Planar PV174

[Guest]

Well I finally decided to go out and buy a pair of Planar PV174's and run them with my multi monitor video card (Leadtek Geforce2MX DH) and I must say the image quality is outstanding and I have noticed NO ghosting.

I saw a lot of talk from people around here about the Compaq 7020 and how great it is and wanted to let you know there are great alternatives to it. I'm a little curious if the compaq reps got a bit carried away here in their posting

In any case I could not see paying 799 bux a piece to buy two compaq 7020's at 17" so i went another route and got these monitors at like 593 bux a piece at 17.4" with a dell coupon code at dell.com (list was 649 but has gone up to 699 and now 749 at dell). I couldn't be happier with them as they can be used in portrait mode or landscape mode with the Pivot Pro 6.0 software that is included.

Unfortunately my video card doesn't see each monitor seperately so when i use the software to pivot the screen I get some funky results. I'm looking to upgrade to the new GEFORCE 4 4600 that supports dual DVIs and can manage each monitor seperately (hence allowing pivot pro to do its job correctly).

In any case for web browsing and daily operations these monitors work great and I will be testing them with games shortly to see if there is any problems... but i highly doubt it.

Don't fall on the compaq bandwagon.. there are other choices out there. Incidently I was using an NEC 20" 2010 Xtraview Flat screen and these screens on the planar blow them away in terms of well everything except size!

I'll keep you updated.

Andrew

 

[Guest]

#1: Framerates in most games on the Geforce2 MX will be low enough that you won't see ghosting.

#2: Using the dual-head also burdens your video card/cpu more than normal, causing even more slowdown resulting in less ghosting.

While I agree that the PV174's are good flat panels, most gamers have not and will not be happy with one because of the amount of ghosting at higher framerates. If you are not looking to do graphics work or lots of gaming then they do make a great solution.

Don't be surprised if you get heavy amounts of ghosting in games with the Geforce 4.

Oh, and Compaq doesn't need to pay people to post great things about their flat panels on forums - proud owners (like myself) are more than happy to do the work for them.

 

[flamethrower205]

Amen to that last sentence! There was a review of the Pv174, and it got 2/5 rating- not good. Honestly, I do believe u will see ghosting w/ a GF4, but do enjoy if u like them- LCD's are subjective, u may like it more than another. Hmm, I still don't get ghosting even when my vid card runs CS at a few thousand FPS- what the dilio?

Only if you let me see the Umpa Lumpa- Homer Simpson.

 

[Guest]

I don't do a lot of heaving gaming like doom, unreal, or any of those games. I am more into the RPG/Strategy genre of games. However many people complain in general with LCD monitors that they see ghosting on web pages and from mouse trails. This simply does not occur on the planars.

I'm curious to know your background in working with Planar. The Planar has a 25 ms refresh time. I trust you are speaking from experience with the ghosting?

Are you also saying that the Compaq 7020 will not have any ghosting with a GEFORCE 4? I don't recall what the Compaq refresh rate is but I believe its around the same 25 ms?

Perhaps a safe statement would be rather, "most gamers will not be as happy with an LCD over a CRT"

Oh, and I never said Compaq had to pay anyone. Its just a shame that so many people blindly pay 200 dollars more when they don't have to for a product that may be over-hyped for their needs. Perhaps a careful price/performance analysis should be made first.

 

[Guest]

A 2 out of 5? Where was this review? I've read nothing but good things of the Planar brand and the PV174.

 

[flamethrower205]

Some people care more about price, others performance, and others price/performance. My main concern is performance. That is why I have a TFT7020. Also, do consider that many people here are students and get discounts, thus the TFT7020 actually costs $645 (that's what I got it at). Also, 25ms response time is comprised of rise time+fall time. One may be more noticeable than the other. Also, it is pretty well known that w/ games such as RPG which are typically flat, ghosting really isn't an issue (I'm not quite sure why). On my friend's old laptop RPG even looks good. Also, sometimes the response time can be fudged, and also different technologies will act in different ways. Remember, your monitor is what u stare at; what affects your eyes, and thus I find it is ok to pay a little extra for a better monitor which will cause less eye strain.

Only if you let me see the Umpa Lumpa- Homer Simpson.

 

[SDLeMire]

The PV174 I had didn't have a ghosting problem in general use, just in gaming, and that is still a subjective thing as far as I'm concerned. I have seen plenty of posts from people claiming they don't see ghosting with the PV174 and I of course think they're blind or stupid, but the fact remains that there's other factors and not everyone notices the same things.

Also, I wouldn't pay much attention to that review as the main gripes they seem to have had were the speakers, OSD and location of ports which imo are the least important things in a monitor. They actually rated the image quality better than most overall.

 

[flamethrower205]

Why, everyone everyone uses their LCD speakers rather than their 4.1 system w/ subwoofer j/k That is the thing though, ghosting in gaming- I do play a lot of games, and certainly are about that. One must choose the LCD according to what they need- ie, a secretary that just ypes can use a 300$ LCd and be perfectly satisfied. It all depends. We just reccomend the TFT7020 b/c it can handle gaming, and is excellent all around.

Only if you let me see the Umpa Lumpa- Homer Simpson.

 

[Guest]

So flame. Obviously you speak from experience, and I know you have a crt monitor so you can compare. I think you have mentioned this before but do you use your lcd for gaming as well as the graphics and/or cad work you do( yes I believe you now. YOu know what Im refering to. j/k), or do you use your crt. Aswell, do you use you Quad DCC for gaming?
If you do game on your lcd, what kind of performance do you get. Are you claiming there isint any ghosting, or a very minimal amount.

