LCD Monitors - Totally lost

[Geoff]

I hope this is the right groups for this, as I can't find a dedicated
group for monitors.

I'm looking at buying a 19" LCD monitor, but I can't find one that fits
what I want. These are my requirements...

1) I'm not a gamer so don't care about anything faster than 8ms. I would
like 8ms though for the times I do play games or watch videos. This
shouldn't be a problem as most decent quality monitors are 8ms or
faster. If I found the right one that was slower, I would still consider it.

2) I want a black surround. I'm in the UK and the majority of monitors
are silver, even though black versions are available elsewhere in the
world. This is really limiting my choice. The silver ones I've seen look
like toys, so I really want to stay away from them.

3) I want very good quality for static pictures (who doesn't?) and am
prepared to pay for it. It's ok if it isn't the best, but I don't want
anything from the budget end of things.

There, shouldn't be so tough, right? WRONG! It is impossible to find
what I want. The main problem is that I want it black and that is barely
available in England. I also want widescreen but I'm having so many
issues with my graphics card that for now I'm sticking with a 19" 1280 x
1024. I've looked at ALL the Dells, Viewsonics and Samsungs. There are
some Sony's I've looked at which look nice in black, but I can't find
anything said about them on the 'net at all, so I'm reluctant to go for
them. They also all seem to be pretty slow apart from the Sony
SDM-HS95PRB, which is 8ms and does look very nice. It's contrast and
brightness spec isn't as good as many others I've seen though,
especially considering it's very high price. I'd still buy it if I could
find a flattering review. I know there are LG's and BenQ's too but the
ones I've looked at are either not black or are budget monitors.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated please.
Geoff.

 

[Bioboffin]

I hope this is the right groups for this, as I can't find a dedicated
group for monitors.

I'm looking at buying a 19" LCD monitor, but I can't find one that
fits what I want. These are my requirements...

1) I'm not a gamer so don't care about anything faster than 8ms. I
would like 8ms though for the times I do play games or watch videos.
This shouldn't be a problem as most decent quality monitors are 8ms or
faster. If I found the right one that was slower, I would still
consider it.
2) I want a black surround. I'm in the UK and the majority of monitors
are silver, even though black versions are available elsewhere in the
world. This is really limiting my choice. The silver ones I've seen
look like toys, so I really want to stay away from them.

3) I want very good quality for static pictures (who doesn't?) and am
prepared to pay for it. It's ok if it isn't the best, but I don't want
anything from the budget end of things.

There, shouldn't be so tough, right? WRONG! It is impossible to find
what I want. The main problem is that I want it black and that is
barely available in England. I also want widescreen but I'm having so
many issues with my graphics card that for now I'm sticking with a 19"
1280 x 1024. I've looked at ALL the Dells, Viewsonics and Samsungs.
There are some Sony's I've looked at which look nice in black, but I can't
find
anything said about them on the 'net at all, so I'm reluctant to go
for them. They also all seem to be pretty slow apart from the Sony
SDM-HS95PRB, which is 8ms and does look very nice. It's contrast and
brightness spec isn't as good as many others I've seen though,
especially considering it's very high price. I'd still buy it if I
could find a flattering review. I know there are LG's and BenQ's too
but the ones I've looked at are either not black or are budget monitors.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated please.
Geoff.

Try here:

http://tinyurl.com/rp9g9

not that Dabs is particularly good, but the fact that they have 96 monitors
which have black surrounds in the uk suggests that you haven't taken too
much trouble to search.

Also try overclock.co.uk which I have always found to be good, and maybe
novatech which I haven't used recently but used to be good.

John.

 

[Conor]

I hope this is the right groups for this, as I can't find a dedicated
group for monitors.

I'm looking at buying a 19" LCD monitor, but I can't find one that fits
what I want. These are my requirements...

1) I'm not a gamer so don't care about anything faster than 8ms. I would
like 8ms though for the times I do play games or watch videos. This
shouldn't be a problem as most decent quality monitors are 8ms or
faster. If I found the right one that was slower, I would still consider it.

2) I want a black surround. I'm in the UK and the majority of monitors
are silver, even though black versions are available elsewhere in the
world. This is really limiting my choice. The silver ones I've seen look
like toys, so I really want to stay away from them.

3) I want very good quality for static pictures (who doesn't?) and am
prepared to pay for it. It's ok if it isn't the best, but I don't want
anything from the budget end of things.

