f13.net

SONY GDM-F520 which has served me well for many years is starting to go.

So, started looking around for gaming monitors.

This is what I am seeing as a good buy:
Samsung 23" flat panel LED (backlit i guess) monitor, XL 2370
Manufacturer's specifications:
Resolution: 1,920x1,080
Pixel-response rate: 2ms
Contrast ratio: 1,000:1
Connectivity: HDMI, DVI-D
HDCP compliant? Yes
Included video cables? DVI, DVI to VGA
Backlight: LED
Panel Type: TN

for $299
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung+-+23%22+Flat-Panel+LED+Monitor+-+Charcoal+Gray/9511156.p?PID=3586864&nAID=11138&id=1218118316585&ci_sku=9511156&ref=39&cjsku=9511156&ky=2gfnd4j9YOTpkHmwzOYeVVqdBkHGzRzrJ&ci_src=11138&loc=01&URL=http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9511156&type=product&id=1218118316585&cmp=RMX&ky=2gfnd4j9YOTpkHmwzOYeVVqdBkHGzRzrJ&ci_src=11138&ci_sku=9511156&nAID=11138&ref=39&loc=01&cmp=RMX&AID=10638425&skuId=9511156

my god that is one crazy link, anyways:  CNET review

http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/samsung-syncmaster-xl2370/4505-3174_7-33683882.html

being very new to LCD/LED stuff... any yays or nays?

My group tends to order a lot of Samsungs as the standard LCD. I have a couple 2443bw and 2493hm models, so although I don't have the one you mention around I can say all the Samsungs in that general family of 20+ widescreen monitor types seem fine (and a good deal at that).

I have had no trouble with any of mine, and I have upgraded for size once or twice in the last few years but not for problem reasons.

thanks appreciate the feedback.

given that it is on backorder, I am just gonna order now and cancel if i find something horrific about it.

What resolution did you run the F520 at?

That's a good price for an LED backlight monitor.

1152x864 at 120 refresh

Originally I used it for GIS but it eventually wound up as part of a gaming rig.  Was a very nice monitor that was way underutilized with just gaming.

If you run the Samsung at its native resolution things are going to look much smaller on that screen compared to the F520.

On the F520 you are running at 72 pixels per inch.

On a 23" diagonal monitor at 1080p the PPI is 95.78.

Depending on your eyesight this may be a problem.

On a 27" 1080p monitor the PPI is 81.59.

You have to go all the way up to 30 - 31" diagonal to get basically the same PPI you have now.

You should get this.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9179LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTA4MzU1OTQ (http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9179LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTA4MzU1OTQ)

 :roll: The more money than sense choice?

I've had several Samsungs, they've been decent tn monitors, I'm currently using a Samsung T260HD as a combination second monitor/hdtv. Quite happy with it. None of mine ever developed any issues, and are still working fine.

That's not 1080p -- it's 2560 x 1600 with a PPI of 100.63.

Didn't know he was looking for that as a requirement.  It's a damned nice display.

I also have one of these that I like quite a bit.  Maybe it would fit the desired specs

http://www.vizio.com/vmm26f20i.html (http://www.vizio.com/vmm26f20i.html)

Apple displays look nice, but may have some input lag and ghosting. Maybe.

Apple 30" Cinema Display (M9179) 16ms 30"WS LG.Philips S-IPS (LM300W01)
Apple 30" Cinema Display (M9179-Alu) 14ms 30"WS LG.Philips S-IPS (LM300W01)

They are both probably very good for video, since its an S-IPS screen. Great viewing angles and all that.

Check this site for very comprehensive info:

www.tftcentral.co.uk

He didn't say it was but given he's running a 20" (actual) monitor at such a low resolution leads me to believe he prefers large pixels.

