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

hedgey said:
you dont understand HDCP. its purely hardware. vista is irrelevent. the strippers are hardware boxes.
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You dont understand Vista! ;)

While HDCP is hardware based, digital files are not. Vista can say what can and cannot be played through software.
 
hi

i need a widescreen monitor for gaming , my spec is

e6300
gigabyte ds4 mobo
bfg 8800gts 320mb
ocz 2 gig ram
artic freezer 7pro

what would you suggest im not looking to spend loads but i do want something thats popular to gamers and reccomended?

thanks
 
Sinny said:
hi, im wondering what is the best widescreen monitor to get for gaming, i want a 3000:1 contrast ratio and a size of 19" to 22" and the budget kept under £250.

i was looking at http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-051-SA&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=
because of the low response time and high contrast ratio, is that particular monitor good for gaming at high res?
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Yes, that's what i'd get out of all of the 20" monitors which use TN-film technology. However, it doesn't actually have 3000:1 contrast ratio; it's more like 1000:1, if you're lucky. The higher contrast ratio is only achieved when using "dynamic contrast", which isn't always the best thing in the world.
 
Hi guys,
I'm looking for a new monitor, I've currently got a 17" TFT which is very decent but the contrast ratio is quite poor and dark details in game for example are barely visable. So I'm looking to upgrade up to a 20" or 21" which will fix these problems for me!

I don't really wanna spend more than £250 unless you can think of a monitor that is definately worth it.

So far I've found two very nice 'uns that seem quite poopular:
Samsung SM-206BS 20" Widescreen - £211 inc VAT
Dell E207WFP 20" Widescreen - £200 in VAT

They both look pretty nice but I'm edging toward the samsung.

I'm just looking for a few opinions or advice on the monitors I've shortlisted or monitors that you'd like to suggest.

P.S: Widescreen please! :)

Thanks in advance,

Josh
 
Mansize_tissue said:
If you want good blacks, the Viewsonic VX2025 might be worth looking into since it uses a P-MVA panel (i believe); albeit a little over your price range.
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I'm not bothered about the colour of the monitor, it's just a coincidence that the one's I've shortlisted are both black.

Thanks for the suggestion though, it looks like a nice monitor.
 
Mansize_tissue said:
I think you misunderstood what i was saying. The monitor is good at producing good blacks; it shows a lot of detail in dark areas.
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oh lol okay, sorry, a bit of a silly moment there. But surely producing good blacks comes primarily down to the contrast ratio?

To sum up what I'm looking for:

20 or 21" widescreen (1680x1050 Resolution)
at most 6ms response time
at least 800:1 contrast ratio, but the higher the better
HDCP capability if you think it's necessary, I'm not sure to be honest
DVI
and good viewing angles.

Really, I'm just after a good gaming monitor but one that is also strong in every area as I'll be using it for work and browsing the net.
 
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Baddass said:
NEC 20WGX2 or Dell 2007WFP spring to mind :)
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I've looked at the NEC and I've heard it's the bees but it's a tad expensive! However, if you think it's actually worth the extra £100 then I don't think the money would be an object. Can you actually say it's the best monitor in the catagory I'm looking at by far despite the price difference? If so, I'd buy it right away. Other thing I've noticed, it doesn't say anything about HDCP, does it have HDCP capability?

I've looked at the Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP too but the response time is 16ms and considering I'm primarily looking for a good gaming monitor that kinda sounds a bit high.

I'm also wondering what the difference is between the Dell E207WFP and the Dell E2007WFP, the Dell E207WFP looks better but the other is more expensive, it's got a worse response time, its the same size and the only thing that seems different is it has more ports?
 
Tigjaw said:
I've looked at the Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP too but the response time is 16ms and considering I'm primarily looking for a good gaming monitor that kinda sounds a bit high.

I'm also wondering what the difference is between the Dell E207WFP and the Dell E2007WFP, the Dell E207WFP looks better but the other is more expensive, it's got a worse response time, its the same size and the only thing that seems different is it has more ports?
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The 16ms response time you've seen listed for the Dell 2007WFP is the black to white response time, the grey to grey response time is actually around 8ms- more like the specification you see listed for other monitors. If you get the S-IPS version of the 2007WFP, i think it actually uses the same panel as the NEC 20WGX2; although, i'm not sure if this is correct so i'd be greatful if someone could elaborate here. Either way, the response time on this monitor is nothing to worry about.

You might, however, get an inferior version of the Dell 2007WFP which uses a P-MVA panel, or is it S-MVA(?). This isn't as good as the S-IPS panel you could get, but still better than the TN-film panels used on most 22" monitors.

The Dell E207WFP is inferior to the 2007WFP because it uses a TN-film panel.
 
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Tigjaw said:
I've looked at the NEC and I've heard it's the bees but it's a tad expensive! However, if you think it's actually worth the extra £100 then I don't think the money would be an object. Can you actually say it's the best monitor in the catagory I'm looking at by far despite the price difference? If so, I'd buy it right away. Other thing I've noticed, it doesn't say anything about HDCP, does it have HDCP capability?

I've looked at the Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP too but the response time is 16ms and considering I'm primarily looking for a good gaming monitor that kinda sounds a bit high.

