I’m planning on buying an LCD screen. The fact is, I’m not sure which one to pic of these two. I have come to the conclusion that I will not buy a screen with video inputs (s-video, composite, etc.) because I can get a vga > video adapter plus a screen cheaper than a screen with video inputs.
I have read a ton of different reviews. I dont wanna pay over 600 euros for a screen with video inputs (like samsung 215TW). I am going to use it for Blender, browsing, images, games (tribes2 and oblivion, gamecube) and movies, basically everything.
I don’t want to buy Viewsonic VX2025vm because it doesn’t scale well down to lower resolutions. And Dell screens have banding and it isn’t totally fixed even by the firmware update. And I will most probably use the screen with a lower resolution than 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 to save my eyes. L2000C is said to be very good at scaling beeing sharp throughout the resolutions.
The new screen will replace my old 19’’ ADI microscan 6P crt. If you own one of those screens, please tell me about them. Or give opinions. And I don’t wanna buy two 19’’ inch screens because I wanna watch movies, too.
So, do you think wide screen is necessary? Some say it’s really cool and woah and you’ll not go back to letterbox etc… Here is a pic showing the sizes of different screen.
Has the LG L203WT really a TN-Panel? That would rule it out for graphics work in my opinion, way too view dependant colors usually…you got a review? The LG 2000C seems to have banding issues too from what owners of the monitor tell, in fact Dell uses LG Phillips S-IPS panels too.
Widescreen sure is nice, but more pixels is even nicer (but, i’d really not go 5:4 anymore, it really feels like someone cut off the monitor sides now that i’m used to widescreen)
And using a non-native resolution for desktop work IMHO is a really bad idea, interpolating does never any good to your fonts, you better adjust their size instead of lowering the resolution!
The most recommended 20"/21" models for graphics work from a german site specialized to TFT monitors (www.prad.de) are:
Belinea 102035w
Fujitsu-Siemens P20-2
HP LP2065
ViewSonic VX2025wm
Eizo S2110W (if you have the money, just get it!)
NEC LCD2170NX
-edit-
oh btw i have a dell 2005FPW. Black level clearly could be better, especially on slight diagonal angles, apparently a problem of all S-IPS displays. It also shows some memory effect (i.e. stuff that didn’t move for hours looks “burned in” for about 15-30 minuts, especially on the top like the gnome panel). I couldn’t really see problems with banding yet (apart from the banding of certain renderers everyone has to deal with…)
The only one I would get of those models would be the HP, which is about 550 euros, remembering that I will not get the viewsonic. All the others are more or way more than 600 euros, and I will not invest that kinda money for my kinda needs. I am not a pro, so I don’t need pro equipment. And as I said, I’ll do a lot more than just graphics work with the screen. And you can NOT zoom all the menus in blender, or everything, so with a 1600x1200 resolution there would be tiny content no matter what. Of course, the image is way sharper than what my screen can produce, so that helps a bit.
Plus it won an “Editors choice” and “Best value” on this finnish new techonlogy magazine.
Said at this site:
“Looks like the LG L2000C uses the new panel and the Dell 2001FP/2070NX don’t, at least for the time being. So by process of elimination, the LG L2000C is your best bet.”
AND user opinions at the newegg site are very positive.
… It’s just so HARD to find a generally good screen with a decent price (less than 600e)… pretty frustrating.
And it seems that L2000C-SF has the same panel as Dell 2000WFP which has sewere banding… for crying out loud ;_;
Blah. Is it so that I really have to pay myself to death in order to get a decent 20 inch screen…
A normal monitor is 4:3, or 1.33:1. same as normal tv.
widescreen is 16:9, or 1.85:1. same as HDTV.
letterbox is even wider, at 2.2:1. Its an anamorphic image which is used for some films, and subsequently, some DVDs. Movies like LOTR. There aren’t any letterbox monitors.
And to answer your question, I wouldn’t say that a wide screen is necessary, but it sure is nice. It’s sort of like a fast processor / GPU… it’s not necessary, but it makes your blending experience nicer. It’s easier to divide up the main 3-D view into multiple smaller views and so on.
And I will most probably use the screen with a lower resolution than 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 to save my eyes. L2000C is said to be very good at scaling beeing sharp throughout the resolutions.
Even if the monitor is good at it and has some anti-aliasing nonsense built-in, don’t scale it. Use the native resolution. Tell your OS to use a higher DPI if you need to. 1600x1200 is a great resolution to run Blender in.
Working with Blender in high resolutions IS something I that that once you’ve tried it, you won’t go back.
Oh, I didn’t know that letter box thingy.
Anyhow, thanks for the info. I just wish the 1 inch didn’t cost such a horrible amount more money. It’s like almost double the price from 19 to 20 inches.
I recently bought a 19 inch acer for something like 180 euros and am quite happy with it, they also had a widescreen version of it for the same sort of price… however, I couldn’t buy it since my old video card doesn’t support that sort of format.
I’d say… widescreen is real nice if it’s going to be your only monitor, if you are thinking about dual screen I’d stick with 4:3
Well, I will have an old 17’’ CRT as a second screen, maybe, but that’s only for menus and irc. My geforce 6600GT will support up to 2048x1536 resolution. And you can create your own resolutions.
So the Samsung 215TW 21’’ wide screen might be a possibility, if the business I am working for can order it to me without the (VAT) tax, since I am their webmaster and listed as their employee. And it would be removed from my next paycheck.
I wonder if it would be right?
I ended up getting the Samsung Syncmaster 215TW. I first ordered it from pixmania.com (not gonna order there again) but I canceled the order because it would’ve taken really long due the postponed delivery time, after that I saw a web auction of the screen and got it for 559 euros (normal price is more than 600 euros). Pretty expensive, but it has got good inputs and support for hdtv and hdpc, and it has gotten great scores in reviews.
The resolution is just perfect (link) and the screen is really big (link). With games it seems to be a bit weird. The scaling (to lower resolutions) isn’t very good, but then again, I don’t need to use scaling. With games it isn’t really a problem, if it smoothens the image a bit. Most of the new games support widescreen, too. Widescreen is really great :).
