Good quality LCD

Well following on from my 100hz escapade and since the computer on my secondary system is naff i've decided to try out a good quality LCD to see whether I can get on with it.

Does anyone have any suggestions/reccomendations of a good quality 19" (prefebly larger if widescreen) LCD screen? I'm willing to pay for good quality but also don't want it to break the bank. Or even just makes/models to avoid?

I like a good viewing angle and good vibrancy like you get with a CRT.

I'm totally out of touch with LCD screens and I was a bit suprised how low the prices were when I looked, so, over to you lot

Many thanks!

Low prices = TN+film.
TN+film = poor viewing angles with decent colour reproduction.

You would need to look at what you need the monitor for if your going to buy into a certain panel.

TN is fine for casual gaming and movies.

In reply to a post by Gzero:

Low prices = TN+film.
TN+film = poor viewing angles with decent colour reproduction.

You would need to look at what you need the monitor for if your going to buy into a certain panel.

TN is fine for casual gaming and movies.

You've lost me already

Don't watch films on the PC and rarely play games, but do want a good quality display, as close to what my CRT is like

What about high prices? Brands? Dell any good (or the company who makes them)? I've always been impressed with their CRT in the past.

Edited by Pipexer (Fri 06-Nov-09 23:31:57)

I like Viewsonic - I have a three year old 19" widescreen and cannot fault the quality in addition my daughter has a 17" monitor/TV and again quality is good.

Viewsonic do several "grades" from fairly cheap to expensive. Check out their website.

Another vote for Viewsonic.

I have a 22" 2260WM model, 16x9 (wide screen)

It has full HD, HDMI and/or DVI connection; 2ms refresh rate.

It replaced a LG1960TR; 19" 4x3 format; (which replaced a Mitsubishi 19" CRT)

I had no problems with the LG, but the Viewsonic has better colour reproduction IMHO

You can get the model I have for ~ £150 - £160 mark now; which is less than what I paid in February of this year. (£180)

Just looked at Amazon; £142 from them.

Given the choice, I would not go back to the LG or the Mitsubishi CRT (which weighed more than me !!!)... (well.....nearly)

Edited by deleted (Sat 07-Nov-09 00:28:10)

I have this monitor, its rather good for the £130 (rub it in a bit ) I paid. Only a few issues, it's a TN+film panel so it doesn't match up to a IPS monitor like the Dell 2209wa, it has light bleeding through (hard to find lcd's without this problem), contrast feels a little weaker but still natural.

Read for the advantages and disadvantages of panels (just read IPS and TN if your not in the mood):
http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types...

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Don't watch films on the PC and rarely play games, but do want a good quality display, as close to what my CRT is like

Do you do serious photography or anything else that requires serious colour work?
It gets more expensive and harder to buy if so

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

What about high prices? Brands? Dell any good (or the company who makes them)? I've always been impressed with their CRT in the past.

Use Dell monitors at work and have two Dells at home - they seem good, though had one at home was DoA and there are issues trying to calibrate them

TFT reviews and info

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

You've lost me already

Don't watch films on the PC and rarely play games, but do want a good quality display, as close to what my CRT is like

What about high prices? Brands? Dell any good (or the company who makes them)? I've always been impressed with their CRT in the past.

I have a 27" Dell which runs at 1920*1200 and is fantastic.. I didn't pay what the site lists as the price though, closer to £450..

Thanks for the replies so far everyone. I will look at the viewsonic series. Will take a look at dell too but from what I can see so far you have to pay a bit more than the viewsonic for equivilant spec.

Am I right in thinking that (generally) a viewsonic IPS is going to be better than a dell TN?

As you can tell... Absolutely no clue about this at all

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Thanks for the replies so far everyone. I will look at the viewsonic series. Will take a look at dell too but from what I can see so far you have to pay a bit more than the viewsonic for equivilant spec.

Am I right in thinking that (generally) a viewsonic IPS is going to be better than a dell TN?

As you can tell... Absolutely no clue about this at all

IPS is better than any TN panel due to one reason. TN panels can only do 262,000 colours no TN panel can do 16.7million colour.

