Best Monitor for Video Editing / Gaming

[TyGuyy]

As always, i resort to the worlds best forum for asking advice on purchasing good, solid computing equipment. I work for a developer and also do a lot of video freelance projects, and just built myself a nice gaming / video production work station. The last piece of the puzzle i need is a good display monitor.

As of now, I am leaning towards the Dell UltraSharp U2711 because of it's ultra-high resolution display. However, I could easily get 2 1080p monitors for the cost of the u2711.

I was curious what other gaming / video professionals would suggest in terms of monitors that have crisp, clean black levels, good color spectrum, and are not a pain in the ass to calibrate. Color grading and editing photos is important to me, as is a nice solid gaming monitor for my gaming needs.

Curious to read what others suggest. thanks!

t.

 

[photonboy]

Hi,
I have the U2711 and it's overall an awesome monitor. However, many people dislike the anti-gloss coating which is too grainy and sparkly. I think it's the best gaming monitor, but it is expensive.

U2711 warranty:
The Warranty is exceptional (3 years, extension available up to 5 years, replacement shipped immediately & box/paperwork is with it. No cost to me and took TWO DAYS!)

U2711 glitch (in some. new ones should be fine)
(I must warn that my replacement has a glitch internally and it screwed up the resolutions. 1920x1080 sent and the monitor tries to display 1920x1200. More than one glitch like this. I solved this by setting "scale by GPU" on my graphics card which I recommend everyone do anyway. Regardless of resolution in a game, such as 1024x768, 1920x1080 etc the graphics card always sends my monitor its maximum resolution of 2560x1440, so it does all proper scaling on the card. I could have sent the monitor back again, but it works just fine otherwise, besides I still have plenty of time in my Warranty which I think I'll spend $100 to extend from three to five years.)

Other monitors:
Black levels are dictated by the True Contrast Ratio which is 1000:1 on ALL new LCD monitors. Dynamic Contrast Ratio numbers are much higher, but you can basically ignore these numbers completely as they are generally useless. LCD monitors simply don't have black levels anywhere near any CRT monitor or Plasma and never will. DCR again is a generally useless number, especially for pictures (in videos they may reduce the backlight during a very dark scene to minimize the light leakage through the front LCD filter).

We are unlikely to see awesome black levels in flat screen monitors until we switch to OLED which will take a few years.

Despite all the discussion of colour palettes etc, I don't see a big difference between ANY quality monitor though many discussions exist on IPS versus whatever. It's more important in my opinion to:

1) get a quality brand, such as Samsung
2) make sure there are no known issues such as light bleeding, dead pixels etc. always read reviews on THAT monitor.
3) investigate the warranty

My suggestion would be to get two 22" or 23" monitors that are 1920x1080 rather than a single 27" (2560x1440). Avoid 27" monitors of 1920x1080 as the pixel density is too low for my tastes.

I'd probably recommend spending between $250 and $500 per monitor depending on your needs.

Again, while one review might talk about how awesome the colour pallette or whatever is on an expensive monitor I don't think the differences are that obvious to most people.

Glossy (no anti-gloss coating) gives the best picture but ONLY in a very low-light area like the basement. Otherwise you need an anti-gloss coating.

Summary:
- consider two, 22" or 23" monitors @ 1920x1080
- ignore black level info (Dynamic Contrast or True Contrast)
- read reviews, especially to avoid problems (light bleeding, shadows, dead pixels etc)
- the Dell U2711 is a great monitor aside from price and the anti-gloss coating (mostly obvious on white backgrounds).
- anti-gloss or glossy coating (glossy for basement)

 

[TyGuyy]

Hi,
I have the U2711 and it's overall an awesome monitor. However, many people dislike the anti-gloss coating which is too grainy and sparkly.

Black levels are dictated by the True Contrast Ratio which is 1000:1 on ALL new LCD monitors. Dynamic Contrast Ratio numbers are much higher, but you can basically ignore these numbers completely as they are generally useless.

We are unlikely to see awesome black levels in flat screen monitors until we switch to OLED which will take a few years.

Despite all the discussion of colour palettes etc, I don't see a big difference between ANY quality monitor. It's more important in my opinion to:

1) get a quality brand, such as Samsung
2) make sure there are no known issues such as light bleeding, dead pixels etc. always read reviews on THAT monitor.
3) investigate the warranty

My suggestion would be to get two 22" or 23" monitors that are 1920x1080 rather than a single 27" (2560x1440). Avoid 27" monitors of 1920x1080 as the pixel density is too low for my tastes.

I'd probably recommend spending between $250 and $500 per monitor depending on your needs.

Again, while one review might talk about how awesome the colour pallette or whatever is on an expensive monitor I don't think the differences are that obvious to most people.

Glossy (no anti-gloss coating) gives the best picture but ONLY in a very low-light area like the basement. Otherwise you need an anti-gloss coating.

Summary:
- consider two, 22" or 23" monitors @ 1920x1080
- ignore black level info (Dynamic Contrast or True Contrast)
- read reviews, especially to avoid problems (light bleeding, shadows, dead pixels etc)
- the Dell U2711 is a great monitor aside from price and the anti-gloss coating (mostly obvious on white backgrounds). The Warranty is exceptional (3 years, extension available up to 5 years, replacement shipped immediately & box/paperwork is with it. No cost to me and took TWO DAYS!)
- anti-gloss or glossy coating (glossy for basement)

Thanks for the info, photon! Great stuff. Whereas I like to go with solid brands like Dell and Samsung, I do not need to spend the most money to feel like I am getting a solid monitor. I am slowly leaning to (2)-24 inch monitors. On that note, would you recommend Dell or Samsung, or something else? I tend to not pay attention to Sync times and Contrast Ratio's as from my experience in this industry, they are about as use full as T-Mobile calling their wireless spectrum "4G". I tend to ignore cheap marketing tactics.

I also prefer not to have GLOSSY finishes on my monitors. Otherwise I would have bought Apple's Cinema Display years ago. Thanks for the advice!

 

[photonboy]

I recommend writing down a bunch of model numbers from NCIX for monitors that you think fit your needs then start googling reviews.

I found it difficult sometimes to see if a particular model was glossy are not.

I think Amazon often has a lot of good user comments. They also how many people rated the product based on stars. So you might see something like this:

5 stars - 243 people
4 stars - 50 people
3 stars - 33 people
2 stars - 8 people
1 stars - 2 people

I never buy a product if it generally scores low, appears to have an issue (light bleeding) reported by several people, or if I can't find sufficient reviews.