Looking for 27" IPS or VA

Hi there! I'm thinking of buying a new 27" or 30" monitor. The main use will be for web browsing, photo display, and Blu-Ray movies. I don't game much. I'm willing to spend up to $700 if there is a good reason to do so.

I'm thinking an IPS, PLS or VA panel, preferably with a mild anti-glare coating. Gloss would probably work as well. I like good colors, and black depth is also important (I watch lots of dark shadowy movies). However, I'm not going to be using it professionally. I would like something good quality that will last a long time.

Not sure what kind of resolution. Are there any issues with, say, displaying 1080p video on a 1440p screen? Would 1080p native resolution be better?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Viewsonic VP2770. Be warned that it does come with slight shadowing/darkness near the corners, but I think that may be the case for all newly produced IPS monitors these days.

Don't pick an IPS/PLS, those all absolutely suck for movies.
You'll be way happier with a VA, one with good color reproduction;
- The current best 1080p 27" VA is the Iiyama ProLite XB2783HSU-B1.
- And the best 1440p 32" VA is the BenQ BL3200PT (well there isn't much choice in that category anyway ^^).

PS: only downside of VAs is black crush of course.
Actually neither IPS nor VA are good at many things, but they don't do plasma monitors, so...

Richard Jones said:

Don't pick an IPS/PLS, those all absolutely suck for movies.
You'll be way happier with a VA, one with good color reproduction;
- The current best 1080p 27" VA is the Iiyama ProLite XB2783HSU-B1.
- And the best 1440p 32" VA is the BenQ BL3200PT (well there isn't much choice in that category anyway ^^).

PS: only downside of VAs is black crush of course.
Actually neither IPS nor VA are good at many things, but they don't do plasma monitors, so...

Click to expand...

Take all of this with a grain of salt. Check any of the monitor review sites. IPS is an excellent choice for your needs.

The only reason people go VA or TN instead of IPS is for the lower latency for gaming.

Personally I ONLY use IPS. After owning one NICE IPS monitor, I will never go back to anything else. They can be a bit on the pricey side, but for color reproduction they are astonishing.

Richard Jones said:

Don't pick an IPS/PLS, those all absolutely suck for movies. You'll be way happier with a VA, one with good color reproduction;
Actually neither IPS nor VA are good at many things, but they don't do plasma monitors, so...

Click to expand...

IPS/PLS can be great for movies. They can also be horrible. Depends on which one you get and how lucky you get on the individual unit you get. Monitors are like fingerprints. They are all slightly different. I would personally recommend a good PLS, even a cheap one like a Qnix for watching movies.

As far as making generalizations,
VAs have deeper contrast and darker black levels which does lend the tech to "movie watching" quite well. A lot of Televisions are VA, I have two Vizio VAs one is a 36 and one is a 42, iirc. They both have vertical clouding at points on the screen and that's about the only defect they have. That's pretty much the most consistent problem I see with VA panels. They do something called "gamma shift" and I think that's related to the clouding, which tends to end up looking like vertically oriented stationary streaks during motion (usually there's one sizable streak per panel). It's pretty seriously minor, but I'm just saying, that's the other common problem with VAs besides "black crush" which I think is overblown. IPS/PLS can have black crush too along with any badly calibrated LCD monitor.

VA is actually the slowest (relatively) of the 3 main LCD techs. TN is the fastest and worst with color shift, IPS/PLS have generally pretty even pixel transitions, meaning all colors change at approximately same rate, but VA have a problem with White/black/GTG transitions and often with motion can be described as "streaky" or "ghosting". As it turns out, though, VA pixels can be accelerated (overclocked) quite a lot without much overshoot or color shift, thus the fg2421, which is super fast, but is pretty ghosty. The latency on the fg2421 is not particularly good though, and by latency I mean input lag, push the button, wait 16ms, then what you wanted to happen will go off. The TNs and the Korean Overclockables--those are low latency.

I'm not suggesting you stay away from VA for movie watching, but then again, I am, because you also said you were going to be browsing the web and editting photos, which is something that VA is/can be super annoying with. I had to get rid of my fg2421 (gave it to my wife) because I kept getting my eye stuck on the one vertical streak it has. While gaming, it's very rarely noticeable, scrolling across solid backgrounds on a VA with clouds on it is ugly and distracting.

In my opinion what you want is a good 1440p PLS, since you are going to be doing more than JUST watching movies. 1080/720p content looks fine on a 1440p monitor. PLS monitors are extremely uniform when put together properly. I like the AOC Q2770PQU but NCX got one recently and he's not as impressed with it as he expected to be--underscoring the "luck" factor. It's also been shown that there are more than one type of panel showing up in these monitors, and it's possible one is better than the other.

I will be perfectly and completely honest with you, both of the 2 Qnix QX2710's that I bought from Amazon (Ecomade Arena) were even better than the AOC I tested. They were almost as deep as a VA. Yes I can test for the difference between 4500:1 contrast ratio and 850:1 contrast ratio, and I can see the difference, but in practice, it's not super important. Like the color white, your brains idea of what "black" is can vary a LOT. If your IPS does black at .04 nits you'll get used to it in about 10 minutes even if that's not what you've had for 5 years. Like if you change your color settings from Cool to Warm on your TV, it's noticeable at first, but if you come back later if it's not totally whacked out it won't be apparent.

