New PC monitor

[rossm]

My loved Samsung SyncMaster 700NF (4:3 CRT) is dying, and I'm in a good position to put down some money on hardware. I know a little about displays and LCDs, but I've never owned one personally, so I'd love some help in selecting the right one.

I'm posting this with the assumption that buying another CRT isn't a good idea. If this is false, and there are still great CRTs out there that are reasonably priced, let me know. I told myself I'd never own an LCD television or monitor because I hate many things about the tech. Ghosting, dead pixels, backlight problems, everything that comes with a fixed-pixel display, etc. I'm willing to put down up to probably $500, so I'd like to get something that avoids or minimizes common problems with most LCDs. Ghosting at all is unacceptable to me, it's my #1 issue. I live in the US and prefer to buy online, if it matters.

I've also never owned a widescreen monitor, so I don't know how the sizes compare. I'm not looking for something massive, but I don't want anything with less space than my 17" 4:3 either. I assume 22" is a good size? I'd prefer a monitor with features like putting up bars on the sides for mis-matched ratios, and 1:1 display for smaller resolutions, but they're not deal breakers.

From what I've read, a lot of the specifications usually listed when shopping for a monitor are bogus and should be ignored. Is this true? I really want to avoid browsing avs for 2 months to learn which panels are best and whatnot.

As for the form factor, I don't really care much; It doesn't have to look attractive. As long as I can pitch and pivot the display to my liking, and it doesn't get knocked down easily, I'm happy.

I play SD console games on my computer through a pci tv card (not fullscreen). Will these look terrible on an LCD? I don't own a television, so I hope not.

I have a Geforce 7800 GS (AGP) and normally I play games in 1024x768 or 1280x960. I'm a little worried about getting poor performance at high resolutions like 1680x1050 in games such as supreme commander, world in conflict and stalker (not to mention what is coming out over the next year). Should I be? Right now I have a dual 3.4ghz intel xeon machine. An upgrade would ideally mean replacing all the big parts, so it's probably a ways away.

Sorry for the lengthy post, I suppose I'm a little picky. I appreciate any advice you have for me. I haven't been keeping up with monitors, so I'm very lost.

[André Costa]

From what I've read, a lot of the specifications usually listed when shopping for a monitor are bogus and should be ignored. Is this true?

Depends on the specifications. Usually happens with the contrast ratio or viewing angles. These are 2 important points for me so i usually check what is said about them in reviews.

I play SD console games on my computer through a pci tv card (not fullscreen). Will these look terrible on an LCD? I don't own a television, so I hope not.

Do they look "good" with your CRT? This is something i want to try(using my LCD with a TV card for my PS2) so i can't really answer this.

I have a Geforce 7800 GS (AGP) and normally I play games in 1024x768 or 1280x960. I'm a little worried about getting poor performance at high resolutions like 1680x1050 in games such as supreme commander, world in conflict and stalker (not to mention what is coming out over the next year). Should I be? Right now I have a dual 3.4ghz intel xeon machine. An upgrade would ideally mean replacing all the big parts, so it's probably a ways away.

Well, unlike with laptop displays, it's not a BIG problem if you don't set the games to your LCD native resolution. They might not look as good as if running at native resolution but i doubt they will look bad either.

Sorry for the lengthy post, I suppose I'm a little picky. I appreciate any advice you have for me. I haven't been keeping up with monitors, so I'm very lost.

If you want to do some research, this is the link i spam everytime there's a question like this. It has a lot of info on LCDs, links to reviews of popular models and a "buyers guide".

Good luck :)

[rossm]

Yeah, SD video looks fine in a window on my CRT via s-video. I frequently play street fighter, smash bros. and whatever new game I'm trying.

I was just looking around the anandtech forums, but apparently in the wrong section. Thanks for the link.

Well, unlike with laptop displays, it's not a BIG problem if you don't set the games to your LCD native resolution. They might not look as good as if running at native resolution but i doubt they will look bad either.

This comes as a big surprise to me. I thought non-native resolutions were practically vomit-inducing. Is this just a difference in what is acceptable, or am I mistaken? Do different monitors have different quality scalers?

