Author Topic: Advice about buying monitors (Read 3310 times)

xShadow · « **Reply #20 on:** August 20, 2010, 01:32:34 PM »

I'm actually on the verge of ordering it, since it has like everything I want. I also started wondering what the point of an extended return policy is (after seeing you suggest it). If it's dead, it's usually dead on arrival, so won't that just use up that extended warranty? Answer is actually no: the warranty is transferable to another (non-DOA) product. (Yes, I actually bothered to contact a service representative for clearance on this; yes I'm that hardcore, I can edit it in or something in case someone needs to see the conv)

All things considered, my willingness to buy that monitor has just risen to about 95%. The last thing I want to consider is if there will be major ghosting when I try to play stuff like Dragon Age on it (at least I think this is called ghosting). In other words, if it's still good for gaming, I think I'll probably be buying it. From most accounts I've read, an 8ms response time is quite alright for gaming, but the question is whether that's a gray-gray response time or a off-on response time (I've seen that manufacturers use the terms interchangeably), and I'm trying to find a manual for it to see if it has that specification in it.... but I can't.

This is the closest I've come. From what I can see, it supports 1920x1200 at 60Hz, so I guess that's fine? My current monitor also runs at 60Hz, and I don't notice any problems with "ghosting" or whatever.

sdedalus83 · « **Reply #21 on:** August 20, 2010, 01:38:08 PM »

Quote from: xShadow on August 20, 2010, 01:32:34 PM

This is the closest I've come. From what I can see, it supports 1920x1200 at 60Hz, so I guess that's fine? My current monitor also runs at 60Hz, and I don't notice any problems with "ghosting" or whatever.

13ms on-off, 6ms grey to grey.

nstgc · « **Reply #22 on:** August 20, 2010, 02:32:09 PM »

Quote from: xShadow on August 20, 2010, 01:32:34 PM

All things considered, my willingness to buy that monitor has just risen to about 95%. The last thing I want to consider is if there will be major ghosting when I try to play stuff like Dragon Age on it (at least I think this is called ghosting). In other words, if it's still good for gaming, I think I'll probably be buying it. From most accounts I've read, an 8ms response time is quite alright for gaming, but the question is whether that's a gray-gray response time or a off-on response time (I've seen that manufacturers use the terms interchangeably), and I'm trying to find a manual for it to see if it has that specification in it.... but I can't

Note though that is 8ms gray to gray, no black to white to black. (or is it WBW). Expect the actual response time to be between 16ms and 18ms.

xShadow · « **Reply #23 on:** August 20, 2010, 02:46:43 PM »

Quote from: nstgc on August 20, 2010, 02:32:09 PM

Quote from: xShadow on August 20, 2010, 01:32:34 PM
All things considered, my willingness to buy that monitor has just risen to about 95%. The last thing I want to consider is if there will be major ghosting when I try to play stuff like Dragon Age on it (at least I think this is called ghosting). In other words, if it's still good for gaming, I think I'll probably be buying it. From most accounts I've read, an 8ms response time is quite alright for gaming, but the question is whether that's a gray-gray response time or a off-on response time (I've seen that manufacturers use the terms interchangeably), and I'm trying to find a manual for it to see if it has that specification in it.... but I can't

Note though that is 8ms gray to gray, no black to white to black. (or is it WBW). Expect the actual response time to be between 16ms and 18ms.

sdedalus just listed that about an hour before you posted. o_0

Anyway, I'm fairly certain that I'm going to buy it. From reading the review that sdedalus posted, those people looked like they were fairly critical of every aspect of it, and said that the ghosting was mostly unnoticeable. Still, 210 dollars (236 with warranty) is a lot to shell out, so I just need to damn well make sure I can use this for my gaming needs. The that same review site says that it's satisfactory for hardcore gamers, so I might very well be pleased with it, though. I can't imagine it's any worse than this current LCD that I'm using.

It's 1920x1200 res, which is what I want, and it's got great picture quality. For some minor ghosting in gaming, I guess I can't really get that middle ground between color accuracy and gaming for any cheaper a price than this.

The deal looks like it's been around since the beginning of this year, though, which kind of makes me wonder where the hell they keep getting these things, if they're supposedly discontinued or whatever...

The only real con to this panel appears to be the fact that getting one that isn't DOA is a trial-and-error process.

nstgc · « **Reply #24 on:** August 20, 2010, 07:01:03 PM »

Indeed he did, but for a different monitor.

xShadow · « **Reply #25 on:** August 20, 2010, 07:15:52 PM »

No, it's the same one he linked to originally.
http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review-hp-lp2465-part11.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176144
Both are the LP2465.

