I'm in the process of considering upgrading one or two of my 19" CRTs to flatscreen TFTs in order to get more screen space and a higher resolution. Back when I used to buy CRTs, some monitors were known to be better than others. I went for a Sony Multiscan 400PS CRT many years ago and it is still clear, accurate, has excellent colour definition and strength.
Who would you recommend as good TFT suppliers these days? I did look at an Apple 23 inch display a few days ago (1900x1200 approx), having seen some of the originals about 5 years ago. To be blunt, it was crap. I don't know what they had happened to it, but the image was hazy, the text unclear, even when calibrated.
I'll be using the TFT for coding, text-work and general programming stuff. Maybe a bit of graphics editing as well. It will be moved between a Mac, PC and Linux box, so multiple inputs would be cool.
I look forward to your comments.
--
Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com/
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
On 11/18/06, Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. lists@ashleyhowes.com wrote:
Who would you recommend as good TFT suppliers these days? I did look at an Apple 23 inch display a few days ago (1900x1200 approx), having seen some of the originals about 5 years ago. To be blunt, it was crap. I don't know what they had happened to it, but the image was hazy, the text unclear, even when calibrated.
Dell are currently Kings of TFT. My own experience has been extremely good with their 17" models, but people at work have been buying them over the Apple displays - which means something if you're working on film projects which require good colour reproduction. And they know what they're talking about.
M.
Martyn Drake wrote:
Dell are currently Kings of TFT.
If you do want a Dell LCD, it's worth checking out http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ -- last time I looked they sell them cheaper, and you get 3 year next business day exchange warranty.
I've got a Dell 2005FPW, and it looks nice; no pixel defects, pretty exterior. I did have some problems with it going into deep sleep and refusing to come out; apparently there are known issues with Nvidia drivers and power management. These problems went away after a bunch of fiddling and disabling the monitor sleep. Then they came back, I couldn't fix them again, had the unit replaced, and the new one has been behaving. I don't know if their current models suffer from the same issues. The replacement process wasn't bad: Dell didn't make a fuss and was quick. Then courier got lost for a few days, then made the exchange, and then turned up again with another replacement a week later (which I sent back :-)
If I had to select a new one today, I'd be tempted by one that supported 1080p HD and DMI (for the xbox 360), perhaps the BenQ FP241W, but they are rather expensive.
-- Martijn
On 11/18/06, Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. lists@ashleyhowes.com wrote:
Who would you recommend as good TFT suppliers these days?
I am very happy with my Sumsung SyncMaster 204b. So happy, in fact, it became the standard issue for engineers where I work.
20", 1600x1200, VGA and DVI.
It might only be 4:3, but, compared to the extremely popular 1280x1024 (5:4) monitors (usually 17" to 19"), it looks wide. The price is good too.
Hope this helps, Tim.
On Sat, 2006-11-18 at 12:20 +0000, Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. wrote:
Who would you recommend as good TFT suppliers these days? I did look at an Apple 23 inch display a few days ago (1900x1200 approx), having seen some of the originals about 5 years ago. To be blunt, it was crap. I don't know what they had happened to it, but the image was hazy, the text unclear, even when calibrated.
Are you sure it was running at its native resolution ? Even modern TFT's tend to look pretty bad if they are run below the native res, text in particular really suffers with the aliasing effect caused by the screen rescaling the image.
On Mon, Nov 20, 2006 at 06:00:28PM +0000, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Sat, 2006-11-18 at 12:20 +0000, Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. wrote:
Who would you recommend as good TFT suppliers these days? I did look at an Apple 23 inch display a few days ago (1900x1200 approx), having seen some of the originals about 5 years ago. To be blunt, it was crap. I don't know what they had happened to it, but the image was hazy, the text unclear, even when calibrated.
Are you sure it was running at its native resolution ? Even modern TFT's tend to look pretty bad if they are run below the native res, text in particular really suffers with the aliasing effect caused by the screen rescaling the image.
Another thing worth considering is was it connected via dvi or analog? dvi gives me a visibly far superior image on my viewsonic screen. Oh, and the Viewsonic vx2025wm is a great screen except it suffers from a power saving bug when used with nvidia graphics cards via dvi, some dell screens also have this problem, it's a real pain. What happens is the screen can go into power saving mode and never wake up, it's only happened to me twice in 9 months, and both times I've managed to get it back but some people have been much less lucky.
Adam
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Adam Bower -
Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. -
Martijn Koster -
Martyn Drake -
Tim Green -
Wayne Stallwood