LCD Screens

[Sgt_Sl@ughter]

Hey guys,

I was contemplating getting a LCD screen for my main PC at home (the one I play most games on) and was wondering how the technology has developed.

Mainly what criteria/specs. to look for?

I am currently running games at 1024X768 and wont be going much higher without some major upgrades.

I have looked at a few that have Response times of 8ms....will that be noticable when playing games (i.e. will I get ghosting?)

Any input would be appreciated :D

Thanks,

Sl@ughter

[PiLL-Doc]

I've been using an LCD for years now and I wouldn't go back to a CRT. Check out the Viewsonics at www.newegg.com and look for one with a very low response time around 4ms.

[Heenalu]

As I told Goat....Samsung is one of the better buys for montiors....only monitors that I know that have a 3yr labor and 3yr parts warranty...I have the Samsung Syncmaster 930B..here are the details.....

Product Details
Warranty Terms - Parts 3 years
Warranty Terms - Labour 3 years
Product Height 16.8" with stand (14" without)
Product Width 16.6"
Product Weight 11.2 lbs. with stand
Product Length 7.9" with stand (2.4" without)
Monitor Type Flat-panel LCD
Screen Size 19"
Viewable Screen Size 19"
Maximum Resolution 1280 x 1024
Aspect Ratio 4:3 (standard)
Response Time 8 ms
Brightness 300 cd/m²
Portrait and/or Landscape Viewable Landscape
Contrast Ratio 700:1
Dot Pitch 0.294m
Flat Display Yes
TV Tuner No
TV/Cable Ready No
Picture-in-Picture No
Inputs Analog RGB, DVI digital link
Compatibility PC or Mac
Vertical Frequency 56-75Hz
Horizontal Frequency 30-81kHz
On-Screen Image Controls Yes
Accessories Included D-sub cable; power cord; user's guide, monitor driver, Natural Color and MagicTune software

[CaptCoolio]

Hey Slaughter maybe you could buy one for me as well. :lol:

CaptCoolio

[Tombstone]

I hope Beaner weighs in with his input cuz he knows what are the important specs. One thing I learned is that you want to know what the NATIVE RESOLUTION is for the monitor. LCDs will always have one true resolution they run best at, anything other than that resolution is kinda of compressed and not as sharp. You can run them at other resoultion but you will get a lesser quality picture when you do. So try and make sure that you can run Windows and whatever games you are playing at the same resolution as the monitor's native resolution.

If someone knows different than this then please post. I feel it is true from what I have seen when playing BF2 at 1024x768 instead of at the native resolution of 1280x1024.

Oh, also be sure to check if your video card has DVI output. If it does you definately want to get a DVI capable LCD monitor. The image from DVI is soooo much sharoer than with the standard VGA cable.

']['

[Heenalu]

Good point about DVI Tombstone...I finally switched a couple weeks ago and wow I could actually see the difference

[Sgt_Sl@ughter]

Hey guys thanks for the input so far.... the search continues :D

Heen I looked at a couple of Samsungs (Have a Samsung HDTV Widescreen so I am somewhat partial) but couldn't find any that stated 3 year warranties. All I have looked at on-line are 1 year??

Also if anyone else is in the market watch out for specs alone, seems like monitor manufacturers are no different than stereo component/speaker manufacturers. They find an absolute best case scenario and give that as the specs. For example when looking at response time try to determine if the listed time is average response time or not.

Thanks again.

sl@ughter

[Heenalu]

Here is a link to the Samsung Warranty page

http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/support/warranty/b2c_warranty_main.jsp?eUser=

Scroll down till you get to COMPUTER PERIPHERALS & INFORMATION PRODUCTS

[Roo]

I'm going to sit back and let you guys do all the work....let me know what you find out, when you find out....I'll go with majority rules... :)

[Sgt_Sl@ughter]

The search is over...

Though I am partial to samsung (thanks fo the input Heen) I could not find one locally for less then $1000 which is more than I wanted to spend.

After much searching and questioning, I settled on the 19" Viewsonic which posts an average response time (gray to gray) of 3ms! It also comes with a 3 year manufacturer warranty and I opted for the extend warranty giving me 4 years of warranty...that way if a single pixel decides to die on me the whole thing goes back (Manufacturer only replaces after 10 dead pixels are noted).

http://www.viewsonic.com/products/desktopdisplays/lcddisplays/xseries/vx924/

Now I have tons of room on my desk...more room for beer :D

Cheers

[Parasitic]

I have that moniter you'll love it if it is just for gaming. I don't like it much for watching movies on it because the contrast is not that high compared to samsung. However there is a stipulation that you must read about returns. All companies do this for LCD's there must be a min of around 8 or so pixels dead before you can return for an exchange. Here is a link for your viewsonic reference http://www.viewsonic.com/support/qa.cfm?topic=lcd&question=01.

Sorry I couldn't jump the gun on replying to this thread to give you more insite on the subject but gray to gray is good responce time but the black to white is around 7ms or so which is very good for this moniter no haze effect.

Thought I would clearly point this out for your understanding.

Ghosting is when you see a off center duplicate of your image. ex: you know when you watch TV on an antenna and you see the off center picture on top of the original.

Expected results from using a LCD is the hazing effect you will see when you move etc. That simply put is the LCD pixel turning on and off. If you owned a 16ms+ LCD you know this by now. You won't notice this on the VX924 because it is fairly smooth but you may see it from time to time. My version was stated to have the 4ms gray to gray but it is still awesome the colors and picture are so much better then a CRT.

