24" - Going in circles. Help

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WilsonH

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Nov 26, 2007
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Ok, So my plan was to give my wife my current 2405FPW, and get myself a new monitor.

I was just going to order a 2407WFP-HC.. Then I was going to order a BenQ FP241W, then got confused on the build dates and where to order it from...

So, as you can see I am totally lost. Any advice? I don't game all the time, but when/if I do I would like something good and I simply cannot make up my mind.. Been trying to read through the crazy long threads but I seem to be running around in circles.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks guys
 
If you can tolerate the 2405 you can tolerate anything. Buy the Dell, buy the cheapest thing you can find. Almost anything is better than a 2405.
 
I bought both of these planning on comparing them and sending one back. I liked them both so much that I kept both of them.
 
Snowdog said:
If you can tolerate the 2405 you can tolerate anything. Buy the Dell, buy the cheapest thing you can find. Almost anything is better than a 2405.
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Well i didn't think the 2405 was that awful, but i also havent played any games on it.. I was still using my 21 CRT for that.

Kind of the reason i would like to get something better for gaming. I see the 2407 has a 3-5 week ship time, so that seems to be out.

Is the BenQ my best option then? If so any reqs on the best place to order from, and i guess i need the newer build date?

Thanks
 
kiajoon said:
Just get the Dell.
Click to expand...

NO! NO NO NO NO.

Don't get the HC version! The 2407WFP-HC has inverse ghosting, which is ANNOYING.

I'm on the same boat as you too, OP... I was gung ho on the LG until I heard it had overscan issues with the PS3... so now I'm leaning towards the BenQ too...
 
in the same boat as the OP and most people on these threads, to add to your madness, here are the lcds i'm looking at because of their non-TN panels and they still have somewhat minimal lag for gaming, as well as minimal ghosting/banding and still put out pretty solid color accuracy after color correcting them:

LG L245W/L246W
Benq FP241W
Doublesight DS-245W
Lenovo L220X (22" 1920x1200, first panel of this size at that resolution)
Hyundai W421D (if you can find this, apparently available over-seas.. for us US folks that is)

Anyway, I'm thinking of just going with the LG since its gotten overall pretty favorable reviews and is the best (so far that i can tell) for gamers out of those listed above. It is also on sale until 12/8 at CompUSA (though I hear they may be going out of business according to a news story on digg).

Good luck. :)
 
defsquad said:
in the same boat as the OP and most people on these threads, to add to your madness, here are the lcds i'm looking at because of their non-TN panels and they still have somewhat minimal lag for gaming, as well as minimal ghosting/banding and still put out pretty solid color accuracy after color correcting them:

LG L245W/L246W
Benq FP241W
Doublesight DS-245W
Lenovo L220X (22" 1920x1200, first panel of this size at that resolution)
Hyundai W421D (if you can find this, apparently available over-seas.. for us US folks that is)

Anyway, I'm thinking of just going with the LG since its gotten overall pretty favorable reviews and is the best (so far that i can tell) for gamers out of those listed above. It is also on sale until 12/8 at CompUSA (though I hear they may be going out of business according to a news story on digg).

Good luck. :)
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the heads up on the LG and the price at compusa. Stock says limited right now but i think i'm going to head there right now and see if i can grab one.

i admit to not really knowing how to judge them, but i see the LG has a longer Response Time than the others.. wouldn't this be worse for gaming? thought that was the main issue while gaming on a lcd?
 
Response time has to do with how quickly the pixels change colors, depending on WHICH colors you are switching from, those ratings 4ms, 6ms, 8ms are virtually useless at times unless you compare each individual rating for each screen ie gray to gray, black to white, color etc.

On top of that, response time is pretty much only responsible for the "ghosting" effect some screens have. Imagine a digital timer and you take a pic, you will still see the previous number before while the new one is on display.

Input lag is what affects gamers, and from testing, the LG has the lowest input lag of the BenQ and the Dell screens. Input lag is basically the time difference between you doing something and it happening on screen. The LG is on average 1fps, while the BenQ and Dell around 1-2fps depending on the situation.

I've read before Samsung and other screens aren't anywhere near those 3 as far as input lag goes.

For PC gaming, normal computer use, I'd go LG. If you need all the inputs, go BenQ, if you need more inputs, I think the Gateway ups on that. For photo editing, look at a new price range.
 
