LCD Displays

[Zhiro]

I was thinking about buying a Flat Screen LCD? Can you tell me what to look for when buying one? Like 4:3 or 16:9, I've even seen 16:10? All the numbers, and specs, HDMI, DVI what does it all mean! Oh the horror!

[PCD_Chris]

Personally, I purchased a Samsung 42" DLP.

There are a few reasons why I chose to do so. First, lifespan. DLPs are rated to last nearly twice the life of an LCD or Plasma. Typically, when they do experience issues, it's a $150-$200 light bulb that's easily replaced. Regardless of what some may tell you, Plasma's/LCDs cannot be recharged. Plasma's experience lots of issues with dying phosphors and LCDs can experience dead pixels. Once these two different systems die, they're dead. The second reason, screen burn-in issues. This has gotten better over time with LCDs and Plasmas, but it still can occur. DLPs do not experience this same issue. Third, cost vs. size. DLPs are cheaper for larger sizes. Why then you ask did I only go for a 42"? Simply put, the size of my room. And arguably, myself and many others agree, DLP offers a sharper brighter picture.

Let the barrage begin...

[Juan]

Here is the first volley! (lol)

You have many great points, but I think you are misinformed regarding LCDs, in that screen burn is no longer an issue.  It was a definite issue in the early beginnings, but it isn't any longer.

Here is my first hand experience.
I do a lot of research before I purchase any Video or Audio equipment. I am an extreme Audio/Video junkie. Personally, I have owned a Fujitsu 4230 Plasma TV (resolutions 480p). Which was one of the first made. Original price at the time was 10,000 in 2000, but I purchased it used for 2500 which included a pop up cabinet with mechanical motor.  It provided a stunning picture, but screen burn was prevalent and the blacks were pretty bad.  This was actually a major problem for all plasma TVs I would say until 2004.  So, that TV, I ended up giving away to a friend, because it had overheating issues, and I didn't want to pay the 1000 or more to fix it and I was moving to Reno from California anyways.

Then I purchased 3 - 27" Widescreen LCD TVs Olevia (480p,720p,1080i). At the time they were 1500 each, it was 2004, now the same TV costs about 500.  I purchased these TVs, because they had so many connections, was PC compatible, and I wanted to use them as computer monitors, the really selling point for me, was that it was the best HD TV/Monitor I could find. I chose it over Samsung and Sony Models. As a PC Monitor it is great, but the maximum resolution is 1280x1024, native (which is what I use, cause its widescreen) is 1280x720. At the time, the largest LCD computer monitor you could find was a Samsung 20" Standard Screen 1920x1200. In my opinion, 27" monitor is the maximum you should go, above that, you have to actually turn your head alot to follow the action on the screen. Anyway, I have never had any screen burn issues with these TVs, but dead pixels did happen. Not in any annoying amount, but definitely 1 or 2 pixels became noticeably dead.  I still use one 27" as my main computer monitors, one was given to a sister, and the other was stolen, and sadly enough, on the same day I bought it.

Anyhow, so in, January 2005, I purchased a Zenith/LG 50" plasma.  I wanted another big screen to replace my old 42" and at the time, the 2400 I paid for the 50" seemed cheap compared to the price of 50" plasmas in 2003 (used to cost 10000-15000). I absolutely love this TV. It has a built in digital decoder so I don't even have to use the cable company's receiver. Screen burn is still apparent, but not nearly as bad as in 2000.  When I bought this TV, I did not opt for the extended warranty, because I have grown up believing that if you do your research, then you shouldn't have a problem. This, unfortunately wasn't the case. Even after all my research, and after all the great reviews, this TV DIED! after just 14 months of ownership and it only had a 1 year warranty.  The great news, though, is that it was sold with the Zenith logo, but it was an LG built item. SO, I was able to convince Zenith/LG to fix the TV for free. It would have cost me 600-2000 to fix this TV, and luckily for me, the company stood by its product. But, when it broke, I did more research to find, that my model seemed to be failing after 12-15 months of ownership. There were many occurences of this model dying, and unfortunately for others, not everyone was able to convince the company to stand by their product.  Now I have my beloved TV back, and I bought an extended warranty from GE Capital for 500 for 5 years.

