After lots of research on 26" LCD TVs, i think i've decided on the Vizio VL260M. It's an S-IPS panel, has full 1080p support, and overall decent specs (http://www.vizio.com/vl260m.html#support). It receives for the most part good reviews and only costs around $300, which is a GREAT deal for an IPS panel this size.
I'll be using it primarily as a general-use computer monitor and also as an HTPC. Now it gets primarily good reviews for these uses but many cite the need for some monitor adjustment in order to achieve the best possible viewing experience. This often involves just turning off advanced features like Noise Reduction, Backlight Control, Adanced Adaptive Luma, and Film Mode as well as adjusting sharpness levels (lower) to view text a little better and perhaps tuning a few other settings. Also depending on the graphics card you're using you may need to adjust the software settings therein too. On that note, one user on hardforum.com who tested the VL260M on 3 different cards, an ATI 4870 X2, an Nvidia 8600GT, and an Nvidia 8800 Ultra stated that this LCD performed and looked best on the Nvidia cards without any significant adjustment whereas the ATI card had to be adjusted significantly and even then didn't perform as well as either of the Nivdia cards. As always, it's best to weigh each individual review against the others and so far i haven't seen any other reviews that verify Nvidia cards work better than ATI/AMD cards for this LCD.
As for its gaming performance I'm not really a gamer so i don't mind the LCD's 8ms response time, but for those of u who are gamers then u may want to look elsewhere as the VL260M does sometimes have a very slight degree of lag according to those who have reviewed its gaming abilities. Unfortunately from the research i've done there are no 26" LCD TVs with an non-TN panel right now that are gaming oriented. For these users they would have to step up to the faster 32" size panels and here i would recommend the 32" Panasonic TC-L32S1 which according to the reviews i've seen is one of the best sub-$500 32" non-TN LCD TVs, if not the best, currently out there.
If i can get a chance i'll try to go see the VL260M in person before i buy it. I believe Target may have it.
If anybody can suggest any better 26" (or 32" even) LCD TVs out there right now that don't have a TN panel, can do at least 1080p and do well as a computer monitor for around $300 then please do tell. I'm looking for whichever one best fits the bill here.
I'll be using it primarily as a general-use computer monitor and also as an HTPC. Now it gets primarily good reviews for these uses but many cite the need for some monitor adjustment in order to achieve the best possible viewing experience. This often involves just turning off advanced features like Noise Reduction, Backlight Control, Adanced Adaptive Luma, and Film Mode as well as adjusting sharpness levels (lower) to view text a little better and perhaps tuning a few other settings. Also depending on the graphics card you're using you may need to adjust the software settings therein too. On that note, one user on hardforum.com who tested the VL260M on 3 different cards, an ATI 4870 X2, an Nvidia 8600GT, and an Nvidia 8800 Ultra stated that this LCD performed and looked best on the Nvidia cards without any significant adjustment whereas the ATI card had to be adjusted significantly and even then didn't perform as well as either of the Nivdia cards. As always, it's best to weigh each individual review against the others and so far i haven't seen any other reviews that verify Nvidia cards work better than ATI/AMD cards for this LCD.
As for its gaming performance I'm not really a gamer so i don't mind the LCD's 8ms response time, but for those of u who are gamers then u may want to look elsewhere as the VL260M does sometimes have a very slight degree of lag according to those who have reviewed its gaming abilities. Unfortunately from the research i've done there are no 26" LCD TVs with an non-TN panel right now that are gaming oriented. For these users they would have to step up to the faster 32" size panels and here i would recommend the 32" Panasonic TC-L32S1 which according to the reviews i've seen is one of the best sub-$500 32" non-TN LCD TVs, if not the best, currently out there.
If i can get a chance i'll try to go see the VL260M in person before i buy it. I believe Target may have it.
If anybody can suggest any better 26" (or 32" even) LCD TVs out there right now that don't have a TN panel, can do at least 1080p and do well as a computer monitor for around $300 then please do tell. I'm looking for whichever one best fits the bill here.
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