LCD Questions

[Matt2]

ok, it's getting close to time to buy one of these bad boys.

Can I get your opinions on the following monitors?

Hitachi CML174 -$479.49 shipped
NEC L1760nx -$490.26 shipped
Viewsonic VP171 -$544.14 shipped
Samsung 172T -$535.52 Shipped

I went to CompUSA and BEst Buy and looked at them all. UNfortunately the selection of ames to demo, were none to... none.

So, I must say, although the Samsung has the slowest response time, it did have the sharpest picture in windows it looked like.

What do u guys think of the ghosting in these monitors in gaming from your personal experiences? Can I go wrong? Thanks!

Oh and these monitors are going to be run off a ATI Radeon 9700 NP 128mb DVI.

 

[supiammike]

visit the hot deals forum and wait like me for a good deal on the 17 inch samsung with 20ms responce and dvi

 

[fredtam]

You really can't go wrong. Pick the one you like best. Narrow it down to two and go back to the stores and ask them to hook it up to something you can test it on and usually they will. Sometimes the picture quality is degraded when they have all the monitors hooked to one source. Also play with the settings because sometimes minor adjustments make all the difference. If it were me and I was strapped on cash I would go with the hitachi otherwise the viewsonic but that is based on the monitors style since you probably won't notice much performance difference between them.

 

[GaryShandling]

Hitachi + NEC + viewsonic = Same monitor, displays only certain thousands of colours, faster response time.

Samsung 172t = Different panel, better quality picture, displays 16.7 million colours, un-noticable 25ms response time justified by excellent display.

 

[BoomAM]

Go for the Hitachi.
The Samsung doent have better image quality, although it might be slightly brighter.
The Hitachi/NEC/ViewSonic displays around the same amount of colours as the samsung, and the ones that it cant display, it mixes other colours to get the right shade. So they are about the same colour wise. Plus, even if it did have a few shades missing, they would be the really obscure ones, and wouldnt be noticeable anyway.

 

[GaryShandling]

Originally posted by: BoomAM
Go for the Hitachi.
The Samsung doent have better image quality, although it might be slightly brighter.
The Hitachi/NEC/ViewSonic displays around the same amount of colours as the samsung, and the ones that it cant display, it mixes other colours to get the right shade. So they are about the same colour wise. Plus, even if it did have a few shades missing, they would be the really obscure ones, and wouldnt be noticeable anyway.

Dark areas in games with detail are covered by a black patch of colour on the 17" 16ms LCD's. The 172T does produce a better quality image.

 

[BoomAM]

Ive never noticed it, and im very particular to in game details. If it bothers you, turn up the brightness!

 

[GaryShandling]

Originally posted by: BoomAM
Ive never noticed it, and im very particular to in game details. If it bothers you, turn up the brightness!

No that wont help because the problem is in the contrast ratio and the make of the panel. Look at this picture the hitachi is failing to display a dark detailed area of a game, even with the brightness at 100, the colours and detail fail to show as the brightness in lcd's only highlights the surface of the screen rather then the visuals.

 

[BoomAM]

Problem with the link. Its just a picture of the "Toms Hardware Guide Hammer".
Ive never noticed it to be honest. Prehaps ive gotten used to it.
Either way, its a great monitor for gaming.

 

[GaryShandling]

Originally posted by: BoomAM
Problem with the link. Its just a picture of the "Toms Hardware Guide Hammer".
Ive never noticed it to be honest. Prehaps ive gotten used to it.
Either way, its a great monitor for gaming.

The link works for me, try copying and pasting into a new page.

 

[BoomAM]

It doesnt display for some reason in Opera7.11, but IE displays it fine.
It doesnt look like that on my Hitachi. My Hitachi looks more like the one on the left, image wise.

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: GaryShandling

Originally posted by: BoomAM
Ive never noticed it, and im very particular to in game details. If it bothers you, turn up the brightness!

No that wont help because the problem is in the contrast ratio and the make of the panel. Look at this picture the hitachi is failing to display a dark detailed area of a game, even with the brightness at 100, the colours and detail fail to show as the brightness in lcd's only highlights the surface of the screen rather then the visuals.

Nice Pic!!! I see it is dark with 100contrast.

 

[BoomAM]

I dont know what setting TH had the camera and monitor set up at, but i run my Hitachi at 60% brightness, and UT2003 looks nothing like that. It looks alot more vibrent. I think he forgot to turn the brightness up on it, and took a picture of the screen at an angle that isnt "head on", cos if you dont look at it head on, then it seems quite dark.