19" LCD monitor advice sought?

[geepondy]

I thought this might have been discussed before but I do not come up with anything in a search.

I'm investigating 19" LCD monitors as I will purchase one soon. First of all I'm wondering what is the advantage of a wide screen which seems to be gaining in popularity other then watching DVD movies?

Also anybody experience a Samsung 931B or 970 or 971P? I've been reading up on these two and although the 970 and recent 971P gets good reviews but with a price in the upper $300's, so does the 931B at a price in the low $200s. My eyesight is poor and I would pay the higher price if I thought it made a noticeable difference. I've been looking at upper end Viewsonics as well.

Also I know some are better then others for game play, is it safe to assume that most all modern LCDs can play DVD movies satisfactory?

Or what have you for a 19" LCD monitor and what is your opinion of it?

 

[greenlight]

If your vision isn't good, you probably need a cheaper unit. You won't be able to discern minute differences.

If you buy one with hdmi, you can plug a dvd player with hdmi directly into it.

 

[DieselDave]

I have two Dell 20" LCD's sitting side by side splitting my video card. One is the "Ultra Sharp" which is plugged into the digital input and the other is the regular 20" plugged into the analog port. The Ultra Sharp with the digital input doesn't seem any different than the cheaper one on the analog input. I play games, watch TV, play DVD's, edit photos, and use it for work but don't see any difference. My point is, at least in my case, the extra cost wasn't worth it. On the other hand I am satisfied with both.

 

[bill_n_opus]

Keep in mind that for your decision you have to ... keep in mind the geometry of lcd panels will factor into your decision.

A widescreen panel will be typically less height than a 4:3 panel.

So, for example, my Dell 20 inch widescreen will be about the same height as my brother's 17 inch non-WS panel.

The advantages is that you can do the usual and watch movies in their native format as well as they are a boon to those who want to flip their monitor sideways so that they can word process or read text like crazy.

The other advantage is that with some games and the proper video card you can get a huge advantage in gaming. I've seen some screenshots of a non-WS and a WS screenshot for some first person shooter and it was amazing how much real estate is left out in the non-WS panel. So, if gaming is important to you then i'd investigate the WS.

I'm very happy with my WS Dell ... i'd do it again and the are pretty cheap nowadays.

 

[louie]

There are so many factors that aren't easy to figure.
My data point: I tried a Dell 1905FP. Decent picture, but on DVD movies, an odd red fringe showed on certain moving objects, which I could duplicate with a test image. I gave it to my dad, and got a Viewsonic VP930B. Much better, but more money. I also wanted tilt, swivel, height and rotate plus DVI and analog inputs.

It seems to me that gamers want faster panel speed, so they take less color accuracy (6bit). Graphic designers want the opposite. If you aren't sensitive to these visible but hard to spec phenomenon, the cheaper panels may be fine.

 

[bill_n_opus]

True, the one thing I forgot to mention is panel quality. Whether WS or not, panel quality is one important factor to consider. Unfortunately, you won't find out what particular quality a screen is, what manufacturer it is or what characteristics it has ... unless you read around.

If you are interested in a particular panel then it would make sense to research reviews and user opinions at sites like anandtech.com ... their forums are quite active with the computer crowd.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

A widescreen 19" monitor is much shorter in the vertical axis than a traditional 19" monitor. I thought about getting a widescreen 19" for watching HD but then I realized how crummy it would be for everything else including CAD.

I settled on an Acer AL1914. It's good enough for everything I do and it was a little under $200.

 

[supes]

Very interested about the ratio on the non widescreens. I bought a Samsung 920BW from Staples for cheap. I always loved the wider format. Plus I wanted to enhance my laptop's 14.1in screen. Everything looks good so far. I wanted to actually go up to a 22in Samsung widescreen but I don't have a video card for it.

 

[LEDninja]

My eyesight is poor and I would pay the higher price if I thought it made a noticeable difference.

How close do you get to the monitor. I bought a HP 17" 2 days after boxing day (the Samsungs are all sold out). When I get too close to the screen the middle and top half is OK but the bottom looked washed out. After 2 days of fiddling with the height, angle of the screen and brightness, contrast controls I finally got the contrast even from the top to bottom. The LCDs are a lot less forgiveing than tube monitors when your eyes are not at the optimum position.
Suggest going to a store and getting a demo. Make sure the monitor is at the same height as you would use it at home.
One other thing. Using a lower resolution than the LSD monitor's native one (1280x1024 for most 17" & 19") does not always help. I tried 1024x768. Got thicker lines (good). Contrast suffers unevenly (bad). For example the letter W. 3 of the lines are black but 1 is medium gray. I went back to 1280x1024. When not on the net I drop all the way down to 640x480 and that works fine. Don't know if you can pixel double on a widescreen monitor (use 720x450 instead of 1440x900). Ask.

 

[chizel]

Check this one out My buddy has a couple and they are gorgeous!

 

[eluminator]

I. The Ultra Sharp with the digital input doesn't seem any different than the cheaper one on the analog input.

I have never seen any difference between the digital and analog either. Both look good to me.

