TN Panels - Truth be told (viewing angles)?

[relax]

Hi, When i went out to the many many shops to look at monitors and given the price of them i assume they had TN panels.

From what i gathered on most of the internet they were something to avoid becuase they are ... <insert slander here>

The biggest thing i picked up on was the viewing angle "issues"

Not a single one that i looked at had any viewing angle issues and i was getting dam weird looks from staff in the shops with me walking around ducking and jumping and tilting the screens trying to find anything to put me off.

Some of the display models where actually taller than me by about a meter and even if i was standing close enough to read small print on the info ticket on its shelf the screen still looked fine.


Is this people being anal over nothing?
If not, how did i manage to miss it?

MY laptop has horrible viewing angle and the colours just drain out of it at some angles so i assumed the same thing would happen to all these cheap screens i was looking at.



So in summary is this just fear mongering by people who always want THE VERY BEST despite cost even if its not THAT much better?

 

[manic111]

I have to admit that I've been wondering this as well-I have a 19" TN, and even with 3 or 4 people sitting around it at different angles it's still perfectly watchable for everyone...

 

[Richdog]

They HAVE improved dramatically over the last couple of years, of that there is no doubt, but they still don't compete with a VA or S-IPS panel for either viewing angles or colour reproduction imo.

 

[manic111]

They HAVE improved dramatically over the last couple of years, of that there is no doubt, but they still don't compete with a VA or S-IPS panel for either viewing angles or colour reproduction imo.

I'm looking at getting a reasonably cheap 23/24 inch (how uch real world difference in size would there be between these?) monitor to use for PC gaming, and to plug my PS3 into which I mostly use for games and the very occasional movie. Would a TN be OK for this? I'm looking at this 23" Dell which looks decent for the price...what do you reckon?

 

[Richdog]

The bigger the screen, the more visible the shortcomings of a TN panel will be. It's up to you, I can't tell you what you will find OK or not as for me it would not be OK.

 

[Loque]

there wont be much difference in size. the only main difference, is the dell is 16:9 and 24" panels are 16:10

 

[manic111]

there wont be much difference in size. the only main difference, is the dell is 16:9 and 24" panels are 16:10

Yea that's what I though? What will happen when I run PC games that want 16:10? Will I just have to run it at 1600x1050 and have black borders?

 

[p0rks0da]

I have the S2309W and i'm very happy with it. If you are going to be using the monitor in a regular PC setting ie: sitting straight in front of it, then you won't have any issues. There is noticable colour shift on the vertical axis (image darkens if you lower your head too much, and gets brighter if you raise up), but horizontally it's very good.

 

[Helios1234]

I always thought my tn based monitor was good until I put it next to my friends benq FP241W and let's just say my next monitor will never be TN based no matter what.

 

[manic111]

I have the S2309W and i'm very happy with it. If you are going to be using the monitor in a regular PC setting ie: sitting straight in front of it, then you won't have any issues. There is noticable colour shift on the vertical axis (image darkens if you lower your head too much, and gets brighter if you raise up), but horizontally it's very good.

Awesome, cheers for the advice - how do PC games run on that res?

 

[HighlandeR]

Ive had the Samsung 24" 245B (very popular gaming 24" TN panel about a year and half ago) and yeah I noticed a drop in quality/brightness once looking at it from an angle.

However I just picked up a lovely LG L246WH 24" TN panel and im happy to say TN panels have come a long way from a year or 2 ago, this ones HDMI and VGA/Component and has far better contrast ratio and far better viewing angels even looking from left to right very little difference in quality/contrast/colour shifts.

If you are looking dead on as most people are and your name isnt Mr Noddy then I think you cannot go wrong with one of the latest TN panels out there regardless of size, and remember you get the bonus of a fast/gaming ghost free and trouble free Screen unlike all the highend IPS panels which need calibrators and then still have issues, and there aint really any decent PVA panels that arent without there isuses either.

Id love to still try a highend PVA or IPS panel just too see if people are saying the quality is night and day difference, but that may be another time and a time when £400-500 is spare

 

[/Thom\]

I had been wondering about the whole TN thing for ages cause i have seen a few and never really noticed it. have been at my parent over christmas using their pc and they have a really old lcd and i have just tried the viewing angles on it and i see completely what is meant :O very shocking, it enough to make me never touch a TN again, but then again the 22" LG i am using at home isn't at all this bad, so i am still not sure about this being as much as an issue as peole make out any more?

 

[Hudzy]

It's definately more annoying on a larger screen. I noticed it less on a 19" non wide than on a 22" wide. It's still pretty poor either way.

 

[Sweeney]

I have a 5 year old "Hercules Prophetview" 17" and a 4 year old Sharp LL171GB 17", both TN panels and i tell you the difference between them is night and day.