I'm also wondering what the difference is between the Dell E207WFP and the Dell E2007WFP, the Dell E207WFP looks better but the other is more expensive, it's got a worse response time, its the same size and the only thing that seems different is it has more ports?
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Hi Tagjaw

Firstly, the UK version of the NEC 20WGX2 does not feature HDCP support I'm afraid, but the US version does. The 20WGX2 is widely regarded as one of the best, if not THE best, gaming monitor at the moment in the market. In actual practice, the response time is comparable to even the fastest TN Film 2ms rated models! Add to this the fact that the screen is bigger, WS format, offers much wider viewing angles (thanks to it's AS-IPS panel technology) and also features a nice dynamic contrast ratio technique to boost contrast during gaming. This is certainly a very nice screen for gaming. I'd recommend (if you dont know about them already), taking a read of this article which will explain the differences between panel technologies (IPS vs TN Film for instance). Def worth understanding.

So, yes. The NEC is a great screen. I had a chance to review the screen personally (link) which you might find useful :)

One thing I'll say though is don't be fooled by the quoted 16ms response time on the Dell. It's been discussed many times before, but Dell didn't specificy the G2G response time of the 2007WFP for some reason, and instead stuck with the traditional ISO measurement for the screen. In fact, the panel used in the 2007WFP is VERY similar to that used in the NEC model, and if NEC had opted for the same way of specifying response time, their model would also be 16ms rated. However, thanks to the use of overdrive technologies, they have boosted grey to grey transitions, and the G2G response time figure is more appropriate to quote. The NEC is therefore listed at 6ms G2G, and the panel used in the Dell ( LG.Philips S-IPS (LM201W01)) is actually rated at 8ms G2G as well. In practice, both models offer very comparable performance in responsiveness since the panels are very similar as discussed in my review above, and also discussed widely on the net and in other reviews like those at BeHardware for example. Don't be put off by the quoted figure, in practice, the Dell is a very good gaming screen too. It doesn't feature the dynamic contrast control, or the OptiClear coating (which some people really love), but it is a decent screen and very functional in other areas as well.

If you want to save money, the Dell is still a very good choice imo.

The difference between the Dell E207WFP and 2007WFP is that the E207 uses TN Film panel technology which is in many ways inferior to the S-IPS panel technology used in the more "premium" 2007WFP model. Again, check the link above to understand the differences in panel technology. Also, forget the quoted response times as explained above :)

hope that all helps
 
just beaten to it by this chap above :) but same message there....

to add to his points, the 2007WFP uses (typically) an LG.Philips S-IPS (LM201W01) panel, whereas the NEC 20WGX2 uses a slightly different (and customised for NEC exclusively) LG.Philips AS-IPS (LM201WE2) panel. (note: if you ever need to check what panel a screen uses, you can use the database here :)

You might, however, get an inferior version of the Dell 2007WFP which uses a P-MVA panel. This isn't as good as the S-IPS panel you could get, but still better than the TN-film panels used on most 22" monitors.
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This is an unfortunate misconception really, that one version is drastically better than the other. The panel lottery has been widely discussed for sure, but sadly a lot of people seem to jump to conclusions that S-IPS >>> S-PVA (the other panel Dell use is a Samsung S-PVA rather than P-MVA btw, which is made by AU Optronics normally). Anyway, dont be too concerned about this. In practice, i doubt many average users would really notice any real difference between the two panels used. The S-IPS version can offer slightly wider viewing angles, and a lot of the hype around it being "inferior" comes from users who moan about some accute contrast shift when viewing off-centre on VA panels. However, not many users find this a problem, don't let it bother you :) Both are pretty comparable in responsiveness and colour reproduction and the S-PVA version can also offer a superior black depth to the S-IPS panel version. So it's swings and round-abouts really...
 
Yeah, people seem to make such a big deal about the Dell lottery when there difference between the 2 versions, to most people, is likely to be negligable. Either way, it's still superior to TN-film panels in almost every way, albeit a little less responsive (that's the S-PVA), i think.
 
Wow thanks for all the info guys I really appreciate all the help, hope you can tolerate my questions for a little while longer before I make my choice :)

The NEC looks very impressive, the opticlear is very nifty, I love the glass-glossy screen on my laptop so a screen like that for my computer would be perfect. But the NEC doesn't come with HDCP and it's very expensive.

Meanwhile the Dell 2007WFP looks almost as good as the NEC, it's almost £100 less and it comes with HDCP but...it doesn't have a glass screen like the opticlear? you don't have a review of the 2007WFP on your site do you baddass?

EDIT:
About this whole HDCP thing, I know what it is, but I'm really not sure if I need it on my monitor. The reason I've specified HDCP is because a friend of mine suggested that a HDCP compliant monitor is the way to go but I'm not exactly sure why, what will I get out of it? Surely it only concerns High Definition DVD playback from a bluray or HDDVD player?

Do I need the HDCP compliant in order to use my X360 with the monitor at 720p?

EDIT2: I've done some more reading about HD support and found that HDMI is the port that allows the HD compliant connection between HDDVD/bluray/Xbox360 and the monitor, but do HDMI compliant monitors always have HDCP too?
 
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Mansize_tissue said:
Is this it? Does the NEC 20WGX2 come with a DVI cable?
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Thanks, yep that's it, I can't tell though whether the Dell 2007WFP is a solid glass-glossy screen, one review I read said that it is and another said that it's not and I can't tell by the pictures I've seen of it.

Here's the NEC 20WGX2
It says "One DVI Input" but not sure if it comes with the actual cable.
 
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