Off the wall Monitor Picking

[DarkXeno]

Hello everyone,

I have a topic Id like to talk about and figures since its not a serious one Id add it to the chillout room.

I have been working on building a new machine for the past month and right now I have all the items picked out I want just cant decide on a monitor. As you can see right now I use a HP DV7 as my main machine since I don't travel anymore I want a high end desk top. For some reason I cant get use to the idea of ordering a LCD monitor online. See I use to work at a Computer Store but that was close to 10 years ago now, and I remember that monitors are like TVs. What might look good to me looks horrid to another person. My fear is spending the money on one having it shipped to me and then me not liking it, is this a common fear for everyone? How did you all choose the screen your using now? Did you take a chance and just ordered it, or did you go to a bunch or retail stores find the one you liked and bought it there, or came home and ordered that same model you liked in store?

 

[fseal]

The monitor situation these days is abysmal

99 out of 100 montors that you will see in any computer store are craptastic 6 bit TN pantels. Barely adequet for TV viewing and if you want to do ANYTHING like photography with your machine, those monitors are compeltely useless ;( Adjusting proper color saturation and temperature on photographs on a TN panel is virtually impossible!

I looked in store after store and short of the Apple Cinima Display ($2500!!!) there was not a single decent LCD for sale any more.

They also look really REALLY bad in a lot of games that have subtle fog and lighting effects. Though if you look at them in the store they look all colorful and bright. You need to look closer at the dithering (Some use hardware dithering to increase the apparent bit depth) or posterization of colors on the background images. Try changing the backgrounds if you can on the computers to various things and look at it critically.

They also have the annoyingly narrow vertical resolution which works fine (again) for TV but sucks for computer work. Shaving of dozens to hundreds of pixels vertically where you need it most.

I ended up ordering a modern generation 10 bit IPS-TFT display from Dell for about $500, 1920x1200 as ghod intended. I too didn't want to order something sight unseen either being so picky myself but the monitor has been amazing. I did a ton of research on it beforehand and that helped. The monitor was twice as expensive as one of the in store 1920x1080 TN panels but worth every penny if you care about image quality in any way.

NEC also sells a line of very good "pro" monitors but those were twice as expensive still. The Dell monitor was in a good sweet spot for price and performance.

[edit] This looks like the current offering of the one I got a couple years ago: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-8277 [/edit]

 

[smarteyeball]

. My fear is spending the money on one having it shipped to me and then me not liking it, is this a common fear for everyone?

Yep.

How did you all choose the screen your using now?

Research.

Read, read and read some more. Start with reviews then move on to personal user experiences.

Image quality wise, the Dell IPS panels are worth the extra $ over TN panels.

 

[Borg 386]

This is why I have my 19 inch CRT, it's a monster but I love the colors and the performance

 

[DarkXeno]

This is why I have my 19 inch CRT, it's a monster but I love the colors and the performance

See for now I plan on using my old 17" CRT that's used for my server on this new machine until I find a LCD screen I like.

 

[Borg 386]

I'm going to miss CRT when they become extinct. Hopefully by the time they do, the current situation for flat screens will have improved.

 

[Fantail]

I knda miss my 17" crt, but it a heavy sucker.

 

[fseal]

The current crop of /quality/ LCDs does VERY well. Much much much better than when the CRT to LCD transition started. LCDs back then were pretty bad. The situation now it almost like the digital vs film debate, it has almost completely reversed roles.

But all the crud you find at best buy and Frys and what not... definately not good for anything other than watching you tube

You have to go to lengths to get a quality LCD today but it is still possible. THough I fear that with the current crop of cheap and crappy monitors taling over everything, they may push quality LCD prices way back up out of bounds again. If the ONLY people buying them are pro photo labs then they'll all cost the same as the Cinima Display eventually

It's sort of the "WalMart Effect". When the only thing people are willing to pay for is Cheap Crap, Cheap Crap will be the only thing you will be able to buy.

 

[smarteyeball]

Going from CRT to a crappy TN panel would be a noticeable drop in picture quality, but as fseal mentioned quality panels are virtually on par with CRT's these days. Even going to a larger quality panel with a higher than 1920x1200 resolution ie 2560x1440 , would make the difference even less noticeable.

The only thing LCD will never match is non-native resolution scaling. LCD's will always look poor at non-native resolutions.

 

[Borg 386]

Unfortunately, quality panels = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Yes, it's worth the investment....provided you have the money

 

[DarkXeno]

Unfortunately, quality panels = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Yes, it's worth the investment....provided you have the money

Thats very true, I have decided to go with a Acer 23" LED 1900x1080. Im still gonna use my 17" CRT for a second display since my system can handle it.