LCD Buyer's Guide

[xtknight]

Here:

Calibrated Samsung 970P as tested by flatpanels.dk:

Black point: 0.3 nits
White point: 178 nits
Contrast: (178/0.3)=593:1

 

[speedlever]

Thanks for the additional clarification, xtknight.

Now if there was a uniform standard of advertising specs, we'd be in business!

So when the mfg says 250 nits... or 300 nits... what's the reference to... white levels?

Edit: I see we're passing each other in cyberspace.

 

[xtknight]

If the manufacturer says 250 nits or 300 nits that means white level. Usually they specify brightness near that. But if you just see "300 cd/m²" that means brightness. No black level would ever be that bad.

Well I'd recommend this LCD for your kids (if you're not limited to Costco). Yeah, I'm biased toward Samsung. I was really happy with my old 17" Samsung 710T TN, for its time ( a year ago ).
Samsung 740B

All the LCDs you linked are 6-bit yeah, and so is the above one. The specs on the DCL 19" look extremely exaggerated.

Do the kids play games?

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: wiltafur
Hi, i am looking for my first LCD, i found some know options from viewsonic, but i need help about opinion and Panel type for this LCD´s:

LG L1930B http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824005037
HP L1755 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824176044
HP L1955 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824176047

I read specifications.. i think that the HP´s 1755 and 1955 have similar technologie that the VP930b... but i do not know if the panel are MVA, PVA or S-IPS ... what about the LG L1930B ? is a good LCD? what of the three is the best option?

thanks for your answers...

wiltafur:

Welcome to the forums.

(flatpanels.dk) LG L1930B has a 19 inch 25 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM190E01-C4 = LM190E02) panel.
HP L1755: Probably an S-MVA panel (Chi Mei Optoelectronics).
(flatpanels.dk) HP L1955 has a 19 inch 16 ms S-MVA panel.

flatpanels.dk sounds perfectly correct to me. All the above are 8-bit LCDs.

It's hard to say really which is best. All of them have advantages. The 17" will have the best fill ratio (smallest dot pitch for a fine picture). The 19" HP will have the highest brightness. The 19" LG will have the best viewing angles and comparable or possibly more accurate colors than the VA monitors. More accurate does not mean more saturated though.

Note if you want to game, all of these LCDs would likely be too slow. S-MVA is similar to P-MVA used in the VP930b, except the VP930b employs a technique called Overdrive. That speeds up the otherwise subpar response of the VA monitors (they can/do use it for IPS and TN too). So the VP930b is much better suited than any of the above 3 (L1930B, L1755, L1955). I'm fairly certain none of those use Overdrive.

I love my VP930b's (AUO P-MVA panel) brightness level. Helps the color saturation a lot. It really does good look great.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Pounce
Hey all,

Any one have experiance with refurbished LCDs? Newegg has a ViewSonic VX924 refurb for 279.99. Would that be worth it? Otherwise I need a 19 inch LCD for 300 or under. I might have sprung for the ViewSonic VA1912wb for 325 if it wasn't out of stock. Its mostly a gaming pc with some photoshop graphic work. Anyone have any experiance with the Rosewill displays?

Thanks,

Pounce

Yeah, it might be worth it to get a refurb. I'm not sure how Viewsonic's LCDs are "factory recertified". The refurbished ones might have more dead pixels.

 

[speedlever]

Yep.. they play games.

I see the 740B is going for ~$240 at newegg. That's pretty much in the ballpark for the 19"ers at Costco.

Costco is just so good about returns!

That DCL did sound pretty good, didn't it?

I just got my eVGA GF 6600GT card installed along with the latest Nvidia drivers. My sole test thus far is with Google Earth. Directx9 had some artifacts. But OpenGL is running sweet!

Now I just need the 970p to arrive and I'll be busy for a while!

Edit: corrected Samsung 940B to 740B.

 

[xtknight]

( The 6-week thread sticky expired. Getting it renewed. )

Yeah, the DCL did sound good. You can give it a shot. I'd at least check it out in store first though so you know what you're getting in to.

What do you mean by artifacts?? Your video card is overheating or just undesirable lossy compression?

 

[speedlever]

Perhaps I used the wrong term. The image is not as clean with DirectX9 as it is with OpenGL using Google Earth with the new card. The main reason I got the new card was due to the inability of GE to run cleanly with my old GeForce MX2 video card. The 6600GT is much nicer. DirectX9 is not bad... but it is not clean. OpenGL/GE runs cleanly on the 6600GT.

This is happening when GE is navigating and the image is in motion... the old card was jerky and the image in motion was not clean at all. With the new card, images in motion are clean in OpenGL and nearly clean in DirectX9.