On a side note, I've already ordered it, it should be here in 2 days. I hope mine isn't DOA *crossesfingers*

nstgc · « **Reply #26 on:** August 20, 2010, 08:14:24 PM »

I was refering to the Dell U2211H.

[edit] Well, anyway, there seems to be a good chance that I will buy that HP monitor. 1920x1200 are hard to come by, as are IPS screens that won't bleed me dry.

Those are recertified. Does anyone know how many they have in stock (ruffly...meaning "do they have more than one").

xShadow · « **Reply #27 on:** August 20, 2010, 08:49:11 PM »

Quote from: nstgc on August 20, 2010, 08:14:24 PM

I was refering to the Dell U2211H.

[edit] Well, anyway, there seems to be a good chance that I will buy that HP monitor. 1920x1200 are hard to come by, as are IPS screens that won't bleed me dry.

Those are recertified. Does anyone know how many they have in stock (ruffly...meaning "do they have more than one").

I think they've been selling them since January of this year, because that's when the first review for it was. So, I'm pretty sure they have at least a few more left? No real way to tell, honestly. I'm just saying chances are good they have more if they've been selling them for this long already (where the hell are they getting them though, seriously...). This is good, because chances are your first one may come DOA. *Stitches fingers into a permanent cross...*

nstgc · « **Reply #28 on:** August 20, 2010, 10:30:06 PM »

I may have changed my mind anyway. 13ms is one cycle, and would likely leave noticeable ghosting. Of course, you'll be hard pressed to find a reasonably priced IPS monitor with a faster response rate.

sdedalus83 · « **Reply #29 on:** August 21, 2010, 05:49:10 AM »

Quote from: nstgc on August 20, 2010, 10:30:06 PM

I may have changed my mind anyway. 13ms is one cycle, and would likely leave noticeable ghosting. Of course, you'll be hard pressed to find a reasonably priced IPS monitor with a faster response rate.

The HP ZR24W can be found for around $400 new, and is marginally faster than the lp2465. Although with the way PVA works, a slightly faster IPS screen might have a more noticeable ghosting effect anyway.

nstgc · « **Reply #30 on:** August 22, 2010, 12:47:08 AM »

I'm currently bouncing around on whether I should buy the LP2465. The big advantage is the price for $250 (that inludes service plan and shipping) I should get a nice monitor. My current monitor's back light is slowly dying (every 3 days I have to decrease the brightness setting by 2 or it just flickers off and on). It currently can take 35 and 0 isn't completely dark. I will need a new monitor. Do I need an IPS monitor with 2.3 Mpix and 500 cd/m^s? Hell no.

I know I can't afford an HD monitor that costs over $300 because to maintain my computer's ability to use that screen for games, I'll need a new graphics card. Actaully I can't truly afford that. Anything more than a $150 monitor and no new gfx card is both reckless and selfish given the economy. Fortunately I don't have any dependents, I don't eat out, and I don't have a real life (all of which save money).

I'm going to take some screen shots of some dark areas in games and videos to see if they show any artifacting on an iMac. That will likely be the deciding factor. That will tell me with a high degree of certainty if TN panels are good enough with their 262k colors (2^18, 6b per channel). Actually, is that number right? if a TN panel only displayed 18b color I would think it would be more noticeable. Any way we'll (meaning me) see.

[edit] Actually I should be able to do 2 things. One is take said image and use Gimp to see if those areas are indeed the samew color. Second I'm sure I can find a test pattern (color wheel won't work though due to my personal ability to distinguish colors).

[edit2] I could also change my gamma curve. Not the number, but actual curve. shift all colors up by a constant so dark areas aren't dark.

xShadow · « **Reply #31 on:** August 25, 2010, 07:48:33 PM »

Well, I received my monitor yesterday.

So, it has a tiny crack on the corner and a few smudges on the frame, but outside of this I would actually say that mine shipped relatively well. The picture quality is great, too.

On the other hand, it has 2 dead pixels.

I'm kind of considering whether or not returning it would be the right thing to do. I know I said originally that I wanted to avoid dead pixels like the plague to be to be honest the only way I managed to find them was to put a completely white (full screen) image up. Even then, I had to look pretty hard. One is in the upper right, one is in the upper left (not quite in the corner, just in that general area). Since I can't possibly tell that they're there unless I put the white image up in fullscreen, I'm seriously considering whether they're that big of a deal. Outside of those dead pixels, it has 22.6k hours on it, but only 1.3k of those are backlight hours (not sure how much that is).

