Tell me about lcd monitors.

[Phred]

Didn't see any threads regarding monitors on the first 4-5 pages so I figure I'm pretty safe here. 

Ok dispite my old glass tty 19" color monitor refusing to die I am succumbing to the allure of these sexy new wide screen monitors. Checking around Vancouver I find that there is a nice one with the following specs. Anyone know anything bad about this obvious off brand? The 1 yr warrantee is a bit off putting but the price is pretty good. 178.00 CAD.
.
Calypso CLP22-LM1 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor
    * 22” Widescreen
    * 1680 x 1050 resolution
    * 1,000:1 contrast ratio
    * 300 cd/m2 brightness
    * 2ms GTG response time
    * Viewing angle: 170 Horizontal x 160 Vertical
    * +25/-5 (degrees) tilt adjustment
    * Connectivity: VGA, DVI-D
    * Vesa wall mount compatible: 75mm x 75mm
    * Dimensions: 11.6”(H) x 13.5”(W) x 2.9”(D)
    * Weight: 9.5 lb.
    * 1-year limited warranty

The other alternative is name brand stuff from future shop which is similarly priced. Also I know the fastest response time is the best for gaming but how bad is 5ms as I see some unusually low priced monitors at that time where most are 2ms.

TIA for helping with my homework.

[Goreschach]

Any reason you're not picking a 1920x1080? It's pretty much the standard, now, and will remain so for at least the next several years.

[Phred]

Any reason you're not picking a 1920x1080? It's pretty much the standard, now, and will remain so for at least the next several years.

NFC why that matters but I can get one at that res for pretty cheap but it's  5 ms which I'm more concerned with. I'm not a hard core shooter fan but did like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Fallout 3 and games like that and the blurriness would annoy me way more than a slightly non standard resolution.

[Trippy]

Response time is not the end-all, be-all for gaming -- there's also input lag as well. The 2ms TN panels typically use some sort of "overdrive" to achieve that low a number which increases input lag. Overdrive also degrades the image quality more on TN panels because they are 6-bit panels rather than 8-bit so the dithering 6-bit panels do is often more noticeable when overdrive is enabled. Of course the image/color quality on TN panels is pretty crappy to begin with so you might not care/notice. I'm happy gaming on my 5 ms TN panel but I don't play competitively anymore so I wouldn't even be able to notice if I died cause my monitor "skipped" a frame or two in an FPS.

[Goreschach]

It shouldn't really matter. Unless you're spending several hundred you're not going to get any kind of monitor with a real 2ms refresh time. That 'GTG' means gray to gray, it's not the full refresh speed. The important thing when shopping for an lcd is to figure out what kind of panel it has/you want.

[Shrike]

Best go look at them in person and see what you like. It helps if they have decent software running on the demo boxes, but generally they don't. Still, see what strikes your fancy.

Numbers are OK, but it's really up to what you like. My own LCD is a Philips S-IPS 1920x1200 screen. It's known for good color reproduction, but not so hot response time. I like it quite a bit, though, and have no issues with its performance. General rule is TN panels have better response, whereas IPS panels have much better viewing angle and color reproduction. PVA screens are generlly in between and have good blacks. TNs are cheap, IPS expensive, and--again--PVA is in the middle, though closer to TN pricing.

The Samsung LED backlit LCDs strike my fancy quite a bit. However, I'd rather avoid TN panels on general principles, but those I"ve seen lately actually look pretty good. A friend recently picked up an ASUS 1920x1080 screen. It's pretty impressive I must say--especially being less than $300, whereas my Philips was over $800 (though that was about 3 years ago).

If I were buying today, I"d be looking at 30" panels...just sayin'...

[Phred]

So basically this would be a good deal I'd probably be quite happy with?

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/emachines-emachines-21-5-widescreen-lcd-monitor-with-5ms-response-time-e211h-bb-e211h-bb/10137246.aspx?path=3f57e5adce1b01e9ae027bba4cc3368een02

[Engels]

You haven't really said what's important to you. Few questions:

What's your budget?
Are you going to watch movies on it? If so, avoid TN, go for IPS or PVA
Are you going to do any photography? Do you care about image quality? IPS tend to be better here too.
Are you going to be competitive in FPS or some such? Then probably a pricier TN is going to do you well.

