LCD moniters & graphics: good mix?

[buildingit]

Hi,

I'm thinking about getting an LCD moniter but I heard something awhile back about them not being good for graphics applications (autocad, 3d animation etc- no games)

Is that true?? Does anyone know of something I can read on the subject?

Thanx

[RJ]

The problem with TFTs is the color accurancy. The background light does not contain the colors in its full intensity, and the color filters are not 100% color accurate.

That means, that if you have to do with colors, you'll have problems with a TFT.
No problems with games, though. In games color accurancy is important, but not as important as in professional graphics design. Just keep the response time low, but every TFT today should meet this specifiaction.

AutoCAD: Well, a TFT can only display a sharp image when running at its native resolution. Lower resolution will look blurred (not good for AutoCAD). A TFT with DVI does not need to be calibrated. That means no geometry problems, etc., so this is good for AutoCAD. But since I've never worked with AutoCAD I can't tell you if there are other issues that a TFT wouldn't meet.

3D animation should be handled well by a TFT.

RJ

[buildingit]

Thank you RJ, it took me a while to digest your post. Read up at Tom's Hardware. That non-native resolution thing will be a problem & it seesms moniters with DVI are about twice as expensive as the others. Think I'll wait for the prices to drop.

Thank again

[RJ]

The non-native res. thing could be a problem, but the monitor with DVI are not twice as expensive. Sure, they are a bit more expensive, but far away from twice.

The prices dropped already very much. You can now get a good TFT for 1/3 of the price I paid for my TFT over 2 years ago. Currently it looks that the price increases slightly instead of dropping. Well, we'll see what the future holds in store for TFTs.

RJ

[buildingit]

Thanx RJ,

Let's hope the prices drop even more! I just don't have space for these huge huge heavy moniters. Would you happen to know of a (regular crt) moniter brand that is known for having a small footprint? I have a lemme see, a 13" diagonal screen and it has suited me just fine. But I just got Autocad and am building a new system for it and others and need a monter to go with it. And I have really no idea which way to go. Maybe even dual dislay- two 15" moniters...

And bye the way, can you actually notice where the "dead" pixels they talk about at Tom's Hardware are on your TFT?

Thanx

[RJ]

Well, there are short neck 19" CRTs out there, with a footprint like a regular 17" CRT.
I'm not sure if there are short neck 17" CRTs out there. If the footprint of a regular 17" CRT would be ok, then I'd go with a short neck 19" CRT.
You said your monitor has a 13" diagonal size ? Then it is a 15" CRT. I think a regular 17"/short neck 19" should fit quite well.
I think EIZO is the preferred monitor brand for graphics design and AutoCAD. I'd take a look at them, and 2nd choice would be Samsung.
Also I'd get a monitor with a flat surface for a true flat picture. With a flat screen CRT you won't get geometry problems once you calibrated it. Geometry is very important for AutoCAD.

Dead pixels on a TFT are noticeable, but not necessarily annoying. Sometimes you have to look close on a TFT to find them. Once you know where your dead pixel are (good tfts have no more than 1 defective subpixel. Means this pixel can display some colors with no problem, others not. Either the red, green or blue subpixel is defective) and get used to is it won't annoy you. My pixel is horizontally in the middle, and vertically near the bottom.
But if this is annoying or not also depends on the location of the dead pixel.
Personally I find the two wires of the aperture grill way more annoying, but at the end it comes down to a personal preference I guess. Therefore, if you want to buy a TFT: Look closely at it for dead pixels and decide for yourself.

Note about your signature:
The CD-RW drive you choose is a good one. I'd not change it, but definitely get them. Just wanted to let you know that because of the question marks there.
And take the Maxtor hard drive, not the IBM. IBM gets out of the hard drive business. Maxtor hard drives are high quality and reliable. Just a tip

RJ

[buildingit]

Thank you for the information RJ!!

I just got an idea to share my current moniter (if its possible) with my old & new computer until I get into Autocad and a better feeling of what I need. (I'm running out of money!)

The Liteon question marks are for Mt Rainier. Liteon says it has it, but reviews say that Liteon didn't come though and it actually doesn't have it!! (but the reviews are a little old) So I need to find out for sure somehow, because the next one (48) defintely has it but it's more expensive and I don't need the speed. Not even sure if I need Mt Rainier..., but hate the idea of buying something that doesn't have an "industry standard" on it. Do you happen to know?

