Some LCD questions

[Shafra]

I'm looking into buying an LCD panel and had a few questions for anyone that can help.

1. I see many of the LCD's have a 1280x1024 res, should I try to find one that goes higher? I see several at 1440x900 which seems like an odd res.

2. What is the ratio listed? Like 500:1? Do I want lower or higher?

3. And the 8ms access time, is that the best? I'm guessing I want to stay lower on it.

Any help would be appreciated. I do lots of word processing so text will be a big factor and still play a bunch of games. I just bought a 7900GT for video card if that matters. And if you have a link for a good LCD you think would fit the bill, please link! Trying not to spend more then a few hundred US dollars if poss.

 

[peterhuang913]

1. 1280 by 1024 is the native max. resolution for most monitors with a 5:4 ratio. 1440 by 900 would be a 8:5 ratio, which i assume it's widescreen. Depending on what you are doing, a 5:4 ratio should do fine.
2. 500:1 would be the contrast ratio or the luminosity of the brightest and the darkest color the system is capable of producing. This means how it is able to produce more bright and dark colors. Higher is better.
3. 8 ms would be the respone time of the lcd monitor. The lower it is, the more images it will be able to produce per second. Since you game, lower is better. A lower number also means less ghosting or faint images left from the last frame.
Hope this helps.

 

[Kitire]

correction 1440x900 is 16:10 ratio. and it isnt 5:4 ratio, it is 4:3...

And i love my 1440x900 widescreen monitor.

500:1 is half the darkness/lightness of a CRT, dont get it..

I wouldnt go any higher than 4ms.. 8ms if you have to.

 

[peterhuang913]

It should be correct
1280 by 1024 is 5:4 = 1280/1024 = 5/4 as a fraction
but 1024 by 768 is 4:3 = 1024/768 = 4/3 as a fraction
1440 by 900 is 8:5 = 1440/900 = 8/5 as a fraction but could be 16:10, but like my math teacher always says, "Simplify your fractions"
refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratio#Ratio_analysis

 

[tommyboy123x]

haha, i love the link to wiki

but yea, i have heard 8ms is the cut off for ghosing... if you dont know what i mean, enable a pointer trail (make it really small) and test it out on a CRT monitor... it kind of leaves a trail with high ms response time similar to that one.

also, the ms response is really a lie... multiply it by 3 to get the real response time from black - white

you should check out the LCD monitor i have. Its tight, you can turn it sideways to word process and stuff (so it is portrait) and then turn it normal (landscape) to play games or general purpose work.... comes iwth the software, probably around your price range (it was around mine - im 16 + no job ) and i love it... looks cool too, no bad reviews, etc etc etc


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824005045

this monitor is the "home" version of mine... its power button is a little different... other than that nothing is new. This one is also a pretty new one released on newegg, so it has 1 review . the one i got has like 100 and they were all good... but newegg stopped carrying it

oh, and did i mention its under 1" think

 

[john3]

8ms is FINE, just dont go above 12ms, despite what some people might say. 4/3/2 is overkill unless of course if u want to spend that much money on a monitor that has fast response time, is TRUE 8bit, and has good contrast ratios and shiz, and reviews, no leaks, no dead pixels, you would have to dish out a good amount of money for a monitor with all that and 4/3/2 ms response time. above 12ms you might notice ghosting, but dun wry if its 8ms.

 

[Shafra]

Thanks! Great info

I also meant to ask, is there a quality difference between the old VGA connector and the DVI?

And please post any links to good LCD's you feel would be ok for what I do.

I appreciate the link Tommyboy! If I don't get any other good recommendations or reasons NOT to buy that one I will get it.

I'm using a ViewSonic 19" CRT now, and had looked at this LCD. Is it good or better then the one above?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116011

 

[tommyboy123x]

well VGA vs DVI is simply Analog vs Digital. If i remember correctly from a year ago when i bought my monitor, the digital input is something along the lines of the video card does the rendering and such, then sends that info to the monitor. Analog, on the other hand, simply gets the "raw data", you could say, and computes it in the huge box, which is partially why CRT's are so big. The other is because it uses a Cathode Ray Tube, CRT, which needs a good amount of distance to project a visable image.

if you are looking for a 19" LCD, that one is a great monitor. People love ViewSonic, and its a very popular brand. Personally, i loved the look of my monitor, so it got that one, even though it was 600 dollars when i bought it (wow.... but w/ rebate only $210: $140 instant, $250 mail in ). I spend a LOT of time looking at my monitor, so i didn't have a price in mind, i just wanted functionality with a very nice look (i liked the pivot/mirror/turn up-side-down thing )

here are some good ones based on the specs... but i haven't checked out the reviews (downloading a linux live cd @ ~ 1 mbps, kind of hogs the bandwidth of a cable connection).