The reason I'm not just returning it is because these tend to come so badly shipped that the shape mine is in happens to be somewhat of a miracle, and (like I said) I can't really tell that those dead pixels are there, because they're so tiny, and hard to locate.

Other than the dead pixels, I don't really regret this purchase at all. Quite frankly, the screen space I now have is absolutely insane, the picture quality is great (albeit a little weird; I notice that there's some kind of minor... "rainbow effect"; I can't really say what it is, but it kinda looks... like there are small octagons everywhere? I can't place my finger on it. It's not a con, but it's something I'll have to get used to, as I have not seen it on any other monitors I've had thus far).

Oh, and I also had a few gray stuck pixels in the lower left, but some light rapping with the knuckle got those working.

So, whaddaya guys think, return it or not? I'm leaning towards keeping it, simply because I can't really tell that they're there in any normal operation, but I dunno. TBH the gray stuck pixels that I fixed bothered me a LOT more than those dead pixels ever would, prolly. *Shrug*

nstgc · « **Reply #32 on:** August 25, 2010, 09:04:41 PM »

how do you know how many hours a monitor has. I'd like to check mine.

fohfoh · « **Reply #33 on:** August 25, 2010, 09:19:59 PM »

Your monitor sounds like it's 2nd hand. At least in the way that you describe it.

pietra · « **Reply #34 on:** August 25, 2010, 09:21:42 PM »

I also am a bit wondering what monitor to get since this CRT just doesn't cut it. I would like to know how good LG is?

I was looking at something like this: http://www.lg.com/uk/it-products/monitors/LG-led-monitor-W2486L.jsp

xShadow · « **Reply #35 on:** August 25, 2010, 10:25:03 PM »

Quote from: fohfoh on August 25, 2010, 09:19:59 PM

Your monitor sounds like it's 2nd hand. At least in the way that you describe it.

It kind of is. It's a recertified product. I pay much less in exchange for having maybe a few things wrong with it. Go find the link sdedalus gave to it, and then read the reviews. You'll see what I mean.

Edit:

Quote from: nstgc on August 25, 2010, 09:04:41 PM

how do you know how many hours a monitor has. I'd like to check mine.

I just went into the monitor's options.

Edit2: Actually, I think I'll probably get a replacement. I want this thing to be perfect (and I found a third dead pixel; again, it's almost invisible, but... it's still there! *Quotes Gohan*)

nstgc · « **Reply #36 on:** August 27, 2010, 12:45:17 AM »

How is the ghosting?

xShadow · « **Reply #37 on:** August 27, 2010, 01:12:14 AM »

If you mean ghosting from gaming, I've played both League of Legends and Wolfenstein ET on this and I didn't see anything that bothered me.

I also played a little Dragon Age on it, and I played a few battles in it. I'm not 100% sure what ghosting looks like (all I know is that it's like a burned-in image, I guess? all I've seen it on is my friend's projector screen), but I didn't see anything wrong when I exited. Wolfenstein ET is also a pretty fast-paced game, and I didn't see anything wrong when I exited that, either. I guess there wasn't any ghosting? *Shrug*

Anyway, apparently Newegg charges return shipping. 40 dollars in this case? (wtf?)

So... I think I'm just going to keep it, because 3 dead pixels out of millions isn't really worth returning this monitor for (especially when I can't tell they're there). If something goes seriously wrong with it, I'll probably get a replacement but I think I can deal with this much.

nstgc · « **Reply #38 on:** August 27, 2010, 01:51:55 AM »

I think I'll pay the extra $100 and get a ZR24W. 5ms (gtg), 1920x1200, 400 nits, 24", IPS...$400

I added up my expenses as well as projected income. I think I can afford the Monitor. Also, I don't have to get a 5770. I could just get a 5670. It would be good enough.

xShadow · « **Reply #39 on:** August 27, 2010, 02:51:22 AM »

Quote from: nstgc on August 27, 2010, 01:51:55 AM

I think I'll pay the extra $100 and get a ZR24W. 5ms (gtg), 1920x1200, 400 nits, 24", IPS...$400

I added up my expenses as well as projected income. I think I can afford the Monitor. Also, I don't have to get a 5770. I could just get a 5670. It would be good enough.

That depends on what you need to do. I can tell you right now that playing Dragon Age on 1920x1200 with everything maxed out (aa, everything) pushes my 5850 to its very limits. As in, I lag a bit at some parts. So, I dunno how you'd do with that graphics card...

By the way, 400$ is 190$ more, not 100$ more... a bit of a difference, there.

All in all, dead pixels or not, I'd have to say I'm pretty satisfied with this thing. It looks amazing.