Flatscreens, TFTwhatever

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Sun 04 Jun, 2006 2:53 am

Well, having been bestowed with an unnatural amount of cash for a student, I've been looking around for something to spend it on. It's long been a dream of mine to have a spot of extra space on my desk, so a flatscreen would be neat. But I haven't a clue what to look for, when shopping those. Sure, low update time, but is 8ms low, if it runs 75-140Hz with 300:1? Whatever that means.

My requirements:
Cheap
Able to play videogames with a certain element of speed (Like EQ LFGing! Erhm... or Shoot-em-ups+racing games)
Preferably a larger view than a 19 inch CTFwhatever screen running 1024x768whatever, would like to be able to run stuff like EQ in 1154xwhatever without having to require googles (Read: No less than 19 inches... size matters).

Any suggestions, geeks?

varutia · Post by **varutia** » Sun 04 Jun, 2006 11:00 am

If you got money to burn and a good video card, 20 inch wide LCD is a good option. In Aussie land you can pick that up for less than 500 dollar.

I recently picked up a 19 inch Benq FP91G+ LCD for 305 aussie dollar. 8ms is fast enough for all the games, your eyes won't tell the difference if it is any faster unless you are one of those rare individuals. However if it is slower than 8ms, you may notice blurring. The max resolution for 19 inch monitor is 1280 x 1024.

I also own a Benq 17 inch LCD and got no complains there as well. LCD is definitly the to go at moment.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Sun 04 Jun, 2006 7:47 pm

What does ...

19 inch TFT active matrice / 1280 x 1024 / 0.294 mm / 8 ms / 300 cd/m2 /75Hz / 700:1 /

...tell me, apart from it being a 19 inch flat screen with maximum resolution of 1280x1024 with 8ms update rate...?

Seeing as I'm looking mostly at the cheap brands, I'm hestitant to buy anything, unless I know they haven't screwed me over some way to lower the price.

varutia · Post by **varutia** » Sun 04 Jun, 2006 11:38 pm

0.294mm is the size of the displaying dot on your lcd screen. 300cd/m2 is the brightness, more bright the better the monitor is. 700:1 is the contrast, also higher the better.

Following is the stats of my recent purchase, I have been totally satisfied with the monitor so far. What I do recommand is get something that got dead pixel warranty, be it 7 days or 30 days. It is a terrible thing to turn on the monitor and only find lines of dead pixel on your monitor. I just checked a friend's 19 inch Samsung wide screen monitor, he just brought it today, lines lines lines lines of dead pixel all over the screen. Teach the guy a lesson for buying from Harvey Norman.

It is actually first time I saw that many dead pixels, I been using various of LCD monitor at work and home, not had any noticable dead pixel yet.

LCD monitor 19" BenQ FP91G+ TFT. Silver-Black, D-Sub/DVI input, 3 Years On-Site Warranty.

Modern Silver Colour
19" (48.26cm) Flat Panel LCD Monitor
Max Resolution 1280x1024 dpi
Viewing Angle 140/130
8ms Response Time
Brighness of 250 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio 550:1

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Mon 05 Jun, 2006 12:47 am

Thank you

Turook · Post by **Turook** » Wed 07 Jun, 2006 12:48 pm

Var has it all there.
Where did you buy the screen from?
I can't buy that cheap from my own suppliers

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Tue 26 Jun, 2007 9:17 pm

Well, failed in finding the more recent one of these, where we talked about what the different numbers meant (commented by Creac). So... what's the "standard" numbers atm? Found a very cheap 20 inch Viewsonic VA2010wb TFT with the numbers:

20 inch TFT active matrixs / 1680 x 1050 / 0.258 mm / 5 ms / 165 MHz / 300 cd/m2 / 1000:1 / Up to 16.2 million colors

Which, to me, says that it's pretty good, although has a sorta low brightness (although it seems standard for the screens I've looked at). Max view angle seems to be stated as 170 degrees.

Creac · Post by **Creac** » Tue 26 Jun, 2007 10:02 pm

That's plenty bright enough.

My Eizo screens are calibrated at 160, for reference. They're capable of much more, but it's pointless and you lose contrast.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Tue 26 Jun, 2007 10:16 pm

Browsing a bit more, I find that 20 inchers have dropped down to quite cheap. There are even quite a few 22 inch screens, which cost a bit less than what the 19 inch screen cost a few months back.

I think it's time for me to get my own flatscreen!

Creac · Post by **Creac** » Tue 26 Jun, 2007 10:55 pm

Main issue with larger screens is brightness and colour consistency across them.

For gaming, it shouldn't matter.

Chordling · Post by **Chordling** » Wed 27 Jun, 2007 8:40 am

This is the one I have and it's stupidly cheap and pretty decent from a non-technical persons point of view, don't notice any blurring playing eq and for dvd's its nice also

http://www.gamedude.com.au/prod_show.ph ... Gl1919s_sf

That website rocks for cheap mail-order pc stuff too, as long as you aren't worried about super-fast warranty support :p

Verc · Post by **Verc** » Wed 27 Jun, 2007 8:43 am

This store is in Sydney (I have 2x22" (wide) and 2x19" (square)
The 22" Wide is SWEET for EQ

19” 5ms WIDE LCD $215

20” 5ms WIDE LCD $270

22” 5ms WIDE LCD $319

http://www.fluidtek.com.au/index.htm

Western Australia	NSW / Victoria	Queensland	Japan	Pacific Time - EQ	US Central	US Eastern