LCD Suggestions for PC and PS3?

M

MoreGrease

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Jan 5, 2009
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I'm working on building my first PC to take away to college, and am looking for a monitor to go with it. However, after reading up on various types of panels, resolutions, aspect ratios, and other such info, I can officially say I no longer have any idea what I want, so I've decided to just put it to people with far more experience than me - the [H]ardForum community.

Some basic info, partly copied from my build thread:
1) It will be used for pretty heavy gaming, a fair bit of messing around in Photoshop, and, as I will be doing a game design major, possibly everything from video encoding to 3D rendering.
2) I have a budget of about $200 - $300 (I'm willing to stretch it to $350 for something really great, though).
3) Preferably, I'd like to buy from a brick-and-mortar store or NCIXUS, who seem to have cheap insurance against dead pixels.
4) The PC will likely be running on a GTX260 or a Radeon HD 4870.
5) The PS3 will also be connected, meaning the monitor would need two DVI ports or a DVI and an HDMI. It will be running at 1080p (or 720p if necessary) and any stretching or cropping is a big no-no. I'm unsure how to tell whether 16:10 monitors support 1:1 1080p, however (or simply an option to not scale the picture? I don't know how this works).
6) 21.5" is about as small as I'd like to go, and 24" would be nice but certainly pricey.
7) Speakers will be bought separately.
8) I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

So, any suggestions? I leave the matter entirely in the hands of the community.
 
When you say "plenty of Photoshop", are you referring to color intensive work, or just hobby/messing around. Because if accurate color's matter to you, I don't think such monitor exists.

With that price range, it looks like you've confined yourself to TN panels, which are great for gaming and casual use, but not photo editing.
 
Casual messing around. I am certainly no Photoshop professional, and have nowhere near the budget for a color-accurate monitor.
 
Is it just me, or is thisan amazing deal on the Samsung Syncmaster T240? Much cheaper than Newegg's price for the same monitor.

If this is good for 1080p content (as Newegg suggests, although some [H]ardForum users say it scales the image) I will buy it in a heartbeat at that price.

Edit: Damn. Looks like it stretches the 1080p signals... back to looking at BenQs, then. The E2200HD looks good, as does the E2400HD, although I can only really afford that if price drops in the rest of my build allow it. Aaand it has motion blur.
 
HP w2408h for sale at newegg for $450

for sale - refurbed and rebranded at buy.com for $200 :)

I bought two -- fantastic for the money. Their was a sticker over the HP w2408h label, and a black sticker over the HP symbol on the back - what's more it has the HP firmware version in the regular LCD menus :)

I don't think they are $200 anymore - and they are currently sold out - but they may get more - for $200 shipped you can't beat it. Both monitors I looked incredibly brand new. No scratches, perfect cosemetically. One screen had no bad pixels - I kept it. The second screen had one red stuck pixel and one blue stuck pixel. I sold it for $225 on craigslist. So my one I kept cost me only $175. :D

Stats
24"
TN panel - but look up one of the several professional reviews - it's a very nice TN panel
Gloss Screen
1:1 hardware scaling - (Important for hooking it to your 360 or PS3 - allows you to have black bars rather than stretching)
HDMI input (no convertors needed from PS3 or 360)
Decent speakers (actually quite good for a monitor --- best I've heard)
HDCP (a must if you want to watch blu-ray or HD-DVD from your console
rotating display stand (portrait or landscape modes - but in reality that's not very worthwhile for a TN panel)


http://bensbargains.net/deal/87947/

and

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=260193&t=1071683

and

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1374021
 
How well does that HP scale 720p content. 1:1 would only be useful for Blurays and the rare game that actually upscales to 1080p through the PS3. A majority of the games run at 720p.
 
Right now I think the most attractive for me is the Asus VW246H. Essentially a larger version of the Asus I was originally looking at while coming up with this build, it's a nice size and 16:9 which kills the 1:1 issues.

Not many reviews, though, and I can't find it at NCIXUS, so I'll have to see if I can find prices for it at Frys or someplace.
 
XMonkey-v2.0 said:
How well does that HP scale 720p content. 1:1 would only be useful for Blurays and the rare game that actually upscales to 1080p through the PS3. A majority of the games run at 720p.
Click to expand...

The HP w2408h has the best hardware scaler for non native resolutions I've ever seen on an LCD --- Non native resolution is almost passable for native resololutions!!!!!!!! ---
BTW - I work in IT and have seen lots of different LCDs running at non native resolutions.

I wish it was an 8 bit panel for the slightly better color and truth be told I wish it didn't have the glossy screen because I prefer the matt screens. I have an 8bit MPVA Soyo panel the 24" topaz that everybody raved about for a long time. The 8bit Soyo is better in color true-ness - but lacks HDMI, HDCP, and 1:1 hardware scaling, it scales non native resolutions to full screen no matter what and doesn't do a great job at that (text is blurry on non native) The Soyo also has a very crappy stand. --- BUT at 1920x1200 the Soyo is fantastic!!!!!!! No backlight bleed - super fast refresh (5 or 6ms can't remember), and as clear a picture on an LCD that I've ever seen.

That said - I bought the HP's with intent to resell and I have to admit I've been leaning towards keeping this HP even though it is a 6 bit TN panel because of all the "extras" it has and selling my Soyo.
 
MoreGrease said:
I'm working on building my first PC to take away to college, and am looking for a monitor to go with it. However, after reading up on various types of panels, resolutions, aspect ratios, and other such info, I can officially say I no longer have any idea what I want, so I've decided to just put it to people with far more experience than me - the [H]ardForum community.

