FAQ: Flat monitors

[Delph1]

As these questions come now and then and I have some spare I thought I could create a small FAQ.
There is a Wordlist at the bottom.

Index:

1. LCD vs TFT:
1.1 Active vs Passive matrix
1.2 Different panels
1.3 Who makes panels and in turn who uses whose panels [BETA!]
1.4 Number of colors

2.Size
2.1 17" vs 19"

3. DVI & VGA

4. Recommend brands
4.1 User reviews

Z.Wordlist

1. LCD vs TFT

First of all you have to chose what type of monitor you want.
Both LCD and TFT has a fixed resolution, called "native resolution". This is the resolution the monitor is built for and works best with. An LCD is completely locked to this resolution while a TFT can emulate other resoltuion with varying results. The result is often a blurrier image than the native resolution, but it usually works quite ok

Active vs Passive matrix

LCDs are built differently than TFTs, they use a so called passive matrix, where instead of having one transistor controls each part of the monitor you have a number of transistors at the edge of the screen controlling the rows and columns.

X = transistor

O X X X X X X X X
X|.......................|
X|.......................|
X|.......................|
X|.......................|
X|.......................|
X|.......................|

This then creates the table as in difference to when you have an active matrix where a transistor controls each section:

_____________
| X X X X X X X X|
| X X X X X X X X|
| X X X X X X X X|
| X X X X X X X X|
| X X X X X X X X|
| X X X X X X X X|

This gives the active matrix superior viewing angles but also faster responce times.
LCD should in other words not even be an option if you want to use it as a computer monitor.

Differen panels

Basically we have four different panels today, TN, PIS, MVA and PVA. Where the last is just a further development of the before mentioned. Below you can find a list of the various panels pros and cons, but remember that this is a generalisation and today the panels are becoming more and more alike.

TN

+ Fast
+ Bright
+ Cheap

- Colors
- Viewing angles
- Contrast
- Blackness

IPS

+ Colors
+ Viewing angles

- Blackness
- Contrast
- Expensive

MVA

+ Viewing angles
+ Contrast
+ Blackness

- Responce time
- Colors may float together

PVA has even better blackness and contrast than MVA.

Thus a gamer should go for a TN-monitor, an allround-person an IPS and for the office a *VA-skärm.

Who makes panels and in turn who uses whose panels [BETA!]

(I'm not entirely sure about these so don't hesitate to correct me if I am wrong)

There aren't all that many that make their own TFT-panels. Most companies buys from others.

These make:

Acer
BenQ
LG/Philips
NEC
Samsung
Xerox

These buy (by who):

Hyundai (Samsung)
Sony (several)
Videoseven (Acer)
Viewpia (LG)

Unknown:

Blackview
CTX
Eizo
Shuttle
Viewsonic (Samsung?)
Yusmart

Number of colors

Unfortunately not all monitors have a full color scale but there are plenty of monitors with only 16.2 million colors instead of 16.7 million. This is fairly common with TN-panels and overall this doesn't affect the performance all that much. I.e. if you don't work much with imaging, e.g. Photoshop and then especially photographs. To a gamer or casual user 16.2M doesn't matter all that much, but if you're about to do work with photos you mighht wanna check for monitor with 16.7M instead.

2. Size

If we're talking about a computer monitor I would say we're in the 15-20.1" segment.
15" isn't talked about that much today as it is pretty much phased out to make room for the bigger monitors.
20.1" is in turn rather expensive. If you're lucky you can find a decent monitor for about $550, but then I can rpomise you that the price reflects the performance.

17" vs 19"

17" is the today most common size. Mainly because of the attractive price, but also because the bigger brother 19" has some drawbacks.
First of all they share the native resolution. I.e. 1280x1024. Except for a resolution that is not according according to the regular 4:3 ratio but 5:4 instead. This is a minor problem though as most programs, games and hardware have support for this ratio.

As they have the same native resolution this means a 19" monitor have the same number of sections as a 17". This means that the smallest part of an image has to be bigger with a 19" than with a 17". This creates a larger distance between the two smallest points also known as dot pitch. The longer/higher dot pitch, the worse picture.

Personally I think 1280x1024 is an excellent resolution for 17", but if you think this is too big you should perhaps consider a 19"

3. DVI & VGA

As good as all TFT-monitors comes with a VGA-connection. This makes them compatible with all current graphic cards. The big drawback with VGA is that the graphi card's internal signals are digital and the monitors internal signals are digital, while VGA is an analog interface. This means that the signal first has to be converted to a analog signal and then back to a digital. Each conversion means a loss of quality.

This can be remedied by selecting a monitor with a DVI-connection, but make sure you have a graphic card with a DVI-output first. Most people think that using DVI creates a sharper and brighter image. So if you are chosing between to identical monitors, lets say SyncMaster 710N and 710T, you are just fooling yourself by picking the one without DVI. The price difference is just some tens $ but you will get these back when you sell it.

On the other hand if you have two different monitors, where one has DVi and one doesnt, I would personally try to weigh the other specifications against eachother and consider DVI a pro for the other. DVI is good, but for it to be good the rest has to be as well.

DVI is actually available as three different appearances: DVI-A, DVI-D and DVI-I. A uses analog signals. D digital and I can use both.
All graphic cards support DVI-I and all monitors with DVI-input uses digital signals so you don't have to worry.

4. Recommended brands

Consider these:

BenQ - One of the worldleading brands.
Eizo - Has won numerous awards for its high quality manitors. Recommended.
LG - Good relative the price. LG and Philips has divided the market between them so that LG covers the cheaper section.
Samsung - Many satisfied customers and has a pretty generous dead pixel warranty.
Sony - Expensive, but also geared towards prefessional use.
Viewsonic - High quality monitors.

There are of course exceptions among all of these.

Be careful with these

As always you should gof or an established brand. A "hunk-a-junk" 20.1" TFT for $450 might sound like a real catch, but when you get your hands on it I can almost assure you that you will be disapointed as it has a panel from 2002 and screams low quality.
Unfortunately I don't have a specific brand to list here, but I was hoping you could help me here.

User reviews:

From NordicHardware.se

Yusmart:

[vagvag]

i want to see a comparison between Samsung Syncmaster P245B and LG 246h. I think both are very good but at Samsung there is a lack of an HDMI port.

PLease help!
_________________
GREEK RIFLEs!!

______________________

May the GE-Force be with You!!!

[Delph1]

The FAQ is bit out of date to be honest. Not sure if this should still be stickied.

//Andreas
_________________
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Forget everything, knowledge is your enemy, it's only going to make you second-guess yourself."

[aca]

For those looking for a LCD, I would recommend the websites tftcentral, prad and lcd24-7