About the PV174

[Arkanis]

I have heard mainly two people complain about its ghosting, and a couple not. I am thinking about getting it, and I want to use it mainly for Morrowind (3d rpg), surfing, and strategy games. Someone on this site even said that the PV174 has a response rate of 50ms...I was wondering how this can be when planar specifies the rise as 15ms and the fall 10ms=25ms. I could see how they could get around it if they said: response time is 25ms...because they didn't add the rise and fall together, but 50ms...that's quite a gap between specifications, and planar is a reputable company, so I am really at a loss for how this could be...Okay, people who own the pv174 and looked at it for a while...is the ghosting that noticeable. I don't care if my games go faster than 35fps (sorry to drudge up an older conflict, but I really don't think 3dfx knew what they were talking about when they put so much emphasis on 60fps...but if your eyes can see it then kudos for you), so at 35fps is this monitor golden or not?

 

[Arkanis]

Okay, I just answered my own question. I went to epinions, amazon, and cnet...i couldn't find any reviews on the planar, but I found out that the planar is exactly the same screen and everything except for it has a DVI out and the Viewsonic VG175 doesn't. Other than that they are identical. So I looked up reviews on these three sites for the viewsonic. I found many of reviews raving how good it looks with 3d games and none for how bad it looks with them...some of them specifically eluding to the response time. I am really at a loss why this site basically is the only I could find that has negative feedback on this monitor (in this department). Go figure.

 

[profjo00]

how mcu hare you goign to buy the monitor for, get a samsung instead or planar. i have heard many bad things about planar...

 

[Arkanis]

Actually it's just this forum that is down on the planar 17 inch...at Ars technica they rave about it...and I think I now know why. There are two versions of that 17.4 inch monitor. One version has only an analog output and really isn't the pv174 model, the other has digital and analog and is. From what i have seen people with only the analog out monitor squak about it and are discontent...I have checked planars site and they made a monitor with inferior stats and response time as opposed to the pv174 which is the better one. So this disparity in opinion has an explanation (IMO).

 

[Arkanis]

It's for 680$ shipped.

 

[Arkanis]

Okay, I did some more research and found another monitor that's exactly the same as the planar 174, and it got rave reviews from professionals who extensively tested it in 3d games. I also found another thing...one of the couple of users who have criticized this piece of hardware heavily happens to have a (laughable) personal vendetta against all MVA monitors, having been raped and abused by one. I think the other couple people were swayed by his opinion (prejudice). I am not naming any names, but this person who can't stand these MVA monitors happens to have been rebutted by a person who knows about MVA monitors (I should say much more) in one of the prior postings. I guess it's true when they say hate clouds the issue.

But again there is one saving grace in this person's argument...that Planar does make an older model that could be mistaken for the PV174 and misconstrued in performance between the two, and so saved by ignorance.

 

[Guest]

Arkanis-
I bought a PV174 2 weeks ago, and have been completely satisfied with the image quality. Ghosting has not been distracting for me - it's imperceptible in 2D and for fast action games such as Serious Sam: SE, it's noticeable but doens't really affect gameplay for me. If you were some professional quake player, this monitor probably isn't for you.

Also, I had the analog version of the Planar 17.4" (model CT1944Z) plugged into the same Radeon 8500 card as the PV174 I ended up keeping. I could hardly tell the difference between the two - so that people who tell you that DVI connection is *much* better than analog connection probably haven't looked at them side by side. I did a blinded comparison with several friends and family and only 2 out of 5 could spot differences in 2D quality. I kept the PV174 because of the thinner bezel and ability to rotate to portrait mode.

JW

 

[profjo00]

i heard that your supposed to reinstall windows to fix all your reg. when getting a new lcd monitor, or atleast thats what ATI tech support told me. so if you have problems wit hthe monitor try to reinstall windows. the Planar is maybe good for the price

 

[SDLeMire]

Ghosting is very much in the eye of the beholder. I used the PV174. Yes, that's the model. It ghosted noticeably on my r8500. End of story. I have no vendetta against anything nor do I let other's opinions cloud my judgement, especially on this forum. There's been negative things about this panel at Rage3D and Anandtech forums also, you're just not looking hard enough. Only thing you can do is try it and see if YOU notice ghosting or if it's acceptable to YOU. It wasn't to me.

 

[flamethrower205]

You know, the way the wiring is done could also affect the ghosting.....

Sig of the week.

 

[profjo00]

flame, what do you mean with wiring?

 

[flamethrower205]

the circuitry.

Sig of the week.

 

[Arkanis]

Okay, I got the monitor, and it is beautiful...but that's not what your waiting to hear. About the response right? Well, here's the response: Unreal looks good at low res, and great at high (no blurring I can tell). Quake same. 3d rpg's same. The one and only time I can tell real ghosting is with this instance...and it's in the OS environment. Moving about windows over each other on certain colors causes some ghosting, but not really much to go nuts about. It's in the games that would cause this discrepency to drive me crazy. It could be my lousy vid card (a savage 4 diamond overclocked...i know i'm getting a new one, and yes unreal and all those other games I listed still had high fps with it) that cause this slower refresh in windows. But other than that it is a nice monitor.

There is another thing...I had a previous post about a Hyundai L70A I got (and returned). It was a bit darker as I got to the top. And I can now say without a doubt that this darkening is not a characteristic of LCDs...that was a horrible monitor, don't anyone think of getting it. With the PV174 I get even distribution of shading and saturation...I heard someone say in a much earlier post that the MVA Fujitsu panel was especially good with this. Well, the PV174 uses one and it's a fine example that bolsters this rumor. But again, I guess all of this is my opinion. But I would recommend it, and if you do get it, make sure you get a side of special sauce to feast with its luscious images. Burp!

 

[flamethrower205]

Hehe, well I'm happy u like your monitor. MVA is impressive in that respect.

Sig of the week.

 

[SDLeMire]

The ghosting thing is somewhat subjective as some are more sensitive to it than others, and video cards do make a difference also. As for the Viewing angles, like I've said before, the PV174 was great with it and the only time I saw uneven contrast was when up close in portrait mode. No LCD is as perfect as a CRT with viewing angles yet I guess, but the PV174 was more than acceptable imo.