You may not be able to find an LCD monitor that is better than a high
quality CRT, though I'm a bit surprised that you preferred even your 15" CRT
over some LCDs. I think it will come down to what you look for in a
monitor, i.e., what your criteria are for judging whether you like a
particular monitor or not.
Generally, the least expensive LCDs use a TN panel and they have only a VGA
connector available. Both of these work against the quality of the LCD
image. TN panels are only capable of 6-bit color depth, while the
alternative MVA/PVA and IPS panels can produce a true 8-bit color range.
Better LCDs are capable of using a digital or DVI connection to the video
card, though your video card will also need a DVI port. This improves image
quality somewhat since there is no need to put the video signal through a
couple of transitions (from digital to analog and back to digital). With a
DVI connection, a LCD monitor can work directly with the video card's
digital video signal.
Unfortunately, manufactures rarely tell you what sort of panel they are
using in their LCD and the specifications that they do provide are so
non-standardized that they are virtually useless for comparing one LCD to
another. You pretty much have to rely upon professional reviews as well as
your own experience with various monitors to determine which ones are the
better monitors and what their individual strengths and weaknesses are.
(X-bit Labs has a pretty detailed article on the various types of panels
used in LCDs and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/lcd-guide.html
Unfortunately, their site seems to be down at the moment. Hopefully, this
is just temporary.)
Or, if their size and weight really isn't an issue for you, you can stick
with CRTs. Unfortunately, the manufacturers have pretty much stopped making
the better quality aperture grill monitors (the Trinitron and Diamontron
tubes), but you may still be able to find some around. Newegg, for example,
had a few Sony Trinitron based monitors back in stock, which I'm guessing is
some old stock that they got their hands on (perhaps a big company never
used a bunch of monitors that they bought at one time, and these have been
put back into reseller circulation). There are also a couple of companies
that specialize in the sale of used and reconditioned monitors, such as
Azatek, www.azatek.com, and AccurateIT, www.accurateit.com.
As for setting up an LCD monitor, I do find that it is not always easy to
get the brightness and the contrast settings adjusted to their most optimal
settings, which will depend upon your lighting conditions. You might find
some monitor testing applications helpful for this. A couple that you might
look for, and should be able to find through Google, are the Nokia Monitor
Test and the Displaymate Demo. Also, your monitor may have come with a
similar sort of program on it's CD.
Which particular Samsung monitor model did you buy? Samsung makes some that
use their PVA panels and some that use their TN panels. For example, the
Samsung 910T with the PVA panel is probably a better choice than say their
915N, which uses a TN panel and lacks a DVI option (unless you are
interested in playing fast action computer games, then the PVA panel will be
too slow with regard to its response time).
John Sproule
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Kroeckel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 11:21 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Monitor
>I just switched from a 15" CRT to a 19" LCD monitor. I've tried two, a
> KDS and a Samsung. Neither one looks as nice as the CRT. They are both
> too bright. And the text doesn't look crisp enough. I've used Clear
> Type, but it hasn't helped.
>
> I'm using a year old HP computer running WinXP2.
>
> Should I spend more money. Are there minimum settings I should be
> looking for? Any ideas?
>
> Diane Kroeckel
> Wheeling, IL
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