So, there you have it. That is my experience. My next purchases planned, though, will be a 42-50" LCD 1080P and a 24" Widescreen Monitor with mas resolution 1920x1200! I can't stop my addiction! 

[PCD_Chris]

Point taken on the LCD burn-in issue. I too LOVE my 42" Samsung 720p DLP, the picture is most amazing. Planet Earth from the Discovery Channel was breathtaking and mesmerizing. Often times the picture was so bright I found myself squinting!

When looking to buy your next TV, just know that RC Willey rocks when it comes to warranties. They must have one of the best warranties in the industry. I purchased a 5 year, in-home warranty for only $180! The perk, if I don't use it after 5 years, they refund me half the amount I paid! Not to mention, their prices are usually very good too. They undercut BestBuy prices by hundreds of dollars on the exact same TV.

[Juan]

WOW! That truly is a valuable piece of information!
I never really thought about warranties until I bought a PS3 during Christmas.  At the time, you couldn't find a PS3 for less than 599. So I bought mine at BestBuy and bought a warranty for 100 dollars for 3 years.  Then my sister goes and tells me she bought hers from Target for 599 and bought a warranty for just 59 dollars, and it was good for 5 years!

So, yes, definitely, warranties should be considered as part of the total price of a TV/Monitor purchase... well, for any expensive electronics purchase, actually.

Excellent point!

[a shrubbery]

If your LCD is for computer use you should consider:

1. Price.  Unless you're rolling in it you should always have a budget or you might end up spending more than you should.  Do some basic research before you set your budget though.  Just be smart.

2. Format.  Standard resolution or widescreen?  Most widescreen LCD monitors for PCs are going to be 16:10.  Widescreen is gaining popularity and is also cheaper to manufacture.  Keep in mind though, a 20" widescreen actually has fewer pixels than a regular 20".  Also many games don't support widescreen and only some of these can be modified to add support.  This problem should be getting better with newer games.  If you plan to watch movies a lot you should probably get a widescreen.  Keep in mind though that 16:9 movies will have some black bars on a 16:10 monitor, but it won't be bad.  This is because hi-def TVs (1080i/p) have a resolution up to 1920x1080, the ratio on a monitor though is usually 16:10, which is a resolution of 1920x1200.

3. Size.  Size is probably one of the most important factors.  In America bigger is usually better but that may not always be the case.  If you can get a 22" widescreen monitor over a 20" widescreen you may not want to.  They both usually have the same resolution of 1680x1050.  That means the monitor has 1680 rows and 1050 columns of pixels for a total number of pixels of 1680*1050=1,764,000 On a 22" monitor the pixels will have to be much larger at that resolution than on a 20" monitor.  If you have good eyesight you may see what can be called a screen door effect because of the size of the pixels.  Of course if you can get a 23" or 24" widescreen with a resolution of 1920x1200 instead of a 20" you'll probably be happier. 
Also look at how much space you have on your desk and the way you work.  If you rarely look at more than one window at a time you may not have much use for a large monitor.  If you watch movies on your monitor, you'll probably want a bigger one.  I for instance often have well over 30 windows open and simultaneously use several.  I would like to get dual 24" widescreen monitors, but I think they would be too wide for me to see well.
If you get a large monitor, keep in mind that you may have to upgrade your video card to play at higher resolutions.  It takes a fair amount of power to push a 1920x1200 resolution monitor and a lot more to push a 2560x1600 monitor.

4. Connectors.  Most LCDs these days have a VGA connector and a DVI connector.  The DVI is generally better, but your video card must also have this connector.  Also if you ever intend to get Vista and think there's a chance that Microsoft's built in DRM will catch on you'll want a connector with HDCP (content-protection) on it.  Usually this is an HDMI connector.  You'll also want this connector if you plan to connect a PS3.  For the Xbox360 you'll want a component input (which is even more rare on monitors).  Some monitors have many connectors allowing you to keep several devices connected at once.  This is good if you plan to use your monitor for everything.

