New Monitor advice needed...
 

After about 6 years I am planning to replace my old 18"wide "ViewSonic A90f monitor from Office Depot with something a bit newer & state of the art..I'd like to replace the whole rig but figure I must wait until Oleg's masterwork of BoB appears ( 2 years overdue by my rough figuring.)I'd like to guarentee that the new monitor will work well with the new sim if & when & also maybe get a bigger monitor than I currently have. Don't want to pay a mint , but don't want to go bargain basement either...so suggestions anyone?

Pretty happy with Samsung 24" which i purchased from Sams Club for 399 dollars couple of months ago. Here is the link to manufacturer: http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/d...LS24HUBCFV/XAA

I have a related inquiry...

How important is contrast ratio?

I see many 22inchch LCD monitors in the $250 range...that typically have a 5m response time and 700:1 contrast ratio 1680 X 1050...

Would a monitor with these specs cut the cheese?

What are the important features/specs that one should look for?

my dilemma too
 

I'll need to purchase a monitor soon. Things I've learned to consider are:
1- the native screen resolution and a video card that can support that easily enough. So a 24" monitor will need a gpu with some balls
2- the quicker the response time (how fast a pixel can change grey to grey, iirc) is preferrable to reduce the chance of ghosting. So if I can find a monitor with a 2ms response time I'm in good shape.
2- there's something called lag time too. this spec is not mentined in most monitors, but again has something to do with ghosting. maybe it's like low response time
3- the higher the contrast the better

I'm speaking of values important to combat flight simming. I've been asking everyone and their sister for advice, and it seems to boil down to the things I've mentioned here.
go to this link and read it over. it may help you. it asks questions about displays. check all pages. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....hlight=turbodt
Flyby out
ps let us know what you buy. ;)

I bought a wide-screen TFT last year, here's some of the stuff I found out-

Check into the dead pixel policy for any brand you're considering. A some will replace if there are any dead pixels, some only if you have a dead pixel in the centre of the screen, some not until you have multiple pixels.

Check what connectivity the monitor has, some budget monitors only come with an analogue connection. DVI makes quite a difference for picture sharpness, especially text.

Some monitors scale certain resolutions better than others, in other words if you choose a 4:3 resolution on some wide screen monitors, they will stretch the image to fill the screen and it will look un-natural. Video card drivers are supposed to have scaling options to counter this and centre the image with black borders so it keeps the correct aspect ratio but this used to be quite hit and miss, I don't know if it has improved recently.

Screen bleed (Lighter shades of black at the edges of the screen)can be quite bad and noticeable on TFT's especially if you are watching a dvd in a dimly lit environment. It can be a lottery to whether your screen bleeds or not. In case it does, try to buy from a source where you can replace the screen easily if you need to.

I had 2 samsung Pebble SM2232BW 22" monitors that both had bad screen bleed at the edges that totally ruined watching a dark film and both also had dead pixels. They also wouldn't scale the a 4:3 resolution to the centre of the screen, and I got noticeable tearing when watching interlaced video.
I got them from pc world, they have 2 weeks return policy, so was able to change the screens easily.

I've ended up with a HP W2207, it has slight bleed, but is very minor, I get no tearing in video either, no dead pixels and the monitor scales any resolution properly. The down side is that it has very shiny screen that catches reflections.

Do plenty of research and check as many reviews as possible out, especially buyers reviews, companies tend to vet any stock that they know is going to be reviewed by a website or magazine.

Good luck :-) ~Inadaze

New Monitor suggestions
 

I have been very happy with my 24" BENQ 'GTG' monitor. It is certainly a bit more expensive than the Samsung's, though the picture quality is stunning.

To check the picture quality - go to the thread in this forum on 'Long nose Focke-Wulf - Eastern Front' and click-on the thumbnail. This is a 24" screen grab off my BENQ of a scene from the wonderful Slovakia map.

DFLion

I second the BenQ's, espcially the FP241. At work I think we have almost every Dell ever made (upto and including 30" TFT's) here and none of them compare to the BenQ in picture quality.

When looking at TFT's, check the type of screen it is. SPVA is the best quality and TN panels are the lowest quality. With a TN panel your loosing out on colour depth etc.


You can pick up an old Radeon X1950XTX for almost nothing these days and that will power a 24" screen running 1920x1200 with ease, especially if all your running is IL2. Just make sure the card has 512mb of memory because of the texture sizes being loaded into memory.

Beware of some advertising, a monitor that says it can do 2ms is only under specific conditions. If you can find out its average response time under real conditions. It might be more like 8 to 16ms. Cheaper panels that say they can do 2ms might average out allot higher than 16ms during normal operation.

AFAIK mice and other input devices can cause input lag. Samsung TFT's are notorious for input lag from mice. Some models have upto a 30ms input lag time although I'm sure they have been improving over time because Dell uses Samsung panels and they don't have this issue.

www.widescreengamingforum.com is probably the most comprehensive site in regards to buying a new TFT/LCD. They do the best reviews and since there independant they generally will show every monitors good side as well as the faults. Well worth a look before you part with large amounts of cash.

Hello,

I know you are a painter. I am an artist as well (movies conceptual design) and I really recommend you not to go into the usual brands like Samsung, Dell etc.
EIZO is a japanese brand that manufactures flat screens for graphic artists. (widescreen too)
They have the great advantage of being MUCH more true to colors and contrast, due to a different technology than the usual brands. Eizo screens don't have the usual backlight, means that black will be reprsented as truly black etc.The whole white to black gamma range is much better. The screen is also a lot sharper than the usual commercial ones. It will enhance your computer experience, looking at pictures, reading on screen etc. Also the gaming experience of course. I bought Eizo for my design company and nobody wants to go back to the old screens.
here is a link:
http://www.eizo.com/index.asp

I bought the Eizo FlexScan S2411W.

FYI EIZO use Samsung (Dell also use Samsung panels) and LG manufactured panels but I think most of the rest of the tech they use in there monitors is bespoke which can often make a difference.

Eizo FlexScan S2411W = $1,398 http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...lt56/yikes.gif