I've just bought a new desk and i foolishly didn't measure things properly... i need to replace my 19inch CRT with an TFT monitor.
Naturally i need something with a reasonably quick response time (sub 20ms) because i'm using it for video editing - and i have been known to play the occasional game, but i'm struggling to find anything other than 25ms! I'd also prefer DVI input, for future-proofing more than anything.
anyone like to reccommend one?
cheers,
mark.
i don't use plasma/tft for video editing , but , the best ones i've seen in our building ( and i hate to say it ) are dells rebadged ones.
best reviewed one i've seen is
Liyama Prolite E431s
www.order247.co.uk
16ms response time
this monitor is in heavy demand , so may need to wait for order to be fulfilled
Yesterday finished building a system for a friend (lots of problems due to SATA controller intermittent fault... on a new Gigabyte board.) The Iiyama E431S was a treat to use, though I wasn't doing anything that was colour critical. TFTs have advanced a great deal since I bought mine two and a half years ago. The Iiyama has DVI-D and analogue too.
Chris
thanks guys, i'll check that one out...
Gary, i must say that of the few TFTs i've used over the last year or so, the 17inch Dell ones are probably the best. although i too, hate to say it! ;)
mark.
What is response time? I'm trying a Philips 170S4 LCD at the moment but findind it not as clear as the 19" Iiyama monitor that I also use.
Response time refers to how quickly the monitor can refresh the image on the screen. If it's too long then you get ghosting and trails behind motion on the screen.
Whilst looking for the Ilyama i found a sony monitor that has an almost identical spec. It's about £3 more expensive.
this is the Ilyama one... ebuyer say they have hundreds of them in stock...
I have a pair of samsung 17's TFT at home and don't notice any lag even thoufgh they're 25ms.
I don't play games though - and I do use a client monitor
loking at their web site, Samsung do the 172x that's about 12Ms for £350 or so
unfortunately i can't find the SM172 in stock anywhere... ebuyer have the 173 but that's 25ms, which i'd like to avoid.
without wanting to sound too shallow, i think i might go for the sony because it looks liek it would match with my desk better than the Ilyama...
ok, the sony has a slightly better spec overall, but it doesn't have a DVI connector... i think i'll get the Ilyama.
oh, just found out that the Ilyama comes in silver too, so all is good!
thanks for the advice everyone 
mark.
I've got the older Iiyama E430S & it's fandabbiedozy!
I'm using the Viewsonic VP201b which is a 20" LCD display with a 16ms refresh time.
:eek: :D WOW!!! :D :eek:
This thing is fantastic!!!
it's so clear and bright, and the auto adjustment button is a gift! No dead pixels, and at least when playing video, no ghosting! i'm off to try a game to see how that looks!
I'm feeding it with a VGA cable at the moment, and i'm told it'll look even better with the DVI!
Thanks for the reccomendation Gary! Love it!
good grief , don't tell me one of my recommendations was worthwhile ......... i hope it does all you need .
Originally posted by harlequin:
good grief , don't tell me one of my recommendations was worthwhile ......... i hope it does all you need .
Came as a bit of a shock to me, too!
;)
Gary! You are TOO modest.
Bob
Using a Sony SDM-S71R 16ms refresh rate. Does everything a Tube can, only better!
lol... i just tried the built-in speakers (just for fun) and they sound like headphones with the volume turned right up! why do they bother...? it's not even like it's worth it just to get an accessible headphone socket because that's really noisey...
I had a REALLY SH**E week (you won't believe just how much work has been involved in creating our first cover-mount DVD - and it's not finished yet; and, this despite the fact that Lisa did the lion's share!).
So with that in mind (and it was hard to forget) and taking account of the fact that tomorrow is my birthday, I though a large dollop of retail therapy might help smooth the troubled editorial brow.
So, I ordered up the 19in version of this Iiyama - the Prolite E481S!
Trouble is, for reasons I wouldn't be able to explain to a bank manager, I'd decided I wanted the black version.
This had a bit of a premium on it at ebuyer (the silver version there was the cheapest I found anywhere, and by a good way), but eventually I found that the black version was available at aria at a few quid cheaper than ebuyer's price, and so ordered there.
Total inc delivery and VAT was about £409 - which is more than I'd have been willing to pay out myself, were it not for the fact that various family members are chipping in a few quid as birthday presents.
Should turn up Monday or Tuesday, and I'll report back then.