Slade said:
For PC gaming, normal computer use, I'd go LG. If you need all the inputs, go BenQ, if you need more inputs, I think the Gateway ups on that. For photo editing, look at a new price range.
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I just picked up the LG246 today, for the reason you stated. It seems to be the best compromise. I'm pretty spoiled with a 19" Sony HS94P LCD, which was an expensive LCD when I bought it. I don't think any of the current 24" LCD's look as good as the Sony, but I wanted a wide screen for gaming.

I had three of the Gateway LP2485's in the past two weeks and they had a horrible luminance issue. Still images had a sparkle in mid tones that was distracting. All three were manufactured before March 2007, so maybe the later ones are better. I had to give up on it, which is how I ended up with the LG.

I also had the BenQ, Samsung and Dell on the short list, but I'm glad I got the LG. It's bright, but not blinding and has good contrast. Bioshock doesn't lag at all at 1920 x 1200 at max settings. Photos look fine and color reproduction is okay. Frankly the Sony is far more accurate, but I haven't really tweaked the LG, so I'll need more time to test color.

Anyway, I definitely recommmend the LG. Happy hunting...
 
I may get flamed for saying this but I hope this will be taken constructively.....

Why is it that I always see follow up posts to Display questions that say:

1. Don't get X..slow lag time
2. Y is terrible because it is a TN get an IPS
3. IPS is terrible for this and that
4. I am not buying a display because none of them are good and I will wait for the technology to change....

Well, you get the point. If someone asks for advice why not give the advice so that they can buy one today and not get fleeced? If the OP only sees negatives that will only create "Paralysis by Analysis"

I know that I have asked questions and every display that was brought up had something wrong with it according to someone....

Some people need a new display and want to get one....let's give them the information they request and help them...rather than steering them away from every display in the marketplace.

Thank you for letting me say this and I hope that this will create a more positive attitude.

Regards

Elliot
 
My suggestion....is that should someone post "Should I get a 24" ABC or XYZ.....we can answer them by giving input such as:

If you are using it for gaming the "ABC" has the fastest response time or whatever you wish to say.......and the "XYZ" is the best for Digital photo editing because of...<whatever>....

....Then the person has some input as to which screen is better for what purpose they may be using it for.

Saying it has a "TN screen so stay away" serves no purpose than to create turmoil for the OP....and no one will buy anything since most are TN screens anyway.

Thank you for letting me post this.

Elliot
 
elazarus said:
My suggestion....is that should someone post "Should I get a 24" ABC or XYZ.....we can answer them by giving input such as:

If you are using it for gaming the "ABC" has the fastest response time or whatever you wish to say.......and the "XYZ" is the best for Digital photo editing because of...<whatever>....
Click to expand...

Makes sense. A matrix of pro and cons. Would have helped me a lot, since no one site carries all the monitors. I was bouncing from site to site for a week just trying to compare each one.

If it weren't the holiday season I might take a crack at that. Maybe in January...

Thanks for the thoughts....
 
Although I have never seen a BenQ in person, I have only read good things.

Is the 22" BenQ as good as the 24"

Sounds like it has a better picture than the LG and Samsung.

Thank you

Elliot
 
I picked up the LG at Best Buy and got a price match for the CompUSA across the street. I had previously gotten two other LGs at Circuit City...both with massive dead pixel problems. As far as gaming goes, it's rock solid. No ghosting (or dead pixels in this one!:D), plays Stalker, HL2, Portal, etc. perfectly. Only gripe is that the blacks bleed...but I don't know how bad the other models suffer from this. It's not enough for me to stop playing with it though. (I am so glad I stayed away from that Dell!)
 
Pyros said:
I also had the BenQ, Samsung and Dell on the short list, but I'm glad I got the LG. It's bright, but not blinding and has good contrast. Bioshock doesn't lag at all at 1920 x 1200 at max settings. Photos look fine and color reproduction is okay. Frankly the Sony is far more accurate, but I haven't really tweaked the LG, so I'll need more time to test color.

Anyway, I definitely recommmend the LG. Happy hunting...
Click to expand...

