TFT Monitors and Stuff

[ChristopherP]

Hi.

thinking of buying a 17" TFT monitor.

Just a few things i would like to know if anyone can answer:

What advantages does DVI have over analogue and is DVI worth paying the extra for?

does this look good for the money and spec http://www.savastore.com/include2/i...tore&category_name=&product_id=10278249&pid=0

Cheers

Chris

 

[Quadophile]

DVI is definately a plus and if you can afford it go for it, this the future. CRT is Analog and LCD's are digital monitors in truest sense of the word. All VGA cards convert digital signals to analog and feed to the older CRT monitors which were basically analog. With LCD there is no need to convert the signal to analog since LCD monitors work in digital domain so the signal integrity is always there and no loss occurs due to conversion. Most of the good VGA cards today have either digital only or both type of outputs.

Remember, many monitors are not bundled with a DVI cable so you may need to buy it at an additional cost.

The difference between a DVI connection and and analog connection is obvious as you go for bigger screens, a 15 inch screen will give you a tough time to distinguish between the two types of connection. I did this experiment with my office monitor and I was not able to tell the difference.

Some Analog LCD are badly designed and some very well designed, Philips and Samsung take great care to have high quality convertors built in if the monitor does not sport a DVI connection.

By the way, there are two types of digital interfaces DVI -I and DVI-D if I remember it corectly the one with D is digital only interface and the other is Digital+Analog, both have different pin configurations. Just for your information.

 

[ChristopherP]

Do you get increased image quality with DVI? Any phsical advantages other than it being the new interface?

 

[Quadophile]

Do you get increased image quality with DVI? Any phsical advantages other than it being the new interface?

Chris,

Yes the difference is noticeable in larger screens so for all practical purposes it also makes a difference when you buy 17 inch ones. My eyes are worn out so to say, yours are practically brand new so you will notice it better, I am sure

Bsically, conversion loss:

DVI = Digital (VGA Card) > Digital (TFT Monitor)

Analog = Digital(VGA card)> Analog (convertor) > Digital (TFT Monitor)

 

[ChristopherP]

Ok cool - i think i will definatly try to go for the Acer one then, thanks.

Providing the guy who wants my monitor pays up

 

[muckshifter]

Acer, Hmmm... ?

... Can't comment on their monitors, but, I really don't like thier CDROM drives, sooo tooo many returned. However, Acer did build IBMs for IBM, and wen't they the pits back in the 80s.

 

[ChristopherP]

My parents have an Acer TFT monitor, as do my next door neighbours. Gotta be one of if not the best monitors i have ever used. No dead pixels on either and image quality is top, even though they are only DSUB and entry level. Good in games too.

 

[Quadophile]

Chris,

I never actually said in my posts above that you should go for Acer! I am sure you can find better ones if you have a bit of patience!

I personally never liked the idea of speakers built into the monitors expecially with CRT's. You are definately paying extra for this and if you can find one without it you will save maybe 10 percent on the monitor in question.

Even Mucks as you can see is not really thrilled with Acer.

 

[ChristopherP]

The reason that 95% of TFT monitors have speakers built in is because the display is not affected like CRT's because of the magnetic fields.

They can be included incredibly cheaply because of this.

For the same price or less as the Acer one, i need a 17" TFT in Silver and black and it must have a DVI interface, at least 450:1 contrast ratio and at least 16ms response time.

I reiterate, NO more than £240.

 

[muckshifter]

Any manufactures that has to, or insists on, sticking a pair of 'cheap' speakers onto a 'good' monitor, want their heads examining.

... I'm personally sick and tiered of 'replacing' faulty & shoddy good from Acer.



I don't buy LCD/TFT monitors, not at the price my 'customers' can afford.



As I said; ... "I can't comment on their monitors" ... if you want one fine by me.

 

[Quadophile]

Take a look here and see if you fancy anything.

In my opinion you will have to compromise somewhere if you stick to your budget of 240 since I went thru all the models listed and the specs you desire are built into models costing a bit more.

Good Luck!

 

[muckshifter]

Quad, you just made my day

"Benq (Formerly Acer)" ... now I wonder why they changed their name.

mucks falls off chair laughing

 

[floppybootstomp]

My input, FWIW:

Digital input definitely worth having.

The 16ms response time of the Acer is good, it should be OK for games.

