Flat Panel 101

[Cannibal Corpse]

Hi All,
I am in the market for Flat Panel, and I would kindly like to ask about the Contrast Ratio and other features of these display devices. I am thinking about buying DELL (or Samsung) because I have seen them close and beside the image quality, the actual physical appearance also is very important to me (DELLs look very stylish, yet simple).

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...9&page=external


Many thanks in advance!

 

[ehZn]

Here is a list of what I deem to be the most important features:

Brightness: you want 250 nits (cd/m2) or above (higher the better)

Viewing angle: this is the angle you can look at the screen before it starts to become hard to see. larger the better.

Contrast ratio: probably want 350:1 or better (higher the better)

Response time: most are 25ms, but if you can find a 16ms or 12ms, they are much better for gaming (lower the better)

Native resolution: lcd's run best at a single rez, usually 1280x1024 or 1600x1200. check this and make sure your system can handle anything you might want to do at that rez.

Refresh rate: you want it to be able to run at at least 75Hz at its native rez. a harder to find spec is the DVI max refresh rate, which is very important if you plan on using DVI.

DVI vs VGA: the digital signal, or DVI, far surpasses the analog signal, VGA, in terms of sharpness, color, and quality. you definitely want to buy an lcd with a DVI input.