Shopping for an LCD

[mattg2k4]

I want to get a pair of LCD monitors to save on deskspace before I leave for college, and I want some advice. I want either 19" or 17", I haven't decided for sure yet. I'm willing to spend around $1,000 on these.

19" LCD's with a max resolution of 1280x1024 seem to have a .294 dot pitch, even when they're high end, while the 17" will have a .264. Is the higher dot pitch going to be visible?

What do you think about 25ms response times versus 12ms or 16ms response times? I don't do too much gaming, but occasionaly I break out unreal tournament.

Viewing angle: anyone who uses an LCD on a daily basis, do you ever find that viewing angle makes much of a difference? Most of the monitors I'm looking at have around 140/140 degree viewing, but some have up to 170/170. I'm not sure if I want to shell out the extra money for wider viewing.

Brightness: 250 cd/m^2 seems pretty common. Does anybody prefer more?

Connection: I've read some reviews and people say that with DVI the image quality is a bit better over the regular 15 pin D Sub cable. Does anyone have any experience with that?

Samsung and Viewsonic seem to be pretty well thought of, so that's what I'm looking at right now. Does anyone recomend any other brands, or specific monitors?

[kram 2.0]

Samsung 712N is on sale at retail Best Buy stores if you can get to one - it has a 12ms reponse time and has a 600:1 contrast ration (I think). I'm using it right now and I can't say anything but good about it. It's on sale for 350 USD...pretty decent price.

Hope that helps,
kram

[mattg2k4]

I'll check out that deal at my Best Buy, but I imagine the rebate would only be valid for one monitor, and I need two. Of course, I could always have the second rebate check mailed to a different location.

[ktkendall]

I just read an article that LCD monitors will be coming down in price very soon and that if you are thinking about one to wait just a little while longer till you see the prices drop..

[kram 2.0]

I just read an article that LCD monitors will be coming down in price very soon and that if you are thinking about one to wait just a little while longer till you see the prices drop..
Can you link me to that article when you find it? I just bought one, but I'm curious about this price drop...

kram

[mattg2k4]

I can't wait too much longer. I'd like to have these in time for college so I can save on deskspace, which is very limited, and I move in on the 19th.

I suppose I could buy one now and wait til Thanksgiving or so to get the second one. But that leaves the question of whether I get by on just one monitor or lug one of my CRT's up to my dorm. Also, it would be kind of nice to have two of the exact same monitor, and if I wait til the prices drop it may be that the one I get now will not be a comparatively good deal after the price drop.

[Panama Red]

Just ordered one of these for my daughter. Already have two of the black version for my wife and myself. Two customers are using them too. One has the Silver and one the Black. This is a price drop from about $390. Great units.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=232008

[mattg2k4]

Based on specs alone they seem pretty good, but I've never heard of the Solarism brand at all before, and their warranty number isn't toll free, which is somewhat unusual. Not to mention the black version is selling for $429, and is out of stock.

It's pretty darn close to the price of the Samsung 712n after rebates, the Samsung is a little brighter, better contrast ratio, but the Solaris has better viewing angle and the "Flex-View" stand which seems to allow considerable flexibility in adjusting it.

[RJ]

19" LCD's with a max resolution of 1280x1024 seem to have a .294 dot pitch, even when they're high end, while the 17" will have a .264. Is the higher dot pitch going to be visible?

Yes it is. Both 17" and 19" display 1280x1024, but since the 19" is bigger, it displays 1280x1024 on a bigger area, hence gives you a bigger picture.

What do you think about 25ms response times versus 12ms or 16ms response times? I don't do too much gaming, but occasionaly I break out unreal tournament.

The lower the better, but any of them is already good.

Viewing angle: anyone who uses an LCD on a daily basis, do you ever find that viewing angle makes much of a difference? Most of the monitors I'm looking at have around 140/140 degree viewing, but some have up to 170/170. I'm not sure if I want to shell out the extra money for wider viewing.

It's a personal preference I guess. My TFT has 150/110, and while the 150 are good, I sometimes wish I had better vertical viewing angle. But it depends on your needs to look at the screen from the side. 140/140 looks ok to me.

Brightness: 250 cd/m^2 seems pretty common. Does anybody prefer more?

