Hi everyone,
Just wanted to seek your humble advice as I am planning to get a new monitor. I’m planning to buy a new LG 38” 21:9 ultrawide monitor (38GN950) that has a resolution of 3840 x 1600. I will be using this for daily use, but a big part of it will be watching 4k movies/MKV files using VLC player. A lot of my movies are 2.40:1 aspect ratio. I just have a few questions if you don’t mind.
1. If I watch these movies fullscreen using VLC player, will there be black bars on the side/top? Or will the movie fill up the entire screen for maximum immersion?
2. Will the movie look stretched in full screen?
3. Even though the resolution of 4k UHD movies does not match the native resolution of this monitor, how will the image look? Will it look similar to a 4k (3840 x 2160) native monitor?
Thanks for all your help!!
Ultrawide Monitor for Watching MKV Files
Re: Ultrawide Monitor for Watching MKV Files
Both Blu-rays (1920x1080) and UHDs (3840x2160) have a fixed aspect ratio of 16:9 aka 1.78:1, even if the movie content itself has a less tall aspect ratio such as 2.4:1, in that case the video on the disc actually has black bars encoded in on the top and bottom. In order to take advantage of your monitor, your playback software will need to crop those black bars from the top and bottom and then zoom in.
Also, that monitor’s vertical resolution is only 1600 pixels high whereas UHDs are 2160 high... so (if they’re not 2.4:1 movies), they’re going to be downscaled, you won’t be seeing them in their native 4K resolution.
Also, have you already tried playing 4K discs/MKVs with VLC? It’s probably not the software of choice for most people.
So you do say that “most” of your movies are 2.4:1, so for those movies you’d be fine once you sort out the playback software, but otherwise this monitor may not provide you with the best watching experience for 4K content. Any movies that are not 2.4:1 (movies with expanded aspect ratio for “IMAX” scenes as just one example) are going to have bars on the sides, and will be downscaled if they’re UHDs.
Also, that monitor’s vertical resolution is only 1600 pixels high whereas UHDs are 2160 high... so (if they’re not 2.4:1 movies), they’re going to be downscaled, you won’t be seeing them in their native 4K resolution.
Also, have you already tried playing 4K discs/MKVs with VLC? It’s probably not the software of choice for most people.
So you do say that “most” of your movies are 2.4:1, so for those movies you’d be fine once you sort out the playback software, but otherwise this monitor may not provide you with the best watching experience for 4K content. Any movies that are not 2.4:1 (movies with expanded aspect ratio for “IMAX” scenes as just one example) are going to have bars on the sides, and will be downscaled if they’re UHDs.
Using: ASUS BW-16D1HT 3.00
Re: Ultrawide Monitor for Watching MKV Files
I know that both blu rays and UHD's are 16:9 aspect ratio as they include the top/bottom bars despite the actual movie being 21:9 aspect ratio. I'm not playing any movie on a UHD disc, I backed them up on my computer as mkv so I can watch using VLC player. A UHD movie is 3840 pixels across, but not 2160 pixels vertical. 3840 x 2160 includes both the top and bottom bars, so the actual height of the movie is less than 2160. The width of the movie is indeed 3840 because it spans the entire screen of the resolution of the monitor is 3840.
I checked every single one of my movies on blu-ray.com and they are all 2.40:1 with the exception of Justice League 4k which is 1.85:1. In the future, even if i do have other movies that are not 2.4:1 and are showing up with black bars on the monitor, I can live with that. I know that most of my current collection now are 2.40:1 (I actually don't buy a lot of new 4k blu rays that I backup as mkv, I just have a select few i watch over and over again).
I checked every single one of my movies on blu-ray.com and they are all 2.40:1 with the exception of Justice League 4k which is 1.85:1. In the future, even if i do have other movies that are not 2.4:1 and are showing up with black bars on the monitor, I can live with that. I know that most of my current collection now are 2.40:1 (I actually don't buy a lot of new 4k blu rays that I backup as mkv, I just have a select few i watch over and over again).