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

[minator]

My laptop is almost 1 month old and does the same resolution - but it's a 12" screeen, it's also got a slightly dud pixel but I'm using it on an external CRT so I'm not too worried :-D

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CRT Vs LCD
I believe CRTs are still used for colour accuracy, artists / designers still use CRTs even today.

Otherwise I think LCDs have definately caught up with CRTs and have the advantage of no flicker.

For TVs LCDs are so good that they show the artifacts in digital TV / DVDs much more than CRT TVs.  It's so bad in fact that they are putting low pass filters in to degrade the screens so it's not so noticable!


I'd like to get an LCD as a main display sometime, the good ones seem to have come down in price over the last year so you're talking about 1200€ for a for a 21" Iiyama rather then 2500€.

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OLED
I think the problem with these at the moment is lifetime, it's only something like 18 months IIRC.

Plasma TVs have the same problem but they'll at least last a few years.

Folded CRTs
Sinclair did one of these in the late 70s / early 80s for a little TV set.

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Amiga on LCD TV
Should work, curious to see the results.  Might not like the higher resolutions though (but you never know...).

[Holley]

@Kenneth - What kind of laptop is it?  My 2 year old one is just a cheap Samsung, and it's display is great - and we have earlier models in the office that are a year older and still work fine (same 15" 1400x1050 display as mine).  

We had problems with some newer ones breaking on the connecting leads through the hinge, and some old ultra-cheap (£400) ones could only do 1024x768, but never fuzzy or any dropped pixels.

[adolescent]

I think all the arguements are valid, but only if you consider the TFT in it's native resolution.  Once you change from this the clarity, color, and contrast are absolutely horid.  Perhaps if there is one available that does high enough resolution the dots will be small enough to overcome this, but so far I haven't seen one that can.  So for now, I'm sticking to CRT's as I have the desk space to spare.

[elendil]

Holley wrote:
@Kenneth - What kind of laptop is it?  My 2 year old one is just a cheap Samsung, and it's display is great - and we have earlier models in the office that are a year older and still work fine (same 15" 1400x1050 display as mine).  

We had problems with some newer ones breaking on the connecting leads through the hinge, and some old ultra-cheap (£400) ones could only do 1024x768, but never fuzzy or any dropped pixels.

It's a crappy crap acer travelmate. Exactly the same with my toshiba satellite and satellite pro preceeding it (2 and 3 years old).

Sincerely,

-Kenneth Straarup.

[Holley]

Ahh, dunno about the Acer but Toshiba Satellites have always been rubbish and overpriced.  I've supported some, and they all seem to develop annoying faults quickly (touchpad going bad, dropping random bios settings, soundcard breaking, and screens going blank for no apparent reason).  The Samsungs arn't perfect by any stretch, but definaltely better ;-)

[Hyperspeed]

Well this thread has been really good!

I think a list is needed now of all people who have an LCD monitor and
what brand they are using on their Amiga. Maybe a little smiley to
show OCS/ECS/AGA compatibility!

As for laptops, have you seen the Sony 17" widescreen one? It's really
cool... and on the BBC website today it showed Apple's new 30" LCD
screen!

Wow, imagine that...  :-D :-D :-o

I wonder if AmigaOne/Pegasos machines like LCD panels - they don't
have 15Khz modes so they should be cool.

[Gibbersan]

@Hyperspeed

Isn't that Apple 30" LCD monitor about $3300?

Ouch.

[Naeem]

I think CRT's are the way to go if you care about picture quality.

However if space is your motivation then TFT.


What do you think?

[elendil]

Well, the acer is much worse than the toshiba's I've owned. And those match your description of them pretty well, so you should have an idea of what I have to go through every day when I turn it on

Sincerely,

-Kenneth Straarup.

(I have seen other laptops too, though, so I'm not only basing my tft opinion on three crap machines).

[Khephren]

Good point. But don't forget that it's native resolution includes division by two.

so a 1280x1024 res LCD would function just as well at 640x512 and 320x256
(just by using two LCD pixels to display each graphic card pixel for the 640 mode). I would recomend getting an LCD with at least this resolution for an amiga, if you want decent OCS/ECS/AGA screens.

