Which TFT

lee87 · 23 Feb 2006 at 17:37

Hi, my old 15" CRT monitor is starting to break so i'm going to be getting a new monitor soon.
I only have around £180 to spend and have been looking at the following:

Acer AL1916W 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-012-AC)
Neovo F-419 19" LCD Monitor - Black/Grey (MO-016-NV) -
Samsung SM-913N 19" LCD Monitor - Silver (MO-022-SA)

I will be using it to watch dvds and play games, I like the look of the widescreen because it will be good for dvds but is this good for games?
The neovo monitor has a dvi port, does this make the quality much better?
Which one would you recommend.

Thanks

Raikiri · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:24

Samsung will probably be the highest quality image, although having just ordered a 20inch widescreen myself I would say go for that! (the 19 inch version)

You wont really lose anythig vertically over a 15inch CRT but it will be much wider res and actual size

The neovo has DVI but the rest of it's specs are a bit rubbish such as viewing angles and a 12ms response.

fish99 · 23 Feb 2006 at 19:44

The Samsung is probably a step up in quality from the other two. Widescreen is fine if you play games that support widescreen resolutions. I don't know what scaling options that Acer would give you when playing 4:3 games on it.

I also think 19" widescreen is a bit small for a widescreen monitor. In terms of space you're getting less screen than a 19" 4:3. It really depends how much of the time your use for the monitor will be widescreen stuff (particularly movies) and how much it will be regular 4:3 stuff.

If it were me I would go with the Samsung, but then I don't watch films on my PC.

Btw I wouldn't worry too much about the lack of DVI on the 913N, the VGA connection it has is very good quality.

Flave · 23 Feb 2006 at 21:51

I have a Samsung 913N and the AG Neovo sitting here vitually side by side and I would not like to make a call on which is better. Image quality is excellent on both and no ghosting on either. Pick whichever one suits your decor best.

Agemo · 23 Feb 2006 at 23:57

Samsung 930 rawks

hogfather · 24 Feb 2006 at 07:36

acer is awesome here!

ACPCUP · 24 Feb 2006 at 09:19

Raikiri said:
The neovo has DVI but the rest of it's specs are a bit rubbish such as viewing angles and a 12ms response.

Have you seen one? Got one have you?
The Neovo is an awesome TFT. A good all rounder. The 12ms is superb. No ghosting in games at all. As for viewing angles it is on par with most TFT's. I have seen the Neovo on a few systems and it is superb.

fish99 · 24 Feb 2006 at 11:15

ACPCUP said:
Have you seen one? Got one have you?
The Neovo is an awesome TFT. A good all rounder. The 12ms is superb. No ghosting in games at all. As for viewing angles it is on par with most TFT's. I have seen the Neovo on a few systems and it is superb.

The viewing angles are on a par with most TN Film TFTs but they won't compare with a PVA or MVA screen. Also while you may not be able to see ghosting, it is there and other people will be able to see it. I could see it as plain as day on an 8 ms TN panel. BeHardware can see it on 2 ms TN screens. Also a contrast ratio of 500:1 is behind the competition, which means the darkest black your Neovo can do (0.50 cd/m2) is quite a bit lighter than other TN monitors (for instance SM930BF = 0.38 cd/m2).

Not saying it isn't a great screen though, none of those things add up to much for most people.

lee87 · 24 Feb 2006 at 11:17

Thanks for the replies, the samsung SM-913N is getting recommended the most and I haven't heard anything bad about it so I will probably go for that.

I might change my mind in a few weeks when i'm ordering it, and go for the acer 19" widescreen as I use it quite a lot for watching dvds and i'm hoping to get a TV card to watch tv on it.
I will look up on the net to find out which games the widescreen supports, if it supports the ones I play I will go for this instead.
The main games that I play are Counter Strike Source, BF2, black and white 2, Need for Speed MW.

Does anyone know if any of these games work well on a widescreen?

hudson · 24 Feb 2006 at 11:36

AFAIK two of the games oyu mention there (BF and CS) both have options within the game to play on wide screen 16:9 ratio so shouldnt be an issues.

H

ACPCUP · 24 Feb 2006 at 12:23

Some people are very finely tuned into seeing different colours etc on their monitors, some aren't. I could not see any ghosting on the Neovo. Maybe others will. Everyone i know who has one can't. As for darkness difference, again, to me it looks normal!

PVA or MVA is in a different price league!

dakaiez · 24 Feb 2006 at 14:14

I got the SM-913N last week and so far it's brilliant for both gaming and movie viewing. I can't fault it at all.

fish99 · 24 Feb 2006 at 14:32

Try Doom 3 in a pitch black room at night and see how the shadows look, then you'll see what I mean about black depth. Other than black depth I didn't comment about colours. As for ghosting it's very true (and rather bizarre) that a lot of people just can't see it. If someone pointed it out to you though, you would see it. I'm not fine tuned to spotting anything btw. Have a look at any of the monitor reviews on BeHardware. They take photos to show how much ghosting there is on each monitor. Even the fastest screens do it.

You can get a 19" 8 ms G2G MVA screen for £235 btw (the Formac one).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the screen, I'm just saying you can't say how it compares to other screens unless you've tried them. Assuming the specs are correct, the Samsung does outperform the Neovo (in response time and contrast ratio, not in viewing angles), which is what Raikiri was pointing out. Doesn't mean your screen isn't excellent though. We're just talking relative quality here not absolute.

lukechad · 25 Feb 2006 at 10:52

I got the Acer AL1916W last week and I am very impressed with it, I can really tell the difference with words on the screen compared to my old monitor which was a flat CRT. I am very happy with it so far

Flave · 25 Feb 2006 at 14:11

fish99 said:
Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the screen, I'm just saying you can't say how it compares to other screens unless you've tried them. Assuming the specs are correct, the Samsung does outperform the Neovo (in response time and contrast ratio, not in viewing angles), which is what Raikiri was pointing out. Doesn't mean your screen isn't excellent though. We're just talking relative quality here not absolute.

While you are correct the specs on the Samsung are slightly better (apart from the DVI input) I don't think the specs tell the whole story. As I said before I have both here so I am not really bias. (i hope) I honestly can't see any real world difference between the two monitors. They are both good and I would be equally happy with either.

ACPCUP · 25 Feb 2006 at 15:06

I have not bought the AG Neovo yet. Just the ones i have seen are ace. I am open to suggestions of different makes. What are the Formac make like? G2G MVA