Im confused..

M

molsoncanadian

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Aug 7, 2006
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OK guys,

I currently own a LG Flatron 915FT Plus which is a 19'' crt monitor. I am ready to change to lcd because this monitor has lost a lot of brightness and stuff but it's still usable. I was thinking of getting something that plays movies well and has good color definition for post processing digital pictures and also that is OK for games as I'm not a heavy gamer.

The thing is that I am a student and I am on a limited budget. Recently, Lg released the L204WT at a price of around 350 dollars in Canada. This lcd seems very interesting but here are my fears. First, it has a TN panel which can't reproduce as much colors as other panel types. Is TN panel good for film playback? I do watch a lot of movies. When people are complaining about TN panels, is it because they are very not as good as the other types or it's because people are just beeing too demanding?

Also, what other monitors would you suggest. I am thinking about Dell but the banding issue has kept me sceptical. Viewsonic? Nec? I'm limited to a budget of CDN$500 including taxes.

Thank you for your help
 
From what I've heard the L204WT is one of the first TN panels to display 8bit color, I haven't read a review to confirm this, but people are preferring it to the 215tw which is an 8bit panel which is a good sign. The thing about TN panels is that have pretty bad vertical viewing angles, horizontal isn't that bad. As for movies they aren't the best, but they've gotten a lot better. The best panel type for movies are any of the MVA types (Not PVA). I think with the budget you gave it's a solid choice
 
TN gets a bad rap, somewhat undeserved these days. I had two PVA panels (Dell 2405, 2007fp) and now have a cheap TN, Dell 1707fp. I can see no difference in the color reproduction.

The other thing that TN gets a bad rap on is viewing angles and from my experience, TN is actually better than MVA/PVA in this respect in real world usability.

I wouldn't worry about getting a TN. They are really quite good these days.
 
Indeed, technology has improved and so have TN panels. They're quick, viewing angle is fairly good and they're cheap. They may not have as accurate colour reproduction as some higher end panels, but they don't cost as much either. Generally TN panels were/are 6-bit panels that employed dithering to account the transition between colours that could not produced... but newer TN panels, like in the LG L204WT and Samsung 205BW, appear to be 8-bit panels capable of displaying a full 16.7 million colours.

Unfortunately, it's hard to confirm manufacturer specfiications 100%. Over the years, most have been known to misquote or obscure actual specs with "dynamic" technology or some other marketing buzz-word. The best you can do is hit Google and read the reviews...

I'm going to look at the LG L204WT tonight.
 
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