[yossa]

You should be able to pick up a fantastic 21' CRT with a Trinitron tube from Dell or Sony. I'm sitting on a used one (manufactured in 2003). Bought it for 150$

The only downside? it weighs over 70 pounds.

[charmtrap]

Not to sidetrack the thread, but any experience with Westinghouse monitors. Best Buy has a 22" widescreen for $219, which sounds like a great deal for a 2nd monitor. I kind of have to assume at that price that they're junk though...

[unbongwah]

I thought non-native resolutions were practically vomit-inducing.

LCDs have come a long way in recent years: response times / ghosting, color quality, and resolution scaling are all much better than they were a few years ago. CRTs still give you more flexibility in terms of refresh rates and native resolutions, but these days their few remaining pros don't really outweigh their cons - including the difficulty of finding a new high-quality CRT which doesn't break the bank.

charmtrap: I bought a 22" Westinghouse LCD monitor last November for $200 (the immediate predecessor to the one BB currently has on sale, I think). For the price, it's a pretty nice monitor: good image quality (though my 20" Viewsonic is slightly better, IMHO) and beaucoup inputs (DVI, VGA, component, S-video, and composite), though it looks like the new model only has two. Only problem is fixed-aspect ratio scaling doesn't work with it for some reason, so any res not 16:10 gets stretched and distorted to fill the screen. Fortunately, most games support 1680x1050, so it's not usually an issue.

[charmtrap]

charmtrap: I bought a 22" Westinghouse LCD monitor last November for $200 (the immediate predecessor to the one BB currently has on sale, I think). For the price, it's a pretty nice monitor: good image quality (though my 20" Viewsonic is slightly better, IMHO) and beaucoup inputs (DVI, VGA, component, S-video, and composite), though it looks like the new model only has two. Only problem is fixed-aspect ratio scaling doesn't work with it for some reason, so any res not 16:10 gets stretched and distorted to fill the screen. Fortunately, most games support 1680x1050, so it's not usually an issue.

Think I might pick one of these up then, assuming BB has any kind of a return policy. Thanks for the the info...reviews are thin on the ground for this model.

[Coca Cola Zero]

Do different monitors have different quality scalers?

Yes. But in my experience the quality of the scaler is somewhat random and doesn't always correlate with the price of the monitor -- some expensive monitors do a shitty job scaling, some cheap ones do a good job.

Also you may have options depending upon your videocard. Nvidia cards have an LCD scaling function that scales things to native resolution on the gfx card, including the ability to maintain aspect ratio. I'm not sure if ATI has added this stuff -- the last time I owned an ATI card you could do "centered timings" to run a non-native resolution but in a subwindow using the actual resolution (so it only uses part of the real physical screen), but they didn't do any kind of decent scaling.

[SqueakyFoo]

I'm not sure if ATI has added this stuff -- the last time I owned an ATI card you could do "centered timings" to run a non-native resolution but in a subwindow using the actual resolution (so it only uses part of the real physical screen), but they didn't do any kind of decent scaling.

I haven't seen anything that even resembles scaling in the craptastic catalyst control center panel with my x800 pro. No idea if newer cards can do scaling or not, though.

[unbongwah]

Thanks for the the info...reviews are thin on the ground for this model.

You're welcome...just don't complain to me if you don't like it. That's what return policies are for!

[gnmarsh]

My wife has the same monitor and loves it. All she uses it for though is wow and surfing the internet, so I can't say it's really been widely tested.

[rossm]

Thanks for all the replies, there was a lot I didn't know about LCDs. I think the best method to select one is probably reading reviews and impressions of a bunch of different models.

[charmtrap]

So I got the Westinghouse on Friday and I gotta say it's a pretty damn good monitor for the money. My only two issues are no DVI cable included (which, I can kind of understand due to price) and that it takes quite awhile to tweak it to get it to display text well. I spent a good hour messing with video card and monitor settings to get the desktop to not look like a blurry mess.

Once you spend the time, though, it looks great. Not as good as the Flatron or Viewsonic I already had, but those cost quite a bit more so I'm ok with that.