*-IPS panels typically have better than average input lag compared to *-PVA/*-MVA panels (their closest competitors quality-wise) cause they typically don't have all that overdrive crap which adds lag or if they do not to the extent that VA panels use them. IPS panels that have > 8-bit color lookup tables are an exception to that rule as they employ additional electronics to maximize color accuracy which adds input lag.

Also I don't know how we went from a $300 monitor to recommending $1800 monitors but I doubt Fraeg is looking to spend so much on one.

I have two.

That Samsung is still pretty badass though.

Another thumbs-up for Samsung here - they're great monitors.

We're only a couple weeks away from Black Friday.  Might just want to wait and see if any good deals pop up.

I recently replaced a Dell 2001fp with this Hanns G 28" (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254026&cm_re=Hanns_g_28-_-24-254-026-_-Product) and it is awesome.
Gaming is all I care about on this system and this display looks great and is huge. I'm also replacing my wife's Samsung with one shortly. Tiger Direct also sells it branded as I-inc on the cheap but I prefer newegg.
I couldn't be happier and not a single dead pixel.

You can get the 24" apple display for $850 or so.

In the end, it really depends on what you want to spend.  More money typically means better display.  I've seen some pretty crappy hi def displays and televisions.  That vizio I linked is a little more expensive but produces a nice image.

Edit:  and I have to quit clicking on Newegg links.  I almost always buy something. :uhrr:

The Hanns G is nice as TN panels go (though it really needs a DVI-D port and I'm not a fan of its side mounted controls). However if you are going to hook your monitor up to a widescreen console system as well as a PC I would recommend dropping down to 27" 1080p if you want something of comparable size (they don't make 28" 1080p monitors). The Hanns G is 1920 x 1200 which means you'll have to deal with black bars with "full frame" 16:9 material.

The Apple LED Cinema Display is incredibly nice. However its use of a Mini DisplayPort connector makes it incredibly awkward to use with your normal PC graphics cards. Even if you happen to have a (regular) DisplayPort output on your card you still have to hunt down an adapter that's made by just one manufacturer (that I've been able to find) to get it to work. Oh and the adapter is always on backorder too. Now that VESA has officially approved the Mini DisplayPort connector maybe we'll see more cards/cables/adapters that support it beyond just what Apple makes.

I picked up an HP2907M a month or two back and am loving it thus far, 1080p (1920x1080), no noticable lag or ghosting, and it's got the same glossy coating my fhd2400 does that makes everything look better.  It was a hair over $300 at jr.com iirc.

My only complaint is no vertical adjustment on the stand, and I haven't gotten around to making one to set it up a bit higher.  I picked up a wall mount, but its 100x200, and I accidentally bought a 100x100, so it didn't work.

I think you meant 2709m. I have two of those (one at home, one at work). schild has one too I believe.

The default color settings are horrid but I have a colorimeter and the colors look very nice (for a TN panel) after being calibrated.

OooOoo.  That sounds like fun.  Which one do you have/recommend?

I have the i1Display 2 (http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=788) (also called the Eye-One Display 2).

My main requirements were Mac & PC compatibility and "unlimited usage" license (can install software on any number of computers and calibrate any number of monitors). I'm don't do professional "color" work (pro digital photograher, color print work, etc.) so I don't need the utmost in color accuracy so I didn't look at anything above ~$200 (colorimeters run into the thousands).

The two choices that meet this (sort of) are the above i1Display 2 and the Spyder3Pro (http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc-s3pro.php). The Spyder3Pro is cheaper than the i1Display2 but reading reviews and talking to the salesperson at the digital photography shop I bought it at (Amazon didn't have the i1Display2 stock at the time) pretty much all say the i1Display2 is the better product and the Spyder3Pro has/had problems calibrating on Snow Leopard (Snow Leopard changed the default gamma).

Both X-Rite and Datacolor sell cheaper versions of the above products (e.g. i1Display LT, Spyder3Express) if you don't need the unlimited license or as much control over the calibration process.