Thing to remember is that its no use spending 400 bucks on a video card if you're going to buy a monitor that just looks second rate. Monitors last a good long time. I've gone through 3 video cards on my monitor now. The one the GF uses has been through the 5000, 7000, 9000 series of Nvidia cards and is about to embark on another adventure in gaming on a 400 series card. It cost me 800 bucks at the time, 7 years ago.

Try to look before you buy. Don't go on specs alone because its nigh impossible to tell if you're going to get what you like, unless you're getting something very expensive which essentially guarantees you'll get a good monitor.
Decide what you think you'll use it for.
What types of connections do you need? VGA, DVI, DisplayPort or HDMI

Rule of thumb: Good for gaming, good for video/pictures or cheap. Pick two. In fact, if you want to quibble, you can't get very good for video/photo and cheap, since that requires an IPS and those tend to be more expensive.

Oh, and stay the hell away from eMachines stuff.

[Phred]

You haven't really said what's important to you. Few questions:

What's your budget? 200$ or so. Lower if possible. 150 sounds idea

Are you going to watch movies on it? If so, avoid TN, go for IPS or PVA

Ya I will be watching movies but I have very low taste in picture quality. I watch a lot of so so avi movies.

Are you going to do any photography? Do you care about image quality?

No on photography, Yes on image quality in general  though.
 IPS tend to be better here too.

Are you going to be competitive in FPS or some such? Then probably a pricier TN is going to do you well.

Not even close to a hard core fps guy,as I said I'm mostly and rpg guy but some of those get a bit shootery nowadays.

Thing to remember is that its no use spending 400 bucks on a video card if you're going to buy a monitor that just looks second rate. Monitors last a good long time. I've gone through 3 video cards on my monitor now. The one the GF uses has been through the 5000, 7000, 9000 series of Nvidia cards and is about to embark on another adventure in gaming on a 400 series card. It cost me 800 bucks at the time, 7 years ago.

Ya I saved up for an 8800gt a few years back only to have it suffer from the bad solder joint problem. I bought a dirt cheap ATI 4850 and I'm not coming back to Nvidia any time soon.

Try to look before you buy. Don't go on specs alone because its nigh impossible to tell if you're going to get what you like, unless you're getting something very expensive which essentially guarantees you'll get a good monitor.
Decide what you think you'll use it for.
What types of connections do you need? VGA, DVI, DisplayPort or HDMI

I believe the cards  I use have DVI connectors  dont they? Right now I'm running with an adapter to the vga input on my old 19" Philips 109b which should give you an idea of the quality I'm willing to settle for.

Rule of thumb: Good for gaming, good for video/pictures or cheap. Pick two. In fact, if you want to quibble, you can't get very good for video/photo and cheap, since that requires an IPS and those tend to be more expensive

.

Oh, and stay the hell away from eMachines stuff.

Ok thanks for the warning. Apologies for the semi Sir Brucing of this reply. Old usenet habits and all.

[NiX]

If you're in Canada you should be buying from either Canada Computers or NCIX. Any deal you find through them will be significantly better than anything you'll get at BB/FS.

[Shrike]

I'd raise your budget to around $400 and start looking at PVA panels. Would seem to cover your needs the best.

[Engels]

I looked at this page

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=22_292&page=1&sort=3a

and saw a bunch of decent stuff. I'd go either for Samsung or Asus, as people seem to be quite content with those brands. They also have a ~$300 CDN NEC, which looks pretty sweet. Its IPS too. Review here:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/monitors/2010/01/07/nec-multisync-ea231wmi/1

[Phred]

I looked at this page

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=22_292&page=1&sort=3a

and saw a bunch of decent stuff. I'd go either for Samsung or Asus, as people seem to be quite content with those brands. They also have a ~$300 CDN NEC, which looks pretty sweet. Its IPS too. Review here:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/monitors/2010/01/07/nec-multisync-ea231wmi/1

Damn, some of those prices are pretty nice but why point me at 23". With my lifetime of glasses wearing I found my 19" glass tty monitor a tiny bit wide in that I first got a bit of a sore neck looking from side to side on it. I've had it in my mind a while a 20-21.5 would probably suit me just fine,

Any drawbacks to these Acer refurbs? Canada Computers seems to specialize in them.

As a old retired guy on a fixed budget it's difficult to go blow 400+ on something where I'd probably be happy with a 200$ item. After this discussion I'm leaning towards the top model on this list. Only problem is seeing one in action. http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=22_291 Maybe I can get lucky at Future shop or NCIX.

