LCD 17" Monitor

Avtar · May 14, 2005, 6:51am

I’m thinking of getting an LCD Monitor for myself, 17 inches at least.

Which one do you recommend? Nothing too expensive please.

chic_magnet · May 14, 2005, 7:40am

really depends on what you using it for… games a definate no no… for other stuff like word processing etc. ya you can go for one…
hmm chk out the acer models.. i forgot which ones.. comes very cheap…
here some links

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,117419,00.asp

_HeadShot · May 14, 2005, 9:30am

Check out the [RANK=“www.viewsonic.com.sg/products/productspecs.php?id=215&s=specs”]ViewSonic VA712[/RANK]. It is an excellent LCD for comparatively cheap price, and wide local availability takes care of warranty issues too!

Techtree Review:

The ViewSonic VA712 is a neat looking 17" LCD monitor with a metallic grey finish and collinear silver buttons placed at the front. A pair of integrated speakers is also present. I am not one who really cares about speakers in my LCD unless they find a way to integrate a subwoofer there somehow. For the records, the integrated speakers have an output power of 1 Watt each. Unlike the VE710b model which has a built-in power adapter, this come with a separate power adapter.

This monitor has a brightness level of 380 cd/m" which is higher than most of the LCD screens you get here. However the same cannot be said about the contrast ratio. It stands at 350:1 (typical) and 450:1 (max), which is slightly lower than most of the good LCDs today that manage a 600:1 ratio. However in practice, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. It boasts of a horizontal view angle of 160 degrees and 120 degrees for vertical. It supports a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels at 32-bit color depth. The frequency range supported by this model is 30 KHz to 82 KHz (Horizontal) and 50 Hz to 85 Hz (vertical). Just like most ViewSonic LCDs, there was no mention of dot pitch in the specifications, but I assume it is 0.264 mm.

Most of the features supported by this monitor are similar to the VE710b, one major difference being the response time. The response time of this LCD stands at 8 ms, which is easily the best we have tested here. Now surprisingly, there is absolutely no mention of that on the box. I have seen brands go gung ho over 12 ms response time but it doesn t seem to have gotten the ViewSonic marketing team excited. For those new to the LCD world, response time is basically the time taken by a liquid crystal cell in the LCD screen to change state i.e. to go from active to inactive and back to active state. The lesser time it takes for this state change, better the picture quality and lesser the ghosting effect. The response time is hardly a factor when you are looking at still images. It only comes into play when you are looking at high frames per second applications like games and videos. Higher response time is one of the major reasons why most of the gamers do not prefer a LCD screen over the classic CRT for gaming in spite of it being softer on the eyes. However 8 ms is really cool and I hardly noticed any ghosting effect when gaming on this one.

We tested this LCD using DisplayMate to get a bearing on how well it performs when put through various test patterns. DisplayMate first lets you tune a monitor to get the best possible display settings and then runs it through a series of test patterns to test everything from color, brightness and contrast to screen geometry. The elementary tests, to be precise.

The performance of this LCD was impressive in almost all the tests and very similar to its cousin, the VE710b. The brightness level was very good and same goes for the contrast. The general picture quality was sharp however it can be a little better especially when reproducing text with small font. The color reproduction once again was excellent. There was absolutely no bleeding of colors and every color and its shades were reproduced perfectly. The screen geometry was perfect too, which is often the case with most LCDs. There was a minor color registration error in the Horizontal Color Registration test. Other than that there was nothing to complain about.

The ViewSonic VA712 is available for a street price of Rs. 18,000 and comes with a three-year warranty. That makes it arguably the cheapest 17" LCD around. And considering its performance and the low response time, it is an excellent buy. It is good to see a major brand pricing their LCD aggressively and we can only hope that others follow soon. Thumbs up to ViewSonic and our recommendations for this model.

[RANK=“www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/showstory.jsp?storyid=3388”]Source[/RANK]

Avtar · May 14, 2005, 4:56pm

Hmmm, 18000 for that one. I’ve seen 17" LCD Monitors for about 14,500 mate, and good ones. Thanks anyway, I’ll take a look at the link.

Chaos · May 14, 2005, 5:03pm

The premium on that monitor’s price is cos of the response time. 8ms means its meant for gamers…

bottle · May 14, 2005, 5:11pm

if you are getting an lcd get one with DVI … the text is a lot sharper on my monitor when i use the dvi connection

anand · May 15, 2005, 4:52pm

va712 sucks… dont look at the response time… 8 ms and 12 ms makes hardly any difference… see the contrast ratio… 350:1.. IMO… evenSasmung 15" 510n has 450:1… samsung 710n 17" has 600:1 contrast ratio and 12 ms response time… i got it for 19k.. its more expensive but worth it.. and yeah 0 dead pixels…

Shripad · May 15, 2005, 5:24pm

oh man 8ms and 12ms makes a lot of difference my friend.
If you intend to even enjoy a DVD movie then you should get the monitor with least response time.
I have seen the demo of VA712 and my god its impressive. The contrast ratio is only 350:1 but that dosent affect this monitor much.
Try to watch the movies like Star Wars episode II or matrix and it sucks on most LCDs due to ghosting. On this monitor it was enjoyable. I could not see any ghosting effects myself. Playes NFSU2 for a while( thats what vendor had on display). Nice and easy no ghosting what so ever.
Even with LCD which has 12ms response you will feel sluggishness when you are used to CRTs. 8ms atleast for me made a lot of difference.

bottle · May 16, 2005, 4:47am

but all these lcds with fast response times are probably 6 bit panels, bright colours and such look pixellated , image quality is so so at best.

i would prefer to stick to an 8 bit panel , even though mine has a response time of 25ms i dont notice too much ghosting, and the colours are really vibrant

Avtar · May 16, 2005, 9:21am

I hardly play any heavy duty games, I’m a programmer and designer, so I need something that will not harm my eyes if I spend hours and hours in front of it.

anand · May 16, 2005, 5:19pm

then samsung 710n is perfect for you… the images on it are sooo much better… and yeah… looks sexy…