The sharp compared to my NEC isn't quite night and day but is a very obvious improvement.

Personally i consider tn for anything up to 22", unless theres a patriculary well respected 24" panel but anything above i'd go for VA/IPS

 

[bobert50]

Yea what others have said.

I've seen a tn panel'd 19" work very well but its tiny! 22"'s its starting to become and irritation and i've not seen 24 or 26/27"'ers on tn's.

However, they do have that dramatic response advantage on fast paced games! i still feel they are just another option rather than something that is "inferior" to pva panels or whatever.

They still play a role on things i feel...

 

[Goofball]

I've tried the Samsung T240 briefly before sending it back. I just can't live the horrible vertical viewing angles on them. They might be fine for 19" and 20", but 24" is way too big and no way to get a uniform surface (getting the colors correct (tm) must be impossible with all the shifting). I always had a portion of the top or bottom either darker or brighter than the rest of the surface.

The time when TN was the only thing fast enough for gaming is over now, IPS is fast enough and A-MVA's are coming along at TN-speeds so theres no real need to get a TN except for saving money.

 

[relax]

I've tried the Samsung T240 briefly before sending it back. I just can't live the horrible vertical viewing angles on them. They might be fine for 19" and 20", but 24" is way too big and no way to get a uniform surface (getting the colors correct (tm) must be impossible with all the shifting). I always had a portion of the top or bottom either darker or brighter than the rest of the surface.

The time when TN was the only thing fast enough for gaming is over now, IPS is fast enough and A-MVA's are coming along at TN-speeds so theres no real need to get a TN except for saving money.

T240 T220 and T260 (and the "HD" spin offs) are some of the ones i was seeing at stupid angles in the shops and i saw zero issues at all.


In short this issue does not seem to exist any more.

Some good input in this thread which will make me picking a screen a little more stress free. Thanks

 

[Goofball]

T240 T220 and T260 (and the "HD" spin offs) are some of the ones i was seeing at stupid angles in the shops and i saw zero issues at all.


In short this issue does not seem to exist any more.

Some good input in this thread which will make me picking a screen a little more stress free. Thanks

Not talking about maximum viewing angles, but what happens when you move back and forth near the center.

The top few inches of the T240 always seemed slightly darker than the rest of the screen to me. I could tilt it down and make it go away, but not without messing up the lower few inches that would then go pale. No huge differences, I could still make out everything perfectly fine and moving further out doesn't wash it out completely until very far out. It was easy to tell it was not a uniform picture. It also had this wierd, subtle "shadow" sensation going across the screen when moving my head up and down close to the center.

Its never so bad I'd call it a bad monitor but sitting next to my old NEC 2090UXi, where these kind of issues are almost completely absent, it had very obvious problems.

This issue is very far from non-existant to me, atleast not on the T240. I wish it wasnt, so I wouldn't have to drop €500-600 on a 24" VA or IPS.

 

[relax]

Not talking about maximum viewing angles, but what happens when you move back and forth near the center.

The top few inches of the T240 always seemed slightly darker than the rest of the screen to me. I could tilt it down and make it go away, but not without messing up the lower few inches that would then go pale. No huge differences, I could still make out everything perfectly fine and moving further out doesn't wash it out completely until very far out. It was easy to tell it was not a uniform picture. It also had this wierd, subtle "shadow" sensation going across the screen when moving my head up and down close to the center.

Its never so bad I'd call it a bad monitor but sitting next to my old NEC 2090UXi, where these kind of issues are almost completely absent, it had very obvious problems.

This issue is very far from non-existant to me, atleast not on the T240. I wish it wasnt, so I wouldn't have to drop €500-600 on a 24" VA or IPS.

Can you post any pictures to show this?

Becuase i spent around 10mins on more than one occasion (about 4 shops) looking at this screen (also at many different shelf hights - one of which was taller than me) and saw nothing of the sort. The only reason i did not buy it there and then was it did not do "1:1 pixel mapping" (but the "HD" versions do) which i am told i need.

 

[Goofball]

Can you post any pictures to show this?

Becuase i spent around 10mins on more than one occasion (about 4 shops) looking at this screen (also at many different shelf hights - one of which was taller than me) and saw nothing of the sort. The only reason i did not buy it there and then was it did not do "1:1 pixel mapping" (but the "HD" versions do) which i am told i need.

No, I didn't take pictures of it, I returned it about a week after I got it so I can't now. It was most noticable on images with dark contrasts. Bright or colorfull images where mostly fine.

Though, I am a bit picky about these things and my reference is the old NEC 2090UXi workhorse, which is almost as good as it gets in this respect. (shame the 26" costs an arm and a leg)