It just so happened that my CRT died while I was in the process of considering a new video card... and so I began looking for one that would also support DVI out for the replacement LCD.

 

[xtknight]

Well, last night my power went out and I tried turning on my VP930b. It wouldn't turn on. Somehow I got it to turn on by wiggling the power connector.

So it's fine. Then 10 minutes later an OSD message pops up in the center that says 'theft deterrent', and locks every single button on the display, including power. OK, WTF? It said use the PerfectSuite software to disable it. Alright, that's great. So I install that software and my whole Windows freezes up just like the first time I tried installing it. Later I find out even if that software did work, supposedly I created a PIN number when I first used the software (never) and enabled theft deterrent on it. I know I never did that. I don't know how this thing got activated, it must have been from some dimwit who activated it then returned it to newegg. I find someone else with the same issue. He called ViewSonic and got a hard reset code and supposedly fixed it.

Well I'm not going to wait 5 hours on the phone, I've already e-mailed them about another issue and never got any response. Within 5 minutes I brute forced the right key combo to reset the thing. It displayed an all black screen and said 'All Reset'. Amazingly, that fixed it. I'm feeling lucky today, sort of. Ever since then that message has never been on my display again. Needless to say this is the most problematic device I've ever used in my life. It's quite frustrating, really. I don't know if the power outage damaged it or what... If you have the same problem, I'll PM you the code to hard reset the VP930b. That said I'm still hesitant to take it off the recommendations list because everyone else says they love theirs. I'm just not seeing it through my experience right now. I probably got a monitor with a defective firmware that caused the theft glitch. Thing is I never got that message until today, about 2 weeks after I got this monitor if I recall.

 

[speedlever]

Hey xtknight,

Looks like it's time for some more research!

(j/k)

 

[xtknight]

Well I'm glad I told you to get the 970P. I'm sure other people have had this problem and just haven't posted to the forums about it. My next monitor will be another Samsung, that's all I'm going to say right now.

Lesson learned: brand makes more of a difference than one might think, expecially in quality control. It determines all the ICs (scaler, OSD, resolution settings, response time accelerator) and the amount of backlight leakage too. So if you liked your last monitor (for its time), then get another model of that same brand. Well, if they offer comparable monitors nowadays, that is. That's my best advice at this point. I'm removing the VP930b from recommenations until something better comes along for the same price point, and something not from ViewSonic preferably.

Edit: scratch that, I added it in to recommendations again. My opinion's much higher of this monitor now that I got the input button to work how I want it to and the other dumb theft thing disabled.

 

[speedlever]

xtknight,

Sorry to hear that you had a problem... but it sounds like you resolved it. Do you really think you had a previously owned monitor from newegg? Sold as new?

Is your current dissatisfaction mainly due to lack of response from VS customer service?

I'm currently running on an old GW2k 14" monitor (temp replacement for the 19" Samsung 900nf that died) until the 970p arrives. I also have an old Dell 17" CRT that's running fine. Although I'm a Samsung fan, it's not due to the (lack of) longevity of my 19" monitor. As you can see, the older CRTs have long outlasted my supposedly better Sammy 900nf. As I recall, I paid $500+ for that behemoth 5 years ago.

Moral of the story... I'm not too sure that brand loyalty is worth anything!

 

[xtknight]

Yeah, well resolved one of the problems anyway. The other problem is some of the colors in the upper spectrum look a little washed out. But it may be due in part to my weird gamma curves I have been experimenting with. Gamma=1 doesn't look so bad. Maybe leaving the gamma alone and just adjusting brightness/contrast is the best idea. I'm still screwing around with it. I'm really happy with the response time of the VP930b. Panning/scanning/doing a 360 is just like it is on my CRT. Motion is butter smooth.

No, actually I don't think I got a previously owned one, because the message only displayed when the power was unplugged the second time (power outage). It must be a glitch, of which this display has another problem. It won't accept a 1280x720/60Hz signal from my HD tuner.

Yes, it also annoys me ViewSonic has not written any response back. I've never had a company I've contacted that's just ignored me. They at least say call us at xxxxxx.

I guess overall it's a decent display, I tend to go all-out when I rant about one problem. Overall it's pretty good. What makes me keep it is the amazing contrast. I've come to the conclusion there is no one-size-fits-all for monitor settings, not even for CRTs. This monitor desparately, desparately needs Super Bright settings (but not to make it brighter). It needs some presets, so I can utilize the excellent contrast only when I want it and not have to go in the OSD every time. All of Samsung's LCDs have the presets I think, and they even have the region brightener on some like they do on their *mb (MagicBright) CRTs.

