Poll: Are you satisfied with your 17 inch LCD?

[Booster]

Heck, I should put a stone carved with words 'Research before you buy' or similar on my desk. How many times impulse purchases caused me to lose money... So I managed to sell my HP 15 inch LCD I quite liked for almost as much as I paid for it 1.5 years ago and got a 17 inch Samtron 72V analog LCD about a month ago adding just $100, thinking it would be an upgrade. I was satisfied with all the specs, but I didn't know that in order to have the same pixel size (0.297 mm) a 1280*1024 LCD would have to be exactly 19 inches and that's too much money on a monitor currently, and all 17 inchers have 0.264 mm pixels.

Actually, this matter came up, you won't believe, just a few days back when I realized my eyes started to strain more than with my previous monitor. I didn't know why... Checked the signal cable, the image was stable. Then I was suddenly struck with the idea that it's b/c letters are now smaller even though I didn't notice it at first, and I sit a good 1 meter away from this thing (closer just doesn't seem right).

They now sell these tricky POS 17 inchers in every shop and noone even seems to notice that quite significant a shortcoming. However, now I think my eyes started to adopt to it and it's not so bad after I turned on Cleartype (without it this monitor is unusable). So this is a message to consider for all of you who plan on buying a 17 inch LCD, especially if you, like me, use it mainly for text.

This tricky POS is now on sale (since the shop I bought it from doesn't accept returns if it works). It's going to take a while, I guess. But for now, is there a way to increase the font size in WinXP Pro except for setting it to Large since it's too large and doesn't work, for example, with web pages. I'd like to increase all fonts - in Windows, IE etc. by 25%. Is this possible?

 

[CraigRT]

I don't like LCD monitors, Im a CRT fanboy.. I voted "results"

 

[Idoxash]

I don't have a 17 inch LCD but I would like to say I love my 18 inch Microtek C893. It's great with detail, colors, and even games.

--Idoxash

 

[InlineFive]

The Viewsonic VP171b is widely regarded as one of the best 17" LCDs there are. And I can tesify to that after using mine for over 6 months.

-Por

 

[Ionizer86]

You can set custom DPI size. You can also set MSIE font size, though this font control doesn't seem to boost the size of all text

And yes, I boosted my font sizes now that I'm on a 17" 1280x1024 LCD.

 

[Rankor]

I just purchased a 17" Benq FP767 Ver. 2 flat panel. Great monitor and no ghosting. I'm going to set up a tri-display setup as soon as I get my Radeon 9000 PCI from Newegg. Two 15"s and one 17" as the primary.

I think there is a Custom Size under Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, General

 

[dullard]

It is problems like that (and the fact that LCDs cost double what equivalent CRTs cost) which keep me away from them as much as possible.

 

[Nebor]

My LCD is great, very clear, no ghosting... But all it's made me want is a bigger one. That move from my 1760v to a 213t will be GREAT.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Go to the advanced settings in the display settings and select the icons option. Have a explorer window open, not IE but Windows exlporer. Select the icon setting I do believe and change the font size to whatever you like there.

 

[Budman]

Samtron isn't exactly a quality product,they are made by Sansung but they are the low low end of the product line.

Maybe next time pay a little more & buy a quality monitor.

Remember you get what you pay for.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
I don't like LCD monitors, Im a CRT fanboy.. I voted "results"

o yea dual 19s here

 

[Booster]

Ahhhh!!! It's gone!!! The POS is gone. Of course, I lost another $100, but now I look at a new screen - Philips 150P4 15 incher with DVI. Heck, what a relief!!! Never, never buy 17 inch LCDs. Next time I upgrade the monitor the first thing to watch will be the pixel size. Less than 0.297 mm, and fark it, that POS. I don't believe how much better this is on the eyes. I don't even regret wasting money. An expensive lesson, but a lesson learned, after all.

 

[Howard]

Are you satisfied with your 4" CD-ROM drive? Click here to enlarge it!

 

[Vertigo-1]

Well, I had the same problem intially...my eyes felt strained looking at my Viewsonic VP171s. Turns out the solution was to swap over to its analog inputs instead of DVI. Also increased fonts to 120%, and just run the thing at 1152 x 864. Also had to play around a lot with the contrast and brightness to get it perfect. It's hard to go back to a CRT now just because of how much desk space I save over my 19" monitor.

 

[Booster]

Originally posted by: Howard
Are you satisfied with your 4" CD-ROM drive? Click here to enlarge it!

