LCD Buyer's Guide

[IanS]

Hi all:

I've been looking for a new monitor, and stumbled across your thread, which I've been reading for the last few hours. I decided to join the forum and see if I might find some specific advice.

My job has me spending about 6 hours a day in front of my monitor reading text. No fancy graphics, no gaming ever. 99% of the time I'm just reading websites and documents.

I currently use a 21" Nokia Multigraph 445Xpro CRT, which was quite a good monitor in its day. I've borrowed a few older 17" LCD's over the years to try out, but couldn't stand them after a while because they were too bright, with poor contrast, and noticeable pixelized text.

I'w curious if there is a modern LCD panel that experts recommend for folks like me, who need an easy-on-the-eyes, hours-at-a-time text machine? All the reviews seem to focus on gaming and photography, so I am not certain what the critical attributes are for non overly bright text, with good contrast and low SDE/pixelization?

Any ideas or recommendations, including size, resolution, adjustments/settings and specific models would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: IanS
Hi all:

I've been looking for a new monitor, and stumbled across your thread, which I've been reading for the last few hours. I decided to join the forum and see if I might find some specific advice.

Welcome...

My job has me spending about 6 hours a day in front of my monitor reading text. No fancy graphics, no gaming ever. 99% of the time I'm just reading websites and documents.

No gaming at work? Who woulda thought?

I currently use a 21" Nokia Multigraph 445Xpro CRT, which was quite a good monitor in its day. I've borrowed a few older 17" LCD's over the years to try out, but couldn't stand them after a while because they were too bright, with poor contrast, and noticeable pixelized text.

Is that a shadow mask or aperture grille if you happen to know off-hand? Seems that the 445pro is FD Trinitron while the 445XPro is Invar shadow mask but it's hard to tell from the sparse specs. It's actually quite an important consideration because the AG ones can reach 500 nits in SuperBright mode. I assume you're not using that for text so hopefully it's only 80-100 nits (depending on color temperature). It might be brighter anyway so I'm not sure.

I'w curious if there is a modern LCD panel that experts recommend for folks like me, who need an easy-on-the-eyes, hours-at-a-time text machine? All the reviews seem to focus on gaming and photography, so I am not certain what the critical attributes are for non overly bright text, with good contrast and low SDE/pixelization?

The LG L2000C (S-IPS) can do 420:1 contrast at 168 nits. For SDE (screen door effect) I'm not really sure because no one tests it. Getting a small dot pitch could help and this monitor's pitch is about as small as they get for desktop LCDs.

The NEC LCD2070NX seems to be up your alley too. It performs very similar to the LG. It's an S-IPS screen, meaning wide viewing angle and high contrast at low brightness. It's the closest to a CRT in that regard which isn't really a bad thing. The main advantages with the LCD are no flicker and perfectly sharp text (DVI) with no convergence problems. Those took away my 10 hr PC marathon headaches immediately. You might not even notice the convergence problems on the CRT until you use an LCD. I didn't because they were very gradual in degradation.

Any ideas or recommendations, including size, resolution, adjustments/settings and specific models would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

What resolution were you running the Nokia at?

1600x1200 on 20" is pretty good for minimizing SDE and still being readable. The S-IPS screens should deliver an easy-on-the-eyes image.

 

[Shifu]

Well, I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon. I've been reading through this thread off and on for the last few months, toying with the idea of buying a new LCD monitor. Definitely widescreen. I mostly just use my computer for dinking around and movies, when I do play games on it they're almost always RPGs.
So, I think, after much deliberation, I'm going to go with the 2007WFP from Dell, since I assume that by now, months and months after the fact, the banding problem is pretty much a thing of the past. I'm excited to see that it has a composite input--I'll finally have a way to play my PS2 here at school.
My question, though, is kind of... tangential, but none of my research has turned up anything promising, so here I am. In a few months the Wii comes out, I'm gonna buy one, and at least a few of its games will support widescreen. I would like to hook my Wii up to my fancy new monitor, which I can do via composite. However, if I want to play any games in widescreen, I'll have to connect to the monitor with component.
I'll try to summarize my thoughts, I guess.
1) When connecting via composite, will the monitor stretch the image to widescreen? Will I have the option for letterboxes?
2) When playing games on my PC, there's some way I can put letterboxes onscreen if I can't or don't wish to run the game at a widescreen resolution, right?
3) If I pick up a component-vga transcoder like this one(http://www.x2vga.com/), and then set the component signal to widescreen, how will the monitor react to that? Will this let me play a widescreen game using all (or nearly all, I guess, since the game would be in 16:9) of my widescreen monitor's real estate?
Sorry for the long post, but I've got no damn clue how to make this all work, at this point. I can't find any tv-tuner cards that support component input, which was my original idea.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Shifu
1) When connecting via composite, will the monitor stretch the image to widescreen? Will I have the option for letterboxes?

