Shopping for a New Monitor? 653
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?"
Internet, then store, then internet (Score:5, Insightful)
Look out for cheap flat panels. (Score:5, Insightful)
Samsung and NEC know what they're doing (Score:5, Insightful)
Viewsonic used to be good but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Buying an LCD? (Score:5, Insightful)
Unpack the display and plug it into a PC in the store. Now you need to check both a completely white screen and a completely black screen - because knackered pixels can be knackered either always on or always off.
To check always off, fire up Internet Explorer, go to "about:blank" and press F11 (full screen). This will give you a page full of white. Scan the page closely looking for "always off" dead pixels.
Then, to test for always on pixels, right click on the desktop and go to screen saver. Select "Blank" and then "Preview". Again, scan the blank screen and this time look for "always on" pixels - although these are much easier to spot!
Re:Depends on Your Price Range (Score:2, Insightful)
I spent around $US900 equivalent for my monitor in 1997, and I'm still using it. Sure, it's gotten a bit darker, but otherwise it's just as good as the day I hooked it up.
Really, a decent monitor should outlast any other component in your system.
Dude, don't make this complicated. (Score:3, Insightful)
Buy from a small local shop. Call around. Tell them that you're particular about monitors, particularly fuzzy ones, and you'll buy from them if they'll let you connect the very unit you want to buy to your computer and video card right in the store. All of the small shops will say "no problem."
Signed
--Also Very Picky About Monitors
Re:Wank and spank (Score:1, Insightful)
Funnily enough we are geeks and tech questions, whether they are about the latest and greatest or simple things like whats the best way to source a good cheap monitor.
Please hand in your pocket protector on your way out.
The Cables, Don't Forget The Cables (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Trinitron? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Trinitron? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the key is to ignore them from the start. Else you'll notice them everytime your eye scans by them, and you'll go insane and turn into a laughing maniac.
BTW. The lines are very thin. Much thinner that a pixel. And they're only noticable on a plain, non-dark background.
Re:Trinitron? (Score:3, Insightful)
The lines are much smaller than a pixel, and you will not notice them after the first day. (Well, except when someone who has never used a Trinitron for more than a day posts a stupid comment about them on slashdot, and you look for them.)
You notice them when you're dealing with single pixel details? So you're saying that when you're dealing with single-pixel details in Photoshop, running your monitor at resolutions Trinitron users are likely to, you don't ZOOM IN? Right. 10 hours a day. Right. Do you expect to go blind from eyestrain this week or next?
Trinitrons rock. They have the sharpest, flatest screens in the business. Some people don't seem to care about flat. Non-flat drives me buggy. YMMV.
I don't do fine detail, I do text. But I like things sharp, and I like lot's of screen real-estate.
For years when my non-techie friends asked me for computer buying advice, I had only 1 rule*: Spend some extra dough on the monitor, it will improve your computing experience more there than anywhere else, and chances are in 5 years the only thing you'll still have is the monitor.
When I went to buy a new monitor, I looked at what my various graphic designer friends favored, and went with the unanimous choice: A nice big Trinitron.
*I've recently added a second piece of computer buying advice: Don't buy a Compaq. That's not really on-topic here, but I made a solemn vow to their phone "support" people that I'd mention it any time I discussed computer buying...
Re:Trinitron? (Score:4, Insightful)
Exaggeration will not help you make a point.
Trinitron tubes have two thin horizontal wires across the screen, about a third of the way from the top and bottom. These wires are much thinner than a pixel, but do show up against bright graphics.
But they are not "massively annoying", because many people do manage to ignore them. The simple proof is that many people who didn't know about those lines don't even notice them until they are told.
Can't really beat a Sony (Score:2, Insightful)
My 1st was a Commodore 1084S for my C64 (it's still working and sitting next to me =] ) - it's got S-Video (before it was called that) and composite. It has a huge curve and is only 13 or 14" but works great as a TV or PlayStation display. Overall, excellent quality.