So colour reproduction is way off on tn panels ..

In reply to a post by Gzero:

Low prices = TN+film.
TN+film = poor viewing angles with decent colour reproduction.

You would need to look at what you need the monitor for if your going to buy into a certain panel.

TN is fine for casual gaming and movies.

don't you mean
"TN+film = poor viewing angles with crud colour reproduction."

Another vote for Viewsonic from me, i have this > http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/uk/products/desktop-m... probably overkill for you but good colour representation as it has a MVA screen, it's a good few years old now but running sweet. Definetly worth checking out their site for something you fancy http://www.viewsoniceurope.com

P.S You might even fancy the new > http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/uk/products/desktop-m... LED version. I have no idea what colour rep is like i'm sure the other guys could help with that .

In reply to a post by Simon_Pipex:

P.S You might even fancy the new > http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/uk/products/desktop-m... LED version. I have no idea what colour rep is like i'm sure the other guys could help with that .

I did see that one earlier Tempted.... Is this an IPS LCD do you know? Or are they something totally different again

Neither do I do any graphics work having said all this, but since I will be sat infront of it for the rest of my life, what the hell

It's improved slightly over the long years

In reply to a post by Gzero:

It's improved slightly over the long years

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

In reply to a post by Simon_Pipex:

P.S You might even fancy the new > http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/uk/products/desktop-m... LED version. I have no idea what colour rep is like i'm sure the other guys could help with that .

I did see that one earlier Tempted.... Is this an IPS LCD do you know? Or are they something totally different again

Neither do I do any graphics work having said all this, but since I will be sat infront of it for the rest of my life, what the hell

Main discription of the LED is this > 22� Wide TN colour TFT active matrix WSXGA+ LCD so looks like TN again !

Damn

Having said that in the specs: Colour Support 16.7M colours supported (6-bit+2-bit FRC)

Wonder if anyone can comment?

It's looking like i'll go for the Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA at the moment. I can't find any places to buy a viewsonic with IPS in the UK and it is only their american site which lists the pro range with IPS technology. I'm going on this based that you lot have told me that IPS is better than TN hands down.

I do like the look of the viewsonic LED LCD one though... What does everyone think?

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Damn

Having said that in the specs: Colour Support 16.7M colours supported (6-bit+2-bit FRC)

Wonder if anyone can comment?

In reference to www.maximumpc.com/article/6_bit_vs_8_bit_lcds:

All desktop LCDs employ thin-film transistor (TFT) technology, but there are many variants of TFT. Of these variants, twisted nematic (TN) is the cheapest to produce. Also TN screens tend to have faster response times. Thus, many vendors use this technology for their mass-market displays. Mind you, this is distinct from their professional lines --- the displays we typically review and recommend. As I understand it, TN LCDs are for the most part incapable of 8-bit color. To bridge that huge gap between 8-bit's 16.7 million colors and the 262,144 colors 6-bit is capable of, vendors use compensation techniques: either dithering, which combines adjacent pixels to simulate a desired shade, or more commonly, �frame rate control� (FRC), which rapidly cycles the 6-bit pixels to simulate the shades you�d get natively from an 8-bit panel.

That pretty much explains it. If you think its not much of a problem - then you don't mind purple turned in to pink!

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

It's looking like i'll go for the Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA at the moment.

The Dell mentioned is an ips based lcd so go with that.!

Edited by Taras (Sun 08-Nov-09 16:28:42)

Hi everyone,

In the end I went with the Dell Ultrasharp as the viewsonic IPS are not out in the UK yet. So far I am very impressed, my eyes are still getting used to everything being a bit smaller but even from the first few minutes of switching it on, I was fairly certain I would get along with it.

When the Viewsonic VP2365wb IPS comes out I am very strongly considering getting one for the downstairs computer... and maybe swapping them round if I prefer it

Many thanks for all your replies, before starting the thread I had absolutely no idea about TN/IPS and all that sort of stuff, so I feel I made a good choice based on your help