached to it per user and Microsoft simply stopped eating those fees for you. The "free" from Device Manufacturer version exists, because other companies do still provide you with one. Of course that's less easy to find, because why not get an extra dollar.

I know both version but last time I had buy it, so I will continue use that paid version then. 

[tikker]

6 minutes ago, Andrewtst said:

I know both version but last time I had buy it, so I will continue use that paid version then. 

What I mean is that there shouldn't be a difference. Both are the HEVC codec and I would be a bit surprised if Microsoft was allowed to sell something modified that is not the HEVC codec as the HEVC codec. If none of your devices came with a license, then indeed you'll have to buy one.