[adolescent]

That would  be using 4 LCD pixels actually, since 1280x1024 is 4 times the size of 640x512.  Unfortunately I haven't seen a screenmode that is perfectly 640x512.  All of my scan doubled modes report as 640x480/60Hz (at least that's what the monitor thinks it is, it could be the monitor doing some "rounding").  I'll have to bring my A1200 into the shop and see if there is a suitable sceen on any of the TFT's we have here.

[cockney_dave]

Interesting thread, I've just brought a cheap second hand TFT of eBay to replace my iiyama CRT, I'm having trouble deciding which to keep:

iiyama 17" Vision Master Pro 413 CRT:
- true flat (diamondtron)
- no viewing angle issues
- good for video, important as I've got a TV card I use a lot + DVD player
- dual VGA inputs, one for AGA scandoubler one for voodoo, handy
- huge and heavy, making my cheap desk buckle lol
- smells like someone's smoking a joint, good/bad? :-) and puts out a lot of heat
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jr.hutchinson/iiyama.jpg

Eizo 15" FlexScan TFT:
- one dead pixel in bottom right, trying to spot it while typing this but can't so isn't much of an issue
- was a bit of a baragain
- saves masses of space
- viewing angle isn't great, you have to be pretty much right infront
- doesn't smell like someone's smoking a joint and relatively cool
- looks pretty
- excellent for web browsing, crystal clear text
- good enough for video, quick response time
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jr.hutchinson/eizo.jpg

Both screens are about 2 years old and cosmetically pleasant, TFT bit nicer obviously

However still can't make up my mind which to go with, even after reading this thread. Stick with the CRT or keep the TFT? Anyone want to decide for me? :-)

[_PAB_]

I recommend the ViewSonic VG 191, which ist an up-to-date 19" panel (MVA technology) with great contrast, nice colors and very high viewing angles together with good reaction time at an affordable price.

[selco]

Hello,
I just today bought a new monitor. Saturday my old Highscreen 1785 broke and I replaced it with a new LG Flatron F900B. That was however *very* sensitive to magnetic fields of my speakers (wrong colors at the edges) and the picture geometry was bad. (Upper part of the picture was bended, no way to correct that)

So that monitor went back to the shop today.

Now I bought a TFT monitor. Its a "Sony TFT LCD SDM-HS73P" That is a 17" monitor and has horizontal freqs from 48...75 Hz and vertical freqs from 28...80kHz.

Especially the horizontal freq is important for Amiga-usage. I have a scandoubler for the vertical frequency of the Amiga, but the 50Hz remain. (Most TFTs start at 56Hz!)

This monitor handles the Amiga-Modes very well and the picture quality is good. After half a day testing with Amiga-native (scan-doubled), Amiga GFX card (Cybervison64) and ordinary PCs (one desctop and a laptop) I would really recomment this monitor. Picture quality is good, its sharp, bright and has a good contrast. Switching between the videomodes is sufficiently fast.

Its however not really cheap, 599 euros here...


best regards selco, selco.da.ru

[Hyperspeed]

Thanks for everyone's responses. I think we should all think about the
benefits of an LCD monitor:

01)Higher contrast
02)Small footprint, space saving
03)Easily turned to the correct angle you prefer to work at
04)Wall mountable
05)Easily turned vertically
06)Only 20% of the heat output
07)Less power consumption
08)Less static, UVA, UVB and magnetic field radiation
09)Less dust attraction
10)17" LCD has 17" viewable area - 17" CRT might be 15.9"!
11)You can have 5x LCDs for every CRT in terms of the above
12)Great for multiplayer games and networks
13)An Amiga laptop/luggable
14)Usually has built in speakers (and at ear level!)
15)Digital memories for storing different screen settings/channels

:-D :-D :-o :-D :-D

Maybe it would be a good idea to take your basic A1200 down the shop
and try every LCD there is... and don't give them your name/address
just incase AGA kills them!

:-D ;-) :-D