Please Recommend a New LCD Monitor

ZylonBane on 8/5/2010 at 15:00

My local computer superstore finally got another 1920x1200 monitor in stock besides the awful Hannspree ones. It's the (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824611002) Auria EQ2668. Anyone used one of these?

Muzman on 8/5/2010 at 19:21

Possible newb question:

Are all IPS panels typically true 8bit these days? It's hard to tell since nobody seems to say.

Renzatic on 8/5/2010 at 20:31

Yup. IPS panels use and always have used 8 BPP. As far as I know, the only monitors that use 6 BPP are older/cheaper TN panels.

Muzman on 9/5/2010 at 12:11

Cool, cheers.
(geez shopping is depressing. I still think (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038ATV4U?ie=UTF8&tag=pchahe-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0038ATV4U) this is the only true upgrade in every respect from my CRT. At least its creeping into my price range these days, but still *wahh*. Why oh why can't they do higher res small plasmas without the image retention. Oh, because of the res and image retention)

gunsmoke on 9/5/2010 at 23:12

I just keep both...a 21 inch Dell CRT (which I love) and a 20 inch LCD TFT (which is tolerable). I switch between the two accordingly.

ZylonBane on 10/5/2010 at 01:01

Quote Posted by Renzatic

As far as I know, the only monitors that use 6 BPP are older/cheaper TN panels.

Which is to say, all TN panels.

242 on 15/5/2010 at 17:53

Quote Posted by Muzman

Why oh why can't they do higher res small plasmas without the image retention.

I'd love that too as a monitor. After I compared plasma TVs and LCD TVs in action, I don't want to look in the LCD direction anymore, when it comes to TVs at least.

ZylonBane on 2/6/2010 at 18:21

Well, I bit the bullet and purchased the Auria EQ2668 monitor I mentioned above. For only $300 for a 26" 1920x1200 LCD I wasn't expecting perfection, but... I think I'll be eating the restock fee and returning it.

I have to say, it does a lot of things well. Easy to assemble, stable stand, nice big glossy screen, decent controls, smooth non-native scaling, no dead or stuck pixels, reasonably uniform backlighting.

Unfortunately, it falls down hard in two critical areas. First, it doesn't do automatic letterboxing/pillarboxing. Any non-native aspect resolution will be stretched to the full screen size. Apparently NVidia drivers can compensate for this, but ATI drivers can't, and that's what I currently have. The second problem, the real doozy, is the panel's gamma curve, which is anything but linear, suffering from both crushed blacks and crushed whites. I'd never even heard of these issues before researching the problem, but basically, it means the panel's gamut at the high and low ends is compressed, causing loss of picture detail. Here's an image I found that aptly demonstrates the problem:

(http://media.photobucket.com/image/2522black crush2522 lcd/GamerGuyX_GGX/blackcrush.jpg?o=1)

Inline Image:

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb132/GamerGuyX_GGX/th_blackcrush.jpg
(click for full size)

Blacks too black, whites too white (in games with HDR and bloom, this makes some areas look like the surface of the sun).

So... oh well. CRTs win again.

Renzatic on 2/6/2010 at 18:47

ZB, I think you're gonna have to bite the bullet and drop at least $500 before you'll find an LCD you're happy with. At that price, you're almost guaranteed a monitor with a good color spread, and one that has built in aspect ratio correction. Use a good monitor, like the Dell U2410 for instance, as your baseline, and shop around for something at least as good, if not better.

Oh, and software aspect ratio correction? Nvidia doesn't do it too well, either. The option is there, teasing you, looking like it should work just fine. But as long as you're hooked up via DVI or HDMI in Vista/7...it ain't happening.

ZylonBane on 2/6/2010 at 19:59

I've heard good things about the U2410, but unfortunately it's a wide-gamut monitor, which makes all pure colors look like screaming neon.

I guess I've been spoiled by my work monitors, a pair of Dell 2001FPs. For six-year-old TN panels, they're remarkably good. Nice linear brightness, no ghosting, barely any color shift from different viewing angles. If I wasn't set on dragging myself into the widescreen era, I'd be scouring eBay for them.