21" LCD monitors?

[Phillip S.]

I'd like to buy a new LCD monitor maybe with 1600x1200 resolution. It's to
replace the 17" LCD I hosed trying to clean off a sneeze with some food in
it. I won't make that mistake again!

I'm not having much luck finding on-line reviews. There are a lot of
come-ons for advertising sites which don't have any reviews. Site like
ZDNet have the Google trick down.

Before I go looking at displays at Big Box Stores, I have a question about
the manufacturer's specs. Many of the monitors seem to have contrast
ratios like 400:1, 500:1, and occasionally 700:1. NEC, on its LCD2070NX-BK
which costs nearly twice what many others cost, advertises 1000:1. Is it
really that much prettier than the cheaper LCDs?

Maybe a better question is: Are there trustworthy sites that examine the
beauty and performance of LCDs?

I don't play any games but right now I can watch DVDs only on my computer.

 

[chrisv]

I'd like to buy a new LCD monitor maybe with 1600x1200 resolution. It's to
replace the 17" LCD I hosed trying to clean off a sneeze with some food in
it. I won't make that mistake again!

What, precisely, was your "mistake", and what would you differently
next time?

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Phillip S. wrote:




What, precisely, was your "mistake", and what would you differently
next time?

Chris, I don't think you really want to know.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Before I go looking at displays at Big Box Stores, I have a question about
the manufacturer's specs. Many of the monitors seem to have contrast
ratios like 400:1, 500:1, and occasionally 700:1. NEC, on its LCD2070NX-BK
which costs nearly twice what many others cost, advertises 1000:1. Is it
really that much prettier than the cheaper LCDs?

I haven't noticed any real appreciable difference.

Yousuf Khan

 

[sycochkn]

Doubling the contrast ratio is probably just perceptable. I just bought a 24
inch wide screen monitor which in 4:3 is 21 inches at 1600 by 1200. You want
a tft monitor vs just an lcd wide viewing angle faster image.

Bob

 

[Bob Myers]

Doubling the contrast ratio is probably just perceptable. I just bought a 24
inch wide screen monitor which in 4:3 is 21 inches at 1600 by 1200. You want
a tft monitor vs just an lcd wide viewing angle faster image.

All LCD monitors these days are "TFT" (thin-film-transistor, or
active-matrix);
the distinctions in the market which affect the viewing angle, response
time,
etc. are mostly in the LC cell design or mode of operation. The leading
types at present are the twisted-nematic (TN), generally with an optical
film added for viewing angle enhancement, in-plane-switching (IPS), and
various vertically-aligned (VA) types. The latter two may be referred to
by a number of different names (e.g., "S-IPS," "MVA," etc.) which
typically indicate a given manufacturer's own version of that basic type
of LC design. The IPS and VA types in general have wider viewing angles
and better color/contrast performance than the TN, although there have
certainly been some very significant improvements in the TN+film designs
over the past few years. As they are somewhat more complicated to
produce, the IPS and VA types will generally also carry a price premium
over TN. There are also some "new" modes (such as OCB) which are
coming into the market but are not yet widely available, which will have
their own advantages/disadvantages.

Bob M.