However, after I ordered, I discovered two things:
First, that aria is selling the Dell 1800FP 18in TFT model for a very keen price - £292.58 inc VAT, ex delivery. (aria.co.uk/DealForToday.asp)
In truth, I was a bit sick cos this Dell is the product I'd been trying to buy for a few months, almost since the time when a friend got one and I was pretty impressed, but I hadn't seen it again at a good enough price until then (by which time it was too late!).
So, if folk do want a bigger size but aren't daft enought to pay out £400+, they might care to consider the Dell - and do a search on our forums for comments from those who bought it earlier.
Hopefully, though, the Iiyama will turn out to have been worth the extra (if not, I'll just convince myself that it was).
Oh, and the second thing is that I might end up spending out even more cash for a gas-damped wall-mount arm for the monitor, cos this REALLY would make the difference to my desk massive - freeing up a ton of room (not to mention give me, hopefully, iMac-like precision-monitor placement).
Trouble is prices seem pretty hefty - £250 doesn't seem to be unusual, and the best price I could find (for an unbranded "dabs Value" model) was over £100.
Still, I've got a horrible feeling I am going to end up getting one of these wall mounts, so if anyone has any general advice and product recommendations, I'd be keen to hear.
Oh, and if anyone in the States or Canada has any comments, I'd be grateful to hear those, too, on account of the fact that I'll be in New York for a week next month and would be happy to buy while over there if I thought it would mean a good deal (or a superior product at a price similar to a lesser product available in the UK).
Bob C
Surely, unless you expect to keep moving your monitor, a simple double jointed wall mount like the Dabs one you mentioned is much cheaper than a gas-damped affair?
what exactly is "gas-damped" ? does that just mean numatic (should that have an m on the front?) or is it something different?
mark.
mooblie,
I'd seen that dabs unit (and a bunch of others like it), and, of course, the price is more like what I'd want to pay out.
Trouble is what I really hanker after is the sort of flexibility - in terms of the monitor position - that is offered by Apple's iMac.
I only had an iMac here for a week and - in truth - didn't spend much time on it but even that limited amount of time made me realise just how useful it is to have the ability to move the monitor to EXACTLY where you want it.
Often, Apple's marketing stuff overstates the case (okay, whose doesn't?) but in the case of the iMac, I think the company has actually undersold the usefulness of the ultra-precise positioning of the iMac's monitor.
It's not until you actually have the ability to easily and accurately put the monitor in a wide range of positions that you realise that the right position is very different for different tasks.
Turns out that there are good and bad positions for tasks such as word processing, web browsing, video editing, image editing, DVD authoring, email reading.
So, ideally, it's that "put-it-anywhere" ability that I want - in addition to the ability to push the monitor right away from me to enable me to move the keyboard further back on the back on the desk and free up space on the desk for a magazine, a book, a sheet of A5 or an A3 proof page.
Oh, and in case anyone suggest one of those under-desk keyboard shelves - thanks for the thought, but no thanks, I hate them!
Bob C
Originally posted by cstv:
numatic (should that have an m on the front?)
mark.
Nope, it should have a 'p' on the front and an 'e' after the 'n'. Pneumatic :D
cheers Sifi... i knew it didn't look right!
Bob, couldn't agree more about the keyboard shelves - drive me mad!
There definitely are different positions needed for different tasks. For instance, when image editing it's handy to have the screen closer to my eyes because most of what i do to images is very fine detailed work. When web browsing i find it easier to be a bit further away so i can scan the page without having to wizz my eyes from side to side. i've always just kept my eyes on a movable arm generally refered to as my neck, but now you mention it, moving the monitor would be a fantastic idea!!!
I assume the difference between the double jointed thing that mooblie suggested and a gas-damped one would be that the gas-damped one would stop where you put it whereas the other may need to be "locked" on the joints.
Bob, if you do find one at a reasonable price please let me know! it's such a great idea that i'd never really thought of before!
mark.
My birthday treats (and a bit of retail therapy to help overcome a serious lousy week last week - cos of the cover DVD!)
The monitor:
http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=9759
The monitor arm:
http://www.digiuk.com/productdetail.asp?id=2077&c=269553&guid=Ro20040klr2o22q8ua17s16q25&s=
You can see an animation (I think) of the arm on the maker's site at:
http://www.abbiecomp.co.uk/
Cheers
Bob
19" Philips TFT 190B5CS £355 incl. vat.-
http://www.simply.co.uk
Free )internet) delivery during August, otherwise £5
thanks for the links Bob, still a bit steep for my liking though - might have to wait until someone gives a job that pays more... crime doesn't pay, and neither does the public sector... ;)
cstv,
You are confusing my buying it, with my being able to afford to buy it!
;)
Cheers
Bob