Shit. Long response. I'll quit while I'm ahead. You can get an awesome monitor for pretty cheap if you are willing to gamble a little. Even the AOC q2770pqu isn't very expensive, what 600? Aside from that I'd probably recommend the Eizo EV2770 but buy it from somewhere with a no hassle return policy. Eizo lets bad units out of their factories plenty. But they also make the best 27" consumer monitor under $1000. It *should* be completely stark black the entire screen across in between scenes.

Nope, I definitely cannot agree with that and I will stick to generalization. Mediocre contrast and blacks literally destroy dark scenes in movies (or dark scenes in games for what it matters).
I've owned two different IPS'es and two VAs over the years and there's no competition between the two techs in this field of application
Add to this my IPS'es had some degree backlight bleeding - something that's absolutely horrendous while watching movies - and that's it.

I know the thing on this forum is to recommend Korean 1440p monitors to pretty much everyone and for every use, even though there's that extremely important 'luck' factor you mentioned, and maybe the lack of upscaling (oopsie), or muddy interpolation on multi-input models that actually do upscale.

Frankly the only reason I would recommend IPS/PLS over VA is for someone who's actually going to do some gaming.
And a single input Korean like the Qnix mainly to people who need a big, good, fast monitor for gaming with their monster graphics card, and who are ready for some risk purchase.
1440p resolution only to people who actually need the higher ppi for graphic work and huge real estate, because there's no point in higher native resolution if you're only going to watch blu-rays, rips, or do some console gaming and normal browsing.

I'm actually going to purchase the Samsung S27D590P soon, because it's a great all-rounder that's good at games thanks to its good PLS panel, and I'm going to use it mainly for this: games (console, and low-spec pc) and I know perfectly it will suck at movies because that's what I've seen IPS/PLS do for a long time and that panel technology hasn't magically changed itself over the years. Wherever I go and see LCD screens, the difference is still the same today, enough to generalize.
Both IPSes I've owned (Dell U2312HM & LG 32LD450) sitting aside the two VAs I still own (Belinea 2080S2 & Sony W6) the difference in abilities has always been obvious.

AD-PLS glow more than S-PLS (1440p) and the glossy bezel the 590 series (tested the 24") uses makes blacks look light by comparison. I'd pick the BenQ EW2740L or iiyama XB2783HSU over any 27" 1080p AHVA/IPS/PLS panel. The LG 32LD450 is known for having <500:1 contrast. All 30" monitors suck (most are easily embarrassed by 150$ IPS panels), so forget about them. Movies look fine on 1440p monitors.

Best Reviewed 2560x1440 Monitors

Yup not saying the LD450 was a reference among IPSes of course, but even those reaching over 1000:1 aren't quite as good as any VA during dark scenes from what I've seen.
I'd be glad to see those famed IPS/PLS 'exceptions' perform with my own eyes, but so far the only way I've found to bring that type of panels to be bearable with movies is by 'cheating' a bit with contrast enhancers and ambient light arrangement.

Also the reason I'll pick the Samsung this time, even though the Iiyama seems to be overall better for the money, is that I really need faster and consistent pixel response along with the wide viewing angles (plus I already own two VAs so...), really not picking this one for blacks/contrast, and glow won't be an issue either. Going to play only very bright, colorful and fast games.

PS: unless OP wishes for higher resolution the Iiyama seems perfect for his needs.

K. We've got it down that you are strongly in the VA camp. I'm just trying to make sure the op gets a well rounded perspective. I used to be "VA only" too. Then I started researching which IPS pls to buy. Good IPS/pls aren't "exceptions". The entire industry is based on high return rates and high prices. Getting a Bad example of a VA like the 30" benq you suggested is every bit as likely as a bad ips panel.

My view on VAs may be a little negative because I had 5 Eizo fg2421s and only one didn't look like sparkly dogshit. That's a pretty specific and weird VA though.

Brighter colors shine on IPS pls and dark colors are more vibrant on VA. pick your poison neither one is perfect.

Check PRAD's iiyama XB2783HSU's oscilloscope measurements and compare them to the measurements posted in this thread knowing that the Samsung 590H series pixel response times are quite comparable to most of the fast 1440p monitors. The iiyama is faster the Samsung AD-PLS panels, has better colors (8% higher sRGB color space coverage) and has deeper black levels.

I'd put my money on BenQ BL3200PT, or the Samsung version of the same panel that's coming soon. Really, if black is important to you, forget IPS. Whatever slight problems current AMVA monitors have with white to black transitions or gamma shift, they're nothing compared to the washed out blacks and glowing and clouding corners most IPS and PLS monitors have.

