Isn't it about time we had a good thread on LCD monitors?

[Hyperspeed]

I'm fed up of my hulking great big 15" CRT monitor. It's like a heater
in the summer and eats power.

No doubt the magnetic field from this dinosaur is harmful and it takes
up most of my desk.

Can anyone reccomend an LCD flat panel monitor that works on Amiga
that complies fully with OCS/ECS/AGA @ 15KHz... or at least when
scandoubled to 30KHz.

Obviously these screens have an optimum resolution such as 800×600 or
1024x768... so what is the best to work with native chipsets without
corrupting the screen quality?

I know a lot of them are now being made as TVs for kitchens and
bedrooms etc, so they should accept 15KHz by default right?

Would this be good enough to read small text? It'd have to be as good
as CRT quality, even if moving sprites etc. were a little blurrier as
is common with TFT.

[BIG-IRON]

I am currently working on an amiga laptop, and have adapted an lcd to work on the miggy it can be done and its not that hard! the older lcd have inputs that can be easily connected to a miggy but the new ones take some hacking. lcds are horible for gaming at the moment which is why on my athlon 64 rig I use a viewsonic 22 inch P225FB but for email, web stuff or anything really besides gaming lcds are ok. Problem is with lcds they have a native resolution usually 1024 by 768 and if you go up or down from that it looks bad sometimes REALLY bad. IMHO lcd technology is not that great and will be replaced shortly by organic or organo/electric displays (long story engineer crap) But if you can find an lcd cheap they are great for most things. And yes a 15 inch lcd would be great for almost enything! but gaming so go for it.

[spirantho]

TFT screens are fine these days for gaming... as long as you buy a good one.

My 18.1" Iiyama AS4636D (I think it is) is what I use for my Amiga (Voodoo III/Prometheus), Amiga native, Amiga One, PC, SPARCstation 2 and 3DO... it has DVI input, SVGA input (the Amigas and the SPARC through a Belkin switcher), Composite input (Amiga native) and S-Video input (the 3DO) all switchable.

On a good (and unfortunately expensive) monitor like this you can run anything - even MAME on vertical games because it tilts 90 degrees!

[MAD]

Hoya!

Cool!

Price please? ;-)

Be funky

M A D

[whabang]

You should get one which supports your miggies resolution.
Image quality really sucks when you connect with a VGA-cable, and enlarge the image.

Personally, I use a Samsung SyncMaster for my PC. I bought it four years ago, and I haven't regretted it for a single second!

[Panthro]

I use a viewsonic 17inch works fine :-)

[Piru]

Generally TFT's beat CRT in all aspects, except price. TFT picture is much sharper, including small text and moving objects. The contrast is superior.

Even scaling smaller resolution to full display size isn't showstopper anymore, the scaling technology has advanced a lot since early days. The only problem you might have is the 15KHz support.

I'm using 17" 1280x1024 TFT since 1.5 years, and will never go back to CRT.


PS. TFT is the first display that also allows me to see differences between gfxcard quality. CRTs were itself so bad quality I couldn't see any difference.

[HopperJF]

With my eMac, I obviously use the  CRT monitor provided with the computer.
I was actually surprised then, to find out that the picture quality is actually clearer and better than that found on the LCD-based iMac II.

So some CRT's are actually better than LCD.
A majority of LCD's are also bad for gaming. I prefer CRT technology at the moment, and have no plans to have a LCD screen as well as the CRT screen which is part of my computer.

[vpcs]

LCDs can be handy.
Just pick up my 1200 grab my 15" LCD and it's almost portable.

[kvasarnomad]

Im to working on a A600 laptop
do you have any tips on what LCD that would be good and how to adapt the LCD?

[that_punk_guy]

Piru wrote:
Generally TFT's beat CRT in all aspects, except price.

And viewing angle, and colour fidelity...

I wonder whatever happened to ThinCRT?

[Hyperspeed]

There's been conflicting reports in this thread...

LCD better than CRT etc.

I never expected TFT screens to rival tube screens for gaming because
of the way they store the charge longer (causing a slight blur on
insanely fast moving objects).

But what is most important to me is a screen that can run AGA so I can
still use my classic Amiga, this is also important to Picasso-IV users
who have their own video-passthru and scanddoubling.

Would I be right in saying that if 1024x768 is default for most LCD,
then 15KHz Amiga modes of a lower resolution stand a better chance of
crisper display on a LARGER screen such as 17" or 19" LCD?

If a 640x512 had to be displayed on a 17" (which was designed for
1024x768) wouldn't it be more accomodating?

Hope you get what I mean, it would be nice to upgrade my viewing area
as well as my desk space...   but I refuse to sacrifice the Amiga
custom chips and their dedicated software.

How could you live without your `banging the hardware' scene demos
that mostly run in PAL 15KHz!

[seer]

I'm on the TFT monitor side.. (The Bright Side ;-))

Have a look at this gives a bit of info.. And maybe a bit of help.

I never expected TFT screens to rival tube screens for gaming because of the way they store the charge longer (causing a slight blur on insanely fast moving objects).

Having 3 of these TFT's (see link above) I can say I never notice this "blurring".. If you get a TFT with a low "Response time" (25 or lower) then a TFT is perfect for gaming.. It's easier for the eyes to look at and in general the contrast/colors are better.. Also, I always hated how multisync CRT monitors need so much adjusting to get the picture right (You know "pincusion" (SP?) and rotation etc etc).. TFT auto adjust with the touch of a button..

[amigamad]

Generally TFT's beat CRT in all aspects, except price. TFT picture is much sharper, including small text and moving objects. The contrast is superior.

not for games they dont as the refresh rate is not as good also nearly all of them suffer from dead pixels .I prefer my 5 year old belnea 17 inch crt clearer than a cheap lcd, more than twice as cheap a as an lcd.A mate of mine has an 18 iylama i think thats spelt wrong  but that is a nice 18 inch lcd .as i use mine for games on my pc as well ,crt is the best option. :-)

[Piru]

@that_punk_guy

And viewing angle, and colour fidelity...

Today's TFT's typically have around 160 degrees viewing angle. Don't know about some {bleep}ty TFTs, but mine has superb colours, much better than any CRT I've seen.

@amigamad

not for games they dont as the refresh rate is not as good

<= 20ms speed TFTs have no problems at all with games. Also see seer's comment.

also nearly all of them suffer from dead pixels

Mine has 1 dead pixel, and I need to look for it (it's really hard to spot, it took me few months to spot it in the first place). Usually cheap TFT's have possibility of more dead pixels, however.


Much of these problems are no issue today. Scaling, refresh rate, viewing angle, colour, contrast. Believe me, the complaints have been taken seriously and the issues have been addressed. Today's quality TFTs are really great, and beat CRTs in almost all aspects.