Best 20" LCD display

Tea said:
Next question, where am I going to hide it where he won't see it?
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Since he's never in the office, just keep it there. You and Kristie will get to enjoy the monitor, the old man will pay for it while he is 1000 kilometers away on some bird expedition, and not even realize what has happened.
 
Now if only some Korean/Japanese LCD manufacturer will remove his head from his rectum long enough to put a 24" 4:3 LCD on the market...
 
Mercutio said:
Now if only some Korean/Japanese LCD manufacturer will remove his head from his rectum long enough to put a 24" 4:3 LCD on the market...
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Seconded, the wide screen marketing hype does NOT apply to computers.
 
My Viewsonic P815 bit it over the weekend. Dead. Kaput. Shuffled off this mortal coil. It is an ex-monitor.

I had it for years and now I need to replace it.

So I've been looking at large monitors.

They all suck.

Strike 1 - Everything big is widescreen. I can either buy a 20" 4:3 or something genuinely large. This monitor was attached to the PC I use for gaming and watching movies in my bedroom. Bigger would in fact be better.

Strike 2 - Native resolutions are too high. 1920x1200 is almost twice as many pixels as the 1280x1024 I normally use. That can't be good for video card performance, nor am I particularly interested in finding out what happens when a 320x240 video file gets upsampled to that resolution.

Strike 3 - Limited inputs. Is it unreasonable to expect that a 24" monitor would support HDMI and/or component video? What about a $1500+ 30" model? Dells 24" LCD does do every analog input ever, but nothing does both.

The Apple displays have much lower dot pitch (.25 vs. .27 for Dell). The Dells are slightly brighter. Apple's have been response times (14ms vs. 16 for Dell). The Apple displays are substantially more expensive ($200 more for the 24" models, $500 more for 30").

Bleh.
 
Dell is supposed to release a 27" 1920x1200 LCD this fall. That might be interesting.


Mercutio said:
My Viewsonic P815 bit it over the weekend. Dead. Kaput. Shuffled off this mortal coil. It is an ex-monitor.

I had it for years and now I need to replace it.

So I've been looking at large monitors.

They all suck.
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I offered to give you my P815 some months ago, which was in great shape, but you didn't want to pay for the shipping. I ended up giving it to a co-worker for his son instead. :bounce:
 
I sympathize; I just went through the same experiance when my IIyama Pro510 died. Everything you are describing is dead on. There are no choices in the 24" 4:3 arena. You are stuck with either 20", or going 24" Wide screen, or 30" Wide screen.

Yes, increased resolution does play havok with low end video cards. And the 30" monstrosities require very specific and very expensive video cards. The 30" varieties also have much more limited inputs than the 24" monitors.

I ended up buying the Dell 2407FPW. Really I would have been much happier with a good 24" 4:3 monitor, but they don't exist.
 
A 24" monitor at 1600x1200 would be ideal, has to be a big market for that. 1920x1200 doesn't sound like a 4:3? Hmm, looking at the link 2707WFP so yup.

However, the 27" panel has a less dense 0.303mm pixel pitch which is not the most attractive pixel width we've seen.
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Maybe if you actually get back from the screen a little you will be fine, this is a big monitor.

Is it unreasonable to expect that a 24" monitor would support HDMI and/or component video?
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I think so, that's home theater territory with those inputs. I mean why would they actually make a product to bridge into the HTPC / HT market? That's just crazy talk, there might be a market out there for them so why cater to that?

/sarcastic, In all seriousness though those inputs would probably add to the cost enough to make those models non competitive with other models with similar features.
 
Mercutio said:
My Viewsonic P815 bit it over the weekend. Dead. Kaput. Shuffled off this mortal coil. It is an ex-monitor.

I had it for years and now I need to replace it.

So I've been looking at large monitors.

They all suck.

Strike 1 - Everything big is widescreen. I can either buy a 20" 4:3 or something genuinely large. This monitor was attached to the PC I use for gaming and watching movies in my bedroom. Bigger would in fact be better.

Strike 2 - Native resolutions are too high. 1920x1200 is almost twice as many pixels as the 1280x1024 I normally use. That can't be good for video card performance, nor am I particularly interested in finding out what happens when a 320x240 video file gets upsampled to that resolution.

Strike 3 - Limited inputs. Is it unreasonable to expect that a 24" monitor would support HDMI and/or component video? What about a $1500+ 30" model? Dells 24" LCD does do every analog input ever, but nothing does both.

The Apple displays have much lower dot pitch (.25 vs. .27 for Dell). The Dells are slightly brighter. Apple's have been response times (14ms vs. 16 for Dell). The Apple displays are substantially more expensive ($200 more for the 24" models, $500 more for 30").

