LCD Monitor help required !!!!!!!

08/29/2006 10:25:41 AM · #1

Please people help me out. I am planning to buy a new monitor.
I want it to be 20" and will use it for

1.Graphics softwares like max , maya , photoshop
2.Gaming
3.Movies

i am gonna do all these thing extensively ......

I have cut down my choice to the below mentioned three but cant decide

Philips: 200P7ES/00
Viewsonic: VP2030b
Dell: 2007FP

And yes these are the 1600x1200 Versions (4:3 aspect ratio)
I wont mind the WIDESCREEN (16:9) versions of the same models as they are available in all three

BUT I WANT TO KNOW WHETHER I SHOULD BUY THE widescreen OR NOT .... is it good for gaming and other tasks that i have mentioned or should i buy the standard 4:3 one ..... PLEASE HELP ME OUT

Feel free to recommend some other monitors also (but i would be glad if it is from these 3 as i dont want to get further confused)

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

08/29/2006 10:44:28 AM · #2

Please, I really need help and i know u all are artists and photographers here ..... so no one can help me more than u people ..... please i need to use my monitor for graphics stuff .... and please let me know about the widescreen one ...whether i should buy it or not as i also need to do gaming

DemonLlama

Canon EOS-30D

08/29/2006 10:53:47 AM · #3

I'd say go with the widescreen. I use mine for gaming all the time (Viewsonic 2012w, Civ4, Oblivion, etc...) and it works great for picture editing (tho my latest challenges wouldn't be a good representation of "great"). Most games support widescreen formats easily.

Leica 35mm f/1.4 Summilux M Aspherical MF - Black

08/29/2006 10:55:09 AM · #4

thanks dude ... just u didnt tell that amongst the 3 models i listed which widescreen should i go in for ..... ???????

scarbrd

Leica M10

08/29/2006 10:55:43 AM · #5

I can't speak for any of the specific monitors listed, but I recommend you go wide screen.

I have the 20" Apple cinema display and i really like the wide screen. I think most software is going to assume the 16:9 form factor for optimal viewing since a lot of people are doing video editing and TV screens are moving to the 16:9 factor.

BTW - You should look at the Apple displays even if you are using a PC. They are awsome.

Message edited by author 2006-08-29 10:56:15.

shamrock

Nikon D300

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

08/29/2006 11:12:08 AM · #6

I've got the Viewsonic: VP2030b, and i like it. I've had it about 3 months now.

Telehubbie

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

08/29/2006 11:31:15 AM · #7

I say go for the widescreen as well. I have a Dell one and it's nice to have the extra room on the side for the tools/layer/actions in PS, plus viewing the whole image larger without scrolling, and also rotating the monitor for "portrait" oriented shots.

zardoz

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

08/29/2006 11:40:53 AM · #8

I have the 24â�� Dell widescreen and am more than happy with it. I liked the widescreen format so much that when I bought a new laptop I got that in widescreen too.
I find the widescreen great for photo editing as it is much nearer to the aspect ratio of my camera. I donâ��t play games so know nothing about that but I do watch movies on it for which it is great. Turn the widescreen to portrait mode and it is also fantastic for web browsing. You can see a huge amount of the page without having to scroll. Actually my widescreen spends most of its time in portrait mode as a lot of the photos I do are in portrait format. For me at least I would never go back to a 4:3 monitor.

08/29/2006 05:50:07 PM · #9

Formac Raven 2010 :)

08/30/2006 11:58:09 AM · #10

Thanks a lot people ... so i guess i will get the widescreen one, Please someone just tell me which one amongst the three that i have listed will be the best.

Viewsonic
Philips
or Dell

I want to know which will have the best Image quality specially for gaming ......

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

08/30/2006 12:34:07 PM · #11

please i need help

acrotide

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

08/30/2006 12:40:52 PM · #12

Of your choices, the Dell seems to come up most as a suggestion by DPCers, which is why I recently ordered one to replace my current piece of crap monitor. Of course this is for photo editing and such. When it comes to gaming, I'm afraid I can't help you there as I haven't looked into the gaming pros/cons of these monitors.

If you don't get any other suggestions here, you might want to do a little more research into gaming on a widescreen monitor in general, as well as looking more at each of your specific choices to see what would be best for your needs.

zardoz

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

08/30/2006 01:31:27 PM · #13

At the time I bought mine the Dell seemed to be the best monitor all round. It was the cheapest too! I donâ��t know anything about gaming but I assume that streaking is the biggest concern. Watching movies I have never really noticed any such problems so I assume it would be the same for games. If I remember correctly the Dell had the highest contrast ratio too, which I should think is important for game, itâ��s important for everything else.

08/31/2006 07:07:56 AM · #14

ghosting used to be a problem with screens in the past - but most are 16ms - or 60fps so that's no longer the case..