($270) 19" 2ms response... wow.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116375

($209) 19" 8ms response
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824179018

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=


Usually i would stay away from HYUNDAI, but that monitor had some nice reviews.

You have to keep in mind one thing. The larger the screen size is, the more important resolution is. a 17" monitor with 1280x1024 looks a decent amount better than a 19" with the same resolution. Its like in paint or a photo editor, when you use the little diagonal arrow to make the picture bigger... it blurs it up a little bit :\

not enough to take a 19" out of the picture though.

a little more info is needed before you buy a monitor though. do you want widescreen? LCD (i assume... hence the name of the thread) or CRT? Any special options such as the little spinny thing my monitor does?

One thing i have to say about my monitor, however, is that when i use it with PhotoShop 9 cs2 (its a trial..... i dont steal software ) it isn't compatible for some reason with the default installation. I really had to tweak some settings in order to make red show up as red... instead of brown :\.... but it did work EVENTUALLY

any other little details you can say would be appreciated

 

[Shafra]

Really appreciate all the info

I currently have a 19" Viewsonic CRT but I'd really like to have an LCD. As for Wide Screen vs standard, is one really better? I know nothing of LCDs except what I've pretty much read here today. If Widescreen is better, I'll go with that. As for the spinny thing you mentioned, I don't think that would matter much to me. But again, I'm not sure what would be important.

I do spend alot of time in front of the monitor, and I do quite a bit of reading/word processing so I'd like something with easy to read text. And I definitely enjoy gaming.

I'd be fine if I wanted another CRT, I know what to look for with them, but LCD's just seem completely different and I'm hoping if I get a nice LCD I can keep it for a few years.

Only other detail I could provide would be that I would actually like a larger viewable area then what I have. Something maybe like what a 21" CRT would offer in the 18-19" viewable range.

I don't mind spending more money if it's a better investment but if the $200-$250 range LCD's aren't that much worse then the more expensive models I'll just stick with that

I would think being able to pivot the screen up or down would be nice too. With my CRT I do occasionally change it's position by wiggling it up or down.

I really like the look of that Viewsonic with the 2ms! Good price too and free shipping. Has the DVI option and adjustable stand.

(Speakers are NOT important at all.)

 

[tommyboy123x]

in terms of speakers.... do NOT get them, they make the price higher and they just suck

ha, well thanks for thanking me

but yeah, that viewsonic... idk HOW it has 2ms response... thats INSANE, lol. usually you can get a nice 17 or 19 inch LCD for a good price today, around 200 give or take a few dollars.

widescreen vs standard: unless your going to be doing hard core gaming / movie watching, i would recommend getting just a standard one. Widescreen is really just a wider screen... nothing that special. in some cases it kind of sucks, because the image will be stretched. If you have ever seen a widescreen TV... its kind of like that, the characters in your FPS look really fat . just stick with standard then.

the pivot thingy on mine, to be honest, is pretty cool, but not necessary. I probably use it about once a week, but that is for me personally. It kind of sucks when i go to school and have to write an essay with a landscape screen, as weird as it sounds. But definatelly not unbarible. If you have a mouse with buttons on it, like forward, back, etc... its kind of like that. Once you use it, you expect all mice to have it. Also, i like to watch movies a lot on my computer. I umm... "rip" Simpsons and Family Guy DVD's like theres not tomorrow.... i ALMOST have all of them. but anyways, i enjoy taking my monitor and turning it upside-down to lay on my bed and watch Family Guy. So unless you really want it, i would say just hold off.

oh yes, and the viewable size of the LCD, is the marketed size from the bottom left corner to the top right corner. I think people got mad that they did that with CRT's, so they made LCD's honest screens .

And with LCD's, expect to keep them for a long time IF you treat them nicely. They burn images like "yo mama burns cakes" (they burn images a lot.....). I learned this by forgetting to turn on my screen-saver while a simpsons episode was paused. I fell asleep, left for arizona... a week later when i turned off my screen i had clouds on it still, almost like that Memory Crystal Display... which sucked... then i found this monitor

That viewsonic i found with 2ms looks pretty good 'darned' good, out of the ones out there, i would recommend that one for you rneeds... although search google for "tomshardware viewsonic [model number]" w/e the "" marks

cheers (and off to bed - more help tomorrow?)