[Engels]

Well, remember that its a combo between resolution and size. So a 23" 1920x1080 is going to be slightly easier to read than a 20" 1920x1080, simply because the image is 'spread out' a bit more. Remember, you can always resize your document/browser to take up only 2/3rds of the screen and in that way you're not having to twist your head back and forth. I find it nice to have a small video of something or other up in the right corner while still comfortably browsing.

 Another advantage over getting something 1920x1080 is that you can see full 1080 video; below that resolution you aren't getting the full deal. I know, not that big a deal, but if the difference is 40 bucks give or take, why not just be a bit nicer to yourself and do that?

Acer, like eMachines, is a budget brand. I would really stick to Gateway, Samsung or Asus.

[Shrike]

I'm kinda diggin' on that NEC. They do make some outstanding hardware. My last CRT was an NEC 21" and it's still soldiering on with my older box on the other desk.

I'd be inclined to avoid Gateway. Some of their newest stuff has great image quality, but it's durability is piss poor. There's an enormous thread over at HardOCP on the tribulations of their last 30" display. It's not pretty.

[fuser]

If you're in Canada you should be buying from either Canada Computers or NCIX. Any deal you find through them will be significantly better than anything you'll get at BB/FS.

NCIX is great on price matching anything and never had an issue with them in ~10 years now. Another option is to watch the Dell deals, free purolator ground shipping in Canada, and from reports great handling returns. Few sales ago picked up a p2310h for $169(not a bad deal on TN with options) so if you can wait and shop around I highly recommend them.

I've swore off Samsung for a while I have two power supplies pop in their panels over the last year on their 225bw and horrible backlight bleeding.

[Krakrok]

TigerDirect has the I-Inc IH-282HPB 28" Widescreen LCD Monitor for  $249.99. $15.13 Shipping. Tax in FL, IL, NC.

1920x1080; 3ms; 800:1; 400nits; HDMI & VGA.


That's the one I'm looking to add as my 3rd monitor anyway.

[Bunk]

If you're in Canada you should be buying from either Canada Computers or NCIX. Any deal you find through them will be significantly better than anything you'll get at BB/FS.

I'll second that. In Vancouver you should be looking at NCIX (Richmond) or ATIC.

[Phred]

Damn that 28 wide screen has me drooling. gonna have to check the in store deals at ncix and atic though

[Trippy]

At that size and resolution the pixels may be larger than you are used to. Also at that size the crappy TN viewing angles are much more noticeable, especially if you can't move the monitor back further compared to a smaller monitor.

[Ingmar]

Is there a reason you're all looking at 1920x1080 monitors instead of 1920x1200?

[Trippy]

Is there a reason you're all looking at 1920x1080 monitors instead of 1920x1200?

Most new LCD models are 16:9 instead of 16:10.

[Ingmar]

Obvious followup question: why is that? Personally I find 16:10 a lot nicer for general computing.

[Trippy]

HDTVs are 16:9 so consumers are getting used to those proportions. Also 16:9 content, like most made for HDTV programming, will display without black bars on 16:9 displays. Movies, which are typically wider than 16:9 (1.78:1), will show up with black bars on both 16:9 and 16:10 though the bars will be shorter in height on 16:9.

[Ingmar]

Hm, interesting. Well, as long as 16:10 doesn't go away completely I guess I don't care too much.

It does seem an odd choice to me to base a purchasing decision for something like a PC screen around a type of media that probably *isn't* the primary use for the device, but to each his own.

[Phred]

Welp, damn impulse caught me again. I'm now the relatively happy owner of a 22" Acer 223W. Not the fastest or the sharpest either but the price was right and it was an impulse buy.

Thanks for all the input I learned a ton in this past few days regarding monitors and hopefully the info in the thread will help someone else too.

[Sky]

Don't forget gaming. Consoles all = 16:9 native. Ironically, many early HD console ports couldn't do 16:9 on the PC

[Teleku]

Hm, interesting. Well, as long as 16:10 doesn't go away completely I guess I don't care too much.

It does seem an odd choice to me to base a purchasing decision for something like a PC screen around a type of media that probably *isn't* the primary use for the device, but to each his own.

I don't own a TV, so I just use my 1900x1080 flatscreen LCD for everything.  Have my PC, Playstation 3, and Mac Mini all running into it, heh.