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Displays

Budget 27" IPS Displays From Korea Are For Real 266

crookedvulture writes "Giant, high-resolution LCD monitors have been around for years, but they've always been prohibitively expensive. Good displays based on IPS panel technology command upwards of $700 for 27" models and closer to $1200 for 30-inchers. However, Korean vendors have started selling similar screens on eBay for roughly half the price. These off-brand models purportedly use the same panels as pricier alternatives, and in practice, they appear to be nearly as good. There are some caveats, of course. The number of inputs may small, HDCP support isn't guaranteed, and user controls can be limited. Those may be deal-breakers for some, but getting a 27", 2560x1440 IPS display for well under $400 will be a deal-maker for others."
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Budget 27" IPS Displays From Korea Are For Real

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  • sounds interesting (Score:5, Informative)

    by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:22PM (#40768805)

    lack of hdcp support sounds GREAT to me. no license fee, no contribution to the bad ways via my purchase! no supporting a bad regime (hdcp) with my dollars.

    I watch using a pc and I never care about 'protected path' content. my dvd's are ripped and saved on a nas, drm-free. I could give a shit about hdcp!

    sign me up!

    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @04:24PM (#40769631)

      You could NOT give a shit about HDCP. Stop butchering our language.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by houstonbofh ( 602064 )
        Or, his is saying "I could give a shit" and implying "but I don't." Or he is saying "I could give a pile of human excrimant for this technology, but not much else." Stop believing that all reading comprehension is done after the first pass.
        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Please don't encourage the trolls. I could give a shit about not feeding them.

          • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward
            That is a shit for which I could not give.
    • by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @05:24PM (#40770395)

      Agreed, I work in the scientific field and getting a 120Hz or higher display to work without HDCP currently requires a little box that doesn't support HDCP just to kill the signal. Without the little box (Gefen DVI-Detective), the HDCP signal won't work correctly through any type of DVI-D splitter (one side will get the signal while the other one gets snow).

      I love when I can find a display that doesn't support HDCP as it cuts the cost of circumventing HDCP. HDCP is killing legitimate use cases and requires work arounds that aren't obvious.

      • too funny! I also have one of those dvi detective geffen boxes! my set is old enough that its a true dvi connector and not hdmi.

        the geffen keeps the EDID (which I needed for old school hdmi cards that DID have braindamage, when you powered the tv off or did that in the 'wrong' order).

  • Common practice. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:22PM (#40768813)
    I assume these are screens that where rejected for minor defects by their intended brand and resold. This happens a lot, even with name brand products such as CISCO network gear.
    • by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:47PM (#40769125) Homepage Journal

      I assume these are screens that where rejected for minor defects by their intended brand and resold. This happens a lot, even with name brand products such as CISCO network gear.

      Probably get some great comedy reading the manuals, too, as cut rate electronics sellers usually don't want to tie up any money on wages for people actually capable of translating and editing

      for best experience insert power outlet recepticle the power cord before turn on

      • Probably get some great comedy reading the manuals, too, as cut rate electronics sellers usually don't want to tie up any money on wages for people actually capable of translating and editing

        When was the last time you read your monitor's manual?

        I don't recall ever looking at mine. Not once.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by CanHasDIY ( 1672858 )

          Probably get some great comedy reading the manuals, too, as cut rate electronics sellers usually don't want to tie up any money on wages for people actually capable of translating and editing

          When was the last time you read your monitor's manual?

          I don't recall ever looking at mine. Not once.

          Must be a chick, that's the only logical reason anyone would ever look at a manual.

          Ever.

          • Probably get some great comedy reading the manuals, too, as cut rate electronics sellers usually don't want to tie up any money on wages for people actually capable of translating and editing

            When was the last time you read your monitor's manual?

            I don't recall ever looking at mine. Not once.

            Must be a chick, that's the only logical reason anyone would ever look at a manual.

            There are chicks in manuals? I gotta see this. Too bad I threw all mine out. Damn!

          • by vlm ( 69642 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @04:52PM (#40769969)

            Must be a chick, that's the only logical reason anyone would ever look at a manual.

            Ever.

            My chick did not come with a manual, which would have helped during initial set up and especially during troubleshooting. Seems to malfunction every month. No, she's not a realdoll or even a Korean graymarket purchased off ebay.

        • I think I did *once* just to check the supported refresh rates.
      • "Insert securely lest should be detached in set"

        Label from a cable bundled with a Samsung monitor. Guess you don't need obscure vendors to laugh a bit.