Built in speakers are a complete waste of time and money, they always sound crap. Only thing they're good for is hearing dinks, plops, burbles and boinks using an Office program.

I used a Benq 17" Monitor when I put my Mum's system together. Mucks let me know that Benq are made by Acer, bless his heart The picture quality is great, no dead pixels, wide viewing angle and bright, vibrant colours. And that particular model only has an analogue input.

For TFT Monitors, I favour Samsung, Viewsonic & Hitachi. If you can get any of their models for a similar price, with same response time and digital input, go for one of those. Other than that, you've seen Acer TFT monitors with your own eyes, I'd say go for it.

 

[Quadophile]

Quad, you just made my day

"Benq (Formerly Acer)" ... now I wonder why they changed their name.

mucks falls off chair laughing

 

[ChristopherP]

Ok.

I have narrowed it down to the following monitors.

Could you possibly give me some feedback on what you think about the choices please? Thanks.

LG L1730S 17" TFT Silver 16ms DVI Monitor I quite like this one, looks REALLY good. Not clear whether it has DVI or not, Savastore say yes, LG don't say.

£237.47 Savastore

AL1721HS 17" TFT Silver Multimedia 16ms MonitorI think this is cool, but you lot dont.

£239.87 Savastore

170S5FB 17" TFT Black 16ms Monitor This ones got sRGB but no DVI.

£211.38 Savastore

Or... This ones pushing the budget, alot. But if you think its a tad better, then i may splash out. I think it looks nice, real nice, especially with the low response, digital inputs and glass front. VERY good reviews too.....oh and it comes with a DVI cable, unlike the other DVI ones.

AG Neovo S17 15ms Glass Fronted DVI

£246.74 eBuyer

And i was also looking at this one. It's only sold at eBuyer but it has an onsite warranty so no issues there. It's out of stock, but if it is worth waiting for, then fair enough.

Gigabyte GD1703DP Looks nice, Good features, Good price. Out of stock

£211.49 eBuyer

I'd Appreciate the feedback, i'm new to TFT monitors so probably have a fair amount to learn! Thanks guys

Chris

Edit: Right Ok, the guy paid me just a minute ago, i got £190 for the monitor, delivery costs included. I need to come to a descision on which monitor to buy...like...tonight! It WILL have to be ordered either tonight or tomorrow because i need a replacement.

Any advice greatly apreciated cheers.

Oh and if anyone knows of any delivery companies that can deliver a box with a weight of 26Kg, Dimensions of 55x55x55 for under £19.70 inc VAT i'd appreciate it if you could tell me please cheapest i have found is Postvan.com

Chris

 

[Quadophile]

Chris,

Funny as it may seem but looks like you overlooked a review on this monitor

Let me know what you think.

I am very happy with this one and have no regrets at all even though it may be missing a few things.

If I had to choose between sRGB and DVI due to budget constraints I would opt for sRGB as it makes life very easy when you use a lot of devices, like digital cameras, scanners, printers etc.

Following will explain better for those who may not know what RGB and sRGB is all about.

RGB

[size=-1] RGB is short for the colors red, green, and blue often used in color coding on web pages, particularly for GIF files. 64K color values can be represented by a byte (8 bits of data) each for red, green, and blue. These are commonly expressed in hexadecimal values from 00 too FF for each color. The color value for white in this system is FFFFFF, where each color is at maximum value. Red is FF0000. Yellow is FFFF00. There is a smaller set of non-dithering colors where the permissible values for each color are hexadecimal 00, 33, 66, 99, CC or FF or decimal 0, 51, 102, 153, 204, and 255 and the results will look the same with different browsers, computers, and color cards.[/size]

sRGB

sRGB is a color space that was developed in October 1999 and defined with specifications compliant to the international color standard IEC 61966-2-1. It is a system of color spaces that determines tone, saturation, and brightness. This enables computer operating systems to easily decode and translate color expression into actual color displays.

sRGB is a standard for ensuring correct exchange of colours between different devices (e.g. digital cameras, monitors, printers, scanners, etc.)

Using a standard unified color space, sRGB will help represent pictures taken by an sRGB compatible device correctly on your sRGB enabled monitor. In that way, the colours are calibrated and you can rely on the correctness of the colors shown on your screen. Important with the use of sRGB is that the brightness and contrast of your monitor is fixed to a predefined setting as well as the colour gamut.

