Need suggestions on a 19" LCD monitor.

[Lothar1974]

I want to be able to play HL2, Doom3 and a few others. I also do a lot of video editing. Any good suggestions? I have been looking at these so far, Samsung Syncmaster 193p+, Syncmaster 204T, Viewsonic VP930B, Viewsonic VA712B, and a Sony HS95P/S. Anyone have any of these models? Would love to hear some opinions!! Thanks All!

Lothar1974

 

[Matthias99]

I posted some info on the VP930b in my 2405FPW versus VP930b review. Not to, you know, pimp my own post too hard or anything.

Verdict: it's real nice. I don't think you'll be disappointed with either its gaming or video performance.

 

[Lothar1974]

Thanks, great article
I have been leaning toward the VP930B and the Syncmaster 193 P+. Pretty much equal specs, I have always though Viewsonic was better though. I have not ever had anything that was from Samsung.

 

[Lothar1974]

OK, I am going to get one of these puppies soon. Wondering if you had to choose which do you think is better? The specs look the similar, wondering if there is any real difference.

Samsung SyncMaster 193p+
or
ViewSonic® VP930b

Thanks!!!

 

[Cookie Monster]

Samsung 193p+ i have to say.
Look at the reviews. Samsung 193p+ is based on the older 193p, but with a 8ms time.
The 193p is one hell of a LCD, you can check the review AT did.

 

[Unkno]

if your only gaming you should get a 2005FPW or 2405FPW, if you want the BEST possible color, get the 193P+, it's a tiny bit better than the VP191B

 

[route66]

What Black Friday deal is there for the VP930B and 193p?

 

[Lothar1974]

Sorry, I didn't mention the ones I was looking at from the Black Friday sale. I doubt anyone will have these on the black Friday sale

 

[xtknight]

Samsung SyncMaster 193p+ (being phased out) / 970P (new one), or ViewSonic VP930b. You won't want anything other than an Overdriven VA panel for fast games and good colors.

 

[dingetje]

the samsungs have GREAT colors and speed but no hardware osd (193p+ and 970p)...they have that lameass software osd
imagine you wanna change some settings WHILE looking at your fullscreen ingame picture....and have to taskswitch out to their lame app...(at least thats how i imagine it works) ...yuck and unacceptable for the price of those screens

 

[Unkno]

Originally posted by: dingetje
the samsungs have GREAT colors and speed but no hardware osd (193p+ and 970p)...they have that lameass software osd
imagine you wanna change some settings WHILE looking at your fullscreen ingame picture....and have to taskswitch out to their lame app...(at least thats how i imagine it works) ...yuck and unacceptable for the price of those screens

it was stated that it's supposedly be considered a "function" to not have an osd, supposedly makes it look more clean/tidy. I actually kinda like the idea of not having an osd, how many times do you need to change the settings on the monitor (excluding the first week or so when you bought your new monitor)

 

[Lothar1974]

Originally posted by: Unkno

Originally posted by: dingetje
the samsungs have GREAT colors and speed but no hardware osd (193p+ and 970p)...they have that lameass software osd
imagine you wanna change some settings WHILE looking at your fullscreen ingame picture....and have to taskswitch out to their lame app...(at least thats how i imagine it works) ...yuck and unacceptable for the price of those screens

it was stated that it's supposedly be considered a "function" to not have an osd, supposedly makes it look more clean/tidy. I actually kinda like the idea of not having an osd, how many times do you need to change the settings on the monitor (excluding the first week or so when you bought your new monitor)

I read a few reviews about the software for the 193p+ and the 970p and they stated that most of the setting were close to what they should be and can be a pain to adjust. But as you said one you have it the way you want it how often are you really going to change it.

 

[Lothar1974]

OK any one seen either of these two? LG L1920PQ or the Samsung 960BF?
I went to BB and these two seemed to look pretty good to me considering all the LCD are feeding off one channel.

 

[xtknight]

I'd recommend avoiding the 960BF per this thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1727978&enterthread=y . Usually Samsung puts out great products but this one seems like a dud. Your best advice for now is to just avoid that one. It won't have great colors because it has a TN-based panel anyway.

I can't find hardly any info on the LG L1920PQ. Sure it has a Q on the end? There is a model with the same number with just the P that has a lot of info.

I still stand by my statement: Samsung SyncMaster 193p+ (being phased out) / 970P (new one), or ViewSonic VP930b. You won't want anything other than an Overdriven VA panel for fast games and good colors. Unless of course you can find an Overdriven S-IPS panel, then you'll be in bliss. Those are few and far between though. I believe the 2005FPW has one, but the response time isn't that great (12ms after Overdrive I think).

 

[Lothar1974]

OK it looks like its between the Samsung 930b and the viewsonic VP930b. Any last thought about which is better or should I toss a coin? Thanks again for all the input everyone!

 

[xtknight]

The Samsung 930b is the very bright TN monitor. I'm pretty sure the VP930b will beat it any day. The 970P and VP930b are neck and neck though, except in price, and the fact that the Viewsonic has an OSD. So get the VP930b, I think. Problem is some people have backlighting and ghosting issues with that one too as seen in this thread, but what can I say...

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1735051&enterthread=y

 

[xtknight]

In any case I think you should do some more research or demand more specific specs. Selecting an LCD monitor is not an easy task and you may be disappointed if you pick one sort of panel. What do you want? When you put down the extravagant dough for an LCD, you'll want to make sure you can get the best you can.

Black level? - S-PVA panel
High contrast ratio? - S-PVA, or TNs are fairly good here too.
Good viewing angle? - S-IPS panel, or S-PVAs are fairly good here too. While the addition of film to TN panels has helped and is on just about every TN panel-LCD today, it still just isn't as good as S-IPS or S-PVA.
Fully saturated 8bpp color? - S-IPS panel, or S-PVAs are fairly good here too.
Response time? - TN+Film panel
Good controls/ergonomics?
X-Brite coating?
DVI in?

