Author Topic: LCD Monitor? (Read 1096 times)

IceFire · **on:** October 27, 2005, 04:25:25 pm

Hey folks,

Ok I bought a bright shiney new LCD monitor. A Samsung 173P Plus. The reviews and everything says this monitor is the bee's knee's. As they say....

But my happiness and pleasure has sort of taken a downward turn. Last night I couldn't read the screen anymore...it just hurt my eyes so much. And LCD's are the ones without the refresh rate that makes your eyes tired and the whole deal...I spend days at work looking into LCD's...

Its very bright. I've turned it down but it still is very bright. This forum is VERY hard to read I find because the red and black contrast so much and the white is just searing. I've turned the settings down and run the colour calibration tests but so far I'm just not happy. Even in the middle of a grey day outside it hurts...I've turned the main light in my room on (which I never do) because it helps a bit.

The other thing I see is fair bit of color banding in some DivX, MPG, and AVI videos. Its very strange as its not always there but sometimes it is. Flaws in the videos showing clear or something else? And finally...it streaks. This is a 8ms monitor that does 8 to about 16 ms in most tests so it should be good...but it streaks. I can see it...

I'm running it on DVI...would running it on the old VGA help? Whats the deal here? I really don't want to have to take it back...but I might...

pyro-manic · **Reply #1 on:** October 27, 2005, 04:31:44 pm

Hum. You could get one of those filter screens that are meant to reduce glare, I suppose. But I haven't seen one of those in years...

I can't stand the way LCDs look, personally. I find them too bright, and the quality just isn't as good. I also hate the limited viewing angles.

CP5670 · **Reply #2 on:** October 27, 2005, 04:53:05 pm

You might have gotten an overly bright sample as every LCD's backlight is a little different, but pretty much all LCDs are fairly bright. Although at the same time, that particular model's brightness is not rated all that high, so I don't know. If you have turned the brightness to minimum, there isn't a whole lot else you can do aside from exchanging it for a different sample.

I also find LCDs hard on the eyes for text, especially in the dark, due to their excessive brightness. The brightness is great for games (although it comes with a huge tradeoff in contrast on LCDs), but it sucks for general Windows usage. I get the best of both worlds with my monitor though.

DVI will always be better or the same as VGA on an LCD, so you might as well stick with that.

As for the banding, it's probably a bit of both. If you were on a shadow mask CRT before, the higher brightness and lower contrast probably makes those things stand out more while consumer LCDs have a bit of inherent banding anyway, even 8-bit ones.

8ms doesn't necessarily guarantee no streaking; I can easily some motion blur on 8ms overdrive screens. It depends on how sensitive your eyes are.

ZmaN · **Reply #3 on:** October 27, 2005, 08:37:06 pm

i think windows clear type may make reading easier on the monitor, but it seems really low quality.... My uncle just gave me his old 15" sylvania LCD monitor, and everything on it was fine... I let my sister use it only cause the monitor itself is just wayyyy too small..... doesnt let me jack the resolution of far cry any higher than 1024x768... gay!

as for your monitor not working the way it should, well like i said before, try turning on windows cleartype text, see if it helps. if its too bright, yeah all LCD's are bright so, and well if it doesnt go to your preference, i would suggest taking it back, i mean you shouldnt have to suffer all because u bought a better quality monitor...

ZmaN · **Reply #4 on:** October 27, 2005, 08:41:55 pm

Quote

Originally posted by CP5670
I get the best of both worlds with my monitor though. ..

Oh really? hows that?

CP5670 · **Reply #5 on:** October 27, 2005, 11:51:28 pm

I have one of the final generation extended brightness CRTs with the Superbright Diamondtron tube. It normally looks like a standard aperture grill CRT and I keep it at a relatively low brightness level for Windows usage, but it has this feature called superbright mode. Basically there is a toggle switch on the front that instantly doubles or triples the brightness (there are two settings) and makes it as bright and vibrant as a TV while still having perfect black levels. It makes a tremendous difference in every game. These days every other monitor of any kind looks ugly to me in games because I have gotten so used to seeing this superbright effect.

I need to take a photo of this effect in FS2, which is one of the games that benefits from it the most.

WMCoolmon · **Reply #6 on:** October 28, 2005, 12:05:17 am

Take a screenshot too

CP5670 · **Reply #7 on:** October 28, 2005, 12:25:01 am

It doesn't show up in screenshots, since the superbright thing is added on by the monitor.

Grey Wolf · **Reply #8 on:** October 28, 2005, 01:43:20 am

Pics or ban!