ViewSonic VP231wb (Widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

Dell 2405FPW (*) (widescreen) has a 24 inch 12 ms (g2g) PVA (Samsung LTM240M1-L01) panel.

Philips 230W5BS (Widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

Sony SDM-P234 (Widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

Sony SDM-P234B (Widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

LG L2300B (widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

LG L2300C (widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

HP L2335 (Widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

BenQ FP231W (widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

Apple M9178 (Widescreen) has a 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.

Message edited by author 2006-08-31 07:08:36.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

08/31/2006 07:37:09 AM · #15

thanks a lot people ... u have helped me a lot

Telehubbie

Canon EOS-40D

08/31/2006 08:09:39 AM · #16

Originally posted by ashishkushwaha:

I want to know which will have the best Image quality specially for gaming ......

The video card you use would play a more important role in the quality of video than the monitor, for gaming at least. Make sure you have a good one with lots of memory and fast FPS, or it would be like driving a Ferrari with a Hyundai engine.

mist

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

08/31/2006 08:15:05 AM · #17

I really don't understand why anyone would want a widescreen monitor for their computer, unless it happens to be used primarily for watching DVDs.

Widescreen doesn't strike me as an optimal format for other tasks.

Anyway, whatever you get, make sure that it has a digital input. I'd imagine that most screens do these days, but some still have the older style VGA cable input only, and are lacking a digital input. Where that happens you lose quality in the conversion process (both at the card and again at the monitor).

08/31/2006 11:02:04 AM · #18

Originally posted by mist:

Widescreen doesn't strike me as an optimal format for other tasks.

the smaller screens aren't - but as they've yet to produce a 23" 4:3 format TFT we're all stuck with the 30" monsters if we want higher res than 1600x1200

the 23" Widescreens are 1920x1200 which gives u an extra 320px bolted on the side which is useful for pallets etc if you only have the 1 display..

the 20" WIdescreens are imho a waste of money - only giving you 1680x1050 which while you're gaining 80px in the width, you loose 150px in height so in effect you're loosing 70px!

i prefer my 3 monitor solution of 2x1600x1200 and 1x1024x768 :)

FireBird

08/31/2006 11:19:10 AM · #19

I've got the 19inch version of the Viewsonic. VP930. It has the highest contrast ratio of the ones listed I believe. Also a very bright monitor, you'll need to use color profiling software with it but that's no problem, Greta McBeth has a nice unit for a hundered bucks. The screen will have slightly lighter corners with an extremely dark image. It doesn't bother me. Some people can't stand it. Usually can't see it unless you're in a dark room. I use mine for gaming and it works well for that. But, as someone else pointed out, be sure your video card is up to the challenge. I would consider 128meg video memory to be the minimum for my size monitor and I run 512. If you go wide I'd suggest at least 256.

Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digital

08/31/2006 12:32:14 PM · #20

fir3bird do u understand what the RAM does on the Graphics card?

i'll explain:

the first 16MB or so will be to drive the display..

the RAM after that will be for 3D Textures - in games / 3D apps you have textures to stop everything looking like coloured 3D surfaces - 128MB is enough to drive any game thats currently out - my games machine has a 9700Pro which has 128MB of ram and that will happily run BF2, FEAR, Doom3 etc.. the res that it will happily push those polygons around at is determined by the speed of the cards GPU (graphics processing unit) the faster the card the higher the res you can run 3D games/apps at

the reason why games cards have such stupid amounts of RAM on these days - ie. 512MB is all marketing hype!

Bugzeye

08/31/2006 12:56:20 PM · #21

I have had several View Sonic Monitors over the years and they always served me well. I have recently converted to all LCD flat panel monitors I have 2 wide screen and 2 4x3 I like the wide screen better. Especially the one on my laptop.

I say go for the wide screen View Sonic and never look back....

Bugzeye

Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digital

08/31/2006 01:03:41 PM · #22

I thought that it was because for about 5 years the software industry was well ahead of the hardware as far as speed goes. The Hardware is now ahead of the software in many cases. unless you get into some serious 3D graphic rendering. But I agree with you that part of it is marketing hype It is the manufacture wanting consumer to believe they could not survive with out the best they have to offer.

Originally posted by Bobster:

the reason why games cards have such stupid amounts of RAM on these days - ie. 512MB is all marketing hype!

09/01/2006 07:10:37 AM · #23

the 20" WIdescreens are imho a waste of money - only giving you 1680x1050 which while you're gaining 80px in the width, you loose 150px in height so in effect you're loosing 70px!

Is It true that i will loose pixel space in the widescreen version .... as almost everyone has suggested the widescreen version .... please now i am confused .... should it be 20" widescreen or 4:3

Message edited by author 2006-09-01 07:15:22.

09/01/2006 09:38:01 AM · #24

don't purchase a 20" wide - go bigger