**Baddass' Ultimate TFT FAQ and Reviews! (20" and Above Models)**

[Lithiumdust]

Well..

I bought my original VP930 about 5 months ago and now I'm looking at my third VP930 with faulty pixels (1st and 2nd had 3, this one has 2). Bad luck I guess

Now I have an opportunity to change this VP930 in a different brand/model display within same price level and I'm thinking 970P from Samsung.

It should be better in every sector compared to VP930, but obviously it isn't. I have understand that Samsung's panel response time is bit lower than VP930 (altought specs) and there's some problems with movie playback.

Display is going to be used mostly for graphic design (mostly Photoshop, also Painter, Illustrator, Freehand etc.). Office working (surfing, coding, Word etc.) and gaming (all sort of games) is also in big role. Movies usually is watched using tv-out so ,ovie playback isn't so important.

In short words: I'm looking for really, really good all-around display.

Any experiences or hints?

 

[hudson]

First like to say excellent guide. Its made me ask a few questions and answered a lot. I'm a gamer nothing more nothing less and maybe a bit of surf/that auction site/email but primarily games. I been looking at the Viewsonic VX924 19" as a replacement to my aging iiyama vpm 17" crt. My initial concern is ghosting now from i've read and been told this is a zero issue with that sort of response time.

Heres where my pockets get deeper and the child inside takes over the spending. Whats the wide screens like? I know that the different ratio can make window slook odd but as far as games go whats the deal there? I also see that ewidescreens 20/21 inch range all have a low of 8ms (is that suitable for games like cs source etc).

to be very frank with you i'm a flim flam man. I like crts they do exactly what u expect. But the hassle with dead pixels and liek worries me (even thought send back is an option no matter what). I'm really after the "word" as it would be on the current market. My budget stretches to about 300 350 but not too much more (the missus would cut me danglies off).

Anyway thanks for the heads up and reading .

H

 

[Baddass]

Lithiumdust - the 970P is good, but there is absolutely no guarantee that you won't get dead pixels on that model, just as you've had with the VP930. My recommendation is to stick with the VP930 if you're happy with it's performance in other areas (colour, responsiveness, movies). The 970P is, as you've said, comparable in responsiveness and most areas, but may suffer from more restrictive and noisy movie playback. That's about the only noticable difference in normal use between the two models


hudson - the VX922 and other top response time models like it are certainly about as responsive as you can get in the TFT market at the moment. There will still be some hard core gamers so used to CRT's that they dont like the feel of gaming on a TFT< but that's down to the individual really. There are some nice WS format screens in the 20" market which are emering now with some good gaming performance. There are a few nice all round screens which will offer much wider viewing angles, smoother movie playback, better colour depth and a better black level than the TN Film panels like the VX922 etc. The Belinea 102035W, Philips 200W6CS, NEC W20GX2 are all popular right now and feture P-MVA or IPS panels which are very good in all round performance. These are still excellent for gaming and have the other advantages just mentioned as well. As far as which is best,. it's hard to say. I'm hoping to have an update on www.tftcentral.co.uk very very soon summarising the WS options available at the moment, so might be worth you having a look at that once it's up to help you decide Dont be too worried about gaming on the WS models as a lot of modern games support WS format (see www.widescreengamingforum.com) and some TFT's allow you to play with borders down the sides to keep the aspect ratio without stretching the image.

 

[hudson]

Many thanks for the quick response. The boss at work has kindly let me use a TFT over the weekend so i can see if i like gamin gon them.

Will defo take into consideration th eones oyu listed. Is there anything in general i shoul dlook out for when choosing a monitor then. i just went by the fastest response time. MVA IPS panel . LOL . you llost me there fella.


Thanks.

H

EDIT Just had alook on that famous auction site and found a dell 2005fpw going for very cheap. saving rounghly 200 quid should i go for one of those with the huge saving?

 

[BoomAM]

EDIT Just had alook on that famous auction site and found a dell 2005fpw going for very cheap. saving rounghly 200 quid should i go for one of those with the huge saving?

It wont definatelly go for that price.
And read the descriptions very carefully for anything that looks out of place, and dont be afraid of asking questions to the seller.

 

[hudson]

There was a catch it was ex vat but on buy out now its 358.

 

[Baddass]

Many thanks for the quick response. The boss at work has kindly let me use a TFT over the weekend so i can see if i like gamin gon them.

Will defo take into consideration th eones oyu listed. Is there anything in general i shoul dlook out for when choosing a monitor then. i just went by the fastest response time. MVA IPS panel . LOL . you llost me there fella.


