Flat panel LCD recommendations?

John Cooper · Post by **John Cooper** » Sat May 03, 2003 11:55 am

Anyone have any opinions on a reasonably priced, good quality 17" to 19" flat panel LCD?

I'm planning to <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1807">sell my giant sony 21" monitor</a> and get a dual flat panel instead.

I saw the 23" Apple cinema display the other, and was pretty damn impressed!! But it's crazy expensive, and I don't know if it works with a PC...

-John

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat May 03, 2003 12:42 pm

Hi John
(BTW The Z truly flies now… wow! It’s a pleasure surfing!)

Definitely, I would go for the always reliable and extremely well constructed ViewSonic screens. Prices have lowered down quite a lot by now. If I were to by one of those, it would be ViewSonic:

This is a good introduction: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/03/1 ... itors.idg/

Here you have a couple of them I would recommend:

The ViewSonic VG181 18.1" TFT LCD Display with OptiSync Technology, it’s a great 19” choice: http://www.viewsonic.com/products/lcd_vg181.htm

Then you have this 17” choice: The ViewSonic VG175 17.4" LCD with advanced SuperClearMVA™ technology. http://www.viewsonic.com/products/lcd_vg175.htm

Here you can read a reviews for each:

The VG181 http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/ ... prx,00.asp

The VG175 http://www.zdnet.com/supercenter/storie ... 38,00.html

The ones I’m pointing out, are not necessarily extreme performance nor professional graphic design screens, I think they may suit you as long as you use them for what we all do at the Z, so the performance-price reason is truly convenient.
Hope this helps you.

aMo · Post by **aMo** » Sat May 03, 2003 1:04 pm

Ooohh.. interresting thread..
I also want that HUGE widescreen LCD Mac thing..hehe..
But as John said, it's CRAZY expensive..

Oh, and remember, a 18" LCD IS 18", not like my 19" CRT that actually only has 17.5" visible area..

[ This Message was edited by: aMo on 2003-05-03 14:05 ]

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Sat May 03, 2003 1:15 pm

I recently got a GNR 17" TFT... £325 in the UK. I'm very very happy with it. Analog input image is comparable with my Dell laptop screen which is connected digitally. VESA mountable too

The clearout of my CRT's has begun...

peace

John Cooper · Post by **John Cooper** » Sat May 03, 2003 2:20 pm

On 2003-05-03 13:42, Nestor wrote:

(BTW The Z truly flies now… wow! It’s a pleasure surfing!)

Yeah, it feels great, doesn't it?

This is a good introduction: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/03/1 ... itors.idg/

Tho the article's a year old, it gave a reall good explanation of a few things that i haven't seen anywhere else, in my searching. Thanks for the link!

My main requirement is absolutely crystal clear text, as I'm primarily a computer programmer and I stare at tiny text on the screen typically 10 hours a day.

Then of course contrast, viewing angle and color... I've found it really hard to choose these based on actual personal analysis- you go into the big stores with all the LCDs hooked thru a multiplexer into a single PC, and they all look AWFUL (because of the multiplexer). So I'm depending on the these reviews in zdnet, cnet, pcmag, and they're so inconsistent.

That's why I was asking you guys for personal opinions! I trust you more than cnet!

-John

petal · Post by **petal** » Sat May 03, 2003 2:30 pm

If you buy one of these LCD-screens, then you should insist on seeing it in action before you give out any money. You have to check the screen for malfunctioning pixels. There's still no standard for when a screen is called "Perfect" - some means 0-3 dead pixels others would say it is "perfect" with up to 8 dead or malfunctioning pixels. So beware and check the screen before you buy.

Thomas

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat May 03, 2003 2:40 pm

I can’t but insist in the ViewSonic displays…

Nevertheless, I think the very best would be for you to going to your nearest shop, sit down for a couple of hours working for real there (the price you’re going to pay worth it I think and the salesperson should understand it), and judge it directly, you can’t mistake this way.

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Sat May 03, 2003 4:36 pm

On 2003-05-03 15:30, Petal wrote:
If you buy one of these LCD-screens, then you should insist on seeing it in action before you give out any money.

Definitely... I checked out mine before I bought it... a brave friend was the guinea pig

In particular, u should check for definition - on a good screen you can easily make out the little square pixels, in a clearly-defined way. There are some absolutely *awful* LCD's out there - blurred and ill-defined, which will fuck up your eyesight in no time...

Also, if you're checking for dead pixels, it's easiest to see them on a black background (such as a DOS screen for example, or just a plain dark blue or black windows background).

peace

[ This Message was edited by: dArKr3zIn on 2003-05-03 17:39 ]

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sat May 03, 2003 7:12 pm

Samsung have a good reputation in the LCD screen world. Also they are quite well priced.

