viewing angles on newer LCD's

[rogue1979]

I find it almost impossible to buy an LCD monitor on the internet. You can read all the specs and reviews that you want, but the proof is in the pudding when it shows up.

My biggest gripe is viewing angles. There is just no way to know what your getting until you look at it from an angle.

One thing that I definately noticed was better viewing angles on older LCD's.

Recently I came across 4 older LCD's. Two 19" Viewsonics, one 19" HP and one 15" Gateway. I immediately noticed that the viewing angles on each of these older monitors showed little if any dimming when viewed from pretty far angles.

In comparison I have 4 or 5 newer LCD's ranging from a 17" 4:3 to a 24" wide.

While some of these newer monitors look good, they all suck in comparison to the older ones when viewed at an angle.

Why? There has to be an explanation for it. Are newer monitors using cheap panels that are supposed to be "newer" technology?

 

[rogue1979]

I might as well rant about response times also.

2ms, 5ms, 8ms, black to black, gray to gray? What the hell, is the monitor gonna ghost in games or not?

For instance:

HP 1940 20ms, of course it has bad ghosting.

Samsung SyncMaster 731B 8ms, just barely any ghosting, you are only able to see it if you forget about the game and just look for it, but it's not really noticeable at all.

ViewSonic VX1935wm 5ms, it has noticeable ghosting, you can see it without specifically looking for it. Not as bad as the HP 1940, but much worse than the SyncMaster 731B.

I know it will never happen, but it would be nice if manufacturers specs were "really" standardized and meant something. Maybe we could actually shop for a monitor online by specifications and end up with what we are looking for?

NOT!!!!

 

[bradsh]

Stop buying garbage. Stop buying TN's. Do PROPER research (start with the LCD thread in this forum).

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i have a Samsung T240 and i CAN move OFF CENTER and watch all different types of videos without any distortion of color, or darkening on the sides...

TN's have come a long way from a few years ago and even within TN panels alone there is a large range of quality panels.

i've used both IPS + TN +CRT's in the past few years and can say i'm as happy with the picture quality of my TN as i was with my IPS panel

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: bradsh
Stop buying garbage. Stop buying TN's. Do PROPER research (start with the LCD thread in this forum).

Thanks for the helpful tip.

I read LCD Thread. Googled for a long time.

I guess I just don't have the great knowledge that you do, or I want the impossible?

Want a 4:3 ratio LCD monitor with a good viewing angle and no ghosting.

But wait, you said stop buying TN panels? According to the LCD Thread other types of panels can have serious input lag. So from the info I gathered it seems to be a choice of a great viewing angle with lag, or a fast response time with a not so good viewing angle.

Hmmm, now I see why I am so reluctant to give up my good ole' CRT's.

Maybe someone else can recommend a good 1280 x 1024 LCD monitor with no ghosting and at least half way decent viewing angles? I play several older games that don't support wide screen resolutions and don't want to watch them stretched.

 

[SniperWulf]

check out the Dell 1908FP. I think it might be just what your looking for

 

[mmnno]

Originally posted by: rogue1979

Originally posted by: bradsh
Stop buying garbage. Stop buying TN's. Do PROPER research (start with the LCD thread in this forum).

Thanks for the helpful tip.

I read LCD Thread. Googled for a long time.

I guess I just don't have the great knowledge that you do, or I want the impossible?

Want a 4:3 ratio LCD monitor with a good viewing angle and no ghosting.

But wait, you said stop buying TN panels? According to the LCD Thread other types of panels can have serious input lag. So from the info I gathered it seems to be a choice of a great viewing angle with lag, or a fast response time with a not so good viewing angle.

Hmmm, now I see why I am so reluctant to give up my good ole' CRT's.

Maybe someone else can recommend a good 1280 x 1024 LCD monitor with no ghosting and at least half way decent viewing angles? I play several older games that don't support wide screen resolutions and don't want to watch them stretched.

