Best Monitor for Watching Movies?

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Peat Moss

Gawd
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I am looking to get a second monitor strictly for watching movies. No games, no office work, just movies.

Size: 32"
Resolution: 1080p or 4K
Budget: $600.

Questions:

1. For movies, what would be the best type of panel to look for? IPS, PLS, or VA?

2. I am only going to be watching blu-ray movies (1080p), so would it be better (PQ wise) to get a native 1080p monitor? Does scaling on a 4K monitor soften a 1080p image? I want the best, sharpest 1080p image.

3. Or would it be better just to get a 32" TV and connect it to my PC?
 
This is the best, but it's 42" and costs an arm and leg,
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/cinema/products/prm-4220.html

See if they have an OLED in your size and budget, that should look better than any LCD,

I myself enjoy watching movies on my Dell 34" ultrawide,
IMG_1640.JPG
 
For $600 you might be able to catch one of the BenQ Professional video editing monitors on refurbished. They tend to have good uniformity and are well calibrated for the color space of BDs.

This is a segment that doesn't get much attention any longer. There are some 3000:1 contrast ratio monitors out there that might hit your price point. You won't find an OLED for that price.
 
Thanks, not really looking for an OLED anyway.

Still looking for any answers to my questions.
 
I usually watch movies on HP LP2480zx. A bit small but picture quality is excellent due to it being hardware calibrated professional display without any viewing angle issues.
Good option, if a bit unusual, is getting VR headset and watch moves in virtual reality. Seriously, the effect is awesome as is color quality (given you get headset with OLED display like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive)
 
Baenwort said:
Well I thought I had. There are no good 32" TVs of any kind.

The specific pannel tech doesn't matter as much now other than the LCD and OLED discussion. If you must look for s specific one looks for a VA pannel for the higher contrast and lower blacks.

https://www.benqdirect.com/benq-outlet/refurbished-monitors.html?screensize=447

A specific example pannel is: https://www.benqdirect.com/pv3200pt.html but you'll need to watch the refurbished site above for it to be in your price range.
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Don't VA panels crush blacks more than IPS panels? Also, what about the scaling issue on 4k monitors for watching 2k movies?
 
Bad or no calibration VA panels crush. That is why you need a hardware calibrated panel. The BenQ I mention is just the 4K version. You might be able to find a NIB old stock monitor that is less than 4k but all the editing displays are 4K now.

The reason I keep pushing the video editing monitors as these are the displays they make those movies on and they come pre calibrated and configure to provide a good experience for this one use case.
 
GNUse_the_force said:
From my experience VA panels are really nice to watch video on. Specifically AHVA-IPS.
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AHVA is actually an IPS-type panel, not VA.

VA = Vertical Alignment (panel type)
IPS = In-Plane Switching (panel type)
AHVA = "Advanced Hyper Viewing Angle" (AU Optronics' name for their own version of an IPS-type panel)
 
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What bothers me is that there doesn't seem to be a single Windows desktop program on the planet that's actually designed for high performance video viewing. Worrying about displays when there isn't even software for it is kind of a misfire.

I'm talking about a video player that actually runs in full screen exclusive mode so that there's no chance of Windowed mode bullfuck causing random stuttering in your video playback. Full screen exclusive, actually running at the video's native refresh rate if you've got a VRR display, etc.

Why doesn't this exist? You can't tell me that no one wants this. Some people really care about movie quality.

Edit: Okay, it looks like MPC-HC actually has a full screen exclusive mode. Yeah, this thing blows away VLC.
 
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MPC-HC with madVR, that's all I have installed on Win10 here. No other players or codecs needed
 
I'm not a big movie enthusiast but I do appreciate a good screen - however, it seems like it would be easier to just use a bluray player / nvidia shield / roku / etc connected to your monitor to watch movies vs using the PC as the source.

I have everything running through my receiver anyway - plenty of inputs...

I suppose you may be missing out on calibration? What else?
 
bigbluefe said:
What bothers me is that there doesn't seem to be a single Windows desktop program on the planet that's actually designed for high performance video viewing. Worrying about displays when there isn't even software for it is kind of a misfire.

I'm talking about a video player that actually runs in full screen exclusive mode so that there's no chance of Windowed mode bullfuck causing random stuttering in your video playback. Full screen exclusive, actually running at the video's native refresh rate if you've got a VRR display, etc.
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Any that supports madVR, which actually makes Windows the best platform for movie watching.
 
bigbluefe said:
What bothers me is that there doesn't seem to be a single Windows desktop program on the planet that's actually designed for high performance video viewing. Worrying about displays when there isn't even software for it is kind of a misfire.

I'm talking about a video player that actually runs in full screen exclusive mode so that there's no chance of Windowed mode bullfuck causing random stuttering in your video playback. Full screen exclusive, actually running at the video's native refresh rate if you've got a VRR display, etc.

Why doesn't this exist? You can't tell me that no one wants this. Some people really care about movie quality.

Edit: Okay, it looks like MPC-HC actually has a full screen exclusive mode. Yeah, this thing blows away VLC.
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MPC-BE + madVR
It is the best combination and can actually sync video without any stutter and switch resolutions and even have ability to smooth video if you cannot match refresh rate (albeit this trick makes motion a bit blurred)
It also have awesome upscaler which actually works - NGU and tons of option for removing banding, compression artifacts, sharpening, adding noise, etc. DVD video quality movies can be made to look 1080p and HD as 4K
It also have very good dithering which can be useful for some displays like plasma where gradation can be somewhat improved. There is zero issue with banding with this program and this can be an issue because of 16-235 to 0-255 conversion.
It also supports multiple options for calibration including 3dLUT. I recommend checking what gamma you have and setting desired gamma to 2.4 as this is intended gamma (Rec. 709), not usual 2.2 which looks bad.

Only downside of it is that it eats GPU processing power like cookie monster eats cookies.
Also big minus is that author of madVR is ignorant to VRR (G-Sync/Freesync) and does not even understand how it could help in movie rendering... like seriously =(((((((((((((((

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BTW. For movies actually best monitor would be one with either strobing or at least PWM.
This might sound strange but PWM controlled brightness helps a lot in motion clarity.
I would avoid PWM-less VA's for movies like wildfire, those are the worst when it comes to motion and overdrive artifacts. Yes, I am spoiled with image quality of my DreamColor, plasma and Rift =)
 
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