5. Panel Type.  There are several technologies used in LCD panels, each one has its pros and cons.  The primary technologies are TN, IPS/S-IPS and MVA/P-MVA/PVA/S-PVA.  The worst part of this is that most manufacturers DO NOT specify the panel type in the description or on the box.  As a result you may have to rely on community websites to find this out
  TN: is the cheapest and most basic type.  It generally responds the quickest but has the worst color rendering (often only 6-bit per color).
  IPS/S-IPS have the best color rendering and in the case of S-IPS can be reasonably quick.  This is the most expensive LCD technology generally available.  If you intend to do graphics work get one of these or stick to CRT monitors.  S-IPS uses a sort of overdrive (like P-MVA and S-PVA) to increase screen response rate (measured in ms).
  MVA/P-MVA/PVA/S-PVA: are in the middle between TN and IPS.  These have pretty good color, can be made to respond quickly (for games/movies) and aren't too expensive.  For most people using their monitors regularly these are a good solution.  There are also number of differences between the four types of VA monitors but I won't bore you with that. 
  Technology has been slowly improving in all these panel types.  It is possible now to get VA type monitors with good color-rendering (at least for amateur photographers) and IPS monitors that respond reasonably quickly.  TN monitors are being made less now except in very low price models.  One more thing, some manufacturers including Dell, ship different panels in the same model resulting in a sort of panel lottery on some models.

6. Brand/warranty.  Some manufacturers are better.  If you go very low budget you may just get what you pay for.  You should also consider the warranty.  Some manufacturers or retailers will only accept the monitor back in the first 14 days, if that counts shipping time you may not even discover certain defects in time.  Many LCDs may have one or more dead or stuck pixels.  These are pixels that are either stuck displaying a specific color or will not turn on at all.  Most manufacturers will not allow you to return the monitor for just one bad pixel.  They all seem to have different rules about how many bad-pixels of what type in which portion of the screen are necessary to return a monitor.  Higher dollar brands are more likely to have a better warranty in this area, but don't count on it.  It also sometimes seems like the policy shifts around from week to week...or maybe that just depends on who you talk to.

7. Lag and input lag or response times.  Gamers should pay attention to this.    Some monitors just do not respond as quickly as others.  This response time is usually measured in ms and varies.  Some measurements are gtg or gray-to-gray, others are black-to-white.  To make things worse most manufacturers report these values somewhat on the optimistic side to put it nicely.  If you're a gamer you probably want the lowest response time possible.  The sooner you can see the rocket in the air is going to take out your squad the sooner you can respond.  Another factor that is never advertised is input lag.  Some fast responding monitors may be slow in their internal processing abilities.  This can result in fast-responding pixels but what you see on the screen is still behind what is happening.  In high-speed games like UT2k4 (unreal tournament 2004 for the uninitiated) this can make it feel like you are moving in a thick liquid because every time you press a key there will be a delay before you see that action on screen.  Input lag is sometimes noted by review sites so make sure to search for a review on the monitors you are looking at.  Many sites measure these delays by connecting a CRT monitor along side the LCD and taking a photo of the two monitors displaying the same clock.  The difference in time (like 32ms) shows the amount of time the image shown on the LCD is delayed by the monitor internals compared to the almost instantaneous CRT monitor.

I'm sure there's a lot more that can be said on this topic but I'm going to leave off for now and hope some others add on to this.  I may update later if I think of some more info.

[healny]

I was thinking about buying a Flat Screen LCD? Can you tell me what to look for when buying one? Like 4:3 or 16:9, I've even seen 16:10? All the numbers, and specs, HDMI, DVI what does it all mean! Oh the horror!

Hi according to me about this think your LCD display is? Chances are it won't be able to hold a candle to the new Sony GXD-L65H1 65" full HD LCD display that not only boasts a brightness level of 700cd/m2, it will also correspond to the IP54 standard, making it drip-proof and dustproof. At least you don't have to worry about leaky ceilings or having your heart crushed when a butterfingered friend of yours spills his drink all over the TV at your housewarming party. Hopefully it will be able to stand up to the fury of a flying Wiimote. There's no word on pricing but chances are this will be out in Japan first before the rest of the world gets hold of it.

Thanks!!!

___________

[fwilson]

healny,

At current pricing of $19,500.00 I think this is a little out of reach of most consumers.  It is really meant for a commercial, public display.

But hey, if you have the means, go for it.

-Fred