The IBM in my signature is an oversight- forgot to erase it. I see alot of posts here that seem negative about it. Yup, Maxtor Can I ask you BTW what you think of my logic re size selection?? : On the Maxtor, each platter is 40 GB. The 60 GB is only $25 more but jumping between platters is probably as slow as jumping between different hard drives? So, I get the 40 GB, and then, if I need more space, I could buy the cheapest Seagate 18 GB SCSI for @ 200$ (and will be even cheaper by then).

Thanx!

[RJ]

Hi,

from what I've read so far the LiteOn 40x includes Mt. Rainier. The LiteOn 32x doesn't. I haven't had the LiteOn 40x, so I have no personal experience with it. I can just tell you what I've read.

After reading some articles about it, it looks like the LiteOn 40x includes the Mt. Rainier support in hardware (defect management), but this function is not enabled in the current firmware for the 40x. They claim that the firmware for the 48x burner (that has Mt. Rainier function enabled) works with the LiteOn 40x. So it seems that the LiteOn 40x hardware itself would be no problem here. Now I'm a bit surprised, too, and I don't know why the firmware does not have Mt. Rainier enabled despite that Mt. Rainier already is activated with other drives.

Well, a friend of mine wants to upgrade his PC. He needs a new hard drive and a burner (he has no burner so far). I recommended him the LiteOn 40x. We'll upgrade the PC together, so I'd get my own experience with the LiteOn 40x. Maybe next week, maybe in 2. I'll keep you informed.

RJ

[buildingit]

Hi RJ,



Gee, what an odessy! Anyway, there is a great review out Thursday at http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=79. for the LTR-40125S. It comes with ZS0A firmware which is z-clv and no Mt Rainier. The upgrade firmware ZS0J is out, which does have Mt Rainier and also upgrades it to p-cav. This is an awesome cd-rw by the sounds of it

Thanx again

[FieroAddict]

Originally posted by buildingit Hi, I'm thinking about getting an LCD moniter but I heard something awhile back about them not being good for graphics applications (autocad, 3d animation etc- no games) Is that true?? Does anyone know of something I can read on the subject? Thanx

I have a 15" Gateway LCD. I was worried about getting an LCD but now I'll never go back to CRT, I hate looking at them now. Plays all my games perfectly, no washed out colors in any of my games, no "ghosting" of any kind... even Unreal Tournament @ 1024x768. Everything looks perfect. They're on sale for $350 right now, and 17" LCDs are comming out this month. 25ms responce time... lower then the $500 Sony 15" LCD.

[FieroAddict]

Oh, and I have no dead pixles in the LCD. None of the demo's at Gateway Country had any dead pixels and we just bought a 2nd one with no dead pixels... so don't worry about it. Things have improved since most of the online reviews have been written.

[RJ]

@buildingit

Good to hear that LiteOn released the Mt. Rainier capable firmware ZS0J. So Mt. Rainier on the 40x LiteOn actually works now.

RJ

[FieroAddict]

Sorry for another post...

I don't know anything about the Lite-On CDRW, but I've really like my Yamaha 24x10x40. They've come down in price since when I bought mine. It copies all copy-proctected CDs perfectly and has an 8MB buffer, which is more than most on the market.

[buildingit]

Hey FieroAddict,

Thank you for the tip about dead pixels! Gee- I had no idea!

My impression of the Yamahas was that they were high quality but really expensive so I didn't even look at them. I already bought my cd-rw: the Lite-On LTR-40125S for $109 CDN! Thanks for the tip though

[RJ]

Did you also try Mt. Rainier ? How does it work (I've no personal experience with it so far) ? Any problems ?

RJ

[buildingit]

Hi RJ,

No. I just finished buying the rest of my components about an hour ago!! No, I have to assemble..... Haha, it will be awhile before I start flashing bios's etc (yikes!) But one thing I didn't mention was the other Lite-on 40x: the LTR-40125W comes with p-cav, so it might have the Mt Rainier already on it. I bought the LTR-40125S, which has to be flashed. The thing with the -W is that it sounds like there is not as good support for it as the -S and, at least here, is not as widely available. But really, I am guessing if Mt Rainier is already on that one.

Bye for now,
Catherine

[HobbitJS]

BTW......That Yamaha That FieroAddict was talking about was on sale at besybuy last week for $100. I have it too and love it. Reads and writes cd sub codes for perfect cd copies