Fury · **Reply #9 on:** October 28, 2005, 03:47:07 am

Quality of the monitor plays a big role. Little over 1.5 years ago I bought Samsung 172X which is an excellent monitor, I can read text just fine even without cleartype antialiasing, and in dark too. On the other hand, I recently bought a second LCD, Acer AL1715sm which is not even close to the quality of my older Samsung as it is quite cheap model.

ZmaN · **Reply #10 on:** October 28, 2005, 09:53:29 am

Quote

Originally posted by CP5670
I have one of the final generation extended brightness CRTs with the Superbright Diamondtron tube. It normally looks like a standard aperture grill CRT and I keep it at a relatively low brightness level for Windows usage, but it has this feature called superbright mode. Basically there is a toggle switch on the front that instantly doubles or triples the brightness (there are two settings) and makes it as bright and vibrant as a TV while still having perfect black levels. It makes a tremendous difference in every game. These days every other monitor of any kind looks ugly to me in games because I have gotten so used to seeing this superbright effect. I need to take a photo of this effect in FS2, which is one of the games that benefits from it the most.

what brand is that monitor??? crazy stuff... my moms CRT 19" has that feature....

Nix · **Reply #11 on:** October 28, 2005, 02:04:06 pm

I hope my 17" sony trinitron doesnt die soon. I have yet to find a lcd that i'm totally pleased with.
Benq's coming out with a 2ms lcd though soon, we'll see how good it will be.
Samsung's Shadow-mask 17 incher is great but the 19 incher sucks big time. Where have all the apeture grille monitors gone?

CP5670 · **Reply #12 on:** October 28, 2005, 05:31:17 pm

Quote

Pics or ban!

I'll see if I can get anything out of my camera a bit later. Might look nice in the celebration thread.

Quote

what brand is that monitor??? crazy stuff... my moms CRT 19" has that feature....

It's a Mitsubishi model (Diamond Pro 2070SB). The superbright mode, razor sharp focus and the unparalleled 140khz horizontal scan rate make it arguably the best monitor ever made under $5k if you can actually manage to find one these days. NEC, HP/Compaq, SGI and iiyama all had monitors with the same Mitsubishi tubes, so your mom might have one of those.

Quote

Where have all the apeture grille monitors gone?

All are long discontinued, unfortunately.

They're only available used and refurbished now. ebay has some really amazing deals for used Sony FW900s though and there is even a guy selling the NEC rebadge of mine there.

Anyway, this is kind of going off topic.

IceFire · **Reply #13 on:** October 28, 2005, 06:15:32 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Mr. Fury
Quality of the monitor plays a big role. Little over 1.5 years ago I bought Samsung 172X which is an excellent monitor, I can read text just fine even without cleartype antialiasing, and in dark too. On the other hand, I recently bought a second LCD, Acer AL1715sm which is not even close to the quality of my older Samsung as it is quite cheap model.

I turned OFF the cleartype and its easier to read than with cleartype on. Cleartype is too blurry actually...

I'm still not 100% pleased but i'm a bit happier today than yesterday.

Admiral LSD · **Reply #14 on:** October 28, 2005, 08:25:04 pm

My school has a whole bunch of 17" Benq LCDs that don't seem too bad to look at for extended periods. The problem there though is that for some reason they run them at 1024x768 instead of the native 1280x1024 which looks like **** and probably would be uncomfortable to look at for extended periods. However, the need to run them at their native res is something you probably already knew about LCDs...

IceFire · **Reply #15 on:** October 28, 2005, 10:15:16 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Admiral LSD
My school has a whole bunch of 17" Benq LCDs that don't seem too bad to look at for extended periods. The problem there though is that for some reason they run them at 1024x768 instead of the native 1280x1024 which looks like **** and probably would be uncomfortable to look at for extended periods. However, the need to run them at their native res is something you probably already knew about LCDs...

First thing I did

Still working on contrast, brightness, gama control settings...trying to make this work. In-games it seems quite liveable....its just windows and surfing around the internet. Some text is so bloody small I can barely read it.

I have or did have 20/16 vision which is better than perfect...but that may be a hinderance as my distance vision is far better than most peoples but my close up is not quite as good. So it may be my eyes that are partly to blame...

I don't want to give up this nice monitor and I don't want the hassel of taking it back...

We'll see if I can make it work.

CP5670 · **Reply #16 on:** October 28, 2005, 11:07:02 pm

You will probably just get used to the brightness if you use it for a while. It should actually be very good for games.

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