Preserved Topic: LCD Display

Can anyone recommend a good quality flat panel LCD display? All the one's I've looked at look very soft and not sharp when it comes to line tone.

Well, all LCD monitors are somewhat blurry when compared to the regular CRT monitors. Anyway, in order to insure the best possible picture you must run LCD at specified resolution and specified refresh rate, otherwise picture will look like crap (especially if you allow LCD monitor to resize it by itself in order to fit the specified resolution). Another thing is response time. Besides vertical refresh rate (which can be as low as 60Hz in case of LCD monitor, which is fine), each LCD monitor has a delay before each screen update, and that's the main reason why picture appears blurry when viewing animations or playing games, which require fast redraws.

Now, as far as my recommendation is concerned, I recommend you to buy a Samsung LCD monitor. They have response time <25ms (compared to LG, for example, which has response time between 40 and 50ms) and the picture that they produce is very good...

I have used NEC, CTX, Samsung, KDS, Viewsonic and one other that I forgot who made it. Of the ones I have used I was most happy with Samsung, NEC and Viewsonic. The one I would avoid at all cost is CTX. In addition to the native resolution Mr Max described some, well all flat panels also have problems with artifacts or burnt out pixels. Every LCD I have used and almost every LCD I have sold that I still see on a regular bases has had at least 1 pixel burn out during the first 6 months or so of use. A burnt out pixel shows up as a little black dot on the screen, sometimes its off to the side so its no big deal but sometimes it pops up right in the middle and will drive you nuts! You're probably thinking well no big deal if I have a pixel burn out I'll get the monitor replaced under warranty... think again because most brands have rules about how many pixels have to burn out before it is eligable for replacement. Some say 3 or 4 in 1 square inch, some say its a tiny percent of all the pixels like .03 which ends up being about 13-15 pixels that have to burn out before they will replace it. Now don't get me wrong I know it sounds like I am bashing the flat panels but I really do love them, I just think everyone should know what they are getting when they buy one. Oh I meantioned CTX earlier, we ordered 5 CTX 15" flat panels from one of our vendors that was running a special on them. ALL 5 shipped with at least 2 burnt out pixels! We used them around the office for a month or so and all but 1 got worse in that short time, so avoid CTX!

Added to FAQ under Hardware.
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=807&sortby=rating



[This message has been edited by NoJive (edited 10-04-2002).]

I talked about dead pixels in this topic: http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum3/HTML/002811.html

Here's text of my reply:

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The biggest drawback with all LCD monitors are those so called dead pixels. As time goes some of the crystals will simply die and you'll start seeing black or white dots on your screen instead of pixels with actual color (I have two dead pixels on my Toshiba notebook). And depending on monitor manufacturer, the number of allowed dead pixels varies, so for example if you have a Samsung LCD monitor you won't be able to replace it until there are five dead pixels (and I doubt that all five pixels will appear in the time covered by guarantee, but there will be at least one). So, IMHO this sucks big-time! LCD monitors are still very expensive, but yet it's allowed to have dead pixels on them, which can be very annoying as time goes. Although I want to buy an LCD monitor (due to the fact that they don't emit any radiation), I won't be spending 1000+ euros for 18" LCD monitor anytime soon...

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Yeah, I think LCD monitors are just a good way to burn off money. They're far too expensive for all the problems you can run into with them. If you want one just to save space, it'd be cheaper and less of a hassle to go buy a bigger desk. IMO.

I also have a dead pixel on my laptop screen. I'm also getting this area that's fading - watch out for things like that on an LCD as well.