      • my favorite after-hours game is to take those little packets of do not eats and leave them at restaurants, on empty tables. then wait for the fun to ensue.

        shhhh. don't tell anyone its me.

    • Re:Common practice. (Score:4, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @05:32PM (#40770535) Homepage Journal

      Not rejects, just lacking a lot of the electronics (no scaling, no DRM, only one input, no colour management or image enhancement, no on-screen menus). They are manufactured to a lower spec as well, so they will tolerate the odd bit of dust behind the glass or a few dead pixels, but it is pot luck if you get any of that or not. Some vendors will check and make sure you get a pristine one for a few extra dollars.

      I had a dead pixel when I bought my my 24" monitor. I massaged it out easily, but maybe I was lucky.

  • Consistency counts (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoeMerchant ( 803320 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:24PM (#40768829)

    I have, more than once, ordered something cheap that turned out to be good, then ordered a 2nd or 3rd copy, only to have the later ones (branded the same) be.... different.

    Latest case in point: $90 7" tablets - first one: 4.5 hour battery life, second one: 2.0 hour battery life.

    • by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:42PM (#40769061) Homepage Journal

      I have, more than once, ordered something cheap that turned out to be good, then ordered a 2nd or 3rd copy, only to have the later ones (branded the same) be.... different.

      Latest case in point: $90 7" tablets - first one: 4.5 hour battery life, second one: 2.0 hour battery life.

      This is where you really win with Samsung, Apple and only a few other manufacturers - pushing new technology and acceptable failure rates of manufacturing are turning out a lot of garbage. Read reviews on Amazon for some CE stuff, wildly varying accounts by users "It was dead in 20 minutes", "Wonderful, would buy again!" "Best deal I've had in years!" "This thing worked at first, then started acting up so I sent it back" "BEWARE!!!" etc.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Some manufacturers put out a good first batch which get good reviews and generate a bit of buzz, then downgrade to cheaper components for later batches. HP are terrible for doing that, e.g. the first batch of MicroServers were nice and quiet but later ones used a much cheaper PSU and fan that make a terrible racket.

  • by Nichotin ( 794369 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:24PM (#40768843)
    For "real" 27" displays that have 2560 x 1440, and not just full-HD, the experience is really good. I first regretted shelling out for a Dell UltraSharp U2711, but after connecting it and seeing the amount of screen real estate I eventually bought another one for my second computer. 2560x1440 eliminates my need for an extra monitor completely, and by using the Windows+(left arrow|right arrow) function in Windows, or Divvy on Mac, I can easily fill the browser on one side and the application I work with on the other.
    • It does suffer from a criminally bad screen proportion, though.

      Buy two of these, glue them together vertically :p

    • Oh man, this is totally off topic but thanks for reminding me about the WIn+Left/Right/Up/Down. I used to have two displays and these were among my most used shortcuts but my second display died and I never replaced it. Finally got another one and have been getting annoyed with managing them.

      Now that I'm re-armed with those shortcuts, my workflow feels so much more fluid again.

    • by lkcl ( 517947 ) <lkcl@lkcl.net> on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @10:28PM (#40772901) Homepage

      ok. can i suggest that you actually get three 1280x1024 4:3 aspect ratio monitors instead? if you don't like 3, get 4 instead. the reason is very simple: after working constantly at my usual 10-12 hours per day in front of an apple 22in 1920x1200 LCD for 18 months, i now have severe "prism" on my eyes. that means that in the dark if i look at a point of light more than 2 metres away i *cannot* bring it into focus: i see 2 dots about 4 inches apart (at 2 metres).

      my eyes have always "adjusted" to the LCDs/CRTs that i use (25 years so far), and so i was quite pissed off to learn 10 years ago - a long while before computer usage was as common as it is now - that opticians go "oh we hear that people with short-sighted glasses tend to be used to having clear vision, so we always add -0.25 diopters on just to be cautious" and fuck me if the fucking morons didn't make my eyes *worse* by 0.25 diopters every time i got new glasses.

      why is that? well it's quite simple: looking at the screens, my eyes adjust to look at the screens. then the moronic opticians slap another -0.25 diopters on the prescription and my eyes... adjust accordingly. by age 36 i had -4.0 in both eyes, put on the new glasses and drove at night to where i was staying, and they were so bad that i had an instant headache that lasted for something like a day and a half. that was money well spent: i had to use the older glasses.

      so the same thing has happened here, with this 22in mac (which is of course running debian gnu/linux, what else would it be running, duh??) - because i have been sitting in front of it for 18 months at a distance of only about 15in. my eyes can perfectly well flick to the left corner or the right, and get the correct focus instantaneously.