I was very worried about the "dead pixel" factor since there is only one or two manufacturers who have a "zero pixel" return policy. The best insurance against this is to state your paranoia to the shop where you buy and ask whether you can immediately return the screen if you have ANY dead pixels. This is what I did and they agreed - a "human to human" deal.

But it seems that dead pixels are really quite rare. It's a lottery.

Anyway, I like Samsung screens - no problems so far. I'd go for twin Samsung 171S models (17 inch).

Lots of geek info here:
http://www.dansdata.com/sm152b.htm
http://www.dansdata.com/3lcds.htm

[ This Message was edited by: spirit on 2003-05-03 20:16 ]

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Sun May 04, 2003 3:26 am

Isn't there any LCD that would go for more than 1280x1024? I don't see why to get 19inches of high quality picture and get only 1280x1024. That's my resolution for 15CRT. (Ok, it isn't because refresh rate would be only 60Hz, so I use 1152x768 instead with 75Hz).

So, I would preferably have 17/18 inch LCD that goes for 1600x1280. Is there any?

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sun May 04, 2003 4:09 am

You must have good ideas to have everything shrunken so much !

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sun May 04, 2003 5:38 pm

... good eyes anyway

At http://www.tomshardware.com there is a forum too. I remember it as one of those places that had a pretty interesting LCD-section. You may want to check out some of the discussions.

Actually you need to check on both a black and a white background to check for both dead and "wounded" pixels. If anything is shining on the black background, then you have a pixel (white light) or subpixel (colored light), wich can not shut itself off. If you find black spots on the white background, you have a dead pixel. If you find colored spot on the white background, it means you have a pixel with (a) dead subpixel(s).

If you have time for it, checking blue, red and green backgrounds (the hex ff0000, 00ff00 and 0000ff stuff - I probably mix the order), may make it easyer to check the monitor. Black and white are the 2 most important though.

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Mon May 05, 2003 5:47 am

Spirit, isn't it nice to see more than 5 tracks at once in arrange window?

Wow, I want this one http://www.iiyama.nl/fin/php/showmonito ... nitorid=33.

Actually two of those would be nice; one for sequencer and one for SFP

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Mon May 05, 2003 6:02 am

General: always check if the monitor has DVI input. The display is faster then.
Samsung somehow are best at the moment, LG is to recommend. ->Colours are good!
1280 is standard, but the first 20' are out with 1600. For dual use I'd recommend 2x18 LG or Samsung because of very small border.
Very fast combo is 2x LG Flatron L1710B with 16ms response for about 1000 $ both, but only 140 deg view + no video. Similar: NEC Multisync 1760NX, can be turned+high.

Sunshine · Post by **Sunshine** » Mon May 05, 2003 7:49 am

I´m using "Samsung 191T" displays, they are great! They have a dvi and vga interfaces, 25ms response time and a very high contrast of 500:1. Very clear picture. Their 17" tft are also really good! I use both of them. Ive recently compared them to some newer models, but they didn´t beat them.

Bernhard/

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Mon May 05, 2003 7:10 pm

I have 25ms respons time, and that is fast enough to me for running music applications.
Contrast is important. I have 450 and want even more.
Brightness is overrated. I have 300 and I realy could do fine with just 200.
Viewing angle is very important. I have one of the 15" TFTs with the highest veiwing angles, but it is still a bit annoying.

John Cooper · Post by **John Cooper** » Mon May 05, 2003 11:50 pm

Hey Guys,

Well, I spent a bunch of time reading all the reviews I could find, and had basically decided after tom's hardware and anandtech both gave it good reviews that the nec lcd1760 (or hitachi using the same screen part) would be the right one at the right price. I went to the store today and looked it, and I didn't like it at all- seemed kind of washed out and unclear! So, either I saw a dud, or I just disagree with Tom and Anand's reviewers!

OTOH, I saw the Samsung 191T and was floored but it's exceptional clarity and contrast... Wow! I'm used to running 1600x1200, so a single 1280x1024 screen won't be enough - that's why I wanted 2 monitors, side by side, giving me a 2560x1024 screen. But I don't think I'd want to spend the money on two 191T's - it's a bit much. So, does anyone (bernhard?) know which of the Samsung 17" lcd's looks the most like the 191T? Unfortunately the store didn't have the equivalent 17" samsung model for me to see. The different model screens are all different manufacturers I think, so just because the 191T looks great doesn't mean the 171T looks good.

Hm, tough decision!!

-John

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue May 06, 2003 1:32 am

I can't tell about the Samsumg cos I have not seen it... but I can tell you about some ViewSonic screens and they were fantastic. Please, if you have the chance, try them out... you may find something equivalent among them.

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Tue May 06, 2003 5:42 am

No 171T here, sorry. But all Samsungs are excellent so far. Is'nt the border a bit wide for double use? I'd prefer things like LG L1800P for this purpose.

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Tue May 06, 2003 7:47 am

Have you considdered a monitor, at can be turned sidewards up? So you will have it higher, than wide = 2024*1280.