I have had the LG for a few weeks now and I love it. I "upgraded" from the Westinghouse 37" to the LG 24" and am more than happy with the purchase (moved in with the gf and needed a TV so the Westy got moved to the lounge and the LG got brought in to fill the void). I have had no issues gaming on the LG (mostly FPS with the occasional RTS). Currently connect using a DVI to HDMI connection and had 0 dead pixels (first try).
 
kennard said:
I have had the LG for a few weeks now and I love it. I "upgraded" from the Westinghouse 37" to the LG 24" and am more than happy with the purchase (moved in with the gf and needed a TV so the Westy got moved to the lounge and the LG got brought in to fill the void). I have had no issues gaming on the LG (mostly FPS with the occasional RTS). Currently connect using a DVI to HDMI connection and had 0 dead pixels (first try).
Click to expand...

After a couple days of tweaking, I'm even happier. I got LG's forteManager working, so I was able to calibrate the monitor. Colors are far more accurate, and I have a nice high contrast without blinding brightness. Much easier on my eyes. forteManager doesn't work for everyone, since the 246 isn't officially supported by the software. Worth giving it a try, though.

Couldn't agree more about gaming. I've now played several hours of Bioshock and COH, without a single lag of any type. No banding, tearing, and gradients are perfect after calibration.

The only issue I have left is scaling, which I believe is a limitation of the HDMI connection. I should be able to control scaling with Nvidia control panel, but it doesn't work in the current Vista release with my 8800GT. Hopefully Nvidia will fix it soon.

Good luck with the "upgrade"... :p
 
I was going to ask about scaling. I bought the LG about a month ago and I absolutely love it but for some games my gpu can't handle it(no surprise, its run games better than I thought it would at that res). Anyway, I tried to change the scaling in CCC but it didn't work. I had heard people say though that this feature didn't work with ATI cards that well anyway. Now, I am thinking about getting an 8800GT or GTS(new one) and I had heard that Nvidia's drivers scaled better with 1:1. So this doesn't work for you Pyros?
 
smithy1185 said:
I was going to ask about scaling. I bought the LG about a month ago and I absolutely love it but for some games my gpu can't handle it(no surprise, its run games better than I thought it would at that res). Anyway, I tried to change the scaling in CCC but it didn't work. I had heard people say though that this feature didn't work with ATI cards that well anyway. Now, I am thinking about getting an 8800GT or GTS(new one) and I had heard that Nvidia's drivers scaled better with 1:1. So this doesn't work for you Pyros?
Click to expand...

Nope, haven't had any luck with the LG. The 1:1 option isn't available for HDMI. You got me curious, so I just tested VGA with my Xbox 360. 1:1 is there and it works perfectly. I guess it's a limitation of the HDMI port. Strange. I think I'll open a ticket with LG to see what they say.

I haven't had any luck with Nvidia's scaling, either, with an XFX 8800GT on Vista. I've seen the problem reported by others, so it's known. The settings just revert back to "Use my display's scaling", no matter what you select. It's annoying, since I'd rather play older games at native 1280x1024.

I have seen the 3DMark06 CPU test scaled from 1024x768 to 1920x1200, and it actually looked surprisingly good. I just hate to scale a perfectly good native source (purely an OCD type thing).

Regardless, I'm going to stick with the LG, since I'm keeping my Sony 19" LCD. I can use that as a fall back for lower res, if both LG and Nvidia strike out.

If you find out anything else, let me know. Thanks...

Edit: I just got off the phone with LG and confirmed that 1:1 scaling is not available over HDMI. It's what I expected to hear. Maybe Nvidia will fixes driver scaling. It's really a great monitor, but that limitation isn't going to be a problem for a lot of folks. I guess there just isn't a perfect 24" out there.
 
Pyros said:
After a couple days of tweaking, I'm even happier. I got LG's forteManager working, so I was able to calibrate the monitor. Colors are far more accurate, and I have a nice high contrast without blinding brightness. Much easier on my eyes. forteManager doesn't work for everyone, since the 246 isn't officially supported by the software. Worth giving it a try, though.
Click to expand...

Would you mind posting your settings? I am a little unsure about what I am using, calibrated based upon what looks best to me. Would be good to compare.
 
kennard said:
Would you mind posting your settings? I am a little unsure about what I am using, calibrated based upon what looks best to me. Would be good to compare.
Click to expand...