      but if i put my glasses on and look out the window into the distance, and roll my head one way and then the other, still looking straight out the window, you can literally see my eyes "jump" as one of them moves faster than the other, and i cannot pull them together into focus. the reason is because my eyes were *expecting* to be focussing (at 45 degrees or so) on something at only about 16-18 in away, but i asked them to look instead (at 45 degrees or so) at something 20 metres away: they can't do it. it also turns out that it's not just the muscles / reflexes that have adjusted, it's the actual shape of my eye lenses. they literally point sideways (inwards - aka "prism") now, not straight ahead.

      the bottom line is that you really REALLY have to watch out for these kinds of effects which _are_ reversible... you just have to quit your job as a highly-paid computer professional and go do something like work behind a cash register, or go be a farmer or a common labourer or god forbid a politician - *anything* but stare at screens from a distance of under 2 metres, and you'll get your eyesight back to normal after a couple of years.

  • I'm actually looking for a good 1440p display. If the $400 ones have all the specs I need (at least two usable inputs, minimal ghosting and latency, color that isn't terrible, and at least 60Hz refresh rate), I'll probably grab two (I was already expecting to spend $900+; if I can get two for the price of one, so much the better).

    PS: Does lack of HDCP support really hinder anything?

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      watching movies from Disk.

      • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

        So use a player that ignores that crap or just rip it.

        • by Guspaz ( 556486 )

          There are currently no players that can do bluray menus. I would say that it will come eventually, but it took ages to get decent DVD menu support (only within the past few years did opensource players get good support for them).

    • for set-top boxes or dvd players or, for sure, bd players, it matters.

      for pc based playing, it should *not* matter. that is, if you drm-stripped your media (anydvd, or similar).

      btw, the lack of hdmi inputs is no big deal! for $10 or less, you can find 3 input (and more) hdmi switches with a single hdmi output. these days, the chipsets are pretty stable and interoperable (not true 5 or so years ago).

      my favorite is the hdmi switch that has a cord/jack for an 'eye' IR remote sensor. the secret is that you

      • I do actually have a Blu-Ray drive in my laptop, and I will probably try to watch at least one movie on it (note to self: see if The Atomic Bomb Movie is still around). I would probably be fine just using the laptop's 1080p screen (do BD movies actually store it any higher than that?), but 1440p would be nice. So I'll probably put "HDCP support" at the bottom of the feature list (if two otherwise-identical monitors differ only in HDCP support, I'll grab that one), but otherwise, shouldn't be a problem.

        Rippi

        • My old laptop had a blu-ray drive. It even came with a blu-ray "showcase" blu-ray disk that was supposed to show the benefits of blu-ray over DVD or something. I say something because I tried for 20 minutes to get it to work and it never did. That night I installed Linux on it and never did get a blu-ray disk to play in it till the day it died.
    • by Guspaz ( 556486 )

      There's no need to spend much more than $750 on a 1440p display, since that's what the Dell U2711 costs (in Canada, anyhow). It's the same panel as Apple's 27" Cinema Display (and possible Thunderbolt Display) use, although the build quality isn't nearly as nice. It's a great display, whose greatest weakness is that it uses a CCFL backlight rather than an LED backlight, which means it pumps out a lot of heat. It does have an obscenely huge number of inputs, though, and can act as a digital audio decoder (au

  • 16:10 instead of 16:9. [/obligatory post]

    • by robthebloke ( 1308483 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:44PM (#40769079)
      or maybe just 8:5?
    • 16:9 actually works well on 27" screens, as now you have enough room to open two windows side by side with a substantial amount of content. With a monitor that size, height isn't a big issue, and more width is actually useful! It's laptop screens with a measly 1366x768 screens that it really becomes an annoyance. Even on my 1080p 15.6" laptop screen, it's really not a big deal, and I think if I end up getting a 17" laptop, I would prefer a 16:9 screen for the same reason as thee 27" monitor.