4:3 - They don't make those anymore. There's two decent extant models, Dell's 2007FP and HP's LP2065, and both are absurdly expensive and apparently meant only for businesses.

1280x1024 - You're living in the stone age. These monitors are what Best Buy employees sell to your grandma. If you're going to ride in a horse-drawn cart and churn your own butter, you may as well just get a CRT for better picture quality.

If those older games output full screen, either your video card or your monitor should be able to scale by aspect ratio, so they won't be stretched on a widescreen monitor. Beware modern TNs, they are no longer immune to input lag. Most IPS models are comparable to TNs these days.

There are only 3 monitors (well, technically 5 but some are basically identical) that have been proven to have near 0 input lag, one of each panel type.
TN: BenQ's V2400W/G2400W
VA: NEC's 24WMGX3
IPS: Planar's PX2611W/Doublesight's DS-263N (essentially identical)

The Planar is $800 and the Doublesight is discontinued. The NEC ghosts bad.
The BenQs are TNs, but are highly rated here. They also have 1:1 scaling, which is probably a must for you.

 

[AzN]

What's wrong with 4:3 monitors? They are actually great for computer work and gaming as well. The in thing is this multimedia multi purpose monitor so people have been buying 16:10 or 16:9 monitors.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: bradsh
Stop buying garbage. Stop buying TN's. Do PROPER research (start with the LCD thread in this forum).

This about sums it up.

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
i have a Samsung T240 and i CAN move OFF CENTER and watch all different types of videos without any distortion of color, or darkening on the sides...

TN's have come a long way from a few years ago and even within TN panels alone there is a large range of quality panels.

i've used both IPS + TN +CRT's in the past few years and can say i'm as happy with the picture quality of my TN as i was with my IPS panel

WTF.

We have the T240 at werk, & i'm sorry, but there's nothing special about it.
It suffers from the same issues all TNs do.

If i was as happy with the picture quality on a TN as with an IPS, i'd be concerned about my vision.

Glad it works for you, but there's no possible way i can agree with them being an good solution for everyone.

 

[alcoholbob]

LCD technology is driven by the television industry and they come in 2 variants. IPS, or some form of enhanced VA.

If anything its VA or IPS technology thats improved over the years. The amount of research that goes towards improving TN is microscopic compared to IPS/VA research.

If anything, the void between TN and other panel types are increasing, not decreasing.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Azn
What's wrong with 4:3 monitors? They are actually great for computer work and gaming as well.

Manufacturers can sell a smaller panel (less surface area) with the same diagonal length when they go wide screen.

 

[rogue1979]

1280x1024 - You're living in the stone age. These monitors are what Best Buy employees sell to your grandma. If you're going to ride in a horse-drawn cart and churn your own butter, you may as well just get a CRT for better picture quality.


I'm not living in the stone age. And I still have two great CRT's that work just fine. I was hoping to find an LCD solution that worked as well. I plainly stated that I play some older games that only support 1280 x 1024. I want to play them at native resolution so they look good.

A widescreen 16:10 or 16:9 isn't going to be able to do that. I have a 24", it doesn't do anything for these older games, but it does have nice white real estate wasted at the edge of each web page I am viewing! I tried scaling with both Nvidia and ATI on several different monitors, it works on some games, on some it just doesn't.

Solution 1280 x 1024 monitor, just looking for a good one. Thanks for the tip SniperWulf,
I'll check it out.

 

[mmnno]

Originally posted by: Azn
What's wrong with 4:3 monitors? They are actually great for computer work and gaming as well. The in thing is this multimedia multi purpose monitor so people have been buying 16:10 or 16:9 monitors.

Yes, I like them for gaming. But they don't make them anymore. At least not with a price tag that I consider acceptable.

1280x1024 on the other hand, was never my cup of tea. Today that is an obsolete resolution, and 5:4 was always a silly aspect ratio.