No, it'd be too bright. About 250cd/m² is common and good. It's already more than twice as bright as a CRT. Also the brightness has an influence on the contrast ratio. A TFT with 250cd/m² and 450:1 contrast is good. A TFT with 370cd/m² and 450:1 has a lower contrast. . it's not the same. But when getting a TFT with 250cd/m², 300:1 should be the minimum for contrast. The higher, the better.

Connection: I've read some reviews and people say that with DVI the image quality is a bit better over the regular 15 pin D Sub cable. Does anyone have any experience with that?

DVI looks better, although the difference is only slightly. I personally wouldn't get a TFT without DVI, and I don't understand why the manufacturers don't include DVI in every TFT, as it's cheap to include. Anyway, the picture also looks good with VGA, so unless you are a real quality freak like me, you probably won't notice.
And I only noticed the difference after I switched to DVI. Before that, I had no comparison anyway.

Samsung and Viewsonic seem to be pretty well thought of, so that's what I'm looking at right now. Does anyone recomend any other brands, or specific monitors?

Samsung ist good, but Viewsonic is bad for games. Also look at Philips, NEC, EIZO, they're also good brands.

RJ

[mattg2k4]

Thanks for all the tips RJ.

[ktkendall]

Sorry I can not find an acceptable link to the article that I just read in our Business section here in our local paper on Tuesday, but the Jist was that LCD computer monitors have not kept pace in the price drops that most other PC components have seen, and it told why, but said that this is about to change and by the end of the year we should see at least a 10 percent drop on the average price of LCD's. The article was from one of those news services so I can not find it available for copy and paste or even to view on that news services website or my local papers site..

[mattg2k4]

I went ahead and bought the Samsung 712n from Best Buy, but when I switched it to it's native res, 1280x1024 from the 1024x768 of the previous monitor, it developed a double image just slightly to the right of the real image. It's plugged in to a 15pin analog adapter, which plugs into a dvi port on my video card.

I wonder if it going through the adapter affects the image? I'm going to turn off my computer and switch it into the analog port on my vid card and see if things improve.

edit: It did eliminate the double image. Now I'm not sure if I want to buy another one, because it seems like it will probably also suffer from double image problems. Perhaps for my second LCD I will need to buy one with DVI connectivity, such as the samsung 710t, which has a slightly different case, wider viewing angle, and the addition of DVI. But then I won't have a matched set, which I kind of wanted. Opinions on that?

[RJ]

I wonder if it going through the adapter affects the image?

No, it won't change. You aren't using DVI the way we mean when we say it.
You should know, there's two types of DVI. The DVI-D and DVI-I. The DVI-D is a digital-only connection. Connecting a TFT with DVI to it will give a better picture coz everything remains digital.
Connecting the TFT to VGA means you're using analog, which loses a bit of quality because the image has to be converted twice.

The DVI-I (Integrated) has additional 5 pins. This is the integrated analog connection, so the DVI-I is in fact a hybrid connection, for both digital, and analog. The analog portion of it is just like VGA (therefore I don't understand why VGA still exists), so VGA and DVI-I's analog portion are both analog and thus identical.

RJ

[kram 2.0]

No, it won't change. You aren't using DVI the way we mean when we say it.
You should know, there's two types of DVI. The DVI-D and DVI-I. The DVI-D is a digital-only connection. Connecting a TFT with DVI to it will give a better picture coz everything remains digital.
Connecting the TFT to VGA means you're using analog, which loses a bit of quality because the image has to be converted twice.

The DVI-I (Integrated) has additional 5 pins. This is the integrated analog connection, so the DVI-I is in fact a hybrid connection, for both digital, and analog. The analog portion of it is just like VGA (therefore I don't understand why VGA still exists), so VGA and DVI-I's analog portion are both analog and thus identical.

RJ
The Samsung 712N is not a DVI Port...it was a VGA Port - surprised for a LCD Monitor.

kram

[mattg2k4]

The DVI-I (Integrated) has additional 5 pins. This is the integrated analog connection, so the DVI-I is in fact a hybrid connection, for both digital, and analog. The analog portion of it is just like VGA (therefore I don't understand why VGA still exists), so VGA and DVI-I's analog portion are both analog and thus identical.
Identical or not, if I plug my monitor into the DVI port using the DVI to VGA adapter, the image develops a slight double image, and plugging the LCD into the regular 15 pin VGA port without an adapter solved the problem.

Is there anything else that might have caused the double image?