Shopping for a New Monitor?

Cecil asks: "Well, I've looked through the reviews and found several good displays. The problem is that quality can vary drastically from unit to unit. Just because the reviewer got a good screen doesn't mean you will. A lot of people say that it's a bad idea to buy a display device sight-unseen and from experience I have to agree. There are the big chain stores that will have monitors on display, but they will typically only have the 'value' models. So, what is your monitor buying process? What do you do to make sure you get the sort of high-quality display that'll last you through the next couple hardware upgrades?"

Dude...

[rantou]

Smoke pot and buy a Dell!

Advice

[mesach]

"What do you do to make sure you get the sort of high-quality display that'll last you through the next couple hardware upgrades"

Do lots of research, then goto Fry's and BYPASS EVERY EMPLOYEE IN THE BUILDING to get the monitor you want, not what some halfwit will tell you is good, then when you are thouroughly FED UP, Leave and goto BestBuy and repeat until you are exhausted and there are no more big electronics stores left, then go home Post an Ask Slashdot, and get the same mumbo jumbo from everyone here but they tell you it must be linux compatable.

Then by that time you should be thouroughly experienced in what is the best piece of HW to buy.

This started out trying to be funny, but alas I think I ended up trolling, its late, I don't have a job so my mind isnt sharp, and I dont have the constant supply of caffiene that I used to. Leave me alone.

Re:Depends on Your Price Range

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't KDS normally provide a three-year warranty? In fact, I thought most monitor manufacturers did. Even the cruddy companies that go out of business after only two years will offer a three year warranty.

Re:Buy from reputable sources

[ryanvm]

Out of curiousity, do you truncate all your lines to 80 characters because you have a 15" monitor? ;-)

Re:The simple way WAS (I want a roll up monitor)

[UniverseIsADoughnut]

Option 2)
steps 1 through 37 involve walking through a lot of classrooms.
38) buy bolt cutters, or small torch
39) wait for right moment
40)run
41a) hook up to computer
41b) make one phone call
42b) tell self bail money is better spent on monitors.

Re:Depends on Your Price Range

[denisbergeron]

I try to search for b and receive this message :
Results 1 - 10 of about 249,000,000. Search took 0.04 seconds

Hem ! I'm sorr but your sig is outdated !

Re:Depends on Your Price Range

[BJH]

In a couple of years, I'll be able to say "I was using Google when there were only 65,400,000 pages for 'b'". I'm sure you'll be jealous of me then.

Re:$20 Sony Trinitron

[toddestan]

Seriously, who tints their monitor? Why would thoy do that? Doing something like that have never even crossed my mind. Is he of the same crowd that puts the super-spoilers on Hondas? Or is he of the same crowd that uses the CD drive to hold his drink? Did he simply not know of the brightness control? Curious minds wish to know.

Re:$20 Sony Trinitron

[cybermace5]

Careful there! You've just disturbed the cheap monitor racket!

Buy monitor, tint poorly, return, have a friend buy it, sell on black market, buy guns and drugs. I'd watch my back if I were you.

Can't Go Wrong With This

[blunte]

I picked up a handful of these [cdw.com] recently, just on a whim.

You might think 9 megapixel is overkill, but I find the visual quality more than adequate.

:P

Atari 2600 text

[yerricde]

The only time I've ever seen an LCD with text that looks "like an Atari 2600" is if the LCD is not in the proper resolution.

Only? Not even when you run Stella [sourceforge.net], a VCS emulator?

Aussie POV Re:Buy from reputable sources

[wadiwood]

Buying a monitor.

If you're worried about unit to unit variance, discuss, and if you feel it's necessary, get in writing, that your shop will let you bring the unit back if you're not happy. Don't buy from the elcheapo that is on the TV, buy from somewhere you or your friends have done good business before.

I like the reviews (and the classifieds) from this magazine: australian pc magazine. They have good list of what to look for and why.

Benq TFT review [apcmag.com]

I bought a Sony 17" LCD SDM S71R. It has no speakers or usb port. Sony wanted nearly $1500 aus for it, my local pc shop wanted $1395 for it, but I got it at mates rates from the same people that supply most of my friends and my work for $1329. The shop I think likely to be most difficult with the returns would have been the sony shop, parking for starters, a complete nightmare, but they're also very inflexible, and couldn't budge on the price even though they were the most expensive.

Of course I found several other brands at better prices later, but not so sure about their specs. And the main pain is about a month after you buy, all better specs come out anyway.

Need to pay attention to the
refresh rate (the higher the better 75 and up...)
native resolution (on 17" should be able to do 1280 x 1024 and still be able to read it)
pixel pitch (this comes under a lot of different names, the smaller the better eg .3 is thick, .26 is good, .25 is fine, clear, precise, and .24 beautiful, unavailable and expensive.)

Lots of LCDs on test [apcmag.com]

I also like Mitsubishi CRT monitors. My first one used to deguass by itself, but I got it replaced. My Mum has never had any problems with hers.

I like the LCDs better, because I don't need a crane to lift one and I can fit more on to the screen and my desk. The Sony unit is brilliant. I got it out of the box sight unseen (although I did look at one similar in the sony shop). Not a single dead pixel anywhere. The main problem was finding drivers to work it with win98 and my graphics card. But it is happy now.

Re:The simple way WAS (I want a roll up monitor)

[weicco]

I bought my Eizo 19" about a year ago and now we are planning to get married soon. I don't know if local laws permits this but who cares...

My monitor buying process

[blanks]

Dig in dumpsters until I find a monitor that somewhat works, and dosent have coffee grounds on it. Us this one until I spill beer on it. Repeat process.

Re:Trinitron?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not... plenty of people call themselves "software engineers" and use Visual Basic.

Re:Depends on Your Price Range

[kruczkowski]

Funny you guys say Wal Mart.

When my friend and I lived in Germany, he bought a generic 19". It worked fine until he misspelt NVIDIA in the X config file. blew the monitor.

So we went back to the store to get a new one. He only had that monitor for a few days. The store said "contact the maker" and showed us to the door. (This is not uncommon in Germany)

He was pissed. So we saw Wal Mart across the street (Wal Mart bought out the German store Werthauf back in '98 or '99) We walked in and said that we bought the monitor here. The guy wanted to see a reciet, but we had none. So then he tells us that he cannot give us our money back, but will do an exchange.

Walked out with a new monitor. BTW, that old monitor in still on the storage shelf at walmart, a year later.

Re:Trinitron

[Basje]

Did you know that the technology has been refined enough to eliminate the horizontal lines totally? The only reason they kept them, is because they'd become part of the trinitron brand.