17 or 18" LCD - Which one?

[davidkay]

I wanna buy a nice 17 or 18" LCD screen regardless of the price, what would you say the best one is at the moment?

In terms of the specs, how much do you think will improve in the next 6 months and are there any models due out soon that i should look out for?

 

[wlee]

I would go with an 18.1" Both sizes use 1280x1024 native resolution. On a 17" everything ends up just a bit too small. As for models, the NEC's are nice I think you can get the older 1830LCD for around $750
The specs to look for are contrast of 300:1 or better and pixel response time of 30ms or better ( though I have an Acer 18.1" with 50ms and movies look fine on it )

 

[incallisto]

I have the 18.1" iiyama Prolite 4637UT (link) and it has the 12mm frame, which is perfect for dual monitors. It matches my iiyama VMPro 512 22" CRT fairly well. The quality is better than any of the Sony or Samsung LCDs that I've seen. I payed $899 for it at a local computer show. iiyama has a flash animation for the monitor: FlashAnimation.

 

[JwLeonhart]

I have a Viewsonic VA800 LCD, it is 17.4 inch with a contrast ratio of 400:1. Most monitors come with alot of damaged pixels (from my experience) but this viewsonic seems to work out great, and is very big. I run it at 1280x1024. I bought mine for around $1200 but now you can find them for about $750. Some vendors will even sell for $700 because viewsonic has a new monitor with a 450:1 contrast ratio, lol. Viewsonics are the best when it comes to monitors, and NEC. Had one NEC 17'' tube for 10 years and it's still running. =) Hope that helps.

 

[JwLeonhart]

As for your other question which I did not see sorry... LCD technology isn't really evolving at a fast pace, although it is becoming as good as normal tube monitors in depth and prespective they are not as good. What you pay for is them being slim and sharper but the contrast of a normal tube is about 600:1 but when you go to LCD you can find the most basic $300 LCD's with 200:1 or lower. The best LCD's range from about 350:1 to about 500:1. I haven't seen anything above 500 although I have not looked in a few months. LCD's do look alot better and they take up alot less space. As for there lifespan I believe them to be better because with tubes eventually they begin to go out of alignment and do all sorts of funny things, with LCD's just make sure you don't touch the screen, and u wipe it carefully with special pads or a light amount of windex. That's pretty much it, so in 6 months I think the most that will happen is contrast ratio's might go up by about 50 and the time for the monitor to process the image (which is about 25ms on an LCD) might go down a little and slowly come to the level of normal tubes. I love my LCD though, wouldn't go back to CRT monitors...

 

[T2T III]

I wanna buy a nice 17 or 18" LCD screen regardless of the price

In your sentence, you say "regardless of the price." If that's the case, then why limit yourself to the 17" & 18" monitors? It seems like a lot of the newer technology is being applied to the 19" models and up. What does "regardless of price" equate to? What is your "true" upper limit that you would spend for a LCD monitor? If we knew the limit, it would be easier to come up with some recommendations for you.

For me "regardless of price" would mean purchasing the Mac Cinema Display 22" LCD @ $2,400 + $150 for the DVI adapter so I could use it with my PC. Now, that's the monitor to look at if you have the $$$$.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

for 17", the best are Eizo L565 and Samsung 172T.

 

[alkemyst]

I didnt know there was an adapter to use the 23" cinema with a PC...there are no controls on this monitor and it requires an adb port/apple software to set things.

where can you find it below $3499 too? I don't know much about apple but have friends that want it for their G4's...for the PC there are 24" LCD's out now that may be a better choice for around $3k.

Chris

 

[T2T III]

I didnt know there was an adapter to use the 23" cinema with a PC...there are no controls on this monitor and it requires an adb port/apple software to set things.

where can you find it below $3499 too? I don't know much about apple but have friends that want it for their G4's...for the PC there are 24" LCD's out now that may be a better choice for around $3k.

The adapter is sold at my local Micro-Center for $149. My guess is that one could find an on-line source for maybe a bit less.

The 22" Cinema Display sells for $2,400 (retail)

The 23" Cinema Display sells for $3,400 (retail)

I think when you read my thread, I made a typo - the 23" Cinema Display is $3,400, the 22" Cinema Display is $2,400 - I've since corrected the posting above.

It appears that Mac keeps a pretty tight grip on their specs for these monitors. I haven't seen anything where the refresh times for these monitors are posted. I'd hate to spend $2,400 to $3,400 and have a monitor that ghosts.

 

[davidkay]

Well you know what i mean. I'm looking at spending £750-£1000 (british pounds) on an LCD. I was thinking of the Samsung 181FT. But despite it having a 20ms response time, 500:1 contrast after reading reviews, the Iiyama still beats it for picture quality

 

[Kingofcomputer]

iiyama just uses someone else's panel,
how can it beat samsung's quality?
have you seen the real things?

for quality, eizo is the best.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: Kingofcomputer
iiyama just uses someone else's panel,
how can it beat samsung's quality?
have you seen the real things?

for quality, eizo is the best.

I hear ya'. That is why the Eizo is $1,500 (U.S. $$ for a 19") when the others are $800 - $1,000. Give me a pair of Eizo LCDs and I'd be set - wait! That would be $3,000 - and my wife would kill me.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

what are the $800-1000 other 19"?

Eizo doesn't have 19" for current product line up.

The best 17" or 18" worth to buy today are
Eizo 18" L665 is $1090 (buycom price), 17" L565 is $757 (buycom price),
or Samsung 17" 172T $664 (buycom price), 18" 181T $774 (buycom price, back order).

 

[azkiwi]

Viewsonic VG 191 is about $900 US - 500:1 , 25ms

Great screen, 1 stuck pixel, though I've heard from others who got none at all.

I think the talk of who actually makes the screens is immaterial. They are all made for a market niche and sold accordingly to market pricing, and market contracts. If Viewsonic or Eizo or whoever does not make their own screen it does not necessarily follow that you might in fact find that screen elsewhere for less. The screen itself is just one component for starters, but secondly if you write a contract to buy 5 million screens from Manufacturer X, you make sure that Brand Y isn't getting the same screen.

How do you think Home Depot can offer their low price guarantee? They have models manufactured exclusively for them, to their spec.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

How can you accept a new LCD with more than 0 bad pixel?

VG191 uses MVA panel, that's why it's so cheap.
Viewsonic just jacked up the spec to 600:1.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: azkiwi
Viewsonic VG 191 is about $900 US - 500:1 , 25ms

Great screen, 1 stuck pixel, though I've heard from others who got none at all.

I think the talk of who actually makes the screens is immaterial. They are all made for a market niche and sold accordingly to market pricing, and market contracts. If Viewsonic or Eizo or whoever does not make their own screen it does not necessarily follow that you might in fact find that screen elsewhere for less. The screen itself is just one component for starters, but secondly if you write a contract to buy 5 million screens from Manufacturer X, you make sure that Brand Y isn't getting the same screen.

How do you think Home Depot can offer their low price guarantee? They have models manufactured exclusively for them, to their spec.

The statement regarding Home Depot is only partially correct. I don't work for HD, nor have any affiliation with them. However, as a customer, there have been several opportunities to have them "price match" other retailers. I've done this before with appliances and other items where the model numbers were exactly the same. While what you described may be an operating method for HD, exclusive branding of model numbers may happen as frequently as you think. Anyway, back to the topic:

In regards to screens, why wouldn't the manufacturer be able to sell 5M screens from manufactuer X to more than one company? The screen is only one component. The manufacturer of the CRTs/LCDs is the one to design and build the electronics that will drive the tubes / panels. Again, this could happen to some small degree, but maybe not as widespread as people think.