Need a new monitor (want HD quality and Widescreen) - Help!

[kyosuke]

Hey Everyone, Been awhile since I've had a question, but now it's time to buy a new monitor here.

I am looking for a monitor that is probably widescreen as I do watch a few movies on my PC since Netflix rocks like that! and I do some gaming as well.

I am also looking for something that supports High-Definition, as I am pretty sure I will be upgrading to an HD graphics card in the next year or so, so want to be well prepared.

If I were just looking for a regular monitor, I'd probably grab a Viewsonic or Samsung whatever... but since I've never bought a widescreen monitor, not an HD capable one, I have no idea what to look for. I know i want/need good response time for gaming, but as far as what else, I have no idea.

Any help would be great and much thanks in advance!!

 

[jaguarskx]

The minimum HDTV resolution is 720p, but the new standard seems to be 1080i and 1080p.

720 = 1280 x 720
1080 = 1920 x 1080

i = interlaced
p = progress

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies will support all of the above mentioned resolutions. Any widescreen LCD monitor will play back 720p movies, however not all will correctly play back 1080i/p resolution movies.

22" LCDs maxes out at 1680 x 1050. That's lower than 1920 x 1080 for 1080i/p which means image quality will be degraded because the movie would need to be scaled down.

You will need to buy a 24" LCD monitor which has a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 and will be able to play back 1080i/p resolution movies without having to scale down the video.

All 24" LCD monitors used to be 8-bit panels of some sort whether the are P-MVA, S-PVA or S-IPS (or their derivatives). Basically they give great image quality, color accuracy, and viewing angles (amongst others), but they are relatively expensive. These monitors are typically at least $600 and have response times of 6ms. S-IPS are higher end panels, and LCD monitors usings these will start off near the $1000 mark.

Recently, 6-bit TN panels have started to invade the 24" LCD market. They are not as good as 8-bit panels but they start at about $500 and have 5ms response times.

There will be 20" LCD released later this year that will have 1920 x 1200 native resolution, but I don't know if they will use 6-bit or 8-bit panels.

All 22" LCD monitors use 6-bit TN panels.

Now it all boils down to how much you can spend and how much image quality you are willing to give up.

Less than $400 = 22" LCDs with response times as fast as 2ms.

Less than $600 = 6-bit 24" LCD with 5ms response time.

At least $600 = 8-bit 24" LCD with 6ms response time.

 

[LordConrad]

I have the LG L246WP-BN. It has 8-bit color, hence the 8ms response time (5ms or less usually means 6-bit color). I have my PS3 running on it at 1080p, looks completely awesome! It doesn't have composite or S-Video connectors like some other panels; but it does have HDMI (with DVI adapter), Component, and D-Sub. It also has a PC Audio out connector on the side that outputs audio from HDMI. I was willing to do without the "low-end" video connectors because of the excellect timings this monitor has, It has the lowest "input lag" of any monitor in it's class as well as a better than average response time. The 8-bit color, 1080p, and great panel timings = awesome gaming.

 

[prodystopian]

You may want to be more specific about what your budget is so that people may give more accurate suggestions. That being said, I just bought a 24" Dell a month ago and it is fantastic. I watch quite a lot of movies and HDTV on it and it is great.

Another note about HD resolutions, it is quite difficult to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at such a small screen size (less than 40"). Also, HDTV usually comes in at 720p anyway so gettiing full 1080p isn't required by any means. However, if you are a videophile (or can't afford the higher resolutions) and want to minimize scaling it is a nice feature.