TN panels are as bad as everyone says they are and then some...

brblx

Diamond Member
Mar 23, 2009
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i've generally been against TN panel bashing- they do their job and most consumers would never notice the difference between one and an IPS or PVA monitor. most all the TN panels from around when i bought my 21" S-PVA gateway looked adequate if not pretty good.

well, fastfoward about three or four years, and holy shit i'm displeased...my gateway died, and i went to best buy today and picked up a 23" LG (W2343T).

first problem is that the stand, in addition to not even having a damned tilt adjustment (ridiculous), is not removable- so i bolt up my VESA-compatible stand from the gateway (tilts, telescopes, and rotates on two axes), with the stupid nub for the stock stand hanging out the bottom...and i can't even use it, because the monitor is too light for the spring-loaded mechanisms in the old stand. a two-inch increase in size leading to probably a 50% reduction in weight was my first tip-off that this wasn't going to go swimmingly.

so i turn it on, and the picture on this thing is atrocious. there is precisely one position where i can put my head and kind of see the entire monitor without horrible color shifting. one inch in any direction, and it's awful. add that to the fact that i've been using it for under and hour and my eyes are already sore (never happened with the other monitor, or my previous 19" samsung (TN)).

ugh, i apologize to anyone who ever said that all TN panels are crap, because apparently that's what they have become. i'm going to order an E-IPS or something and take this thing back.
 
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dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
8,558
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Every one of your complaints has nothing to do with TN panel technology and everything to do with your choice of monitor.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
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Eh, they're not all that bad, but that particular one sounds really terrible! Hope you find something better soon!
 

brblx

Diamond Member
Mar 23, 2009
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Every one of your complaints has nothing to do with TN panel technology and everything to do with your choice of monitor.

erm, no. other than the stand complaint (mostly just illustrating how horribly cheap this thing is, and the obvious lack of quality components inside), it has everything to do with the panel.

it works fine, the backlight is fine, the panel itself just looks like ass. are you seriously telling me than if i return it and pick up the latest model TN panel acer, samsung, or what have you, it's going to be better? 'cause i'm kinda doubting that.

edit: the reviews for this thing all seem positive, btw...like most TN panels. if someone can recommend one that actually IS good, i'd be more than willing to check it out, but right now it looks like i'm just going to have to order the 22" E-IPS dell.
 
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Zensal

Senior member
Jan 18, 2005
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erm, no. other than the stand complaint (mostly just illustrating how horribly cheap this thing is, and the obvious lack of quality components inside), it has everything to do with the panel.

it works fine, the backlight is fine, the panel itself just looks like ass. are you seriously telling me than if i return it and pick up the latest model TN panel acer, samsung, or what have you, it's going to be better? 'cause i'm kinda doubting that.

That is true. Not all TN panels are that atrocious.

That being said:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...s=04&c=us&l=en

Solves all your problems.
 

brblx

Diamond Member
Mar 23, 2009
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yeah, that's the one. though i wish you could still get it for 209 or 219 or whatever it was before.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
TN panels are not bad, not all of them anyways there are some cheap ones that do suck, as you found out. Both my BenQ's both E2200HD and E2400HD are fine.
 

faxon

Platinum Member
May 23, 2008
2,109
1
81
erm, no. other than the stand complaint (mostly just illustrating how horribly cheap this thing is, and the obvious lack of quality components inside), it has everything to do with the panel.

it works fine, the backlight is fine, the panel itself just looks like ass. are you seriously telling me than if i return it and pick up the latest model TN panel acer, samsung, or what have you, it's going to be better? 'cause i'm kinda doubting that.

edit: the reviews for this thing all seem positive, btw...like most TN panels. if someone can recommend one that actually IS good, i'd be more than willing to check it out, but right now it looks like i'm just going to have to order the 22" E-IPS dell.
Hanns-G 27.5" panel i have doesnt do this at all. only complaint i have is the colors arent to hot but for $300 for this huge ass monitor im not complaining.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254043
 

ahenkel

Diamond Member
Jan 11, 2009
5,359
3
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My Asus monitor looks great and its a TN panel. Biggest problem was color calibration but thats easy to fix
 

AndroidVageta

Banned
Mar 22, 2008
2,421
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My Acer X223w is TN...awesome display...above average viewing angles (havent found one within reason that looks bad) as well as superb contrasts and colors. No problems here.

To the OP...you just got a bad monitor or cheap one...not all TN panels are created equally!
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,717
7,013
136
I don't understand how you were caught off guard or surprised by your monitor.

Didn't you look at a display model before buying it? You would think that with something like a monitor, where quality is a very subjective thing, the decision to purchase it would be pretty firmly rooted in your opinion of a display model.

So you're pretty much bitching and moaning that you went out, made a blind purchase, and got burned. Congratulations.
 

Ben90

Platinum Member
Jun 14, 2009
2,866
3
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So what is the fastest gaming monitor or best to use?
CRT>120Hz LCDs>No-framebuffer LCD>Buffered and Old PVA panels

I don't understand how you were caught off guard or surprised by your monitor.

Didn't you look at a display model before buying it? You would think that with something like a monitor, where quality is a very subjective thing, the decision to purchase it would be pretty firmly rooted in your opinion of a display model.

