Curse

MegaMouse · Mar 02, 2007, 06:04 AM // 06:04

Dex has given a bit of good advice. Check out what is available then get the best that you can afford. Also a larger screen will need a faster and better graphics card to run well so that may be your next upgrade after the monitor.

Mega mouse

Empedocles · Mar 02, 2007, 06:59 AM // 06:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by B Ephekt

This is horrible advice. You need to at least look up things like dot pitch, response time and contrast ratio.

That would be very well, if one naively assumes that it's tech department, not marketing giving the specs

. Especially when it comes to response time.

Depending on what you want to do, it's always worth checking the panel type of the monitor you're buying, is it TN, IPS or MVA. Generally, TN panels are the cheapest and fastest (in terms of response time), but their colour fidelity is the worst. Also, I'd check a few reviews that check ghosting and input lag of the screen. IPSes are a tad slower than TN but their colour quality is superior, should be fast enough for GW though (some FPSes may suffer), but the downside is their price, which is considerably higher.

Here's a good resource: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/

Dex · Mar 02, 2007, 09:13 AM // 09:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by B Ephekt

This is horrible advice. You need to at least look up things like dot pitch, response time and contrast ratio.

As far as gaming on a TV... If you have half a clue what to look for, HDTVs can be great for gaming. I have my living room panel set up for gaming with my Xbox 360 and home theater PC. Using an HDTV as a desktop replacement for a monitor isn't such a great idea, however.

What I'm saying is that manufacturers aren't honest about their specs. I'm just suggesting that before you purchase a monitor I would personally prefer to read a review from someone that's actually used the monitor. There are a lot of crap monitors out there with great specs. Contrast ratio? This figure means very little. It almost seems like manufacterers just throw a dart at some numbers on the wall to pick this out. Sure, look at response time...if you want to believe what the manufacterer is telling you. Specs can help you narrow down your selections, but it's a mistake to buy one on specs alone.

B Ephekt · Mar 02, 2007, 05:40 PM // 17:40

Most monitors contain panels made by other manufacturers. It's generally not to hard to find out the response time of a specific panel. For example, the Dell 20" and Apple 20" both use the same Samsung panel. Apple advertises it as a 16ms and Dell as a 12ms, Samsung advetises it as 12 as well. You can at least get a some what accurate idea that the panel will be between 12 and 16ms from this. (probably less that 16, since Apple is notoriously conservative with their specifications)

Contrast ratio isn't meaningless, it determines the quality of color representation and picture quality in a well light room. Panels with higher contrast ratio will generally have better blacks than bargain panels, which often only have dark greys. Many 'bargain' LCDs have contrast ratios as low as 300:1, most quality panels are between 800-1000:1.

I agree with the rest of your comments. If you notice, I only quoted the part of your post that said "completely ignore specs..." because I thought it was poor advice.

Dex · Mar 02, 2007, 05:52 PM // 17:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by B Ephekt

Contrast ratio isn't meaningless, it determines the quality of color representation and picture quality in a well light room. Panels with higher contrast ratio will generally have better blacks than bargain panels, which often only have dark greys. Many 'bargain' LCDs have contrast ratios as low as 300:1, most quality panels are between 800-1000:1.

I agree with the rest of your comments. If you notice, I only quoted the part of your post that said "completely ignore specs..." because I thought it was poor advice.

No, contrast ratio isn't meaningless, it's the rating that some manufacturers list that is meaningless. I've seen LCDs rated at 700:1 that had quite obviously better light/dark ranges than another LCD rated at 1000:1. Again, just saying that specs aren't reliable.

I'm sorry I sounded like I was saying you should "completely ignore specs". What I meant to say is that the specs can be very misleading and you're better off doing some research before buying. Oftentimes someone has done a review of a particular monitor and conducted real, quantitative tests of the monitor. I'm more inclined to believe an objective 3rd party with real data than a manufacturer's specs.

Of course, you might say that said reviewer made a mistake or is biased themselves. Well, you could also say that you might walk outside tomorrow and accidentally get hit by a bus and none of this monitor talk really matters...