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/m...2007WFP/en/setup.htm#Using%20the%20OSD

Yes. They list options as 1:1, 4:3, and fill screen. 1:1 is centered mode, 4:3 will give you one set of black bars, and fill screen will upscale the source to the monitor's resolution.

2) When playing games on my PC, there's some way I can put letterboxes onscreen if I can't or don't wish to run the game at a widescreen resolution, right?

1:1 centered mode.

3) If I pick up a component-vga transcoder like this one(http://www.x2vga.com/), and then set the component signal to widescreen, how will the monitor react to that? Will this let me play a widescreen game using all (or nearly all, I guess, since the game would be in 16:9) of my widescreen monitor's real estate?

Yep, I can't see why not.

Sorry for the long post, but I've got no damn clue how to make this all work, at this point. I can't find any tv-tuner cards that support component input, which was my original idea.

There are no component-in boards (under thousands of dollars). Bandwidth required for I/O is too much for recording and there's simply no market for just playback I guess.

 

[Shifu]

I love you. Is there anything I can do to give you a hand with this awesome thread? I'll write a review of the monitor when I pick it up in a few months, for sure.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Shifu
I love you. Is there anything I can do to give you a hand with this awesome thread? I'll write a review of the monitor when I pick it up in a few months, for sure.

Nah. Well, be sure to check in right before you buy it just in case there's something better. Glad I could be of help.

 

[xtknight]

I've removed the 90GX2 from the gaming category. It just isn't that fast like it used to be.

 

[zoolap]

It's quite lucky that I saw this thread. Dell uk have done a big drop on the 2007wfp price. I actually posted in another thread asking about this, but I'm thinking of getting the 2007wfp. I've asked dell to find out the revision for me of what is being sold before i buy.

 

[xtknight]

Yikes. The good ol' NEC 20WMGX2 is having some issues. With the mouse plugged into the USB hub, I turn it on, it squeels, and dies. Without the mouse plugged in it seems fine. That sucks because that was a really convenient place to plug my mouse into.

Edit: it seems to be fine now. Shaky though. Occasionally my mouse won't work as well. Could just be this dumb mouse. I have had them die and do weird things before like virtually unplug themselves from the port. I'll have to see.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: zoolap
It's quite lucky that I saw this thread. Dell uk have done a big drop on the 2007wfp price. I actually posted in another thread asking about this, but I'm thinking of getting the 2007wfp.

The 2007WFP is an awesome monitor.

I've asked dell to find out the revision for me of what is being sold before i buy.

Nice to know Dell is willing to do that.

 

[Pugnate]

Man I had no idea that even after all this time you constantly update this. That is extremely cool of you.

 

[Liran xD]

Hi, I bought the 1732TQ by xtknight advice and it's great, thanks

anyway I came for another advice for a friend
his uses are games, internet and actually everything so the monitor should cover it all up
we came down to 2 monitors which in this budget I think would be the best- LG L1970HR or Viewsonic VX922
I know the VX is really fast but I heard a lot of bad(well not that bad) things about his image quality in windows envioroment
The 1970HR has any ghosting ? didn't find any reviews of it
and how's his image quality and brightness compared to the VX922?

Thanks again, Liran.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Liran xD
Hi, I bought the 1732TQ by xtknight advice and it's great, thanks

anyway I came for another advice for a friend
his uses are games, internet and actually everything so the monitor should cover it all up
we came down to 2 monitors which in this budget I think would be the best- LG L1970HR or Viewsonic VX922
I know the VX is really fast but I heard a lot of bad(well not that bad) things about his image quality in windows envioroment
The 1970HR has any ghosting ? didn't find any reviews of it
and how's his image quality and brightness compared to the VX922?

Thanks again, Liran.

The LG L1970HR has a TN type panel so ghosting should be very minimal. I've heard several good user reviews stating no ghosting so I'm recommending it for gaming.

Image quality should be quite superior on the LG. The image quality of ViewSonics has never impressed me that much and with the LG's awesome black level and adaptive contrast features I have no doubt it'll be great for everything.

 

[Liran xD]

Originally posted by: xtknight


The LG L1970HR has a TN type panel so ghosting should be very minimal. I've heard several good user reviews stating no ghosting so I'm recommending it for gaming.

Image quality should be quite superior on the LG. The image quality of ViewSonics has never impressed me that much and with the LG's awesome black level and adaptive contrast features I have no doubt it'll be great for everything.

Thanks, as I thought the answer will be..
it's still annoying me not much stores got the monitors on display so I could go and see it..
after all buying a 450$ monitor "blindly" is kinda scary..
Thanks again, i'll look where I can see the LG.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Liran xD
Thanks, as I thought the answer will be..
it's still annoying me not much stores got the monitors on display so I could go and see it..
after all buying a 450$ monitor "blindly" is kinda scary..
Thanks again, i'll look where I can see the LG.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm confident you'd be happier with that than the ViewSonic.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Pugnate
Man I had no idea that even after all this time you constantly update this. That is extremely cool of you.