Also in order to get an optimal image you must run this LCD in it's native resolution of 1280x1024 on DVI. LCD's of the 17" - 20" ( 1280x1024 ) were made using a 5:4 aspect ratio vs the 15" ( 1024x768 ) and 20.1"+ ( 1600x1200 ) which use the standardized 4:3 aspect ratio. This is not a problem for the user depending on the use but the only people that tend to complain are the graphic artists so they usual dish out more for the 20.1"+ moniters.

Not sure what the price is Canadian but they are a great place to shop for PC parts. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116355

Have fun and enjoy your new moniter.

[Sgt_Sl@ughter]

Hey thanks Beaner....It is never too late for input, seeing how I have only had the monitor for 3 days.

So far I am extremely happy with the monitor, and the sales rep did explain to me that the manufacturer's warranty requires (in his words) " at least 10 dead pixels to accept the monitor for exchange". For an additional $45 CDN I got the extended warranty (through to this retailer), giving me an additional year (4 years total) and a no hassel exchange option. Again in his words "If 1 pixel dies you can bring the monitor in and exchange it for an equivalent monitor (same brand)."

BF2 runs extremely smooth (i.e. I can't notice any anomlies in the game...aside from TJ LOL) :D

Unfortunately I don't have enough CPU or GPU horsepower to run BF2 in the native resolution of 1280X1024 but it doesn't seem to matter.

I did notice while watching a DVD (Rammstien music video) there seem to be a bit of motion blur, however I changed the video options (In the DVD Software program) to hardware controlled and it seem to clarify the problem. I am not to concerned with videos as I have an entertainment system for watching movies.

I am not sure if this is standard either, but this monitor comes with both VGA and DVI cords. The DVI cords at the store where I bought the monitor were $91 CDN (taxes included). New Egg in the States is cheaper than I paid (even with exchange) but I wanted to be able to view the monitor first hand and be able to throw it in my car and take it back if I have problems (rather than shipping).

I would recommend this monitor to anyone looking for a good 19" gaming monitor.

[Parasitic]

Weird my moniter came with the DVI cables go figure.

[CaptCoolio]

Just picked up my LCD display. 19" Samsung 940BF, it is pretty sweet. The only real issue is the first one I brought home had several dead Pixals, I returned and the second was awsome. The graphics and brightness is awsome. I now have so much space on the desktop I made need to buy some racing stuff. :D

My monitor had the DVI and VGA cords in the box. Am using the DVI and it is quite impressive.

[TJf12]

Hey thanks Beaner....It is never too late for input, seeing how I have only had the monitor for 3 days.

So far I am extremely happy with the monitor, and the sales rep did explain to me that the manufacturer's warranty requires (in his words) " at least 10 dead pixels to accept the monitor for exchange". For an additional $45 CDN I got the extended warranty (through to this retailer), giving me an additional year (4 years total) and a no hassel exchange option. Again in his words "If 1 pixel dies you can bring the monitor in and exchange it for an equivalent monitor (same brand)."

BF2 runs extremely smooth (i.e. I can't notice any anomlies in the game...aside from TJ LOL) :D

Unfortunately I don't have enough CPU or GPU horsepower to run BF2 in the native resolution of 1280X1024 but it doesn't seem to matter.

I did notice while watching a DVD (Rammstien music video) there seem to be a bit of motion blur, however I changed the video options (In the DVD Software program) to hardware controlled and it seem to clarify the problem. I am not to concerned with videos as I have an entertainment system for watching movies.

I am not sure if this is standard either, but this monitor comes with both VGA and DVI cords. The DVI cords at the store where I bought the monitor were $91 CDN (taxes included). New Egg in the States is cheaper than I paid (even with exchange) but I wanted to be able to view the monitor first hand and be able to throw it in my car and take it back if I have problems (rather than shipping).

I would recommend this monitor to anyone looking for a good 19" gaming monitor.

I am a what?

[Tortelvis]

I am a what?


That would be one of those multi syllable words you might find in the big ole thick book propping you up so's you can see over the wheel when you drive TJ.

[Sgt_Sl@ughter]

I am a what?


Anomoly means "A deviation from uniformity, eg TJ|OSS|"

Seriously I'm not making this up :D

Hey deviation from uniformity isn't necessarily always a bad thing.

[TJf12]

That would be one of those multi syllable words you might find in the big ole thick book propping you up so's you can see over the wheel when you drive TJ.
this coming from a guy who cant figure out if he is half evlis or a tort well are you a rocker or a treat, nah never mind . I looked you up in that book and well ......I am glad you live a long ways from me

also Sgt_Sl@ughter I never said i was normal

[Tortelvis]

this coming from a guy who cant figure out if he is half evlis or a tort well are you a rocker or a treat, nah never mind . I looked you up in that book and well ......I am glad you live a long ways from me

also Sgt_Sl@ughter I never said i was normal

Yeah what the hell am I anyways, but a copy cat. I borrowed that name from the lead singer in Dread Zeppelin. Never could figure out what it really meant, he does sing like a sweet Elvis though. Did it say anything nice about me in the book??:p

[Napalm006]

I just got the VX 922 from Viewsonic, it was $259. Its a Gaming LCD, 2ms refresh, and an excellent monitor. You can find it on Newegg if anyone is still looking for a new monitor.