    • I don't think anyone makes 27" 16:10 panels. You can get them in 24" and 30", but I've never seen a 27" with that aspect ratio.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:43PM (#40769071)

    Yep they are for real. Sold on Ebay mostly. You can read all about people's buying and ordering experiences at overclock.net:
    http://www.overclock.net/t/1232496/crossover-27q-led-led-p-27m-led-2720mdp-gold-led-monitor-club/1800

    My experience:
    1) Bought a Crossover 27" IPS with swivel stand from S. Korea over ebay - $420 (Canadian) shipping included
    2) Arrived in 3 days in Canada from Korea (If only Canada Post was that efficient)
    3) Seller filled out customs form saying it was worth $150, I paid next to nothing in duty fees.
    4) Monitor is freakin' awesome in display quality
    5) Had 1 red stuck pixel that shows up in black background, but that you won't even notice unless you go hunting for it.
    6) Monitor has no warranty, but at less than 50% of the cost, it's a risk you take. That said, seller did say he'd take it back if there was a serious defect/damage in shipping.
    7) The IPS panel is the same one they put into Apple's 27" Cinema display, but didn't make the cut for some reason. I can't see anything wrong with it.
    8) WARNING: There are practically no button controls on the monitor. Only brightness up/down and on/off. That's it!
    9) The build quality of the 27" Crossover casing is superior to that of even Dell (read the forums above if you don't believe me). It is solid metal (not cheap plastic), and looks very stylish. That said, a word of warning, the monitor gets almost too hot in the back during hot summer days if I don't open the office window.

    For $500-$700 discount, I accept no warranty, slight overheating on hot days, 1 stuck pixel, and only 2 control buttons.

    • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

      I would imagine #5 would be why it did not make the cut for #7. As much as Apple charges for those I would be returning one if it had a stuck pixel.

    • by poity ( 465672 )

      3) Seller filled out customs form saying it was worth $150, I paid next to nothing in duty fees.

      way to get them banned from eBay soon...

      • I bought one on Ebay also. The seller asked what amount to declare on the customs form, since some countries charge duties on imports. I said to be honest and print the full amount, since there shouldn't be any duties importing into the U.S.

        It seemed weird that he even asked this question. If he makes a living by selling these things to other countries, shouldn't he know whether the U.S. charges duties or not?

        Unfortunately, my monitor did not work as well as this guy's. It was DOA, and I had to send it

    • I have no idea where you got the 500-700 discount figure from. Have you heard of the Dell U2711? In Australia it is routinely offered in Dell's frequent sales for under $630, and I imagine it costs about the same in Canada considering the dollars are about equal and usually stuff is more expensive in Australia.

      For the $200 or two you save, you have to:

      1) Pray that customs doesn't catch you and make you pay the real duty on it. Bonus warm inner glow of willingly and knowingly breaking the law.
      2) There seems

    • by Guspaz ( 556486 )

      I'll agree with you on point 9. I own a Dell U2711. I love it, but it's not perfect. My two (but not only) biggest beefs with it are probably the glittery anti-reflective coating, and the crappy build quality.

      It's still a great display, though. Phenomenal colour accuracy out of the box (since it's factory calibrated, and comes with a benchmark report), for example. That's kind of important... Sites like anandtech will point out that even though it's one of if not the best calibrated out-of-the-box display,

  • No HDCP == Good. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ickleberry ( 864871 ) <web@pineapple.vg> on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @03:47PM (#40769135) Homepage
    They can take their huddlecup DRM and shove it up their arse, do not want precious silicon I'm paying good money wasted on features aiming to restrict me and make the MPAA more money.

    I'm glad I found this thread because I might well be going to Korea in september so I'll bring one of these monitors back with me and not pay for shipping. Once again "fuck you" to HDCP and its supporters.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Just out of interest how do you plan on flying with a 27" monitor? I wouldn't want to stick it in my suitcase to be thrown in the hold, and it would be a bit big for most hand luggage allowances.

  • I picked up a Yamakasi Catleap a few weeks ago. No dead pixels that I can find. Looks incredible. The chassis appears to be made from cheap plastic but it's not an eyesore or anything. So much real estate!

  • by BaldingByMicrosoft ( 585534 ) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 @05:14PM (#40770267)

    I'll make this short and sweet.

    I got mine here:
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230774446127&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160 [ebay.com]

    It is the most amazing and beautiful screen I've ever owned, and I've actively been a computer geek for 34 years. It arrived in 2 days. There are no dead pixels. I've used it for hours daily since mid-April with no problems.

    Have a nice day.

  • Back in April I read a recommendation on a thread on here about these monitors. I wish I could find the thread to give proper credit, but I didn't do such crazy tricks as emailing myself or bookmarking it. Firefox history search needs to work more like Gmail. Whoever it was, thanks, it's a really nice monitor! Good brightness, excellent colour reproduction, decent resolution. Reasonable size too :P The only complaint I have is a slight buzzing when displaying mostly-white content (eg this thread). It's prac

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