No problem. Here goes:

OSD Settings

I believe OSD setting are ignored when you use forteManager. When I start Windows my saved presets get loaded, overriding any OSD settings. I'm basically leaving CSM at default, which is 6500k. If you can't get forteManager to work you may have to use CSM settings instead, but I don't know if the results will be the same.

forteManager

Brightness = 64%
Contrast = 100%
Red, Green Blue = 100%

Nvidia Control Panel

Brightness = 50%
Vibrance = 11%
Contrast = 50%
Gamma = 25%

Here's how I arrived at my final settings:

I set Nvidia controls to 50%, 0%, 50% and 50% respectively. I figured that the mid-point for the driver was as good a starting point as any. Vibrance has a pretty drastic effect, so I left it alone until the end.

I then ran forteManager to calibrate. Saved profile as a preset to load when Windows startup and rebooted.

Finally, I fine tuned vibrance and gamma in the Nvidia control panel to suit my taste.

I'm happy with brightness, contrast and gamma, but I may lower color settings. I've played with some photos since my earlier post and the color gamut seems to be a bit red. That's minor, though, and easily adjusted.

The good thing about the monitor is that it can be tuned to whatever works for you. It just takes some experimentation to find the sweet spot for your preferences.
 
i HATE lcd's but i got one because they are the only thing out there now and i'll have to use one when my crt dies.

its been in the box for almost a year now:D

out of many i researched for a long time cause i'm an extremely picky SOB, i got the BenQ FP241W. it seemed to have the best color/speed ratio that i saw of all the monitors available at the time. doesnt calibrate too bad either.

personally, i wouldnt buy dell anything.:)
 
Pyros said:
Nope, haven't had any luck with the LG. The 1:1 option isn't available for HDMI. You got me curious, so I just tested VGA with my Xbox 360. 1:1 is there and it works perfectly. I guess it's a limitation of the HDMI port. Strange. I think I'll open a ticket with LG to see what they say.

I haven't had any luck with Nvidia's scaling, either, with an XFX 8800GT on Vista. I've seen the problem reported by others, so it's known. The settings just revert back to "Use my display's scaling", no matter what you select. It's annoying, since I'd rather play older games at native 1280x1024.

I have seen the 3DMark06 CPU test scaled from 1024x768 to 1920x1200, and it actually looked surprisingly good. I just hate to scale a perfectly good native source (purely an OCD type thing).

Regardless, I'm going to stick with the LG, since I'm keeping my Sony 19" LCD. I can use that as a fall back for lower res, if both LG and Nvidia strike out.

If you find out anything else, let me know. Thanks...

Edit: I just got off the phone with LG and confirmed that 1:1 scaling is not available over HDMI. It's what I expected to hear. Maybe Nvidia will fixes driver scaling. It's really a great monitor, but that limitation isn't going to be a problem for a lot of folks. I guess there just isn't a perfect 24" out there.
Click to expand...

I just bought one of these (May 2007 build) and 1:1 pixel mapping worked perfect for me over HDMI. There is an option in the menu to enable it. When enabled, 1080i from my HD-DVD player was properly displayed (black bars on the top and bottom) and when I set Crysis to 1600x1200 it was properly displayed as well (black bars on the sides of the image).
 
gtg465x said:
I just bought one of these (May 2007 build) and 1:1 pixel mapping worked perfect for me over HDMI. There is an option in the menu to enable it. When enabled, 1080i from my HD-DVD player was properly displayed (black bars on the top and bottom) and when I set Crysis to 1600x1200 it was properly displayed as well (black bars on the sides of the image).
Click to expand...

It worked for me on every input, but PC video sources over HDMI. Or so I thought.

Your post made me look at it again, and I just happened to have 3DMark06 running (finishing final overclocking with RivaTuner). The freaking 1:1 option was available and worked. You just fixed my problem (and probably others, too.) :D

In my case I have to set 1:1 mapping after starting a program, not before. I just confirmed that in a couple of other programs, including the Crysis tech demo.

At the desktop I can't change the mapping. That probably makes sense, since I'm already running at native 1920x1200. Duh. So it's a behavior, not a limitation. The option is only available when it's appropriate. LG needs to document that in their manual and train their service department.

My LCD was manufactured in March 2007, so you may be seeing different behavior. In any case thanks for the post.

Someone should sticky this...
 
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