@Bluesun311:
No I'm not in any 'camp', actually I like IPS/PLS a little more than VA.
It's just that I don't find IPS/PLS to be the proper recommendation for movies.
Exceptions or not, to my eyes by a large majority those always sucked with dark contents and therefore are not fit for movies. That's what anyone can see with his own eyes and read in like, what, 100% of the reviews ?
I just wanted to let OP know about it because it's true, simple as that.

@NCX:
The XB2783HSU-B1's really faster than the S27D590P ? I was waiting to read Prad's review that will be published soon, but I wasn't expecting this.
If so then that Iiyama is definitely awesome.

General Lee said:

I'd put my money on BenQ BL3200PT, or the Samsung version of the same panel that's coming soon. Really, if black is important to you, forget IPS. Whatever slight problems current AMVA monitors have with white to black transitions or gamma shift, they're nothing compared to the washed out blacks and glowing and clouding corners most IPS and PLS monitors have.

Click to expand...

The major problem isn't GTG transitions at all. Ghosting isn't particularly annoying to me at any rate. The major problem with AMVA from where I stand is clouding. It looks terrible while browsing.

Clouding? I've had three AMVA monitors so far and there's been no clouding in any of them.

K well that's lucky then it's a pretty common problem with va. Try looking it up.

Well I gave it a quick google and didn't find anything. In my experience clouding has been the worst in IPS panels usually. VA panel's biggest gripe is the gamma shift and it might make the corners look brighter than normal since the center gets black crushed (if viewed from the front), and if there's some clouding in the corners it probably strengthens the effect.

I googled AMVA clouding...

First result is about the Eizo FG2421 so let's give VA the benefit of the doubt and move passed the first hit.

4th hit is a post from AVSforum about how different forms of VA monitors suffer from clouding. It's another way of describing gamma shift, maybe? Not actually sure on the specific differences between these terms. Both of my Vizio VA HDTVs have a spot of "clouding", as well--very minor though. I never would have noticed it on them if I didn't know what to look for from my "Foris experience".

Darker blobs on the screen particularly on solid gray shades. I couldn't have made it up if I'd wanted to make a worse anomaly on my $600 23.5" Eizo.

Here's what the guy actually says, this was in 2010:

Mike999 said:

I've seen all three types now, but I still can't decide which one I would rather own. S-PVA panels have the best blacks and viewing angles, but tend to suffer from horrible clouding. S-MVA and AMVA panels have a lower contrast ratio, blueish blacks, and poor viewing angles, but tend to have a more uniform screen and (in my opinion) a somewhat sharper image.

Click to expand...

I'd have to take his word for it, because I haven't had all those different 3 types of VA panels to look at. But every single one I have had/still own exhibits clouding to a degree.

Richard Jones said:

Is the XB2783HSU-B1's really faster than the S27D590P ? I was waiting to read Prad's review that will be published soon, but I wasn't expecting this. If so then that iiyama is definitely awesome.

Click to expand...

PRAD's AD-PLS reviews don't contain oscilloscope measurements, only a few sentences about the reviewers subjective impression.

Like I typed before, I compared the 590 to monitors which PRAD tested with an oscilloscope. The 590 performs like the BL2710PT which is slower than the iiyama according to PRAD's oscilloscope measurements.

Does that take the overdrive steps into account ?
Sorry again I'm having a hard time getting anything right from those oscilloscope readings, especially because the accompanying google-translated text if mostly gibberish.

On prad's review of the Iiyama it seems like they tested only overdrive 'off' and 'step 3'. Step 3 is supposed to produce noticeable overshoot, when you read around that step 1 is supposed to be optimal.
http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/2014/test-iiyama-xb2783hsu-b1-teil7.html

I'm trying to understand playware's measurement of the Samsung as well, which seem to show all overdrive steps (or is it something else?)
http://www.playwares.com/xe/39532226

Some reviews like digitalversus's and 01net's state it's really fast for an AMVA but not enough for fast paced gaming even with overdrive at step 1.
I know we're supposed to take what's written in those reviews with a grain of salt, but at the same time it's hard to get confused while reading conflicting opinions all around.

For instance regarding the Samsungs 390/590 I only read they're quite fast and if not as fast as good TNs, they're quite enough good for fast-paced gaming.
That's reflected in your own review, it is also the opinion of Adam over at pcmonitors.

I just wish there was a direct comparison review of both monitors at optimal OD settings ('step1' VS. 'faster'), but I guess that's asking for too much, I know it's not easy for reviewers to get samples. The average reader is supposed to read all the reviews and compare the results, but that's really no easy task!

I'm considering the performance of the different overdrive settings. Fastest is comparable to Overdrive +3, both of which are useable while the Faster setting is comparable to Overdrive +1. If you can easily return and exchange monitors, don't over think this by worrying about minimal response time differences which are usually only noticed by the most picky/experienced users (me). Try out the iiyama.

Okay thanks NCX. I'll certainly go for the Iiyama then.

EDIT: The only thing that bothers me with the Iiyama is the poor interpolation/upscaling though (yes, I need it to be good) and it's significantly better on the Samsung. Damn.