Help! Non-Gaming Monitor

Rhubarb

Rhubarb

Rhubarb

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Joined
14 Apr 2006
Posts
11
Hi

I'm looking for a TFT monitor to replace a deceased 17" Iiyama CRT screen for home use. I don't really want to spend more than £200 and would like 17" or 19" but will likely opt for 17" as I would expect to get a better quality device for the money.

My requirements are:

Office use: Browsing Internet, wordprocessing, spreadsheets, email etc.

Multimedia: Single person watching TV or DVD either full screen or in window while sitting where they would normally use the computer.

Photo use: Photoshop Elements - cropping images, adjusting levels and printing. I do little or no colour correction. Viewing digital photos.

No 3D gaming.

From what I've read, some monitors are more tolerant of not being used in their native resolution. My Wife uses it for "office" stuff as above and struggled with 1280x1024 on a 17" TFT we borrowed so she will likely use 1024 x 768.

I've spent hours trawling through this excellent forum looking for recommendations but most of the recent posts seem to refer to monitors for gaming and the the only recommendations I have found along the lines we reuire are quite old and refer to monitors that don't seem to be on sale on the OC site anymore.

Thanks for taking the time to read through my requirements, any help or recommendations will be appreciated.

Cheers - Andy
 
Hi. Thanks for the reply. The SM913N was one of the screens I have been considering because it was within my price range. I was a little put off by the comments in the 19" 'sticky' above about it not being too suited to office applications and the narrow vertical viewing angle making the screen dark at the top and bottom. It seems from reviews everywhere that the current crop of faster TN screens are less than ideal for non-gaming applications and that one of the older 12 or 16 mS screens might suit my needs better. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be too many around.

I've probably got to stop looking at reviews and go somewhere and look at screens working and just pick one based on that. Mind you, finding somewhere to see a selection of screens will probably be as hard as wading through the bewildering array of reviews that are available. Do OC have monitors on display? The quest continues.

Andy
 
Hi. Thanks both for your input. I might be able to bend the budget a bit. ;)

That tends to happen once you get into these things. :D

Keep them coming.

Andy
 
Bump!

Well, I've had a browse around some of the local stores looking at monitors. I have to say that I'm quite surprised that I could not find ONE that gave a uniform white screen from straight ahead viewing, they all seemed to have a darker/yellow tinge around the edges. Once I moved my head a few degrees off the centre line, they all became quite discoloured, far more so than you would expect from the quoted viewing angles. I have been loaned a Acer 1717 by a friend while he is away for a few days and I find that just the same. I accept that the Acer and many of the monitors I will have seen in local stores are at the budget end of the market but I would have expected uniform colouring at least from straight ahead.

I have a 3 year old Dell laptop that has been on almost 7/24 since new and the screen on that gives far better colour uniformity and viewing angle than anything I've seen on my travels. My son has a 2 year old cheapo Digimate TFT and that seems to be better than anything I've seen today!

I assume that the problems I'm seeing in the screens I've looked at is due to them all being the latest type TN screens that are optimised for speed above all else.

My questions:

1. Are the more expensive TN screens like the Samsung 913 better in this respect?

2. Are there any reasonably priced non-TN (PVA/MVA?) 17"/19" monitors around?

3. Do OC have monitors on display? (I'm about 1 hr drive from Stoke).

Andy
 
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