I want to write a program to boost the contrast when in game and tone it down a lot for casual reading. Calibrated settings are for movies and games, not for general usage I conclude. If white is white on this monitor, your eyes will melt. White on my CRT burns my retinas too, so I can't complain. If text editors wanted their users to have comfort they wouldn't have made all the default settings as a white background right?

 

[Pounce]

Well Thanks for the advice but I think I've decided to blow my budget on a VA2012wb. Pretty much the same as a VA1912wb but bigger. At Costco its only 400 bucks. I can't find any review that says anything bad about either's image quality. Anyone ever use the monitor? I'll probably buy it in about two to three weeks due some scrimping involved.

 

[speedlever]

xtknight,

I'm surprised that you aren't running behind a UPS. A good one will not only protect from spikes but from brownouts too.

Are ya gonna send that VS back?

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: speedlever
xtknight,

I'm surprised that you aren't running behind a UPS. A good one will not only protect from spikes but from brownouts too.

Are ya gonna send that VS back?

Don't think the power outage did any damage but can't be sure. Yeah, I never bothered to buy a UPS. Hell I almost damaged my old monitor from bad power. The power strip caused the monitor to make scratchy sounds. Don't ask.

I suspect what happened is the theft deterrence function was silently on, locking the power button (which is also easily possible with a key combo in the manual). Physically unplugging it resets the deterrence for another 5-10 minutes.

Nope, not gonna return it. It's actually my dad that bought it, so yeah, a lot of hassle (persuading him). Regardless, I'm happy with it now. The monitor has been perfectly fine ever since. I've got the colors at a good setting. I just had to convince myself there was no one-size-fits-all color setting.

 

[speedlever]

xtknight,

I saw this at Ben's Bargain Center today. It's VGA only, but for $140, the price is right!
Edit: do you think it would work ok for games?

http://tinyurl.com/7ocs
Page down to the Office Depot section

Rebate: ViewSonic VA721 17" LCD Monitor $140 at OfficeDepot.com Click Here
Discuss (2) Posted 1:24 AM PST 1/15/06 by Ben

OfficeDepot.com has the ViewSonic VA721 17" Flat Panel LCD Monitor for $280 - $40 off $200 code 28891600 [Exp 1/21] - $50 rebate [Exp 1/21] - $50 rebate [Exp 1/21] = $140 with free shipping. [BizRate]

# Resolution: 1280x1024, Brightness: 300cd/m2, Contrast Ratio: 450:1
# Response Time: 8ms, Dot Pitch: 0.264mm, VGA (No DVI), 1 year warranty.

Edit: VS site:
http://tinyurl.com/9lh8s

 

[xtknight]

speedlever: Wow, yes, jump on that deal! It looks like a great monitor, especially for the price.

 

[speedlever]

I stopped by OD a few minutes ago and looked at the VA721. It looks good... real good for $140/AR!

I just put it on order!

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: speedlever
I stopped by OD a few minutes ago and looked at the VA721. It looks good... real good for $140/AR!

I just put it on order!

Awesome. Let us know how you like both the VA721 and 970P. I may put the VA721 on recommendations for budget-range displays.

 

[speedlever]

I sure hope the 970p blows away the VA721. But I'd just about put money on it NOT blowing it away (in my usage).

 

[xtknight]

Yeah, I really do wonder. It should easily beat it in viewing angles, color, and OSD, by a mile. Response time should be the same.

Edit: err, I mean, 'controls', not OSD. The 970P is software-controlled with MagicTune.

 

[speedlever]

I really don't think that viewing angle will be an issue in my application of either monitor. Accurate color will be nice, but again, won't be a significant issue except for the digital images I process (which is not all that much).

Nothing like second guessing yourself, is there? Or in my case, 3rd guessing. I still have the 940B inbound as well. ;-)

This deal makes me wonder if I wouldn't be far ahead of the game by getting another one for $140 and saving myself $360 on the 970p.

 

[speedlever]

xtknight,

I notice that J&R dropped the price on the 970P to $480 now.. but shipping is no longer free... so it's a wash.

I'm curious what you think of this LCD. It's only $30 more than the 970p.
http://tinyurl.com/br9em

I've often wondered how a 1600x1200/20" would compare to the 1280x1024/19" screens. I probably need to read the first page of this thread again to refresh my memory!

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: speedlever
xtknight,

I notice that J&R dropped the price on the 970P to $480 now.. but shipping is no longer free... so it's a wash.

I'm curious what you think of this LCD. It's only $30 more than the 970p.
http://tinyurl.com/br9em

I've often wondered how a 1600x1200/20" would compare to the 1280x1024/19" screens. I probably need to read the first page of this thread again to refresh my memory!

The Samsung 204T is the same price but much better because it's S-PVA. The 204B is a TN. Well, I'm not sure about the response time. It's probably fine for general usage.