[SouthernBoyupNorth]

Heres is what you are looking for in a LCD monitor. Contrast of 700:1 minimum. Response time. If you are going to game with it you want 8 ms or less anything higher will cause ghosting in a lot of games. 1280x1024 resolution is OK but I would look for better if you are a serious gamer. If you don't do a lot of games it is acceptable. Brightness is the least important of the specs but 250 really sucks. a good monitor will have 350 or better. All in all the monitor you have selected is good for general office use and thats about it. Don't expect to get good quality on any movies you want to watch on you computer.

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

Sorry for this double post but you asked about manufactures Hands down viewsonic is the best. Acer puts out a good product as well. You might want to do some shopping on line as well. Tiger Direct has good sales every now and then as well as NewEgg. They also give detailed specs and are very reliable

[Echo Talon]

I have a question for ALL LCD owners...

I currently use a 21" Hitachi CRT monitor(you know big old style monitor) And i do a lot of Photoshop work and such..

How do the new LCD's compare to CRT monitors as far as picture quality goes?

[Swordmaker]

I think because you say you are confused with the specs that you don't know what they mean.

1280 x 1024 resolution - this is the native resolution of the LCD display... it actually has 1280 pixels across by 1024 pixels across. Each pixel may be composed of three LCD crystal cells (red, green, blue) in a grid. This means that this is the limit of its resolution and while you can display LOWER resolutions you cannot display higher. Higher is better... but you may trade off response time.

exceptional 700:1 contrast ratio, - The ratio of brightest white to darkest black... higher is better. In this instance, white is 700 times brighter than the black (actually a really dark dark gray). More expensive LCDs can approach 1000:1. Some projection and DLP systems can produce 2000:1... some Plasma screens 5000:1. The darkness of the mask is also important for this... a pixel that is shut off completely can only be as dark as the mask around it and the shade of the crystal in full "off". Higher is better.

250 cd/m2 brightness - Candel power per square meter... a measure of light output brightness. Equivalent to Lumen ratings. 250 is moderately bright. Some LCDs are over 500 cd/m². The brighter the screen, the greater the possible contrast rating. This is determined by the brightness of the florescent backlights and the amount of light the LCDs can allow through at full "on"... usually only about 80% of the available light can actually get through the LCD shutter. Higher is better.

fast 12ms response time. - the time it takes for the LCD crystal to "twist" from fully dark to fully light and back. There is a lag between application of current and the response of the liquid crystal. The longer it takes to make the transistion, the longer it takes for the image to be fully resolved. and vice verse. Moving objects on a slower response time LCD can leave ghosted trails... or the object may appear to actually not move from one location to the other but to instantly "skip" if the response time is slow enough. Some early LCDs would actually show a trail of cursor arrows as you cursored across the screen. The lower the number the better.

I hope this helps

[Petronski]

IMHO, about 500 nits (brightness) is a good number, get that if you can. Also, 600:1 contrast, and 9ms is okay for screen refresh.

Widescreen is a joke if you don't known what you're doing. Just for example, 19" 4:3 is a bigger screen than 19" widescreen (16:10 or thereabouts), so don't fall for that.

[Petronski]

Oh, important:

Bad pixels are an issue with LED. Most mailorder/internet places won't let you return unless you have 5-6 bad pixels, so shop around.

The vast majority won't have any bad pixels, and if you have one or two bad pixels that display only black, you probably won't notice. But it is possible to get a screen with five pixels which glow bright red no matter what image is placed on the screen. In that very irritating case, some mailorder houses will offer you no recourse, so you'll be stuck.

CAVEAT EMPTOR

[Incorrigible]

Coleus, I don't know much about PCMall as a retailer (I tend towards Costco, Amazon, NewEgg and TigerDirect in that order).

The monitor you've selected will be just fine for FReeping.

However, if you want to frag some bad guys in the shadows playing Unreal Tournament, this monitor is totally unacceptable!

I still use a CRT for my main computer though I find myself on my notebook computer most of the time.

I see that Costco doesn't carry CRTs anymore.  I don't know what I'll do after this 17" monitor goes!

 

[Echo Talon]

here if you want to know for sure you will be fine this company sells CRT's an resellerratings.com has this company highly rated...

21" SONY FLAT Trinitron GDM-5410 oem SUN X7136A Totally Flat .24mm *Free Shipping* $134

[Auntie Mame]

Wow! Thanks for asking this question, and thanks, everybody (and especially you, Swordmaker) for your responses.

I noticed Fry's has/had some on sale for $139 and $199.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Go to Tigerdirect.com. Get a 19" HP L1906 LCD monitor. The cost is $240 after rebate. You won't be disappointed.

[ThomasThomas]

Many people I deal are very happy with 15" LCD replacing a 17" CRT. LCD's have a real 15" when it's lists 15" unlike crt's Especially when desktop space is important. I use a 19" crt and 17" LCD, makes easy to work and freep and the same time.

[Quix]

Not familiar with that brand.

Happy with my Samsung. It can be tilted so a normal verticle page fits the whole screen. or landscape for normal use.

[connectthedots]

Are you asking for advice or are you advertising?

[MadIvan]

Last year, I bought a 19in Viewsonic and haven't regretted it.

Regards, Ivan