More CRT v. LCD issues

[imported_trajan]

Sorry to put a bunch of questions all into one post, and if anyone knows a good place to research this on my own, I'd be grateful!

I currently have a fairly high end rig (E6600, 7950GX2) and am using a 19" CRT (SyncMaster 955DF) -- I can game at 1600x1200 at high FPS, max settings on most games and am overall very happy.

However, the monitor is starting to degrade -- I get color imbalances from one side to the other and the focus is always a little off. Some (or <i>all</i>) of this may be due to interference from neighboring apartments. In any case, it's making me think I want to upgrade to a LCD. I'm probably not going to upgrade for a few more months and might wait until as late as end of this year.


With that lengthy preview aside, here are the major concerns I have, and I would be deeply grateful for any advice!

(1) I'm considering getting a large screen -- 27" or 30". I'm concerned with resolution, however. I would like to get a high resolution screen for gaming and movie watching, but I'm worried I will not be able to work well on it.. I currently have the 19" CRT and work at 1280x1024, which is comfortable for my eyes. What actually happens when you switch resolution on an LCD? How bad is the distortion? Is this something I should be worried about?

(2) Same concern as above, but from the opposite end.. my rig handles 1600x1200 on max settings just fine, but jump that up to a 27 or 30" and I'm concerned again. Eventually I'll upgrade the vid card, probably late this year, but until then.. will the screen still look good for *gaming* if I set it to lower than native resolution?

(3) Last concern, which probably deserves its own post, is that long-term I'd like to get a screen I can use as both a high end cpu display *and* an HD TV; I'm thinking I'll put it on a swivel arm or something so I can move it from over my desk to a viewing area in front of a couch. When I do this, I'm willing to invest a few hundred dollars on additional hardware to make it happen, whether thats upgrading my CPU to be an AV machine, or buying a high quality signal switcher (and then also buying a separate HD TV tuner?).

My ignorance is probably already a vote against trying anything this ambitious, but everyone in these forums was so helpful when I was putting my rig together (my first! and.. thanks!!) so I thought I would try again.

 

[justlnluck]

You might want to consider an HDTV. I went from a 19" Hitachi CRT to a 32" Westinghouse LCD with a resolution of 1360x768 and couldn't be happier. I use this LCD as a computer monitor every day at my desk. But I also use it to watch DVDs and HD content.

Here are some really bad photos I just took. You can't judge picture quality because the photo is blurry and introduces all those vertical lines, but you can get an idea of it's size and font proportions. Personally, I wouldn't want the text any smaller.

Actual picture quality is very crisp and vivid. No ghosting with the VGA input. I watch all my DVDs through my computer and HD through the built-in tuner.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2544/img66120iu.jpg

http://img267.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img66272sb.jpg

 

[shortylickens]

Its up to you but I am of the opinion that LCD's suck at anything besides their native resolution.
I also think they look like crap when showing fast-moving images (which I hear is often found in video games) and their blacks really dont look black enough.

Having said all that, I own one of the best LCD's around (HP L2335) and as much as I love it for my office computer, it just wasnt good enough for my game machine. Tried it for a whole day with just about every game I could think of, not good enough by a long shot.
I still have a quality CRT for the games. Its a 19" Philips and can do a max of 1920 x 1440. Though even with a GeForce 7900GTX I cant run most newer games that high anyway.
The pixels are sharper, the colors richer and cleaner, the refresh and frame rate a HECK of a lot better, I really cant find enough good things about it except for the size. And since I dont move my monitor around the house every day (apparently this is something all LCD fans have to deal with) its bulk is not an issue for me.

EDIT: As for the 30" issue, most of those monitors support up to 2560x2048 or something similar. Again its your choice but you may find the cost to be more than you will get out of it. I couldnt see myself spending that much money.

 

[DNyholm]

I just bought a 22" WS Envision from Costco yesterday and I couldn't be happier. It was only $329 and even though you can see some smearing in fast moving games, it wasn't enough to offset the increase in desktop space over the 19" CRT I had before. It looks great at it's native resolution, and i have a lot of extra desktop and DESK space now!!