Bleh.
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The 24" Dell 2407WFP has an HDCP enabled DVI input, so using a cheap HDMI->DVI cable will work just fine. And you still have the component input as well.

How about 32" for $1199? 1366*768 so not too high a rez for your eyes. HDMI, two component, VGA, even a built in ATSC OTA tuner.

http://www.dell.com/content/product...&s=bsd&~section=specstab&~tab=specstab#tabtop
 
If you can live with a mere 21 inch 1600 x 1200 with analogue and DVI, I'm very impressed with Tea's Samsung 214T. So happy that I am (a) not going to punish her for spending all that money, and (b) going to order another one to use at the office.
 
Don't know if this is off topic, but here goes.

If one had a choice between an AOC 19" wide screen and an LG 17" 4:3 (they cost the same) and one was concerned with screen real estate, what would you recommend?

One is using 17" CRT at the moment...
 
As I'm sure you're aware, they both have about the same total screen real estate: 1296000 vs 1310720 pixels (yes, the 19" WS is slightly smaller!). Which is more suitable will really depend on your applications. Most will probably me more able to take advantage of the taller 5:4 screen, but some apps with lots of floating toolbars might do better on the 8:5 screen.

Personally, I'd rather buy a *good* 2nd hand 19" CRT than either of your options, especially if you use reading glasses. Save your money for a 19" LCD - they'll be the same price soon enough.
 
time said:
Personally, I'd rather buy a *good* 2nd hand 19" CRT than either of your options, especially if you use reading glasses. Save your money for a 19" LCD - they'll be the same price soon enough.
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AGHHH, a 19" CRT will cause the electric consumption to skyrocket. and the missus won't be talking to me after the 2 succeeding bills. ;-)

Yes, I've been reading all that drool inducing posts above. Can I resist it for much longer?

Still, thank you for the post. It gives me something to chew on for the time being.
 
I'd just like to say that 21.3" is way bigger than 19". I had no idea it would be this big*:

Viewsonic VP2130b - 1600x1200, VGA+DVI, 4-port USB hub, 8ms

Great base with lots of room for adjustments; about 8" vertical and 270 degrees horizontal. I had to turn the brightness down to 40% even with the lights on. Elegant, thin bezel with subtle markings are 5 easy buttons. A dim green LED indicates power.

I like it a lot.


*"that's what she said"
 
Odd quirk about this monitor. When the monitor goes into standby, the 4-port USB hub turns off. Therefore the USB keyboard and mouse aren't able to wake it :(
 
I'm looking for an LCD for my wife, now that's she's jelous over my new Samsung 204B. I'm looking at the SCEPTRE X20WG-Naga Black 20.1 for $249-$50 rebate vs. the BenQ FP202W for $239. Anybody have experience with either of these? Both are 20.1", 300 cd/m2 and run 1680x1050, a resolution I think my wife will find acceptable and it seems to give the best pixels per dollar. The Sceptre is 1000:1 and 5 ms, and the BenQ is 600:1 and 8 ms. My wife isn't a gamer and likely won't be watching movies on it, although some videos through some YouTube.
 
I've used Scepter 19" displays many times and don't have anything bad to say about them. They're a no-name brand with decent specs. On the other hand, I bought them when they were quite a bit cheaper than name brand displays. Now that they aren't that much cheaper, I think I'd rather have the assurance of a name brand's warranty.

But no, AFAIK there's nothing per se WRONG with a Scepter display.
 
www.sceptre.com said:
Brutus, the Company’s mascot, is 8ft. long from tip to tail and in his own world, he’s the King of the monitors. For this reason, Sceptre has adopted Brutus as the symbolic head of the company’s Royal family.
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Note the sequence of the characters "r" and "e".
 
To move vaguely back on topic (but only vaguely) does anyone here have any, potentially helpful, opinions for someone looking at buying an LCD TV?

I'm after something to plug my Wii (when I get it) into and would also like to play downloaded videos and probably some games on it.

I'm mostly looking at these two options:
Samsung 32" R74 for ~£620
LG RZ27LZ55 for ~£500

I've just about decided to go with the Samsung but I'd appreciate any suggestions or comments, I've had pretty much no exposure to LCD TVs outside of the stores I've checked out, and mostly they weren't hooked up to actual HD sources, so I'm a little hesitant at dropping so much cash on one.
 
Both seem very nice. I have a Samsung 32" LCD and am very satisfied viewing it from a distance of 12 feet.

The downside to 32" LCDs is their limited resolution of 1366 x 768.
 
Stereodude said:
In the US you can get a 32" LCD TV for $500-600 now (not a Samsung or LG though.
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Yeah, and for a little more you can get 1920 x 1080 pixels on a 32" monitor:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-0O7c5w...?g=146350&tab=essential_info&i=647LVM37W3#Tab


Doesn't that make you sick? I ALMOST got this but I'll hold out for something similar with a three year warranty early next year. Do note though that this is a real monitor for PC's and also supports all the PC resolutions below the top resolution so you don't get stuck with no video in safemode or something.
 
