Contrast Ratio on LCD Monitors?

[Nicodemus]

Hey Everyone,

Sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this in, I just had a quick question.

I'm in the market for a LCD monitor, and I'm wondering about the contrast ratio. On some sites, I've read that the greater the difference in the ratio, the better the contrast on the screen.. as if to say that 700:1 > 350:1

On other sites, however, it says the exact opposite. Can anyone tell me what the better ratio is?

Also does anyone know of any 19" LCD screens that have a faster response time than 25ms?

Thanks.

 

[sman789]

dells http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=320-1578&category_id=4009
best lcd on the market

 

[VIAN]

also really expensive.

I happen to like the Viewsonic VP171B, Link.
1280x1024 is a nicer res. It's hard to view normal desktop at 1600x1200 and website too. You can increase the DPI to 120, but it looks so unmatched. Looks bad. Also to run games at that res will hurt a lot of your performance and it wont look to much better. The contrast is also higher with the v171b. 500:1 compared to the lower 400:1. The VP171B has a greater viewing angle of 140 compared to 88. Great thing. Also has better brightness 260 compared to 250. More refresh rate of 85Hz compared to 76.

Just because it's 20.1 and supports a 1600x1200. I don't think it matches up with the 17in at 1280x1024.

 

[oldfart]

The contrast ratios advertised are pretty much worthless. They can be very far off (in either direction) of what is actual.

 

[Viper96720]

Yep worthless.
Viewsonic 171P 500:1
Hitachi 174 400:1
NEC 1760NX 450:1

3 different ratios all the same panel.

 

[Matthias99]

Contrast ratio is the ratio of the brightness of the brightest color the monitor can display to the darkest color it can display (ie, black) while turned on. The higher the better, but many manufacturers seemingly just make up a number and slap it on there. The ratio by itself is also nearly useless unless you know how they tested it: under what conditions, with what equipment, etc. In general, monitors built on the same base panel will have very similar contrast ratios, so going by reviews is probably best.

Also does anyone know of any 19" LCD screens that have a faster response time than 25ms?

Tom's Hardware Guide did a write-up about 6 months ago on the latest generation of high-speed LCDs. link

However, there are currently no 19-inch or larger low-response-time LCDs (20ms response or lower), except for the Dell 2001FP (20", 16ms response, ~$1000 MSRP). All of the other "gaming" LCDs are 17" models.