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Hiya all,
I'm shopping for a new VGA monitor, one of these flat screen LCD TFT screens (currently looking in the SR magazine), but wanted to ask a couple of questions regarding some of the details listed.
Response time
I gather that the lower the better (the time it takes for the picture to refresh I believe). Would a 16ms speed be considered ok, or would people recommend a smaller value (12, 10, 8, for example)?
I'm not a gamer, just a general Windows user who uses the Internet, email and Office applications, as well as some basic image viewing and editing.
Contrast ratio
Is it a case that the higher the first value, the better, or the other way around? Is a 450:1 ratio considered good, or bad?
Thanks to anybody who can help me out with understanding these things better.
Hope you're all enjoying your summer
- Chris
I'm shopping for a new VGA monitor, one of these flat screen LCD TFT screens (currently looking in the SR magazine), but wanted to ask a couple of questions regarding some of the details listed.
Response time
I gather that the lower the better (the time it takes for the picture to refresh I believe). Would a 16ms speed be considered ok, or would people recommend a smaller value (12, 10, 8, for example)?
I'm not a gamer, just a general Windows user who uses the Internet, email and Office applications, as well as some basic image viewing and editing.
Contrast ratio
Is it a case that the higher the first value, the better, or the other way around? Is a 450:1 ratio considered good, or bad?
Thanks to anybody who can help me out with understanding these things better.
Hope you're all enjoying your summer
- Chris
Has anybody got an opinion on this monitor, as the Amazon customer reviews give it a 5-star rating:
[URL]http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect?path=ASIN/B000788W50&link_code=as2&camp=1634&tag=haigshomepagefor&creative=6738[/URL]
[URL]http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect?path=ASIN/B000788W50&link_code=as2&camp=1634&tag=haigshomepagefor&creative=6738[/URL]
Thanks for the brand recommendations, I had been looking at Digimate and Starlogic from amazon, but will take note of your suggestions.
Unfortunately I don't have a DVI connection, but as I don't intent on any real gaming or heavy image editing, would a cheap graphics card with a DVI connection work out ok, or are the cheaper cards generally of a poor quality all around?
Regarding the resolution, like I said it looked all too small at 1280 x 1024, but are you saying the size of the desktop is larger and more usable on a TFT, or that it is easily scaled up?
My eyesight isn't that great, so an 800 x 600 is what I was hoping for, with a 1024 x 768 being the max I'd go for. With those resolutions in mind, is it a case of tough luck, or will the screen look a lot better/clearer/larger?
Thanks for your comments.
Unfortunately I don't have a DVI connection, but as I don't intent on any real gaming or heavy image editing, would a cheap graphics card with a DVI connection work out ok, or are the cheaper cards generally of a poor quality all around?
Regarding the resolution, like I said it looked all too small at 1280 x 1024, but are you saying the size of the desktop is larger and more usable on a TFT, or that it is easily scaled up?
My eyesight isn't that great, so an 800 x 600 is what I was hoping for, with a 1024 x 768 being the max I'd go for. With those resolutions in mind, is it a case of tough luck, or will the screen look a lot better/clearer/larger?
Thanks for your comments.
You could go 8ms, but you tend to sacrifice viewing angel for speed. It's all down to the type of screen used to produce the TFT.
Reccomended makes:
LG, Phillips, Viewsonic, Hyundai, everything else tends to be poor in one way or another.
Run everything at native res and avoid VGA/D-Sub if you can and opt for DVI, much better frequency responses and picture. 1280x1042 may look odd on a CRT, but the difference is huge when using a properly set up TFT.
Fwiw, if you try running anything higher that 1280*1024, because it's pixel to pixel resolution you have to scroll about the screen.
Reccomended makes:
LG, Phillips, Viewsonic, Hyundai, everything else tends to be poor in one way or another.
Run everything at native res and avoid VGA/D-Sub if you can and opt for DVI, much better frequency responses and picture. 1280x1042 may look odd on a CRT, but the difference is huge when using a properly set up TFT.
Fwiw, if you try running anything higher that 1280*1024, because it's pixel to pixel resolution you have to scroll about the screen.
Thanks for the reply Nimco.
Also, regarding resolution, is it correct that TFT's should be used at their maximum res, rather than any other? I only ask as most I look at show a maz res of 1280 by 1024, and having just changed my screen res to that on my current monitor, realise that I can't work like that. Can Windows XP Home (SP2) easily increase the desktop scale to better suite higher scren resolutions?
Thanks again.
Also, regarding resolution, is it correct that TFT's should be used at their maximum res, rather than any other? I only ask as most I look at show a maz res of 1280 by 1024, and having just changed my screen res to that on my current monitor, realise that I can't work like that. Can Windows XP Home (SP2) easily increase the desktop scale to better suite higher scren resolutions?
Thanks again.
Lower (i.e. faster) is generally better with TFT screens, but if you're not planning lots of gaming then 16ms is probably fine. Try to make sure you get a true 24-bit monitor and not an interlaced 24-bit one - they're 16-bit ones made to look like 24-bit ones.
Concerning contrast ratios, you want a higher first number. The ratio is how much brighter the white is than the black on the screen - i.e. 450:1 means the white is 450 times brighter than the black.
Concerning contrast ratios, you want a higher first number. The ratio is how much brighter the white is than the black on the screen - i.e. 450:1 means the white is 450 times brighter than the black.
Hiya all,
I'm shopping for a new VGA monitor, one of these flat screen LCD TFT screens (currently looking in the SR magazine), but wanted to ask a couple of questions regarding some of the details listed.
Response time
I gather that the lower the better (the time it takes for the picture to refresh I believe). Would a 16ms speed be considered ok, or would people recommend a smaller value (12, 10, 8, for example)?
I'm not a gamer, just a general Windows user who uses the Internet, email and Office applications, as well as some basic image viewing and editing.
Contrast ratio
Is it a case that the higher the first value, the better, or the other way around? Is a 450:1 ratio considered good, or bad?
Thanks to anybody who can help me out with understanding these things better.
Hope you're all enjoying your summer
- Chris
I'm shopping for a new VGA monitor, one of these flat screen LCD TFT screens (currently looking in the SR magazine), but wanted to ask a couple of questions regarding some of the details listed.
Response time
I gather that the lower the better (the time it takes for the picture to refresh I believe). Would a 16ms speed be considered ok, or would people recommend a smaller value (12, 10, 8, for example)?
I'm not a gamer, just a general Windows user who uses the Internet, email and Office applications, as well as some basic image viewing and editing.
Contrast ratio
Is it a case that the higher the first value, the better, or the other way around? Is a 450:1 ratio considered good, or bad?
Thanks to anybody who can help me out with understanding these things better.
Hope you're all enjoying your summer
- Chris