Choosing a computer monitor

[john5527]

Hi, I was looking for any advice I can get on buying a pc monitor. I am looking for a monitor that will be able to take advantage of 1080p videos. I have a Nvidia 8800GT graphics card if that makes any difference. I do play some demanding games also like Crisis. I just don't know much about newer monitors, especially the widescreen format since I haven't bought a monitor in about four years. The one I currently have is a 19inch cheapo. I read online that you need a 24 inch monitor to take full advantage of HD 1080 videos. Is that true? Could you recommend a few good monitors. I am not worried about price at this point, just want a few opinions to start with.

Thanks
John

[vbironchef]

The Dell 2408WFP and the Samsung 245T have received good reviews. the Dell is around $680 and the Samsung is around $800. I have the Dell and I like it but the on/off button is broken for the second time. I would buy the Samsung245T.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... amsung245T looks like a good buy.

[Apoptosis]

You do need a 24" monitor to take advantage of 1080P content as that is teh native resolution. Once you are in the 24" range you are dropping a chunk of cash, so get the one that fits your budget.

My advice, get one that has an HDMI connector.

[john5527]

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone have any experience with this monitor. It says that is supports 1080, but it seems very cheap. It is a ViewSonic.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824116396

[DMB2000uk]

The trouble with wanting a monitor that's capable of running full HD is that to do so it has to have 1920x1200 pixels on the screen, so when it comes time to gaming, in order for it to look as sharp and as good as it can you need to set the resolution to the full 1920x1200, and that needs some serious graphics card power to push that many pixels. So bear that in mind if you want your gaming to look as good as it should.

I have just bought a Samsung 226BW 22" and think it's great, so Samsung are a solid choice, but look around for reviews of the different monitors in your price range to make sure they suit your needs.

Dan

[aircommando13]

I am also looking for a HD monitor for gaming, and also blu-ray movies

IS this 24" by Acer a good choice? I only budget $250 a month for computer stuff so I want to start saving up

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824009125

[smack323]

LOL you said "i only budget $250 a month for computer stuff" thats a nice little budget to have to spend on computer stuff.


but the last three monitors had have been ACER. Not a single dead pixel between em all.

[Skippman]

I've had the first generation Dell 24" for about 3 or 4 years now, works like a champ. Has a couple of nice extra features like PIP, rotatable base, and media card readers, and a USB hub built in. This means I only need to run a DVI and a USB cable to my PC to power everything on my desk (mouse, keyboard, etc) which reduces cable clutter.

Dan was right in what he said about needing MASSIVE video power to push the monitor. Even my new Radeon R4870 won't run Crysis Warhead at the native resolution (1920x1200) that the monitor uses. Other games like Oblivion, HL2 (240fps), and BF2 (92fps) however seem to run just fine.

Consider this, the monitor is the part of the computer your least likely to upgrade in the next 5 years. It's also your direct interface to the computer. It kills me to see people spend $800 on video cards to run them on a $200 monitor. I'd rather buy a monitor you can grow into than buy one your cards will quickly outpace.

Now I've not seen any computer monitors touting the 120hz thing yet (as Samsung does with thier TV's) but if it were available I'd look into that seriously. The reported contrast ratios aren't really that important as there's no industry standard for meauring that. Nates recommendation for HDMI input is a good suggestion but I can't see HDMI replacing DVI as the de-facto PC interface for a while yet. Now on a HDTV, that's a completely diffrent story.

View Sonic had a solid rep as one of THE BEST CRT manufacturers like Hitachi and NEC, but I've not personally used thier LCD's. I have a Dell 24" LCD and a Samsung 22". I like both of them. The Samsung's styling is better, but the Dell has more features so if I had to buy a primary monitor over again, it'd likely be a Dell.

[Sporg]

Don't you have to take HDCP into consideration if you plan on doing Blue-Ray? If that is the case, then HDMI would be necessary. At least that's the way I understand it - I could be wrong, but DVI does not support HDCP. Someone throw a dead fish at me if I'm wrong.

[Skippman]

That is wrong from a video perspective as many people use BluRay on thier older projectors which only have HDMI inputs. HDMI to DVI compatablity is a part of the HDMI spec.

[john5527]

Thanks everyone for the useful information. I have found out more about monitors from this thread than I have researching the net. One other question I have is what happens when you play a HD video on say a 22inch monitor at 1680 x 1050. I heard that the video gets scaled down since it can't display in its native resolution.How does that work? Do you lose quality or just size, or both? For example, I have played 1080 videos on my 19inch monitor and they seem much sharper and show more detail that a normal video. Is it just my brain fooling me, or do you still see some of the benefits of HD but just can't appreciate the whole package.

Thanks for any advice.

John

[Darkstar]

I have purchased about 30 of the Viewsonic 2230wm 22" lcd's and have not had a complaint about a single one, they are very reliable.

[Skippman]

As stated, there's not standard metric for mesuring contrast ratio so that's not really a valid measurement.

If the monitors native resolution is below 1920x1080 but higher than 720P the BluRay disc will scale to 720P as that is the monitors resolution. To the human eye there's not much diffrence between 1080P and 720P on a display that small. You'd have to get up to the 50" or greater range to really notice the diffrence ON FILMED MATERIAL. That's the reason I bought a 50" 720P plasma for my bedroom as opposed to a 1080P.

[DaddyRabbit]

This is the one I have and am pretty happy with:

http://www.gateway.com/retail/fhd2400.php

While it's gotten some mixed reviews I have been pretty happy with it, especially for the price.

It seems to have been replaced by the FHD2401 though. Found a good price here:

http://www.jr.com/gateway/pe/GTW_FHD2401/

Not too sure what the diff is (other than vertical refresh rate)

[peti1212]

Dell and Gateway has some very nice monitors. I had a 24" Dell monitor before and I was very impressed with it. Now I am owning a 22" Gateway monitor that has a many different connectors in the back as well as a mirror finish screen. If you want to go with a 24" monitor, I would pick this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824001280

I would also go with one of these.

http://www.gateway.com/retail/fhd2401.php

I have the 22" version of that monitor. It is great, and allows you to change the aspect ratio to different setting if needed. Most of other cheap monitors don't allow you to do that and will stretch the games and video for you when set to a full screen resolution.