I have a Viewsonic 20 inch LCD Monitor that I've owned for a few years but it is beginning to cause problems and I need to replace it. Incidentally, I purchased a 40 inch Samsung Widescreen HDTV a few weeks ago. I was very dissapointed to learn that most non-digital TV programs "stretch" the picture to fit the screen...therefore distorting the picture. This annoys me.

So my question is this: If I purchase a 20 or 22 inch LCD computer monitor that is widescreen, will there be distortion for my games such as IL-2 1946? I would find it hard to accept distortion of the aircraft that I have grown accoustomed to the realistic images on my Viewsonic Conventional 20 inch screen. Are the "older" computer games, such as IL-2, suitable for the new widescreen monitors? It seems that most computer monitors offered today in 20 to 22 inches come in Widescreen only. How can a 4 to 3 aspect ratio go to a 16 to 9 aspect ratio without distortion?

Are my concerns reasonable? I want realism rather than "stretched" images. I would appreciate any suggestions because my monitor is on it's last leg and I don't want to make the mistake of buying something that I would have trouble living with.

Not at all....

You will get black bars on the load up screens..



But once in the sim you will get a wider picture..



You will have to edit your config file since the sim doesn't support widescreen naturally.. but it does work with no distortion and a wider screen.. Here is a sample from my config file:

[window]
width=1920
height=1200
ColourBits=32
DepthBits=24
StencilBits=8
ChangeScreenRes=1
FullScreen=1
DrawIfNotFocused=0
EnableResize=0
EnableClose=1
SaveAspect=0
Use3Renders=0

Located at : C:\Program Files \Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\conf

Be advised that should you go to the setup screen then your widescreen config will go back to the default of 800x600, but you can just red o it. The config file opens with Notepad.. and after you alter it just save the changes.

There is a slight cut off on the top & bottom.. but it is not really an issue.. especially if you have TIR.

See the chart below for screen configs.

BC explains it very well.
Since I got a 22" widescreen monitor,I will never go back to a square one.

Same here. IL2 at WSXGA+ is just plain fabulous, especially w trackIR