Initially that way of thinking was what got me into trouble. Bigger size, heck. Yes, I wouldn't mind having a 19 incher with normal dot size, but it's ~$700 (for a good one like the Samsung 192T). I like computers, but not that much to shell out that kind of cash for some lousy monitor, LOL. I got other, more important needs to finance, obviously. And if you were using the screen only for reading text (I never run any graphics apps), you'd also find that after staring for like 4 hours in a raw at those tiny letters the 17 inch screen produces, your eyes are about to explode, I'm not joking. I don't want to go blind mister, b/c of the notion that bigger is better. Yes, it's better, but when it's really bigger, like a 19 incher, and 17-18 is just that - a POS, of course, that may be fine for gaming, but I don't game so no point in it.

Now I see everyone is getting rid of their 17 inchers selling them at ridiculously low prices b/c people find them unusable. And keep in mind I got nothing wrong with my eyes, I got almost perfect eyesight and I never wore glasses/contacts and for Christs' sake I'm never going to want to do it, obviously.

 

[suklee]

H*ll yes!

(nec1760NX)

 

[brunswickite]

i am satisfied with my 21 inch crt

 

[Motavian]

I am very happy with my 17inch Samsung SyncMaster 172T. I run at the native resolution 99% of time (have to switch to lower to play Civ3).

I think the original poster has more sensitive eyes than I do. I used to run my crappy old 17inch CRT at 1280x1024 until it got too old to handle it. I guess I'm just used to small fonts.

 

[n7]

I love my LCD, but i have to admit to having a bit of trouble reading text at 1280x1024 without leaning in toward the display.
I actually just installed Cleartype, & it helps a little.

For quality of picture, i love it, but weirdly enough, it is too dark when watching movies for some reason, & i often adjust the brightness higher to see the video without it being all shadowy darkness.

 

[Booster]

I think the original poster has more sensitive eyes than I do. I used to run my crappy old 17inch CRT at 1280x1024 until it got too old to handle it. I guess I'm just used to small fonts.

Heck, anything higher than 800*600 on a 17 inch CRT is a pain for me. Only a handful of them can produce quality image @ 1024*768. It's unbelievable that you could run a 17 inch CRT *1280, b/c even not all 19 inchers are good at that resolution.

 

[Nebor]

I think you don't know what you're talking about. People are flocking away from their 17" LCDs en mass.

There's nothing wrong w/ the resolution, and I can read it just fine. Install cleartype. Oh, and if text is still too small, hold CTRL and move your mouse wheel.

 

[Idoxash]

Originally posted by: Vertigo-1
Well, I had the same problem intially...my eyes felt strained looking at my Viewsonic VP171s. Turns out the solution was to swap over to its analog inputs instead of DVI. Also increased fonts to 120%, and just run the thing at 1152 x 864. Also had to play around a lot with the contrast and brightness to get it perfect. It's hard to go back to a CRT now just because of how much desk space I save over my 19" monitor.

Sucks you had to play with it to get it working right. My LCD has this auto screen sizing, colors, brightness, ect ... that works like a charm. I figure all LCDs has this same funtion and I can't see living without it. I'm wondering why CRTs don't have such a thing.

There's nothing wrong w/ the resolution, and I can read it just fine. Install cleartype. Oh, and if text is still too small, hold CTRL and move your mouse wheel.

I do not use cleartype and can read my fronts perfectly. Infact they look just as good as a CRT. The really crazy thing about my LCD is when I use cleartype my fronts are dang right ugleh and hard to read. Odd huh? Anyways I had this LCD for around 8 or so months and my next LCD will probly be by the same company "Microtek".

--Idoxash

 

[sunase]

Originally posted by: BoosterHeck, anything higher than 800*600 on a 17 inch CRT is a pain for me. Only a handful of them can produce quality image @ 1024*768. It's unbelievable that you could run a 17 inch CRT *1280, b/c even not all 19 inchers are good at that resolution.

I think you must be buying generic crap or something, Booster. I have a 21" ViewSonic running at 1600x1200 and the image is absolutely perfect. I had a 17" NEC before that (quite a few years ago since 17" is for dinosaurs nowadays in the CRT world), but it easily handled 1280x. Besides that, if your eyes are so bad you should up the font size in your OS instead of blaming it on the monitor. ;p

 

[Booster]

Besides that, if your eyes are so bad you should up the font size in your OS instead of blaming it on the monitor. ;p

My eyes aren't bad, I had my vision checked not long ago. It's just the amount of reading I do that I require the text to be actually readable.

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
The Viewsonic VP171b is widely regarded as one of the best 17" LCDs there are. And I can tesify to that after using mine for over 6 months.

-Por

I use a Nec 1760NX which uses the same panel, and it's been wonderful.