I'm sure my color settings are horrid, seeing as I'm color-deficient anyways.  Is calibration a one time thing I could find someone local to set up for me, or is it software that always needs to run?

The colorimeter software creates a color profile file when it's done calibrating which it installs for you into your OS's color management system. There's no additional software that has to run in the background to use this profile. Colors will change over time so they do recommend you recalibrate periodically. However if you aren't doing color-proofing work it would probably take a long time for things to drift far enough that you would actually notice things had changed, if at all.

I could post my HP 2709m Windows XP color profile when I get home (I'm on a Mac at work) and you could try it on your monitor to see if you prefer that. Note that every monitor even of the same model is slightly different in its color display so the colors won't be as accurate compared to if you used a colorimeter on your monitor directly.

/em head hurts

as you pointed out Trippy yeah I like big pixels.  My eyesight ain't all that anymore, my windows settings have text set to large, and in basically every game that has the option I increase the font size.

Soooo... what monitor(s) are you rocking Trippy? 

As for the crazy expensive monitors I am hoping to stay below 500 bucks.  As for the black friday suggestion, my CRT is pretty much shot, but you make a very good point, I can probably *borrow* a random generic 19" lcd monitor from work until Black Friday.

I have the same problem as you. I run my 18" (actual) CRTs at 1024 x 768 so I get big(ger) pixels.

Switching to LCDs is a big problem, however, cause they only look good at their native resolutions and most people, apparently, like their pixels teeny tiny (e.g. 1080p at 20" is just :uhrr:). Hence all the time I've spent figuring out PPIs for various monitors to find some with larger pixels at their native resolutions. The other problem with LCDs is as the PPI goes down (i.e. pixels get larger) the "screen door" effect becomes more noticeable.

As mentioned above I'm currently working on the HP 2709m which is 27" diagonal 1080p (1920 x 1080). The PPI is higher than what I'm used to on my CRTs (~81 PPI vs ~71 PPI) but it's not so bad and so far I don't have any eyestrain issues with the monitor. Effectively the sharper text on the LCD compared to a CRT compensates for the slightly smaller text. At this PPI, though, the screen door effect is visible though not distractingly so.

For a while I seriously considered getting a 32" 1080p HDTV to use as a computer monitor as that would give pixels slightly larger than what I have on the CRTs but that was slightly too big and the screen door effect at that size kept me from going that route.

A 30" 1080p (preferrably *-IPS) monitor would be ideal for me, assuming I could stand the screen door effect at that size but the only 30" panels are at 2560 x 1600 (there are no 30" 1080p HDTVs for some reason) and now we're back to teeny tiny pixels.

Edit:

I forgot to mention that another option might be to get a small 720p HDTV. Most 720p HDTVs that also have computer connections are at 1366 x 768 native resolution, not 1280 x 720. At 22" a 720p (1366 x 768) HDTV is 71.23 PPI which is very close to what you are using now. I'm actually considering going this route for my parents as their eyesight is even worse than mine (old age and all that).

thanks, I appreciate the feedback

cheers

That would be most gracious of you and I'd really appreciate it.

Thank ya, sir. 

My HP 2709m color profile setup has been posted to here:

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=18269.0

 :Love_Letters: :rock_hard: :heart: :heart:

oh god this was 300 dollars well spent.

the colors are so beautiful it simply is astounding.   I can't believe I held onto that CRT for as long as I did.   As you suspected Trippy the native format does make things tiny but with some messing of font sizes etc. it is fine for my eyes.

Dragon age origins just looks so sexy.

There has been some bitching about the stand being to flimsy, which to me seems silly as this thing weighs hardly anythig.  Sexy sexy design, sexy sexy images...the one downside?  So many things now look like shit.  It is like listening to an old favorite album on a very high end sound system, all these flaws are suddenly apparent to your ears.

Anyways, based on 2 days experience with this monitor I would definately recommend it to anyone.  Note: I haven't done any FPS stuff on it though.

cheers.