To Forbes: I dont now what experience you have had with purchasing and using different monitors, but it might be good to mention what your basing your opinions on so we can get a better picture of where you coming from. Have you delt with a monitor that has had ghosting, or used a good crt? I would be interested in knowing what your basing your calls on or decisions on. YOu seem to have a strong opinion that you can get a monitor that is equally as good as the TFT7020, but for much cheaper.

If we start backing up our statements with some cold hard facts we might all get something out of this and/or find out about possible mis conceptions that we have.

ITs hard to know for sure, like it was mentioned earlier some people notice ghosting more then others, and not everyone knows what to look for. Maybe we should state if thats something we notice.


Just some food for thought.



Last note: If I where to pay 200 more for a TFT7020, I strongly believe I wouldnt blindly be paying more for nothing. I have never read so many positive reviews on a lcd or seen so much positive user feed back on one. I have tried to find negative reviews on this lcd and had no luck.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Render_effects on 02/08/02 09:24 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[flamethrower205]

Yes, I used to use my CRT for graphics (3 D Studio Max, and previously Bryce 3D, Truespace, and Trispectives- ah the good old days), some CAD( Autocad), and a ton of gaming (I'm so experienced w/ Half-Life I can now beat it in a matter of hours). For all of these, I use my Quadro DCC, which pulls a lot more FPS than a GF3, especially in the pro apps or when dealing w/ OpenGL. In 3d s max, how many FPS I pull really depends on the scene complexity- anywhere between a few hundred FPS and a slide show (that is if I have like something 3x as complex as final fantasy which usually doesn't happen unless I feel like being crazy and using a few billion polygons just on the model's nose). As for games, which I believe are the main concern of people w/ LCD's, I often play Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, half Life, Counter Strike, some Quake 3, RTCW, and from time to time Jane's Combat Simulations (the y2k ones). In these games I get very high FPS, certainly over 100, and have not seen any ghosting. When I initially got my LCD, I played UT and HL and CS for an entire day trying to find ghosting, etc., but to no avail (which certainly is a good thing). All I can say is that after 4 hours of UT on an LCD like this, u really are pumped! Actually, to be honest I was considering the PV174, but am happy I haven't gotten it b/c this ghosting stuff and what not. I am very satisfied w/ my TFT7020- the only thing I will warn u about, but this basically applies to all new LCD's is that the brightness can get a little too much, ie when typing on ms word white does seem kinda bright. Luckily u can just set brightness to very low setting and then just tell Windows not to display as much gamma etc. What I also noticed (yeah, I look at this things cause I test something when I get it to the limit) is that on my freind's LCD which has a response time of roughly 50ms, the mouse does have a considerable trail behind it, and turns a greyish color when moving. This really doesn't happen on the TFT7020. BTW, has anyone here by any chance had the opportunity to see the 17.4" LCD listed on www.formac.com (u can also use it for PC)? Seems like a planar type 17.4" to me. They are quite popular- iiyama seems to be using something like that too.

Only if you let me see the Umpa Lumpa- Homer Simpson.

 

[Guest]

I just purchased the Planar PV150 (same specs as the PV174, just the 15" version). I have to say this monitor looks very nice. Viewing angles are more than adequate, contrast and brightness are exceptional, colors look well but not over saturated, text is very sharp, and it even does portrait mode.

HOWEVER, the fujitsu MVA panel used in this display performs very poorly in fast action games. The blurring/ghosting is terrible. I even removed my Geforce3 and replaced it with my old Radeon LE to see if that would slow the frames per second down enough to minimize ghosting. While the fps did drop considerably, the ghosting remained the same. I now believe and have read many many opinions that agree that MVA panels are just not good for fast action gaming. I can say this because I had just returned a KDS Rad-5 (not an MVA panel) because its viewing angles were too limited for my liking. The Rad-5 is rated at the same 25ms total response time as the PV150 and PV174. The Rad-5 had almost NO ghosting. It was not perfect but it was much better than the MVA panel (in terms of ghosting). I hate to return the PV150 because it looks SO good except for the ghosting but I am not sure that I can or should get used to it. One other area that ghosting is very noticeable is on websites that have white text on a dark background. When scrolling up/down, the white text takes on the color of the background to some degree. Of note is that black text on a light colored background looks quite decent.

In summary, from my experience and from what I have read, MVA panels seem to excel in many areas but stumble when it comes to ghosting despite the low 25ms response time. Because of this, I will most likely be returning the pv150 and purchasing a non-mva panel with similar specifications. It looks like the Compaq TFT7020 is the favorite gaming LCD of THGC. Does anyone care to confirm/deny that before I make a final decision on what non-mva panel I will purchase? Thanks in advance for any comments readers care to share!

 

[Guest]

If you buy the 7020 you will not be disappointed.

 

[Guest]

I checked out the http://www.formac.com/ site. That LCD is indeed using the fujitsu MVA 17.4" panel. I would be very interested to know if ghosting is a problem on that unit. Perhaps MVA is getting a bad name due to poor implementation on the Planar and others. However, if all MVA panels suffer from the same ghosting problems, the MVA marketing hype about the 25ms response time is very misleading. The http://www.formac.com/ even shows a little flash intro that states "no ghosting". Imagine how pissed off customers are going to be if that display ghosts just as bad as the planars that use the same fujitsu MVA panel.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Eviscerate on 02/13/02 01:16 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[flamethrower205]

One of my freinds is gonna pay the $1200 it costs in France, and then I can laugh at him if it ghosts. We shall see.....

Only if you let me see the Umpa Lumpa- Homer Simpson.