Need Reccomendation and Advice on buying a LCD Widescreen Mo

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ladic

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Jun 19, 2003
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Hi guys, I need advice on buying a Widescreen LCD Monitor.
I currently have a DELL 19" or 20" monitor (Cant remember exact size), its a regular crt, the screen is not Flat, as it is a 7 year old monitor. I am Looking for change it for a widrescreen LCD monitor witha sharper Image.
I also have a Radeon X800pro AGP 256mb Video Card, so I can handle lots of resolutions.

Ok, now I mostly use my PC for gaming, will owning a widescreen affect my games? and what about playing OLD games which are not natively widescreen.

So what information and advice can you guys give me?
And what is a recommended monitor? Not too expensive, and I would like the size to be about 19".

All info u can give me Ill appreciate.
 
There was a large group test of 20-21" widescreen LCD's in the May 2006 issue of PCPro.

In this test the Acer AL2032WA got the best result in the gaming tests. But at £376 it might be a bit too expensive compared to 19" displays.

The Phillips 200W6 (£289) also got an recommendation, but this screen did show a slight level of "ghosting". Although the reviewer didn't find this to be any distraction in game playing, you might however find it annoying. It is at least a very attractive and good all-round widescreen LCD.
 
Thats the monitor that i have and i have absolutly no ghosting in any game i play, Counter Strike Source, WoW, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, and so far all of the games that I play support wide screen resolutions, it's awesome you won't be dissapointed in the monitor. i'm running it on a 7900 GT video card
 
Should be all of the above, since the CRT isn't a flat screen your image is slightly distorted, also your eyes will love you for making the switch to an LCD.
 
If you never will use the monitor to watch movies, are you then really sure that you want to have a 19" widescreen monitor?

Remember that a widescreen LCD screen has less pixels than a regular 4:3 screen. There is also much more displays available in the 4:3 segment to choose from, many that have been developed specific for gaming purpose. Widescreen displays on the other hand is often developed with the purpose of watching movies as well.

In fact, for your use I would rather go for a 4:3 display. LG and NEC is among many that have very good LCD panels for gaming available.

Also remember that the max resolution of the viewsonic 19" widescreen gives slightly less total pixels than a 4:3 LCD, and also that if the game don't support 1440x900 (the resolution of the viewsonic), then I assume that you would have to play the game in 1152x864 (or even worse 1024x768) since you don't have enough physical vertical pixels to support 1280x1024 resolution.

(This of course requires that the widescreen display supports using these lower 4:3 resolution, something I don't have any knowledge of)

As for refresh rate, this have no impact on LCD displays, because LCD pixels are either on or off, and they only change when the picture change. Unlike on CRT displays where the pixels are made up of phosphor points that dies after a very short time, and needs to be kept alive by a refresh cycle. But since windows requires that a value for refresh rate is entered, the LCD panels usually comes with a recommended value (usually 60 or 75hz)

Ps. if you still insist on a 19" widescreen display, then the viewsonic seems to be a very good display at a reasonable price.
 
I have a Dell 2405 and IMO widescreen is perfect for Gaming/Browsing/Homework...
You can get two documents easily readable splitsceen with toolbars, browsing is better, and image is great.
I did not think this till I got one tho.
 
I have a Dell 2405 and IMO widescreen is perfect for Gaming/Browsing/Homework...
You can get two documents easily readable splitsceen with toolbars, browsing is better, and image is great.
I did not think this till I got one tho.
Click to expand...

I agree that a widescreen LCD is very desireable, and can be very good for gaming. I myself is drooling on the new coming Dell 2407 which is almost identical to the one you've got (but it also supports HDCP, which means it will be better suited for HD material when it arrives). At 1920x1200 pixels this is definitivly desireable...

I think however that a 19" widescreen might be a bit to small since their max resolution is around 1440x900. But if you don't mind playing games in lower resolution than whats possible on a 4:3 screen, then the suggested Viewsonic is a very interesting model.

I would however invested $150 more and got myself the suggested 20" Acer widescreen as a minimum, since this supports 1680x1050 pixels...

and yes, this would be great for homework....
 
One thing that scares me is what will happen to my old games that dont supports Wide Screen?
Anyone that owns one care share what happens in those cases? what will they look like? are the images gonna look fugly all streched out?
 
Get an EIZO S2110W if you can afford it.EIZO is in a class of its own all the other monitors are inferior to an EIZO.Just see it beside any panel and you will notice the difference.
 
Get an EIZO S2110W if you can afford it.EIZO is in a class of its own all the other monitors are inferior to an EIZO.Just see it beside any panel and you will notice the difference.
Click to expand...

The EIZO might be the Ferrari of LCD displays, but it is so much more expensive than other displays of the same size. For that extra money I would rather have upgrade to a bigger Dell Screen at any time, such as the very "affordable" Dell 2405. And besides, in the group test I referred to in my first post here, it even came out slightly worse than the much less expensive Acer, Phillips and even Viewsonic. For use where accurate colours is a must, such as it DTP applications, it is unparalleled. But this is besides what most home users need anyhow.

But these are all in a totally different class than what Ladic had in mind (at what he want to pay for) in the first place, so please let us focus on 19" LCD's as he wants to buy, or recommend something that are only slightly more expensive (such as an inexpensive 20/21").

I would recommend you to check out the Widescreen Gaming Forum at http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/

Also check out this guys experience and thoughts about widescreen gaming. I found them interesting:
http://www.mattbrett.com/archives/2006/01/widescreen-gaming-woes/
 
If you are looking for value and pretty good performance, try the Westinghouse 19w4.

It's $300 at Best Buy.

I had the 17" wide screen Westy for about a year, paid $225 for it. It was marvelous. I had a HD tuner in my box, and locally broadcast HD programs looked fabulous.

Also, your basic DVD movies showed up well, also.

The 19' model does not have speakers, but the marketing specs say it is 8 ms response rate versus 15 ms for the 17" model

Add a couple hundred dollars, and get the 19" Westy with speaker and builtin TV tuner.
 
thanks for the info, but I dont really need more speakers, last year I bought some 5.1 logitech with THX, and dont need the vid card eaither, I have a widscreen HDTV in my room.
I need the monitor basically for gaming only and doing homework.

I went to COMPUSA on the weekend and Saw this HP monitor and fell in love:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=333487&pfp=BROWSE

It's $650, considerable more than I wanted to pay. This MIGHT be an option if I ever find a form of financing for this thing, OTHERWISE I'm sticking for a Monitor in the $300 Range.
 
If you have a local Best Buy, I still think you should check out the 19" wide screen Westy.

Ask the dudes who work there what they think of it.

That Logitech 5.1 set is super, if it's the one I'm thinking of.

I want the Logitech Z-5450 set, with the wireless rear speakers. I got a problem with stringing wires for rear speakers.
 
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