Friend getting an LCD display

[Aolish]

a friend of mine is getting an lcd, he has found an lcd for 150$ however it isn't wide screen, has a contrast ratio of 650:1 and its 19". Whats considered a good contrast ratio for an LCD? 650:1 sounds low to me. Also does the video card play a role into the quality of the image you see on your screen? Will pictures come out just as clear? He is using integrated gfx. He doesn't even have an AGP slot to upgrade to a decent video card. thx for any help!

 

[Puffnstuff]

Use the same approach for a lcd as you do for a crt with the exception of the refresh rate. An lcd doesn't require a high refresh rate because each pixel is self refreshing instead of waiting for an electron gun to sweep the entire screen like a crt. It does however require a decent dot pitch just like a crt. If you get one with large pixels the picture will be fuzzy and text will not be easily readable.

 

[dderolph]

I'm no expert on LCD monitors but, based on looking at specs on 17" and 19" monitors on newegg.com, I get the impression larger monitors should have higher contrast ratios. Again, that's just my observation; I see more quite a few 17" monitors with 500:1 ratio but most 19" monitors have a higher ratio. The ratio range on 19" seems to run between 500:1 to 800:1 on most units. 650:1 would be in the middle of that spectrum. Don't know if that helps any