I suspect that the dot pitch on that Westinghouse is a little bit too high for normal computer use. :(

I finally did give in and buy a Dell 24" widescreen. It does not make me completely happy but with the combination of discounts I got, at least the price was kinda-sorta reasonable, and it fits in essentially the same space my 21" Viewsonic did.

Gaming? 1920x1200 cost me about 10fps in City of Villains.
But HD DVDs look nice on it.
 
Mercutio said:
I suspect that the dot pitch on that Westinghouse is a little bit too high for normal computer use. :(
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You have a point there if you are expecting to put this on your desk, which to me wouldn't be the purpose of this. I am thinking more along the lines of HTPC for gaming and lazy couch surfing, upconverting DVD player and cable box for the whole "digital convergence" marketing thing.
 
That Westinghouse does look nice but unfortunately it extends a little above my budget (UK prices seem to be generally much higher than the US, I can't find that TV for under £800).

I think I'll just go with the Samsung, the resolution isn't great but the picture quality is pretty good.

I'm only planning to plug my laptop and Wii into it at the moment. The laptop already has a perfectly good screen for general use and the Wii won't put out anything near the resolution the Samsung can achieve anyway.
I doubt my laptops video card will output much above that for recent games in any case so the resolution only really starts to become relevant if and when I get a new games machine. I'd really like to have a huge hi-res screen for then but I don't think I can quite justify the cost right now.

Perhaps I'll see what laser TV technology brings to the table some time next year... Lot's of people have more than one TV right?..
 
I currently play AOE3 at 1280x1024 on my 20" LCD monitor. This is a limitation of the 7600GS video card, not the monitor. I was playing the game at 1600x1200 with an X1800XL card and truly appreciated the increased viewing area. If I were to try playing that game on my LCD TV, I would now be limited by the TV at a castrated 1366x768 - no thanks. If game playing was one reason for purchasing a new TV, I would definitely find one that supports 1920x1200. At least I would be back at the limitation of my $130.00 video card and not a $2,000.00 television.
 
Game playing is more a bonus at this stage, mostly I'm playing games from a first person perspective so extra resolution doesn't give you any extra space anyway, just more detail with games designed to be playable at 800x600 a TV should be tolerable. If I get a full gaming PC with a good video card I probably won't want to have to sit in front of my TV to play it anyway so as much as I' like to avoid needing a separate monitor I'll probably get one in the end anyway.
 
I got the Sceptre delivered today and set it up as an early Christmas gift for my wife. So far she's pretty happy with it. Zero dead pixels to boot! It's not as nice as my Samsung 204B, but it will end up being about $100 cheaper.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824112006

Unfortunately, it did not come with a DVI cable, and while I thought I had one around here I do not. Is it worth $10 or so (after shipping) to get a DVI cable, or will there likely be no improvement over the 15-pin D-sub VGA.
 
So, if you have a shiny HD (1080) DV camera and want to do some casual video editing, doesn't this mean you need at least a 1920x1080 monitor?

In practical terms, that seems to be limited to the 1920x1200 24" Samsung 244T, and what I assume is the Dell rebadge: the 2407WFP?

Current Dell offer on the 2407WFP in Oz is about US$780. The Samsung is way more expensive (but you don't have to deal with Dell).
 
If you are doing casual video editing, any monitor will do. If you are doing professional video editing, and want to be able to see every pixel perfectly, and all at once, then you need one of those monitors.
 
time said:
In practical terms, that seems to be limited to the 1920x1200 24" Samsung 244T, and what I assume is the Dell rebadge: the 2407WFP?
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Nope, there's at least the Viewsonic VP2330WB too. No idea how much it cost in your nic of the wood though. Here it is approx. 1180$CAN, which is 175$ more than the Samsung 244T. Not sure the three parakeets are worth 175$.
 
time said:
So, if you have a shiny HD (1080) DV camera and want to do some casual video editing, doesn't this mean you need at least a 1920x1080 monitor?
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Chances are that its 1440x1080 .... 1920x1080 is just becoming available to the consumer (prior to this there are 1440x1080 HDV cams that will circumvent the tape and actually output from the sensors a 1920x1080 signal, but only if you're tethered to a PC or capture deck via HD-SDI or HDMI ... just don't see many consumer doing that though).
 
time said:
In practical terms, that seems to be limited to the 1920x1200 24" Samsung 244T, and what I assume is the Dell rebadge: the 2407WFP?
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There are several other 24 inch monitors too (HP, Benq, Apple,...) but perhaps you excluded them because they aren't available to you? (is this what you meant by "in practical terms"?).
 
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