There, shouldn't be so tough, right? WRONG! It is impossible to find
what I want. The main problem is that I want it black and that is barely
available in England. I also want widescreen but I'm having so many
issues with my graphics card that for now I'm sticking with a 19" 1280 x
1024. I've looked at ALL the Dells, Viewsonics and Samsungs. There are
some Sony's I've looked at which look nice in black, but I can't find
anything said about them on the 'net at all, so I'm reluctant to go for
them. They also all seem to be pretty slow apart from the Sony
SDM-HS95PRB, which is 8ms and does look very nice. It's contrast and
brightness spec isn't as good as many others I've seen though,
especially considering it's very high price. I'd still buy it if I could
find a flattering review. I know there are LG's and BenQ's too but the
ones I've looked at are either not black or are budget monitors.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated please.
Geoff.

For a start, don't get too hooked up on the response time as it is a
red herring. All it does is give the time for a pixel to go from full
on to full off. It takes longer to turn from one brightness to another
and this is what they mostly do rather than going full on to full off
so as an indicator of panel speed, it's a poor one. For example, I have
a HP LCD with a 25ms response time yet I've not noticed ghosting on 3D
games.

What is more important is contrast ratio and viewing angles - the more
the better.

Above the £100-£150 bracket, it is quite hard to find a bad monitor.

 

[Geoff]

Try here:

http://tinyurl.com/rp9g9

not that Dabs is particularly good, but the fact that they have 96 monitors
which have black surrounds in the uk suggests that you haven't taken too
much trouble to search.

Also try overclock.co.uk which I have always found to be good, and maybe
novatech which I haven't used recently but used to be good.

John.

Thanks John but I assure you I have searched those stores as well as
every other I know of, including general Google searches. If you go to
Dabs and select what you want in a monitor and choose only what I've
said I'm looking for, you'll see that there are few left, and none of
them are what I need.

Geoff.

 

[Geoff]

For a start, don't get too hooked up on the response time as it is a
red herring. All it does is give the time for a pixel to go from full
on to full off. It takes longer to turn from one brightness to another
and this is what they mostly do rather than going full on to full off
so as an indicator of panel speed, it's a poor one. For example, I have
a HP LCD with a 25ms response time yet I've not noticed ghosting on 3D
games.

What is more important is contrast ratio and viewing angles - the more
the better.

Above the £100-£150 bracket, it is quite hard to find a bad monitor.

Thanks Conor, that's all good information and I'll bare it in mind. I
still can't ignore what the reviews say of course but it'll help me with
minitors where I can't find reviews, such as the Sony's which do look
nice. I wasn't really looking for response time anyway, and was prepared
to go to 16ms if everything else about it was good.

 

[Conor]

Thanks Conor, that's all good information and I'll bare it in mind. I
still can't ignore what the reviews say of course but it'll help me with
minitors where I can't find reviews, such as the Sony's which do look
nice. I wasn't really looking for response time anyway, and was prepared
to go to 16ms if everything else about it was good.

REad this article about pixel response times and see why they should be
taken with a slight pinch of salt...

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121906,00.asp

 

[Leon Manfredi]

Not sure about black screen, but have you checked out Nu Tech 19.
which has best contrast of most...

 

[spodosaurus]

I hope this is the right groups for this, as I can't find a dedicated
group for monitors.

I'm looking at buying a 19" LCD monitor, but I can't find one that fits
what I want. These are my requirements...

1) I'm not a gamer so don't care about anything faster than 8ms. I would
like 8ms though for the times I do play games or watch videos. This
shouldn't be a problem as most decent quality monitors are 8ms or
faster. If I found the right one that was slower, I would still consider
it.

2) I want a black surround. I'm in the UK and the majority of monitors
are silver, even though black versions are available elsewhere in the
world. This is really limiting my choice. The silver ones I've seen look
like toys, so I really want to stay away from them.

3) I want very good quality for static pictures (who doesn't?) and am
prepared to pay for it. It's ok if it isn't the best, but I don't want
anything from the budget end of things.

If you care about professional colour accuracy for these pictures, use a
CRT.

There, shouldn't be so tough, right? WRONG! It is impossible to find
what I want. The main problem is that I want it black and that is barely
available in England. I also want widescreen but I'm having so many
issues with my graphics card that for now I'm sticking with a 19" 1280 x
1024. I've looked at ALL the Dells, Viewsonics and Samsungs. There are
some Sony's I've looked at which look nice in black, but I can't find
anything said about them on the 'net at all, so I'm reluctant to go for
them. They also all seem to be pretty slow apart from the Sony
SDM-HS95PRB, which is 8ms and does look very nice. It's contrast and
brightness spec isn't as good as many others I've seen though,
especially considering it's very high price. I'd still buy it if I could
find a flattering review. I know there are LG's and BenQ's too but the
ones I've looked at are either not black or are budget monitors.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated please.
Geoff.

--
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