lcd vs. hdtv for coding.

[unsped]

for the next 6 months or so im going to have to do a considerable amount of coding for work and school.
my eyesight isn't great, and I wan to be "proactive" about making them any worse. so I want to get a display that is a bit easier on the eyes.

so far im thinking a 17/18" lcd, or a 36"/32" hdtv

the hdtv would probably not look as good, but it would be substantially further away, allowing my eyes to focus at a further distance.

i'll mainly be in a windows environment, editing text.

any thoughts? any recommendations on a transcoder?

 

[bigshooter]

how about a 21" monitor? You can set the thing at any resolution you want. A 17" LCD would not be good for you because for things to look right, you need to run at native resolution. This is 1280x1024 for most 17" and 18" LCD's. If you're talking about getting a 32"-36" HDTV you'll be even worse. Ever sit at your tv for 6 hours? Especially close enough to read small text like you would be if you were writing code? You'll get a headache. Even HDTV's won't be the greatest. You might be ok if you had a large projection but a 32-36" will be a tube. From everything I've read (try www.avsforums.com) you dont get true HDTV 1080i resolution on these. It's somewhere around 800x600, and these things still arent made for using as an actual computer monitor. You're best bet if you're prepared to shell out all this money is to get yourself a GOOD 21" monitor, probably a Sony trinitron or even higher. Hell for the $750 -$1000 minimum you're looking at for the other stuff you can probably even start getting into the professional line monitors that video editing people use to make sure the colors are perfect.


Also go to your eye doctor and get your prescription updated. I just got glasses for the first time in over 5 years and my eyes feel so much better. I have astigmatism in my left eye causing them to get tired really easy. I can sit here for hours now without falling asleep.

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

HDTV's resolution is too low, meaning there is less destop space (major pain for looking over large sections of code).. so i'd recommend a LCD panel.

CRT's are a major pain for people to look at for long periods of time (for me anyway), and the clarity of LCD's makes it a good choice except where perfect colour reproduction are needed..

 

[nightowl]

When I was programming last year for classes, I would almost exclusively use my laptop just because of the LCD and that it ran at a higher resolution. My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8000 with a 15" SXGA screen running at 1400x1050. Even thought that may seem small it was not hard to read and it was very easy on my eyes. So, I would go with a good LCD monitor. Tube TV's do not make good monitors for computers if your are going to be reading text on them.

 

[bigshooter]

he said his vision wasnt the best, thats why i thought an LCD would be too small for him. if his eyes jsut get tired like mine, then LCD might help though.

 

[Maverick]

I have an HDTV hooked up to my living room HTPC and I can vouch that the text is not readable enough for coding. CRT is the way to go I think.

 

[lowtech1]

I have a 15' LCD & a 19' CTR at work for coding, but I much prefer the CTR to the LCD because I can set it at resolution that I like. However my brother prefer to use his laptop for coding because of convenience.

What you could to is borrow someone LCD or purchase it to see if you like it, and you can reture in in 30 days if you are not satisfy.

 

[anthrax]

The primary advantage of CRT is that you cen get very high resolutions.....with a 19 inch device you can get 1600 x 1200 which is very useful if you want to code....
LCD is definately much easier on your eyes...Its typically sharper especially with clear type fonts......If maxium real estate is the issue, I would recommend dual 16inch LCD devices for a 2560 by 1024 deskstop......

 

[glugglug]

HDTV = absolutely positively NOT usable for coding. Better than regular TV set, but still quite abysmal. Not only will the image quality be absolutely unreadable, the refresh rate is only 30/60Hz. (60 fields/s interlaced, 2 fields/frame, so any individual pixel only painted once every 1/30 sec)

So that leaves LCD as being better since it's really the only option.
You can however get a 22" CRT for half the price of a 17" LCD (maybe even less) which even with bad eyesight I would say is a much better option.

No application begs for screen real-estate (meaning high resolution) more than coding. You need a high res so you can look at large blocks of code and see where the blocks begin and end without scrolling around. LCDs do not offer decent resolutions (1280x1024 is unacceptably low-res for coding IMO, and its hard to find an LCD that offers much higher).

 

[zephyrprime]

Everyone is talking about using a CRT because you can set the resolution really high but this is the last thing this guy needs. Setting the resolution really high on a CRT sucks because it's hard on the eyes. unsped is specifically asking for a solution that would be good on the eyes. There's really no contest, LCD is the way to go. HDTV has flicker problems because of its low refresh rate and even though tv phosphors have longer persistance than monitor phosphors but not long enough to complete hide the flicker.

 

[unsped]

thanks for the comments, i ended up ordering a dell 1900fp 19" lcd, and will try and sit it as far away from me as i can comfortably.

im not blind, only -1.25 diopter which aint that much as far as vision correction goes, i just want a good work environment that promote healthy eyes and possible stave off some eye strain which is thought worsen myopia.

i think the 1900fp at 4-5 feet away with good lighting, and taking some breaks for eye excercises will probably do the trick.

now i just have to stare at my poor empty pocket book. .... 760 shipped from dell aint bad though