LED

square_nothing · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:05

how good are LED monitors?
i have read a lot about people having motion blur, this common on LED screens?
my mate will be getting a new monitor with his new pc, he wants a a 24" screen but doesn’t mind abit bigger or smaller.
was wondering if LED screens are good for gaming and general picture quality?
he is not to bothered about getting very very low response time as he plays rpg's mainly.

Monkeynut · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:09

LED screens are just TFT screens. The difference lies in the backlight. Rather than using cold cathode strips to light the screen they use arrays of LEDs instead. Some manufacturer's screens using this tech look better (Samsung) whereas some others haven't implemented them as well so they look no better than CCFL screens (cold cathode).

The response times are no different because it's just the backlight that changes.

You also save power and the screen can be made thinner.

cmndr_andi · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:12

I'm not sure if this needs clarifying, if you already know this then please ignore this post.

"LED Monitor" like this are just LCD monitors with an LED backlight, not pure LCD monitors like the ones you see at pop concerts or the new OLED technology.

Also, ones like this (ie reasonably cheap ones) use TN panels. This means they are good for gaming and usually have low response times and low input lag. This is true for most TN LCD screens and should not be effected by the backlight type. However, if you want better viewing angles and more accurate colours, then a VA or IPS panel may be worth looking at.

square_nothing · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:25

ok so basically find out what type of panel they are and that will determine the vueing angle.
they wont give any more motion blur compared to a non led screen

so for a monitor would you recommend going for a Samsung LED monitor over a non LED?

Monkeynut · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:32

square_nothing said:
ok so basically find out what type of panel they are and that will determine the vueing angle.
they wont give any more motion blur compared to a non led screen

so for a monitor would you recommend going for a Samsung LED monitor over a non LED?

Samsung's implementation is better than some others, others will know better than I what to get. Also don't listen to contrast ratios, it's unlikely you'll ever get more than 1000:1 realistically. All of the numbers take into account dynamic contrast which inflates the figures massively.

cmndr_andi · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:34

Aye, but bear in mind that the vast majority of LED backlit monitors use TN panels and often the LED backlight doesn't add much to the viewing experience - and are mainly there for good marketing. I would not suggest buying a monitor solely on the fact that it has an LED backlight, checking out reviews and setting out a budget is the best way to go forward.

Also, the VA and IPS panels I mentioned are significantly more expensive than TN panels and (on the whole) have higher response times. However, most are fast enough to not show any motion blur (I have a VA panel monitor and I find it works great with even fast-paced FPS games).

so for a monitor would you recommend going for a Samsung LED monitor over a non LED?

Not really. But as I say above, the budget will determine what monitor you can get. As you have established, the usage will be gaming - but not super faced-paced. If you can give us an idea of the budget i'd be happy to recommend some good monitors for this use.

square_nothing · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:38

so just totally ignore the contrast ratio? or take it with a pinch of salt.

square_nothing · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:44

he says he will spend upto around £200~ but if he can save he will.

cmndr_andi · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:48

square_nothing said:
so just totally ignore the contrast ratio? or take it with a pinch of salt.

If its dynamic, I would ignore it tbh. If you dig around the specs then you will find a static contrast ratio, but this isn't particularly exciting and isn't featured on the advertising as it is likely only 1000:1 (+/- 200).

There is a cool tech used by rear-backlit LED monitors/TVs which locally dims the LED backlights around the picture where the picture is dark - which really does work and provide good "dynamic contrast", but from what I have seen this tech is not featured on current monitors.

The best way to evaluate a monitor is to dig up a review which puts it through a range of tests. There is almost nothing in the "quoted specifications" except the Panel type (if they list it) and the response time (so long as it is under 10ms it is fine) that you should use to make your decision on the monitor. Things like input lag, backlight uniformity, backlight bleed, black level, accurate viewing angles, existence of motion blur, build quality, colour accuracy and more are not quoted in the specs, but are extremely important and only provided by a good in-depth review.

square_nothing · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:58

cmndr_andi said:
If its dynamic, I would ignore it tbh. If you dig around the specs then you will find a static contrast ratio, but this isn't particularly exciting and isn't featured on the advertising as it is likely only 1000:1 (+/- 200).

