I have been looking at monitors lately as I think mine sucks (retardedly expensive samsung monitor from 2007). I noticed that I dislike all separate monitors (as ugly as flatscreen TV's) but love the crispness of the modern laptop screens. Anyone knows stuff about this?
Hmm I run a Samsung T220, and I am happy with it (1680x1050) it is overprices stylised nonsense though, with dynamic contrast on it is fairly sharp. Cant remember if it has HDMI but I only use DVI (from PC) and VGA from my xbox 360 anyway.
I have a Samsung like that as well. Stylish but I don't like the screen quality. It's not the resolution but it just seems as murky as most modern TV's. I mainly want a new one for pixel-arting and the odd gaming, money is not an issue.
Personally, I'd get a CRT monitor for pixel-art.
With LCDs, the colors change too much depending on viewing angle. Pixels with the same RGB can look very different colors depending on whether they're at the top or bottom of the screen even. They're fine for most things (even photo editing and other graphics stuff), but it just sucks for pixel-art.
lol, I mean the actual screen, not the design. Modern laptop screens are really nice and crisp, separate monitors seem like small versions of them crappy TV's with grey blacks and all kinds of grainyness going on in darker parts.
I would think the best solution would be to go into a big electronics store and look at all the screens. Sometimes they let you play with them so you can see how they look under pixel art conditions.
@Sketchy : I still prefer CRT for qaulity too, but try finding them for sale now . My old monitors resolution was better than my samsung (1600 x 1200) and the colour contrast was a million times better.
CRT is no longer in fashion I'm afraid - I also think the qaulity of CRT TV's was better, even my friends Sony 50 inch HD monster TV looks like poop if your any closer than the other side of the room (grainy as hell and poor edge definition).
when i used my sony bravia as a monitor, i loved it.
but it was a monstrocity of a thing sitting on my desk .
i love my acer though. inexpensive lcd monitors too.
but dont go into a store and just hate them all. mess with the settings, tint, contrast, color, etc, god only knows the store doesnt know wtf theyre doing or how many other people have touched the settings.
LCD is excellent for high resolutions and size and are very energy efficient but can suffer from speed if you get a slow one.
CRT is far superior for pixel art because they have no pre-defined resolution unlike LCD which are quite inaccurate at displaying anything but it's native resolutions. CRT also have better color because their color depth is unlimited as is their resolution capacity (you can push one to it's damage point if you turned safe resolutions off. Problem is, they're bulky, colors on higher resolutions tend to bleed in my experience, and are very much energy hogs.
If I had to suggest something specific to you Hayo, I'd say CRT. Yes, they are a dying style but they are excellent for low resolution gaming and pixel art. Two things I think peak your interest. I could be wrong though.
CRTs also have a natural resolution so to speak, there is a colour mask directing elctrons to the appropiate phosphors.
My old monitors manufacturer recommened max resolution was 1600x1200, a lot of consumer LCD's you buy cant go that high. Cheap CRTs bundled with ready made PC's gave them a bad rep, a lot of people have seen no better. Also its usually said LCD's can not represent black very well.
I do prefer that my LCD is not bathing me in so much radiation though
Thanks for all the suggestions. I have 3 CRT monitors here that indeed look a lot better, but they really take up a lotta space, give me a headache and are likely to give you the big C.
Kick the refresh rate up above 60Hertz and you might see your headache subside some. Even though we can only see 36fps, a lot of flickering below 60hertz can still give us a headache.
Originally Posted by ..::hagar::.. Just dont buy an acer, they are poop and will last 14 months, just enough to get out of gaurantee period.
I don't know why people keep bashing Acer. I have an Acer monitor (been using it for 5 years. No pixel errors, no problems what so ever), an Acer PDA and 2 Acer laptops. No problems with any of these things. And one of my laptops is almost 10 years old.
My acer monitor packed up after about 16 months (it still works, it just turns more progessively yellow as you use it, until the whole screen is tinted). An acer laptop we have at home also has problems with the screen (its quite old mind and it also flexes when you pick it up!) but my toshiba laptop and my asus netbook have been abused (A 1.5kg transformer fell on the toshiba's keyboard) and they just keep going, after putting all the keys back on.
Never had problems with any other brand bar Acer and Bush TV's (TV's for my SNES when I was a kid). Put it this way, I will never buy an Acer/Bush product again.
acer is one of the best inexpensive user rated brands of lcd monitors.
90%+ of users rate it 4 or 5 stars and thats on almost every model.
and the ones that rate it 1-3 are mostly retarded reviews with nitpicky problems. dead pixel this. design that.
my acer has been rock solid for almost 3 years now. only cost about 200$ at the time. would be about 100$ now. if it ever dies, i will definitely just get another one.
Yeah, my old acer laptop monitor had serious display problems suddenly. Might've been because I was backpacking with it. This new one works great after 2 years, though.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I have had a bad run in with them and I know of others personally too - I dont call a whole yellow tinted display as nitpicking - I call it broken . It gradually tints more and more as its on until everything has a very strong tint of yellow, and surprise surprise it only started doing this after gaurantee ran out. Acer laptop at home has serious display problems on its own display but works fine on a monitor.
Laptop wise its a thinkpad or Toshiba for me, my toshiba is almost 5 years old now and still going strong (and I have writ reports in the bath, dropped it (well slid off a chair), dropped a large heavy item on it in my lab etc etc). My asus netbook is a tough blighter too, its in my bag everyday and gets used pretty much everyday to gather data and write little documents, very happy with it .
I generally trust Philips, Samsung and Panasonic. Sony can also be hit and miss for me (well modern stuff anyway - my Sony amp is from 70s and still works )
That seems to be the way things are going these days - people want stuff to be cheap and convenient - nobody cares about quality any more.
It's like music has gone from vinyl to CD to mp3 - getting progressively worse in quality.
However, just because CRT is no longer fashionable, doesn't mean you can't still find them easily enough. Just type "CRT monitor" into google shopping, and you'll have plenty to choose from.
Even a fairly cheap CRT will beat just about any flatpanel monitor on color reproduction, and that's all you really need for pixelart - high resolutions, refresh rates etc, are pointless.
Having said that, since CRT is now mostly used by professionals rather than consumers, there are still a lot of very high end models available.
I have a Dell monitor, it's 22inch non HD, so it's not as nice as Adams, but it's a nice crisp display and the colours are decent. I think Dell monitors in general are very good and used by a lot of professional artists.
I use an Hp w1907 and aside from scratching it when I was moving, it's never given me any problem. It also matches everything on my desk, so thats always a plus.
Well I have just fixed my Acer AL1916W monitor, and it is a very clear monitor (i would say its beats my Samsung T220 for its crispness) to give its credit although it does have an warm tone, which I kind of like to be honest.
The problem was some soldering on a surface mount ribbon connector that goes from motherboard to the screen connector board. All I have done is resolder this connector (electronics is my hobby and profession) and touch wood its working nicely. The soldering was sub par around these connectors. Reading up a lot of people have had similar problems with colour problems, and I guess they are all due to sub par soldering.
I do not advise anyone else does what I have done - and I am not responsible if you get zapped
Dual screen goodness now
I also agree with Sketchy, I still use Vinyl a lot. I simply can not stand MP3 - syllabance on symbols drives me mad.