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General discussion

before I run to the store to buy LCD monitor

by C Grover Jun 3, 2005 1:14AM PDT

It's time to replace my old Sony 200es monitor and I want an LCD in the 17-19" size.

I'm looking for any suggestions as to which ones to lokk towards and which ones to shy away from.

I'll probably stay to the lower or middle of the spectrum pricing, so any help would be appreciated.

Mostly used for browsing the web, imaging, and typical home stuff without much if any gaming.

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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Some numbers.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jun 3, 2005 1:24AM PDT

Stay at or above the 500:1 contrast ratio. Below that I see murky grey instead of black. Always take a gander at display units. If they show any defect, don't buy that one. I've seen the ultracheeps with waves on the display, the salespeople say that's only on the demo unit. Nope...

Don't get too uptight about going beyond 1024x768 on 15 inch and 1280x1024 on 17 inch displays. Most find the display text gets too small. Even if it is, Windows has ways to push up the text sizes.

-> If you know you can live with a 3 year lifespan, your gamble on the warranty. If it offers a 90 day warranty, don't consider those.

Hope this helps,

Bob

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3 years
by C Grover Jun 3, 2005 1:26AM PDT

Are you saying that they generally only last about three years?

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The CCFT "tube" degrades with time.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jun 3, 2005 1:46AM PDT

If they do supply all the data, you should find some number of hours till the display is some 1/2 brightness or MTBF. For simplicity I'm using the 3 year number. It's an average of what I see out there.

Bob

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LCD vs TFT
by C Grover Jun 3, 2005 1:34AM PDT

I just looked at the ads and see that many are tft as apposed to lcd. The ad has at least three or four on sale. I'm leaning towards the Daewoo 19"tft with tv tuner for $379 - $50rebate @ 500:1 and a .291mm pixel pitch

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TFT is LCD
by DarkHawke Jun 16, 2005 11:34PM PDT

It's just the form of the LCD, Thin Film Transistor, to be precise. It's the LCD technology that gives us a near-CRT-bright display, though using radically different technology. I would have thought that TFT was universal, but if there's a choice (?), go with TFT.

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Planar
by Alan Copeland Jun 10, 2005 11:41PM PDT

As I posted in a later thread, I just bought a Planar PL1700 17" from CDW. I got a special price through my son-in-law's company but they are <$300 and have a 3 year 2 day replacement warranty. Bob is right about the 3 year life expectancy, but my son-in-law has one that is 4 years old and still going; sorry I can't remember what brand though.

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