New LCD Monitor - Advise

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by goldorak

Skybird forget about widescreen monitors, at least for the type of games you're willing to run. Get a nice 1600x1200 4:3 lcd 20" monitor and you'll never regret not buying a widescreen one. If you really really have to get a widescreen, and you don't want to loose vertical resolution get a 1920x1200 one.

You're a little bit too late. And i do not regret to have gone widescreen, both monitor- and TV-wise.

[Reece]

Please tell what you ended up getting Skybird, I have to go down today to pick up my screen, I'm getting anxious!!

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Skybird

You're a little bit too late. And i do not regret to have gone widescreen, both monitor- and TV-wise.

I did not regret widescreen either. I let the vid card detect the best resolution or native resolution and it was perfect. SH4, COD, Jutland all play on the 22 wide and look fantastic.

[Onkel Neal]

Well, Reece, what's the verdict? Nice, huh?

I just received this montior from New Egg only $99!





Yes, I know, not widescreen, and only 17".... can anyone tell me why I specifically went for this monitor??? (other than being a cheap bastage )


,

[AVGWarhawk]

No idea you went for the 17 inch.

[CaptainHaplo]

If I had to guess - I would say its for an older system you keep around to play the "classics" - they dont translate real well to the big monitors.

[Reece]

Hi all, well I have just installed it & not too sure what to think, looks nice, but on the forum the top of the monitor is dark gray and the bottom is light gray, adjusting the tilt seems to have little effect or worse, is this normal? I installed the driver ok & the supplied disc also has 2 apps called Magic Tune Premium (MTP) & Natural Color Pro (NCP), both installed ok with icons on Quicklaunch bar and desktop, when I launch NCP the computer resets & when I launch MTP a dialog box displays "Monitor Not Supported" then goes to support screen!! Not a good start!!
Running Win XP Pro SP3 ATI HD4850, screen res at 1680 x 1050 with forced 4xAA.
Edit: What I may have to do is disconnect the internet, then shutdown Comodo, it's possible the Defence+ is causing problems, then install and test.

[Skybird]

Sounds like the background light to me. TFTs have one disadvantage: the brightness varies depending on the angle at which you look at it. I assume the more money you spend the less a problem it is. By tendency, I have an effect like this, too, but it is so minor that I only realise it in very dark, black pictures - then I have a very low, hazy grey shine at the upper and lower frame of the monitor, 2-4 mm wide. but again: very minor, it does not irritate me, and invisible in everything but very dark pictures. But after all I only spend 180 Euros for a regular priced 250 Euros-monitor. I could as well spend 400-500 Euros on a monitor of the same size.

[goldorak]

Lcd is a transitory technology, the holy grail in display technology (barring 3d) is oled.
You get all the advantages of CRT's with the advantages of lcd's.
The problem for the moment being price and lifetime of the panels.

[Reece]

Yes it's hard to describe but I would say that it is a consistant lighter or paler colors at the botom of the screen to darker deeper color to the top, it's a constant gradual from bottom to top, maybe more noticable with 24", damned bigger than I thought it would be, I use the lower res so that the font size is larger overall and easier to read. I also have set the monitor to 60hz, I think this is correct, I'm using 1680 x 1050, seems about the best for my eyes.

[porphy]

Most Lcd monitors have this effect, but as Skybird says, usually a minor one.

So if the effect is very marked on your monitor something might need to change with how you are postioned in relation to the screen. Which viewing angle do you get when the monitor is put in place on your desk? It sounds like you could benefit from getting your viewpoint higher or more straight ahead, that is avoid looking at the monitor from a slightly low position, if you do so it will turn more dark at the top as you describe. Can you adjust the stand up and down?

Also, is the 1680x1050 really the native resolution for that 24" monitor? If you need bigger text etc to see it clearly, it might be better to change how big text fonts and icons you use in windows, rather than lowering the resolution to a non native one.


cheers Porphy

[Skybird]

If you have a small LED blinker or something like that making a tiny light spot, switch off the screen so that it is black, sit at the desk and type. Keep that position , your normal working or playin g psoiton, and keep it exactly. Put the light exactly between your eyes, and see the reflection of it on the monitor. Horizontally, you want to see it exactly on the centerline between left and right side of the monitor, and vertically in the middle of the upper half, that means if you move down from top to bottom: the borderline between Top and second quarter of the screen.

That would be the academical way to approach the problem of how to sit correctly at a screen.

24" is not small, make sure you are sitting at a distance from it. I have a 22", and my eyes are positioned one and a half arms length away from the screen. The more away you are, the smaller is the angle from your eyes to top and bottom of the screen. the smaller the angle, the smaller the effect of differing brightness and colours when looking at different parts of the screen.

For 22", 1680x1050 already is hardware native resolution. I don't know but maybe for 24" it is even higher. Avoid to increase font sizes by using general greater font size settings (there is one that allows you two switch between two or three sizes), it may make older games not displaying correctly. Instead, go to right-click-on-desktop/Eigenschaften/Darstellung/Erweitert and finetune the wanted font for any element type on desktop manually. It takes more time, but you do it only once. For using Words, do not use the Words icon, but create a shortcut to an empty word document where you already have readjust page format and fonts to your liking. Use this to start Words. Write-protect this document, of course, so that you do not overwrite it. That way it is also the most easy option to have several different document formats available to start Words with without needing to fiddle with the menues inside Words to find the scheme you want, which takes more time. Just have several .doc-shortcuts on your desktop.

[Reece]

Thanks Porphy, the proper size for this monitor is 1920 x 1200, however with forced 4xAA this is a drag on the system, I went to the system color control (ATI Tray Tools) and adjusted the gamma from 1.00 to 0.75, what a huge difference, looks a lot better now.
I might get to like this!!

[AVGWarhawk]

Ah, you got your screen Some tweaks with the ATI? Look nice?

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

If I had to guess - I would say its for an older system you keep around to play the "classics" - they dont translate real well to the big monitors.

You so totally

That's exactly right. My P133 with Win95 would not support my 19" Samsung monitor, caused problems playing really old games. The 17" is perfect.