The lowest resolution that RealDropzone supports is 1024x768. Any monitor that was purchased in the last 8 years is sure to support this resolution. That having been said, it is STRONGLY recommended that you have a much higher resolution for your PCs, at the very least for the PC that will be handling manifesting. RealDropzone has been developed to provide a very high level of flexibility in what you can see on the screen at any given point in time. Size panel windows can be “floated”, windows can be configured to be displayed side by side, and for those working on a smaller monitor, and panels can be “unpinned” so that they only appear when you hover over them.
If you already have a decent monitor, give it a try before you look into purchasing anything new.
If you’re going to be purchasing a new monitor, I personally recommend a resolution of 1920x1200 for the workstation being used for manifest. I’ve been told by my peers that this may be overkill, but I’m a firm believer that more digital real-estate means more efficiency, and at the prices you can purchase monitors these days, I feel it’s really hard to say no.
Because 1920x1200 is such a high resolution, you’ll want to make sure to purchase a large monitor; I recommend 22-24 inches. Anything larger can be harder to fit on a desk.
As of writing this article (2/13/2009), www.TigerDirect.com has the following monitors on sale which I think are a great value. My favorite pick is the 24 inch Acer, this is the monitor that I was demonstrating on at the 2009 PIA Symposium.
- Acer H233Hbmid 23” LCD Monitor – 1920x1080 res : $219.99
- Gateway FHD2401 24” Widescreen Monitor (refurbished) – 1920x1200 res : $249.96
- Acer X243Wbd 24” Widescreen LCD Monitor – 1920x1200 res : $299.99
- I-Inc iF-281DPB 28” Widescreen LCD Monitor – 1920x1200 res : $329.99
If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask us before making any hardware purchases. We would be happy to do a little shopping for you and make a recommendation based on current prices.