Next was another Commodore monitor - a PC one. 14" (long since buried at the dump) but still, very good image quality despite the enormous curve in the glass.
Next was a 15" KTX monitor - had good high-end image controls, but it had this habit of not working at 1 year intervals. The OSD chip or something kept frying. Fortunately, the 3-year warranty enabled me to get it replaced, then on the 4th year when it fritzed I ditched it.
LiteOn came next, 15" - acceptable curve but a very blurry display. I still use it for LAN-parties as crispness doesn't matter much when you're fragging. =]
For the last 16 months I've been using this wonderful Sony 21" FD Trinitron (CPD-G520). For the amount of time I spend in front of a computer, it was definately worth the $2000 I paid for it. It's got great colour, brightness, contrast, sharpness and geometry. In fact, I prefer it over a LCD screen. 2048x1536 @ 75Hz, dual inputs, colour matching and a USB hub - yeah baby!
But, here is the most important thing! A top-notch monitor like this doesn't count for squat unless you have a HIGH QUALITY cable and video card! I can't stress this point enough! Until last month I had been using a Matrox G400 with it and at this insane resolution the image was as crisp and sharp as a LCD. Unfortunately, I needed a 'better' (in terms of polygon-pushing power and features) video card, so in an interim upgrade I bought a Radeon 9000. One word... UGHH!!! Though I don't notice it AS MUCH now, the image suffers from poor colour definition and 'bleeding' on high contrast areas (like word processing) as well as just being generally blury. If I didn't need a more powerful 3D card I'd go back to the Matrox until I have more money for a better quality card (mmm... Parhelia).
Oh yeah... how did I come to my decision about buying the monitor? Well, I'm a stickler for quality, so like with everything I buy, I make sure I do my homework first. This usually involves looking for user reviews online, reading reviews both online and in print. Finally though, you have to decide for yourself. So when you've narrowed it down to a few models, go and demo them - any store that won't let you demo them if they have them in stock is definately not worth your custom. (I demo'd this one at Sony Central, which was the most expensive place to buy it - even with cash, then when I fell in love with it I hunted around for the best price.) =P
Re:Depends on Your Price Range (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a C++ guy, so naturally lot's of people ask me what kind of computer they should get
1. Don't buy a Compaq.
2. Whatever your price range, drop it a little, and put the extra into the monitor. A nice monitor will improve your computing experience more than anything else. Particularly in a year or two when the difference between the CPU you get and the next one up or down seems entirely trivial.
And if you didn't mention your price range on purpose, because it's not a major issue, one word: Trinitron.
Re:Trinitron? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a big Trinitron fan personally, though my best friend and I have had heated arguments about which is better. It's clearly a very subjective thing. Some of us can't tune out the guide wires on a Trinitron, others (like me) have trouble tuning out the subtle pattern of the mask on shadow mask tubes. To each his own I guess.
Re:Go to lan parties (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that the stippled screen is sort of the worst-case for the analog output from your video card being converted to a digital representation. And this whole thing is probably obvious to some people. But if you'll induldge me...
When the image is stippled, you've got basically a high-to-low or low-to-high transition on every pixel. But remember, this is coming in as an analog signal, so it looks like a smoothed-off square wave, maybe even close to a sine wave. The monitor samples this signal so that it can display it digitally. Unfortunately, if there's any time jitter, the sample level error will be large...after all, it's got maximal slope at every pixel.
The point I'm trying to make? When you have the stippled screen, you're going to see a large sample error due to any time jitter at every pixel. This means the image shimmers.
Normal images don't shimmer because any jitter results in a less dramatic sample error, since sharp transitions don't occur at every pixel.
In any case, if the quality of your shutdown screen is important to you (and who doesn't think that's important) I think that a digital input would improve the image. ;)
Okay, maybe that's pretty flimsy, but in my own case, I look for and latch onto even the thinnest logic in order to rationalize an upgrade. Hope I helped. :)