This input lag/viewing angle business....

[sp00d]

Many years ago I "upgraded" to an LCD as I was going to university and my absolutely huge 22inch Mitsubishi Diamondtron 2045u CRT would not fit on the desk. I bought a Samsung 172x, and still have it now. It's a 17inch TN Panel, and apparently has 12ms response time. At the time, it was THE monitor to get, and one of the few where input lag was now low enough for games to be playable without noticing any real deficiencies compared to a CRT.

Now, I will admit that it's not a patch on the Mitsubishi for colour reproduction, but i've used the Samsung for about 5 years or so now. I notice no ghosting, nor input lag. And the restrictive viewing angles thing doesn't seem to affect me too much at all as I sit head on to the monitor. I even dabble in photoshop and can get pretty damn accurate colors with the right colour profile.

I'm now thinking of getting a 24/26inch panel, and have posted about this before on these forums, yet i'm really none the wiser. One thing that concerns me though, is this apparent obsession with viewing angles/input lag. Sometimes a monitor is written off as being "crap" by the majority as it has bad viewing angles, or input lag. I'd like to know if this is similar to people getting 4 extra FPS in Crysis with some super gfx card that no one can notice without an fps counter, and then having them claim that that card is clearly superior. What i'm specifically asking is:

- Viewing angles: I don't notice the viewing angle issue on my little 17inch. If i get a TN-Film 24inch/26inch will I suddenly be digusted at how bad the viewing angle issue is due to the bigger size of the screen making it harder to sit "head-on"?

- Input lag/ghosting - I notice none of this, even though my panel is not sub 10ms response as most panels seem to be nowadays. If I buy an IPS monitor, will I be amazed at the colours but unable to play any games due to the lag?

I am finding it very hard to put a qualitative measure on the various input lag numbers and the viewing angle issue. I guess at the moment, I have the viewing angle issue but barely notice it, but seem to have almost 0 input lag. Does this mean I should get another TN+Film as I will get similar to what i'm used to? Do the guys that review monitors and claim bad viewing angles stand 8 foot above the monitor in a position that a real user would never be in, or claim bad input lag only when using a 1/10000 shutter camera? I doubt I would ever notice either of these things.

I have the budget to get an S-IPS panel, but I am worried that as I am an avid gamer, I will get annoyed with any perceived lag. And MVA panels seem to not factor for me at all. They seem to have worse lag than either IPS or TN, and then have that weird shimmering issue when you look left to right across the screen.

I was probably going to either get the updated hazro 26inch with the HDCP, or the Hyundai 24inch that has HDCP.

Any feedback on any of the above is greatly appreciated!

 

[fish99]

Input lag and response time are two different thing. Response time is how quick the pixels can change colour (i.e. the time from when a colour is requested to when it's achieved), input lag is where the image being shown isn't actually the current frame the video card is sending. In the worst cases input lag can mean the frame you are looking at is say 4 frames out of date, which can be noticeable in quick games.

As for viewing angles, I'm looking at a TN on my laptop right now. If I tilt the screen back say 10 degrees, the top half of the picture becomes darker. If I tilt it 10 degrees forward instead the image becomes noticeably washed out. Even with my head still I can see on this forum background that the blue at the top of the screen looks a little darker than the same blue at the bottom of the screen. The problem is much reduced on IPS, MVA and PVA panels.

Btw input lag varies by screen, there's IPS and MVA screens I can think of with very little input lag. So it's not the case that only TN have low input lag. Input lag isn't caused by the panel but by the electronics doing image processing. You really need to research the individual screen you're buying and find out how much input lag it has. As a gamer (assuming these are fast games) you should be aiming for 16ms or less I would say, definitely no more than 32ms.

 

[philjohn]

- Viewing angles: I don't notice the viewing angle issue on my little 17inch. If i get a TN-Film 24inch/26inch will I suddenly be digusted at how bad the viewing angle issue is due to the bigger size of the screen making it harder to sit "head-on"?

The problem, as you guessed, is the increased size. Even if you view dead on you will see colour shifting on anything but an S-IPS panel. Even worse, if you move your head slightly this will amplify the effect. Some people are able to look past this in a monitor, but I found it impossible and hence had to spend more to get a better panel technology.

- Input lag/ghosting - I notice none of this, even though my panel is not sub 10ms response as most panels seem to be nowadays. If I buy an IPS monitor, will I be amazed at the colours but unable to play any games due to the lag?

To be honest, I think ghosting was made out to be a bigger deal that it actually is. Heck, most modern games have a blur post-processing filter applied which would negate a lower response time as they would introduce ghosting themselves!

As far as input lag goes, the bigger the monitor the higher the lag tends to be. It's several factors, RTC (anti-ghosting systems) adds a frame or two, scaler chips to display non-native resolutions add some lag as well (even more so the larger you go).

The 26" Hazro only has 16ms of lag, which is very good. I have the 24" and don't notice the 32ms of lag when playing fast games like Assassins Creed or GRID. I did however notice 65ms+ on the Dell 2408 which is part of why I sent it back.

 

[sp00d]

Hmm, I guess I will be going for a Hazro then....

What would be good to know though, is what is the input lag on my little 172x for comparison purposes. Who knows, it might be 30ms+, and all this time I thought it was basically 0