LCD screen question

[KukriKhan]

That just shows the hard-learnt "don't be an early adopter" lesson. In 1999, we bought 2 15" HP LCD screens for $1500 apiece. For that money today, I could get 9 19".

For $30 difference, "super-size" me, I say.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Yeah, go with the 19".

Interestingly enough I am using a Samsung 930B right now. It is a very good choice!
I only have a 17" though.

[Beirut]

It's done.

No Samsung 930Bs LCD (19") available at the store or from my computer dude. Now only the 940BF (19") is available for $500 instead of the 930B for $359. Gah! So I ordered a Samsung 740B (17") for $299. Should have it Wednesday. I'm a bit bummed out that it's not a 19", but I'm sure she's going to like it far more than the four year-old ugly beige Samsung CRT she has now. Ordered her the fancy Microsoft Digital Media keyboard as well.

I'm going to test out her 740B screen on my rig to see how well it works with IL2-PF. If it has the same screen size as a 19" CRT and looks good flying, I might get myself one as well. 80% of my game time if flying, so if the screen doesn't look good in flight, it's no good to me at all.

Also ordered myself an Nvidia 7800 GS AGP card to replace my 9800Pro. The AGP version is $200 cheaper than the PCI-E version and I can keep my present MB and CPU. Can't afford to change everything in one shot and go PCI-E. Should have the card Wednesday as well. I'll be flying IL2 at ultra-max settings with that puppy 'till the wee hours as soon as it's installed.

Toys-toys-toys.

[Productivity]

This one's minor but it's worth it - from memory the 740B has both a digital and an analogue input. The picture quality will be better on the digital - however a lot of older video cards don't have a DVI output. It won't be a major improvement but if your wife doesn't play games she won't need a expensive video card so you may want to think about upgrading that.

The difference is in how the signal goes. CRT's need an analogue signal to display, LCD's need a digital signal. Video cards output in digital, so the train goes something like this.

CRT

Video card --digital output-> digital to analogue convertor --analogue output-> display

LCD (Analogue input)

Video card --digital output-> digital to analogue convertor --analogue output-> monitors analogue to digital convertor --reconverted digital output-> display

LCD (Digital input)

Video card --digital output-> display

The elimination of the conversion steps stops a loss of quality on each conversion. Also a digital input means that things such as adjusting monitor boundaries can be automatically carried out without the monitor having to approximate (which they are admittedly now good at).

The quality loss is not huge, but I've had two identical LCD monitors side by side one on analogue, one on digital and the digital one is definately sharper.

[Just A Girl]

most £30-£50 cards, seem to have DVI output.
you know older ati cards that were new at one point excetera.
so an upgrade to DVI should not be expensive Even if it was essential.

[Beirut]

DGB,

Thanks for that. I appreciate the help.

I think she has a scrap video card of some kind, but I might throw in my 9800Pro after my 7800 gets installed. So I'll have to keep track of what cable to use and when. Only the analog cable comes with the screen.

I'm guessing that my 7800 card will have a DVI input so maybe I'll just buy the cable now, use it for her if I can or save it for me when I get an LCD screen.

*By the by, how are you doing after Larry? Everything's ok I hope.

[Beirut]

Well, finally got it. My computer dude was a week late delivering my new LCD screen. In the end, the samsung 730B I was looking at wasn't available and I ended up with a 17" Samsung 740N. Same price, $300.

I set it up on my woman's desk and called her in to see. I thought she was going to be mad because I "wasted" the money. Took about five seconds for it to sink in and she fell in love. Not with me, with the screen. The desk never looked so roomy.

The screen - easy to assemble, easy to get the plugs in, then it's plug n' play, though there are drivers on a CD for advanced colour and control options. The CD refuses to work in her CD player, though, but works fine in my CD/DVD player, Odd.

It's a very bright screen. Even with the gamma and brightness turned down this thing is bright. The native res is 1280x1024, smaller than the 1024x768 we both are used, to but the screen is very clear so it's easy to read at the higher res. For surfing and text work, this screen in great. Clear, crisp, easy to read. Good office screen.

For games things change. In IL2 (flightsim) horizontal lines appear looking like a new page trying to be inserted over the old one when the action gets fast. I'm not sure what this is called but it looks like tearing. I didn't notice much ghosting, fast moving images leaving trails behind them, just the tearing. The game looked good, though odd to see it on a screen an inch thick, looks like a comic book. The colours were good, the detail is nice. If it wasn't for the tearing I'd buy one of these in a second to play on.

Also, DVDs don't look that great. A bit fuzzy and with that LCD pixelated haze thing going on. I'll try a few more to be sure.

Another good thing - the 17" on this LCD has only 1/2" less viewable than my 19" CRT. Gotta love that.