 

[ChristopherP]

Funnily enough, i didn't overlook it, i read it before and didnt realise until after my previous post that the one you have and the one in my list were the same!

I definatly want one with DVI though, want it to be futureproof for SOME amount of time...

I figured out about the top one in my list, the LG one. The S version has no DVI and the B version does. £248 inc VAT though...steep. BUT i may go for it, looks awesome!

I REALLY like the look of this one...​

​

​

• Stylish design:
• The FLATRON style series are monitors for the digital generation. The clean lines and sophistication of the circular stand, streamlined backside, ergonomic design, outstandingly vivid picture quality and a wide spectrum of functions bring style and versatility to satisfy the unique criteria of the young generation.

• Ergonomic Design
• LG FLATRON LCD monitors incorporate extensive ergonomic designs that are most comfortable and convenient to use. Fatigue and eyestrain are eliminated thanks to tilt, swivel and height adjustment features.

• Crystal Clear Image:
• User can enjoy crystal clear image due to the quick response time, DVI
• Built-in Power Adapter:
• For reduced cable clutter and easy wall-mounting
• OSD Lock
• OSD Lock function prevents unwanted changes to display settings
• Auto adjustment Function
• Automatically sets image position, phase and pitch
• Wall mountable
• Mounting slots on the back allow the LG's LCD monitor to be hung just like a picture
• Height Adjustable :
• LightView Function :
• LigthView function allows users to freely adjust brightness and color temperature according to their computing situation like day/night, photo, text, movie.
• Specifications
• Panel:
• Size : 17"
• Resolution : 1280 x 1024
• Pixel Pitch : 0.264(H) × 0.264(V) mm
• Brightness : 250 cd/m2
• Contrast Ratio : 550:1
• Viewing Angle : 160/140 (H/V)
• Response Time : 12 msM
• Display Colors : 16.2M
• Sync Range :
• Horizontal Frequency : 30 ~ 83 kHz
• Vertical Frequency : 56 ~ 75 Hz
• Input Signal :
• Video Signal : RGB Analog / Digital
• Sync type : Separate, Composite, SOG , Digital
• Connectors :
• PC : 15 Pin-D sub / DVI-D
• Plug & Play
• DDC : DDC 2B
• Power Supply : AC90~264 V (47 ~ 63Hz)
• Power Consumption :
• On : 40 W
• Stand-by / Suspend : 1 W
• DPM Off : 1 W
• User Control :
• Button : Menu(1), Adjust (2 / -,+ ), Set / Auto (1), Power (1) - : Lightview, + : Source
• Functions : LightView Function, OSD Lock, Auto Adjustment, Gamma Control .
• Mechanical :
• Dimensions (W x H x D) : Set : 398 x 400.5 x 140 mm Box : 460 x 210 x 463 mm
• Weight : 6.1 kg / 7.7 kg (Set/Box)
• Stand : Detachable
• Regulations :
• Safety : UL, cUL, TUV-GS, SEMCO
• EMC : FCC-B, CE
• Low radiation : TCO-99
• Ergonomics : ISO 13406-2
• Power saving : EPA Energy Star
• ETC : VCCI-2 (Japan), C-TICK (Australia), GOST (Russia)
• Others : Stand, Color, USBOption

 

[Quadophile]

I edited my previous post so please take a look at what I am suggesting. This monitor (model 'S') probably has no DVI and also sRGB is missing ?!?!?!?!? Are you sure you want to go for it?

LG seems to be following the same policy at Philips for their different models, for your information "S" is Standard "B" is for Business and "P" is for Professional, that what Philips has so I wonder if LG has another model with the prefix "P" in the lineup.

 

[ChristopherP]

I don't use a digital camera. or print anything other than word documents too much so i think in this case DVI will benefit me more.

I am intruiged as to why some monitors are 16.2m colours, and others are 16.7m

This isnt a price issue as the cheapest ones can be 16.7m and the high end 16.2

Confused

 

[ChristopherP]

If they do have a P version, i'm sure it will be WAY out of my price range.

I think i may get the L1730B with DVI - it looks aweosme, specs are awesome, and has the fastest response time of the lot.

Yeah, just looked at the P version. Looks like the ONLY difference is it has a 300 brightness level as opposed to the 250. My 454 has a 250nit level and its NEVER on highest, so its pointless going for the P version.

£255 for the L1730B delievered. Ouch.

Hope it's wortth it