[BoyElroy]

a Sony 18.1" LCD monitor. Wow. Puts my 21" Viewsonic CRT to shame. It's hard to even look at a CRT now without getting a headache.

For anyone interested, J&R has them (SONY SDM-X82) for $649.99 after a $100.00 Sony rebate. They've also got a 17" version of the Sony for about $450.00 after a $50 rebate (Do I sound like a J&R shill or what?). I spent hours comparing them and they both look pretty fantastic, even in analog mode.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Awesome BoyElroy, congrats on the LCD plunge. I got an LCD last year and will never go back. I find that the LCD are brighter and easier to read than any CRT I've ever seen. I don't even run mine at full brightness and it blows away the CRTs I put near it.


The only drawback is that it really has to run in native resolution or the image goes south quickly. For me that's fine, but my dad can't use a screen above 1024x768 and it seems like all the big boys only come in 1280x1024.

 

[BoyElroy]

Thanks ServinginEcuador,

I agree, the 1280x1024 native resolution limitation is a definite concern, esp. for us older folk.

OTOH, the good news is that LCD prices are falling faster than Tokyo real estate. The model that this one replaces cost something like $1,000-1,200 last year. I wonder how cheap these monitors will be in another year.

 

[Duncan]

What is the viewing angle like on the latest LCDs?

One thing i hate is that if you're more than about 15 degrees out, on my brothers monitor... that all you see is a grey, almost ghost image...

I like my CRT at the moment (19" Iiyama Vision Master Pro 450, flatscreen - connected via BNC cables) but must admit that I could do with some extra deskspace...

I'm running, depending on the mood i'm in, either at 1280x960... or 1600x1200... can the sony in question do both of those resolutions?

 

[BoyElroy]

Hi Duncan,

The viewing angle on most of the new 2nd gen. LCD monitors is much better than the earlier models. The standard seems to be around 170 degrees vertical and horizontal. The Sonys match this although their response time at a listed 30ms is slower than the fastest screens available now. Also, only the larger SDM-X82 has both digital and analog inputs. The smaller 17" monitor has only analog inputs, although the analog image looks pretty fantastic.

Unfortunately, the native resolution on the larger monitors (17" and above) is usually set at 1280x1024. You can set them smaller, but they look awful at non-native settings.

For playing games and other activities that demand fast screen response times, one reviewer cited Hitachi LCDs as faster and better. For working with text and photoediting, though, the new Sony is the cat's meow. I've relegated my 21" Viewsonic CRT to mostly DVD playback duties now. Text looks just too fuzzy and out of focus for me to use it for any serious work.

One correction. The price for the 18.1" SDM-X82 after rebate is actually $649.99

 

[Duncan]

Thanks BoyElroy...

Thinking logically... I bet your 18.1" Sony has a bigger viewing area than my 19" CRT...

Nice

One day...

I'm surprised you kept your CRT for DVD playback though... was it purely just for the extra size? - Even on early flatpanels... I do remember DVD playback to be stunning... better than CRT, the color definition, and sharpness being a lot better

 

[elipsis]

Quote:

Originally posted by Duncan color definition

Colour accuracy is much better on a good CRT than on an LCD.

 

[dokebi]

Do LCD's require any extra care compared to CRT's? Also, how is their life expectancy compared to CRT's?

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally posted by elipsis Colour accuracy is much better on a good CRT than on an LCD.

Sorry Elipsis...

You're probably right... i've only seen that phenomena once, and it was in a computer shop that was trying to sell the TFTs...

I daresay that its easy to tweak the colours... to get them to be extra vibrant... extra eyecatching... when the time is needed, and tone down the other monitors to make them look paler...

...It happens all the time come to think of it, in department stores that sell TVs, when they want you to have 'model a', they alter the settings on 'model b & c' to make 'a' look significantly better...

Hmm....

 

[BoyElroy]

It's a funny thing. The CRT is awful with text, but DVD playback is still excellent on the old 70 lb. color tube. Like Elipsis says, I think the colors, esp. skin tones, look better on the CRT than the LCD. The LCD, do doubt, is sharper, but maybe I'm just used to the softer look of the tube. OTOH, there is no response latency or ghosting whatsoever on a CRT so that helps a bit too.

 

[Vertigo-1]

Can LCDs handle TV tuner card output without ghosting? I've almost moved all my gaming over to consoles which run through a TV tuner card. Have also been considering a move over for real estate sakes...

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

Originally posted by BoyElroy a Sony 18.1" LCD monitor. Wow. Puts my 21" Viewsonic CRT to shame. It's hard to even look at a CRT now without getting a headache.

Your Viewsonic CRT must not be very good then

 

[andrzejpw]

One thing that keeps me in crt land is gaming. Anyone have any thoughts on how the latest generation of lcds keeps up?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I hear that ghosting is not a real problem anymore? Some things that still trip over LCDs are contrast, colour consistency and view angle.

 

[dhwilkin]

I was reading some huge (70+ pages) thread over at the Ars Forums yesterday about lcd monitors. Seems like different people get different ghosting results w/ the same monitors. Manufacturing variance? Different video cards? Who knows... In any event, they put up a test that showed ghosting tended to be most problematic when you had gray on screen. This is in the current generation of monitors. But they did say the next generation of monitors getting ready to be released should have refresh times on the order of 15ms, as opposed to the 25 of this generation, which hopefully should make ghosting a thing of the past. Don't know when to expect these monitors or who's coming out w/ them first, though.