So you're pretty much bitching and moaning that you went out, made a blind purchase, and got burned. Congratulations

Lol... OP is comparable to:

"Wow, i went to a used car lot and was like, i need a ride gimme some wheels, and they were all kay, and i was liek wow wtf this car only has 5 seats i needed 7, so im never buying a car again cuz thay are all bad
 

dflynchimp

Senior member
Apr 11, 2007
468
0
71
TNs are garbage

blanket trollism, you f4!L

There are plenty of decent TN panels out there. No one is going to argue that they have better colors than S-PVA or e-IPS panels, but that doesn't mean all of them have crap colors. If you read the review on AT regarding the issue you'd find that some TN panels don't do all that bad in color testings, plus they have faster response rates than PVA and IPS, which is crucial to gamers.

And to clarify the response time thing. True, 60Hz = 16~ ms frames, but the response time doesn't just pertain to that. The most noticeable effects of a slower response time is ghosting, which has little to do with how fast the frames are appearing, and more to do with how slow/fast they are dissapearing. In that regard, PVA panels are slower than TN.

Ignoring budget constraints, sure I'd like to have a PVA or ips panel, but TN does nicely for economy and gaming displays. Most of us aren't too picky about color accuracy, and even within TN panels that could vary quite a bit depending on manufacturer.
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
5,957
7
81
Can you even find very many non-TN panels very more? I thought their way superior response times and low prices kind of cemented them as almost the only monitor type you could still buy.

Anyhow, I have a Samsung Syncmaster 226cw and I'm very pleased with it. Excellent color reproduction, almost as good as my old IPS screen, but without all the negatives.
 

Ayah

Platinum Member
Jan 1, 2006
2,512
1
81
Can you even find very many non-TN panels very more? I thought their way superior response times and low prices kind of cemented them as almost the only monitor type you could still buy.

Anyhow, I have a Samsung Syncmaster 226cw and I'm very pleased with it. Excellent color reproduction, almost as good as my old IPS screen, but without all the negatives.

You can find them. PVA subtypes sit at the mid-high and IPS panels have a pretty pricy % premium attached in comparison to a TN panel of the same size.

On the other hand, I don't think anyone has a 30" TN panel (at least I don't know of any), all that I've seen are IPS.
 

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
8,391
31
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"My previous TN was fine. This TN is bad. Therefore it is TN technology that is to blame."

Your troubleshooting technique needs work.
 

brblx

Diamond Member
Mar 23, 2009
5,499
2
0
I don't understand how you were caught off guard or surprised by your monitor.

Didn't you look at a display model before buying it? You would think that with something like a monitor, where quality is a very subjective thing, the decision to purchase it would be pretty firmly rooted in your opinion of a display model.

So you're pretty much bitching and moaning that you went out, made a blind purchase, and got burned. Congratulations.

perhaps i should have elaborated more in the original post- every damn monitor on the shelf looked the same. none had spectacular viewing angles or color over any of the others. not to mention the shit signal that those monitors get fed, anyway, which basically worthless for any critical analysis of the picture.

i would not have bought a product without research if it wasn't for the fact that i needed a functioning monitor TODAY.

and it's not like the picture on this thing is a garbled mess- it looks quite 'good' at first glance, but after about thirty minutes i want to claw my eyes out.

as i said, i'm just going to take the risk out the equation and buy the dell. i don't want to blindly buy another TN panel- and blindly is the only way to do it. store displays are damn near worthless, and online reviews are beyond worthless. exactly how is someone supposed to pick out a 'good' TN panel if not by luck?

also, i'm not blanketing all TN panels with a label of 'suck'...as i said, yes, i've previously had a TN that was far, far easier on the eyes. i feel like it's more an issue of those older monitors being of a higher quality, while it seems all the current TN's are bargain basement trash.

edit- oh, and whoever said 'it looks like ass' isn't a valid complaint, i understand the criticism. i just don't have a better way to describe it. there are two shitty things i can point out that, as i said, i unfortunately did not notice in store in this or really any of the other panels. but they're a big deal now. one is the big lit strip at the top of the screen. i'm used to seeing a little backlight bleed in the corners, but this is like a big white fuzzy bar at the top of the screen. it is not really noticeable when doing normal desktop tasks, but on a dark screen (movies, or simply any time the screen is black), it's somewhat annoying. second, and much worse, is the color shift. with a black picture on the screen, you can move your head probably less than a foot to either side and the damned screen turns blue.

as to what the actual reasons are for my eyes hurting? i'm honestly not sure. it seems sharp enough and the colors are good, but some indiscenable quality issue is really peeving me. i honestly wish i knew exactly what it was so i could be sure to look for it in monitors in the future.
 
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blanketyblank

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,149
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well obviously all of them look the same since they are all going to be TN panels.
It's very rare for stores to sell anything else now unless you purchase from the apple store. I think their monitors use either VA or IPS panels, but you'll be paying a hefty premium. In the rare case where they carry them though strangely enough the VAs will usually be from a crap brand like Soyo. Not exactly sure why.

TNs have improved a lot in terms of contrast though at the cost of glossy screens, but will probably always fail at color accuracy. For those who claim their TNs have great color, have you used a colorimeter on it and used it for photo work? If so is it truly accurate?