There is a cool tech used by rear-backlit LED monitors/TVs which locally dims the LED backlights around the picture where the picture is dark - which really does work and provide good "dynamic contrast", but from what I have seen this tech is not featured on current monitors.

The best way to evaluate a monitor is to dig up a review which puts it through a range of tests. There is almost nothing in the "quoted specifications" except the Panel type (if they list it) and the response time (so long as it is under 10ms it is fine) that you should use to make your decision on the monitor. Things like input lag, backlight uniformity, backlight bleed, black level, accurate viewing angles, existence of motion blur, build quality, colour accuracy and more are not quoted in the specs, but are extremely important and only provided by a good in-depth review.

ok thanks, so it burns down to looking for lots of reviews for monitors with a ms of less than 10.

thanks for the help

cmndr_andi · 24 Mar 2010 at 20:03

If you are interested in a recommendation, this is mine.

its a bit smaller than requested and a bit more expensive, but believe me it is worth it. it uses an e-ips panel, is excellent for pretty much all uses including games and comes with a great warranty to boot. Here is a review.

square_nothing · 24 Mar 2010 at 22:07

cmndr_andi said:
If you are interested in a recommendation, this is mine.

its a bit smaller than requested and a bit more expensive, but believe me it is worth it. it uses an e-ips panel, is excellent for pretty much all uses including games and comes with a great warranty to boot. Here is a review.

its got a lot of very good reviews but it is £250 i think its a little out of his budget

thanks for the recommendation i will let him know none the less

PCM2 · 24 Mar 2010 at 22:19

It sounds as if your mate is into gaming, but not so much FPS gaming? As has already been mentioned, it is fair to say that Samsung's interpretation of LED backlighting is a little better than some others. Some manufacturers have launched LED-backlit panels for the sake of the marketing boom and you end up with some very whacky colours and headache-inducing dynamic contrast ratios. I would say that it would be worth keeping an eye on ViewSonic's upcoming panels (scheduled for April release in the UK) and I would say Samsung's PX2370 but infact that would be beyond your friend's budget.

I have used two Samsung monitors with LED backlights. First off is the XL20 professional display, which has a very broad colour gamut and excellent colours - this is due to both the panel type (PVA) and the fact that Samsung used LED-BLU backlighting consisting of a series of RGB LEDs placed behind the monitor. Most LED panels, including Samsung's XL2370, are edge lit with 'white' LEDs. There isn't really much point in using RGB LED backlighting behind the monitor if the 'filter' isn't up to the task (i.e. a TN panel). By implementing the technology in this way the monitor can be considerably thinner with low power consumption as well as enhancing contrast somewhat (although once you disable the whacky dynamic contrast you are usually left with the usual static ratio of around 1000). The purity of light from Samsung's 'white' LEDs is very good and colours on the XL2370 were actually surprisingly accurate for a TN panel - with excellent whites, dark blacks, good pink skin tones, earthy brown tones and unusually smooth gradients. The colours actually fit the sRGB profile very well -hence this is not a wide colour gamut screen and some colours (in particular saturated colours, greens and some reds) are a little weaker than on the XL20 and others. The image was overall very crisp with excellent contrast and brightness and it turned out to be a very good monitor for gaming.

square_nothing · 24 Mar 2010 at 22:50

the Samsung's PX2370 seems to be over £300 so i think it will be, altho looking at it it looks really good

the story is the same with the XL2370 it seems to be over £250. i will tell my friend that it might be worth increasing his budget if he wants a very good LED monitor or look at non LED ones for the £200 original budget.
Will also be looking out for that new monitor as that is around the time he will get his pc.