 

[eluminator]

Also anybody experience a Samsung 931B or 970 or 971P? I've been reading up on these two and although the 970 and recent 971P gets good reviews but with a price in the upper $300's, so does the 931B at a price in the low $200s. My eyesight is poor and I would pay the higher price if I thought it made a noticeable difference.

Based on my limited experience I think you may want to get the more expensive one.

I don't have either of those monitors but I do have a few Samsungs. I paid megabucks a few years ago for two Samsung 172t 17" monitors. I'm glad I did. They are still working as good as new with no dead pixels and an excellent display.

A year ago I bought the cheap Samsung 740b 17" monitor. It's good enough for me, with no dead pixels, and I'm satisfied because I saved $100. But the display isn't quite as good as the old expensive ones. The brightness varies across the screen and is a bit darker in the corners. It doesn't bother me and I seldom notice it, but if my eyesight was poorer it might.

I have one of each set up as a dual display and if I try, I can see differences. The colors are different and the brightness is different. Maybe I could play around with the controls and make them more similar. I don't know, and frankly I couldn't care less.

One easy test is to show an all black screen. That can be done by previewing the Microsoft screen saver. The good old Samsung screen is so dark that in normal room light it seems as black as the ace of spades. The new cheaper monitor is obviously a lighter shade of gray. This is not just a brightness setting either. In normal use the picture on the new monitor is somewhat darker. Again, this doesn't make a dimes worth of difference to me. It's just an indication that the monitors are different and the old one is still king.

 

[LEDoutlet]

Go to a store with a lot of LCD's sitting around and then look at them! trust your eyes to tell you if the extra money is worth it. Also, before you go look at some reviews of recommended models and see if they are any better in store. I just bought my wife an acer 17 inch at costco ($180 CAD) and it looks brighter and crisper than my 20 inch dell which is a few years old, so newer tech is better.

 

[geepondy]

Guys thanks for the input thus far. Some of the better ones claim wider viewing area angles say 170-178 degrees as opposed to say 160 degrees on the cheaper ones. This doesn't seem like much, is their indeed a noticeable difference in that regard between the cheaper and more expensive models?

 

[javafool]

I bought a Smasung 940t about 14 months ago from Newegg.com and have been extremely pleased with this monitor. I do a lot of digital photography and I need good contrast and accurate color. The 940t has worked out well. I'm sure there have been a lot of improvements since then. Newegg has a lot of owner reviews that I find very helpful in buying a product.

I recently bought a new computer and now use dual monitors. I have the 940t and a HP f2105 21" widescreen monitor. The 19" Samsung is slightly taller than the 21" widescreen HP, but both offer good color rendition and I really like the set-up. So did my 15 year old grandaughter when she was here last week. She spent most of the time with a chat room on one monitor and Yahoo videos on the other. Remember that the size (19") is the diagonal measurement of the screen, so a 21" widescreen is almost as tall as a normal 19" monitor.

I have read many good things about Dell High Res monitors and the newer HP monitors. Go to www.dpreview.com and look in the PC forum. There is a wealth of information there, and that forum is more to PC's and monitors like CPF is for flashlights.

Whatever monitor you get, keep it at a lower resolution than the max if you have trouble reading. Just keep setting it lower in the display control panel until everything is legible for you.

Good luck in your choice,
Terry

 

[LEDoutlet]

Javafool,

Remember that if you set the resolution of an LCD monitor to it's non-native resolution (typically for 17-19 LCD's that is 1280*1024) everything will get bigger but it will be very blurry. This is because (for geepondy) there is physically 1280 pixels in one inch and if you change the rez to different, say 800*600 then all of a sudden half of those pixels are useless and only serve as filler, making everything have a very soft look. A better course of action would be to increase the font size in windows but keep it at 1280.

thanks,
Andron

 

[eluminator]

You can change the DPI setting which will make everything bigger, or is that what you meant?

 

[LEDoutlet]

Yes, that's what i mean. Right Mouse Button on desktop->properties->Appearance->Font Size.

 

[ksonger]

photonwrangler was right on with his acer recomendation. Unless you have a specific need that requires a feature or features that the more expensive monitors offer, the $189 acer with a 3 year warranty is a great deal. AMong other things i am a pacs admin and we use the acers for all non-diagnostic workstations and for viewing radiographic images they are great. Unless you intend to watch movies in 16x9 format you get more bang (square inches) for your money with the full size not wide screen 19's.

 

[bjn70]

I've thought about this issue a bit recently. I've used a 15" LCD at home for quite a while, at its native 1024x768 res. Recently I ended up with a 17" that wants to run at 1280x(960?). Set at the higher resolution, everything was too small. Set at 1024x768 the pixel interpolation made the image less enjoyable than the smaller screen of my 15", so I went back to the 15".

Lots of widescreen monitors are advertised these days. They might be useful for some people, like if you have an application that can use the increased width. Or if you keep several windows open then one can stick out from under the other and make it easier to switch back and forth. We recently switched at work to dual monitors. Most of the guys have dual 19" LCD's but I ended up with dual castoff 19" CRT monitors. I think dual monitors work better with standard width than with widescreen. I get more enjoyment out of dual monitors, because if I have multiple apps open I can put one on each screen. For some reason I hate switching back and forth between apps on the same monitor. Some people might be able to do this effectively with a single widescreen monitor.