LCD monitors

I've heard pretty much nothing but good about Samsung. I have a pair of Samsung 17" LCDs, and they have been working quite nicely.

I almost bought a 19in Samsung monitor today, but decided that I could wait a couple of more days to be sure. Thanks for the input.

-Casey

Samsung is pretty much the best quality you'll find without straying into Ridiculously Expensive Land. If you're willing to trade a little bit of quality for serious price drop, check out Sceptre - I've been quite happy with their stuff. I have one 17" 5:4 LCD of theirs that is superb, and recently picked up a 22" widescreen as well. The widescreen has some irregularities because the backlighting isn't diffused perfectly, but it's only visible when the screen is very dim/dark so it doesn't bother me at all.

Main things to look for are dead/bright pixel guarantees (they should be willing to replace anything more than 3-4 dead or bright pixels) and color/contrast response suitable for your purposes. Make sure you understand the different ways to measure timing - one 12ms LCD is not the same as the next. Try to avoid monitors that dither colours (i.e. look for 16.7 million/full 24-bit colour support) as they can produce ugly effects.

Quote:

Original post by ApochPiQ Main things to look for are dead/bright pixel guarantees (they should be willing to replace anything more than 3-4 dead or bright pixels) and color/contrast response suitable for your purposes.

This just reminded me, one of my monitors developed a dead pixel a couple of months back and I just realised I haven't been noticing it.. there is a good reason for this; it's gone... it was stuck on 'red' and now its back to working as normal... how strange, heh...

Quote:

Original post by phantom Quote: Original post by ApochPiQ Main things to look for are dead/bright pixel guarantees (they should be willing to replace anything more than 3-4 dead or bright pixels) and color/contrast response suitable for your purposes. This just reminded me, one of my monitors developed a dead pixel a couple of months back and I just realised I haven't been noticing it.. there is a good reason for this; it's gone... it was stuck on 'red' and now its back to working as normal... how strange, heh...

I have a paper around here somewhere on that issue. It is apparently possible for a pixel to become stuck at one position, but return to normal function if cycled through other colours, flipped between colours, or forced into the far opposite colour for a time. There are a few programs that are on the web, and simply cycle through a colour pattern, and can often clear dead pixels. So, try one of those before returning for service.

I would recommend ViewSonic. All my LCD monitors from them have had a great picture and no dead pixels. I've also hauled one of them across the state dozens of times and never had a single problem.

LG are good, too. I've had my 17" one for a few years now, and it's been great. No ghosting or anything like that, no dead pixels, handles both gaming and programming well, and it's never given me any eye fatigue.

I had two 20" Dell monitors at work; they're excellent.

Quote:

Original post by iNsAn1tY LG are good, too. I've had my 17" one for a few years now, and it's been great. No ghosting or anything like that, no dead pixels, handles both gaming and programming well, and it's never given me any eye fatigue. I had two 20" Dell monitors at work; they're excellent.

My sister has a Dell 19" and it looks excellent, including for games. Dell typically has expiring coupons to get it cheaper; check around online.

I have a 24" Dell widescreen--out of your price range usually, but I got it bundled with a fairly nice computer for a total $900 [smile] I vote for Dells, they've all been very good in my experience.

I'm on a Dell 2007WFP, and it's awesome.

I could go into specifics on why it's awesome, but just trust that it's awesome. It's a little over $300, but not much.

I also have a Dell 24" widescreen. I absolutely love it and would recommend it to anyone, price as a bit steep but it was worth every penny.
I do believe the panel is a Samsung panel though so one more for good quality from Samsung.

I will likely purchase another monitor soon but I will probably get a cheaper brand 22" wide, Hard to justify 2 Dell's.

Quote:

Original post by Talroth Quote: Original post by phantom Quote: Original post by ApochPiQ Main things to look for are dead/bright pixel guarantees (they should be willing to replace anything more than 3-4 dead or bright pixels) and color/contrast response suitable for your purposes. This just reminded me, one of my monitors developed a dead pixel a couple of months back and I just realised I haven't been noticing it.. there is a good reason for this; it's gone... it was stuck on 'red' and now its back to working as normal... how strange, heh... I have a paper around here somewhere on that issue. It is apparently possible for a pixel to become stuck at one position, but return to normal function if cycled through other colours, flipped between colours, or forced into the far opposite colour for a time. There are a few programs that are on the web, and simply cycle through a colour pattern, and can often clear dead pixels. So, try one of those before returning for service.

I bought a Sony PSP not long after they came out and it developed a couple of dead pixels not long after. I was doing some research on it and came to a program that you could run on the PSP that simply cycled through a variety of colors very quickly attempting to "unstick" the colors. It cleared up the pixels on my PSP after only one run and a friend of mines. I wonder if a similar approach would work on regular LCD monitors?

Thanks for all the comments. I think I might go with the Samsung I saw today. My instincts say go for it and they are usually right.

I have a ViewSonic A70f PerfectFlat crt that I have been using for about four years now and I am very happy with it. Only reason that I want a LCD is for space but all the monitors I've owned have been ViewSonic, so I think I will branch out.

-Casey

A lot of TFT manufacturers now (including Dell and Apple) simply re-badge a Samsung unit under their own name and add a few fiddly bits like different OSD software, ports, or cabling.

I am immensely happy with my 4:3 19" SyncMaster 913V purchased a year or so ago; it was cheap, sharp and does the job very well. It is no doubt even cheaper at this moment, and in a widescreen form.

Quote:

Original post by Ravuya A lot of TFT manufacturers now (including Dell and Apple) simply re-badge a Samsung unit under their own name and add a few fiddly bits like different OSD software, ports, or cabling.

I was gonna ask who made Dell monitors. I don't have one myself, but most of the computers in my school's lab are dell flat screen. While I've never played games on them, for programming and stuff they look really really nice.

My monitors are also 24" Widescreen Dell Flatscreens and I really can't fault them, which does indeed give another vote for Samsung displays.

I've got a Dell 2005WFP, I love it, I just wish I waited another year so that I could get the better equipped and cheaper 2007WFP, but alas. Very, very happy :)

I have two 19" Samsungs, dead pleased with them. Another think to look out for is a good response time for gaming, mine are both 8ms and my housemates are slower, i can certainly tell the difference.

One thing that's of note is that the "big guys" in LCD manufacture are being investigated for possible antitrust collusion to inflate prices on TN components (reportedly, most LCDs should have been $50-$100 cheaper over the last three years). I'm told, however, that this is no longer the case as brand-new TFT designs (MVA/IPS) have much smaller margins.

Might want to wait a few months, if you can, and see if that shakes out. The whole Samsung SRAM investigation has really bottomed out prices on that.