Can't have it all with this generation of LCD panels. The S-PVAs with Overdrive are a good medium I think. The PVAs not only deliver decent viewing angle (not quite as good as S-IPS), decent color (not quite as good as S-IPS), and decent response time with Overdrive (can be as good as a [TN without Overdrive] most of the time). The S-PVAs can deliver a blacker black than S-IPS however, and also a better contrast ratio.

I personally have a TN-panel LCD (Samsung 710T: 6-bit+2-bit FRC, 12ms. Tr+Tf, DVI/VGA in), pretty much because that was all that was available last year (Overdrive hadn't really saturated the market back then to make S-PVA panels acceptable for gaming). I'm not going to sugar-coat it for you. While the response time is actually perfectly acceptable (no surprise), most of the color spectrum isn't smooth or saturated compared to my dad's S-PVA. The viewing angle is subpar as well, distorting in to yellow as you move to the sides. Needless to say I still like it, just not as much as say, a Samsung 770P, which you can bet will be my next LCD.

 

[Lothar1974]

Originally posted by: xtknight
In any case I think you should do some more research or demand more specific specs. Selecting an LCD monitor is not an easy task and you may be disappointed if you pick one sort of panel. What do you want? When you put down the extravagant dough for an LCD, you'll want to make sure you can get the best you can.

Black level? - S-PVA panel
High contrast ratio? - S-PVA, or TNs are fairly good here too.
Good viewing angle? - S-IPS panel, or S-PVAs are fairly good here too. While the addition of film to TN panels has helped and is on just about every TN panel-LCD today, it still just isn't as good as S-IPS or S-PVA.
Fully saturated 8bpp color? - S-IPS panel, or S-PVAs are fairly good here too.
Response time? - TN+Film panel
Good controls/ergonomics?
X-Brite coating?
DVI in?

Can't have it all with this generation of LCD panels. The S-PVAs with Overdrive are a good medium I think. The PVAs not only deliver decent viewing angle (not quite as good as S-IPS), decent color (not quite as good as S-IPS), and decent response time with Overdrive (can be as good as a [TN without Overdrive] most of the time). The S-PVAs can deliver a blacker black than S-IPS however, and also a better contrast ratio.

I personally have a TN-panel LCD (Samsung 710T: 6-bit+2-bit FRC, 12ms. Tr+Tf, DVI/VGA in), pretty much because that was all that was available last year (Overdrive hadn't really saturated the market back then to make S-PVA panels acceptable for gaming). I'm not going to sugar-coat it for you. While the response time is actually perfectly acceptable (no surprise), most of the color spectrum isn't smooth or saturated compared to my dad's S-PVA. The viewing angle is subpar as well, distorting in to yellow as you move to the sides. Needless to say I still like it, just not as much as say, a Samsung 770P, which you can bet will be my next LCD.

I have not seen ghosting before, I play a few games but am not a super hard core gamer, I do alot of picture editing and a good amount of video editing. When I was at BB they had a few PC's setup with (I think)BF2 for people to try. The LCD's were all Samsung and the picture quality look great to me. Can't remember the model though. My problems is that I have read so many articles about these two models being really good and then others saying that there are issues with each of them, both of these look to be what I am looking for, question is which one performs better and less likely of having an issue. Time for me to head off to bed and drive my slef nuts with night ares about LCD's! Thanks for all the input!

 

[incompleteunit]

I'm waiting on a Viewsonic VP930B to arrive, should be early next week-ish. If you haven't decided by then I would be happy to post some impressions.

It'll be my first LCD too, so it'll be a lifelong CRT'ers opinion

 

[Lothar1974]

Originally posted by: incompleteunit
I'm waiting on a Viewsonic VP930B to arrive, should be early next week-ish. If you haven't decided by then I would be happy to post some impressions.

It'll be my first LCD too, so it'll be a lifelong CRT'ers opinion

Sounds good. I will probably making my purchase the week after Thanksgiving. I am leaning toward the viewsonic sor far.

 

[Lothar1974]

I happeded to go to Sams club this morning and they had a samsung 913t. THing looked damn good. I read a few articles and all seem to say this is a great LCD. Anyone have this one or hear anything about it?

 

[Nextman916]

Get the 940b its newer than the 930b almost same specs, actually a little better. Theres a rebate deal at newegg for $315- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001066

 

[Eureka]

How are these monitors? I've been looking at them:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116355
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116375

Norm

 

[Rob_63]

I purchased the Viewsonic VP 930b a couple of weeks ago, I sent it back. Not that it was a bad monitor it performed very nicely, I was actually very impressed with it. But, it had backlight bleeding, check out my review of it on NE's site http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116365

Other than the backlight I was very happy with its performance except for one annoying thing, the blue box that would pop up every time it would come out of screen saver or if I entered into a game that was not set to native res. I would get another if I knew for sure that I would get one in perfect shape. But after losing some money on return shipping to get an RMA refund I don't think I will chance it again.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: cevilgenius
How are these monitors? I've been looking at them:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116355
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116375

Norm

Those are both 6-bit TN panels. I'd really advise against getting them (the response times are also extremely blown out of proportion) when you can get an Overdrive S-PVA panel for almost the same price and end up with better results. Get the VP930b. There is hardly anything that compares to it besides the more-expensive 970P. I'm not lying to you guys here... no matter which TN-panel LCD you choose, they will all have inferior colors and viewing angles, why settle when you don't have to? The response time is very close to being the same as a fast TN.

Review of VP930b here: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/display/20051117/index.html