Thanks.

H

EDIT Just had alook on that famous auction site and found a dell 2005fpw going for very cheap. saving rounghly 200 quid should i go for one of those with the huge saving?

take a look here at the specs: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/ tells you what they mean and what to look for. should help you decide what you want

 

[BoomAM]

Ive been tempted to get 2 widescreens as replacments for my 2 172X TFTs.
Im loving the 1680x1050 display on my lappy.
But i dont have the money to for the moment, or in the forseeable future either.

 

[shrek2]

Any hdcp enabled monitors available?

 

[Baddass]

Any hdcp enabled monitors available?

the Dell 3007WFP and forthcoming 2407WFP are HDCP enabled. There is also the Samsung 242MP. Might be a few others as well, but these are the main popular ones. Tends to be the larger displays at the moment which are enabled

 

[Fa-]

Does anybody know when the dell 30" will be updated?

 

[Baddass]

Does anybody know when the dell 30" will be updated?

updated in what sense? Afaik, i don't think Dell have any plans to update the 3007WFP at this time

 

[nick_000000]

Does anybody know when the dell 30" will be updated?

They did already. VR zone had a small article [Dell Silently Fixes Its 3007WFP 30-inch LCD]. It seems a bit naughty of dell not to make the changes that public to it's customers. There were problems with the backlight as I remember.

Heres a bit of the article:

"Dell has a new revision of its 3007WFP, called A01. I now have both a A00 and A01 unit and can confirm that the new A01 unit significantly improves backlight uniformity. The severe hotspots that were noticeable on A00 units are now gone with the A01 unit. Customers who purchased Dell's 3007WFP when it was first introduced at the beginner of this year are slightly out of luck, as Dell will not be able to ship brand new units."

I think all of the units you will find now will probably be the newer A01 as this article was created on May 11, 2006.

 

[danceMB]

Did anyone see PC Formats (am I allowed to say there name?) reviews of the Flatscreens available? Would anyone agree with what was said?

Looks like the best bang-for-buck is the BenQ 20" model.

Im hoping to update soon, as I have an 18" Dell monitor, and they are really slow in the ms updates thing, even though I have not really noticed any bad ghosting in any games, not sure why?

Is it besto to get a new monitor now, or wait for a bit?

 

[BoomAM]

If your not noticing ghosting, wait till Vista ships, and then pick yourself a HDCP compatible display.

 

[Baddass]

Did anyone see PC Formats (am I allowed to say there name?) reviews of the Flatscreens available? Would anyone agree with what was said?

Looks like the best bang-for-buck is the BenQ 20" model.

Im hoping to update soon, as I have an 18" Dell monitor, and they are really slow in the ms updates thing, even though I have not really noticed any bad ghosting in any games, not sure why?

Is it besto to get a new monitor now, or wait for a bit?

the FP202W? Hmmmn, i'd certainly question that.....

 

[hedgey]

If your not noticing ghosting, wait till Vista ships, and then pick yourself a HDCP compatible display.

no graphics card yet shipped can output HDCP yet. vast majority of monitors dont have it. its hollywood's plan to render all gfx cards+monitors obsolete. you really think people are going to buy another monitor because hollywood says so? all monitors can display HD 720p already. of course hdcp will fail just like css failed

 

[BoomAM]

no graphics card yet shipped can output HDCP yet. vast majority of monitors dont have it. its hollywood's plan to render all gfx cards+monitors obsolete. you really think people are going to buy another monitor because hollywood says so? all monitors can display HD 720p already. of course hdcp will fail just like css failed

Theres a few that do HDCP, low end ones though, and theres a mobo out soon with HDCP support & a HDMI connector on it.

Wether we agree with what 'Hollywood' are doing with HDCP & HD output requirements, we dont really have much of a choice at the moment, for the immediate future, a HDCP monitor & GFX card is required. And with the functionality built into Vista, it's not something thats easyily avoided or circumvented.

 

[hedgey]

well there's a hdcp stripper out already. hdcp is dead and buried, but AACS is alive. prolly get cracked soon thou like all DRM. the decss guy is already working on it.
you wont need vista to play hdcp anyway.

 

[BoomAM]

well there's a hdcp stripper out already. hdcp is dead and buried, but AACS is alive. prolly get cracked soon thou like all DRM. the decss guy is already working on it.
you wont need vista to play hdcp anyway.

And is this 'stripper' technology freely available and easy to use with Vista? Nope. Its not. Atm, its nothing more than a proof of concept. Meaning that its not feasible for 'consumer' usage yet.