I plan to, as long as the AnandTech forums are around. It's hardly a chore when you enjoy it.

 

[patentman]

Hi! Thanks for this awesome thread. It has been very educational for me.

I am getting sick of my monstrous viewsonic A90f 19" CRT. While it has a wonderful picture and excellent brightness, something is wrong with the RF shielding in the monitor, as everytime I turn it on it interferes with my satellite television receiver in the next room (which drives my wife nuts). Anyways, I am thinking about buying an LCD monitor, and I can't really find one that has both good image quality and minimal motion blur. Can you give me some recommendations? I use my computer for pretty much everything, including photo/movie editing, games, text, websurfing etc...

Right now I am considering the following monitors:

Dell 2007WFP
NEC 20WMGX2
Samsung Syncmaster 204T and 213T

 

[imported_browsing]

Does anyone have model recommendations for a dual monitor setup that will do gaming? I'd prefer to be able to adjust height of the monitors, not have built in speakers, and keep the cost so that I get the most bang for my buck.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: patentman
Hi! Thanks for this awesome thread. It has been very educational for me.

I am getting sick of my monstrous viewsonic A90f 19" CRT. While it has a wonderful picture and excellent brightness, something is wrong with the RF shielding in the monitor, as everytime I turn it on it interferes with my satellite television receiver in the next room (which drives my wife nuts). Anyways, I am thinking about buying an LCD monitor, and I can't really find one that has both good image quality and minimal motion blur. Can you give me some recommendations? I use my computer for pretty much everything, including photo/movie editing, games, text, websurfing etc...

Right now I am considering the following monitors:

Dell 2007WFP
NEC 20WMGX2
Samsung Syncmaster 204T and 213T

Out of those, the NEC's really the obvious choice. Not that the others are bad, but I believe the NEC will offer both better image quality and better response time than the others, if you can afford it.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: browsing
Does anyone have model recommendations for a dual monitor setup that will do gaming? I'd prefer to be able to adjust height of the monitors, not have built in speakers, and keep the cost so that I get the most bang for my buck.

Two Dell 2007WFPs sound good for you. Any cheaper and you really start to sacrifice quality. How much are you willing to pay?

 

[Ichigo]

Assuming I want a widescreen monitor with pivoting features and built in hardware scaling (as in, 1-to-1 pixel aspect ratio scaling, e.g. on a 1650x1080 monitor, to have a game running at 1280x1024 automatically place black borders on all four sides instead of stretching or scaling based on aspect ratio.) Component input is a plus, but not a necessity. Based on these wants, I would assume the dell widescreen monitors would be best, right? It would just depend on whether I feel like spending the extra for the extra space and componenet inputs.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Ichigo
Assuming I want a widescreen monitor with pivoting features and built in hardware scaling (as in, 1-to-1 pixel aspect ratio scaling, e.g. on a 1650x1080 monitor, to have a game running at 1280x1024 automatically place black borders on all four sides instead of stretching or scaling based on aspect ratio.) Component input is a plus, but not a necessity. Based on these wants, I would assume the dell widescreen monitors would be best, right? It would just depend on whether I feel like spending the extra for the extra space and componenet inputs.

The Samsung 215TW would offer everything including component inputs (the Dell doesn't have those) but it would also be slower for gaming than the Dell 2007WFP by a noticeable amount.

 

[Neodymium]

Any idea on how much vertical size difference there is between the Dell 2007WFP and the Samsung 215TW? The numbers I get from their respective websites don't seem to jive. I'm currently on a 19" Viewsonic and I don't want to lose too much real estate vertically.

Btw, as others have said, thank you so much for this thread, this is hands down the best single LCD resource on the web

 

[imported_browsing]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: browsing
Does anyone have model recommendations for a dual monitor setup that will do gaming? I'd prefer to be able to adjust height of the monitors, not have built in speakers, and keep the cost so that I get the most bang for my buck.

Two Dell 2007WFPs sound good for you. Any cheaper and you really start to sacrifice quality. How much are you willing to pay?

I'd like to get as close to $250 per monitor but if I really had to I suppose I could go up to $350 each.

(Slightly unrelated) Also, any online retailers who offer a zero dead pixel policy?

Edit: Oh, and while widescreen is wicked, I wouldn't mind regular 19 inch monitors for the dual setup.

 

[raildogg]

Which is the better monitor right now, the LG L204WT, Viewsonic VX2025WM or the Dell 2007wfp? Or the Samsung 205BW? I need a monitor for text reading and great colors.

I've been hearing that the Dell is better now since its banding problems have been fixed. But the LG has a 2000:1 contrast ratio, great specs and great customer reviews.