Some basic info, partly copied from my build thread:
1) It will be used for pretty heavy gaming, a fair bit of messing around in Photoshop, and, as I will be doing a game design major, possibly everything from video encoding to 3D rendering.
2) I have a budget of about $200 - $300 (I'm willing to stretch it to $350 for something really great, though).
3) Preferably, I'd like to buy from a brick-and-mortar store or NCIXUS, who seem to have cheap insurance against dead pixels.
4) The PC will likely be running on a GTX260 or a Radeon HD 4870.
5) The PS3 will also be connected, meaning the monitor would need two DVI ports or a DVI and an HDMI. It will be running at 1080p (or 720p if necessary) and any stretching or cropping is a big no-no. I'm unsure how to tell whether 16:10 monitors support 1:1 1080p, however (or simply an option to not scale the picture? I don't know how this works).
6) 21.5" is about as small as I'd like to go, and 24" would be nice but certainly pricey.
7) Speakers will be bought separately.
8) I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

So, any suggestions? I leave the matter entirely in the hands of the community.
Click to expand...

I myself was looking for a monitor for my PC and PS3 to hook up to. You can check my other thread on the very subject.

Anyway my conclusion form people's recomendations and reading around I decided to buy the BenQ G2400WD. I got it from NCIX (for the same reason your looking at going to NCIXUS) and pricematched it for $318 CND.

Reasoning: the G2400WD has both DVI and HDMI inputs and runs 1080P at 1:1 and 720P is supposed to look great on it as well. It's going to look weird sitting next to my 244T but meh.
 
The G2400WD is on sale on NCIXUS until 1/13. If yours arrives before then, it'd be great to hear some impressions from you.
 
MoreGrease said:
The G2400WD is on sale on NCIXUS until 1/13. If yours arrives before then, it'd be great to hear some impressions from you.
Click to expand...

Just got it today. Unpacking it in a bit and will post some pics and my impressions tonight. I will even bring down my PS3 and try some 720P and 1080P content on it.
 
Ok got it unpacked and hooked up.

General impressions are this is an awesome monitor. As long as you don't expect color and viewing angles like my 244T that is. Horizontal viewing angles are good enough that no matter where I put my head while sitting at my desk I ahve a nice and even gamut. verticle is really noticable when you stand up and sit down. It's really bad. Though no more so then my other TN panel (930BF). As for as aspect ratios go, there is a menu in the OSD that lets you select the display mode. Standard (i think), fill, 1:1, and aspect ratio. All my testing of those modes has worked perfectly. Also 720P content I am glad to confirm does look amazing on this monitor. The scaler is amazing in this thing (much much better then my 244T)

Colors I am not going to really comment on as I have not played with it enough. Out of the box first impressions are I prefer the colors of my 930BF. And of course I prefer the 244T but thats a given.

Input lag is subjectively not as good as my 930BF but much MUCH better then my 244T. In my testing thus for I have not noticed any ghosting. It performs very similar to my 930BF. This will definitly be my new FPS monitor.

Pictures!
http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/gallery/0001q9eh

A few pictures for special note:

PS3 connected vie Belkin Pure AV HDMI cable.

720P AR setting

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/0017wt33

720P 1:1

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/0017xaey

1080P in menu

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/0017yy1w

Some Iron Man Blu Ray pics

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/00180fkx
http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/00181tx6
http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/00182xhb
http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/00184y7y

Nice and even gamut

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/00186b7h

No dead pixels on this color...

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/00187r39

Two stuck pixels :(

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/00188pzw

I dont know if I should RMA it or not. NCIX will replace it cause I go the express coverage but I am noticeing them less and less. And at first they started off dead (black) but now change colors.

At any rate this monitor works perfectly with a PS3 through HDMI. However 1080P resulted in some strange scan lines in the bars above and below the picture. This didn't bother me at all once I start playing something or watching a movie.

Overall I am very happy with this monitor for its intended purpose. And the question is not why does this monitor have fill, 1:1, and AR settings and uses them so well... its why do not all monitors have these settings and use them?
 
i am looking for something similar, but now that LED LCDs are going mainstream, I will wait a bit to see what comes out. no point in wasting money on old tech.
 
Thanks for the impressions, Bun-Bun. Any idea how it stacks up against the more expensive Samsung T240HD, especially with the colors, which you seem to prefer on Samsung monitors?
 
MoreGrease said:
Thanks for the impressions, Bun-Bun. Any idea how it stacks up against the more expensive Samsung T240HD, especially with the colors, which you seem to prefer on Samsung monitors?
Click to expand...

Once calibrated I would imagine the colors would be very similar between the G2400WD and T240 though I havent seen a T240 personally. My 930BF was an expensive monitor in its time (~$500) and my $244T is a S-PVA panel which explains why I like its colors more. Comparing the BenQ to the 244T is not a fair comparison as the BenQ is more a gaming LCD and the 244T is more a proffessional LCD.

The big selling points to me on the G2400WD was the VESA 100x100 mount and good 1:1 pixel mapping and AR fix support which it does do very well. T240 has a nicer looking bezel (which would have looked funny next to my 244T anyway) and I beleive I have read it has some of the best viewing angles seen on a TN panel. Though I see a few thread with people having problems with the T240 stretching images and does not support 1:1 pixel mapping.
 
Thanks for taking the time and making that review post of yours. Sorry to hear about the 2 stuck pixels on your display but it could be much worse I guess ;)
ecstatic.gif
 
MoreGrease said:
The E2200HD looks good, as does the E2400HD, although I can only really afford that if price drops in the rest of my build allow it. Aaand it has motion blur.
Click to expand...
There is definitely no motion blur. I tested mine. There shouldn't be motion blur with a 2ms panel.
 
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