Moniter dying need new one

[LinuxRandal]

So my 10 year old moniter, made a pop sound the other day (flyback transformer sound), and starting flickering on and off. If I let it cool off for a while, it's fine, but I am considering it a gonner!
So, off and on for the last couple of years, I have been watching flat screens and prices. Now they are cheap enough, and have improved enough I am considering one. Now for the hard part, regular format, or widescreen? Anyone have a widescreen, here?

Who, uses dvi and who just uses hd15 (standard vga connector)? I ask that as I am looking at hooking the dvi to my main system, and the analog, to a kvm.

Thanks

[bigsteel15]

So my 10 year old moniter, made a pop sound the other day (flyback transformer sound), and starting flickering on and off. If I let it cool off for a while, it's fine, but I am considering it a gonner!
So, off and on for the last couple of years, I have been watching flat screens and prices. Now they are cheap enough, and have improved enough I am considering one. Now for the hard part, regular format, or widescreen? Anyone have a widescreen, here?

Who, uses dvi and who just uses hd15 (standard vga connector)? I ask that as I am looking at hooking the dvi to my main system, and the analog, to a kvm.

Thanks

I have a 19" "square" screen at work. Given the option now, I would definitely go widescreen and the biggest you can afford. My reasons may be different than others, as I do Autocad and it is awesome on a widescreen monitor, as paper layout is always wider than tall.
When I finally do make one of my home monitors die (hammer?) I will be going widescreen with DVI connection. DVI only becasue my vid card accepts it, as do most today.
Can you hook up both?

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Dell 2001FP

20.1" of pure heaven. I have a "few" of them here in my home office. They are awesome, digital, VGA, DVI, cool sound bar for the bottom, comes nice adjustable stand and can be had for $300 usually through sales and deals.

I would not go with an non-dvi (ie non-digital) monitor unless you don't have DVI video card and refuse to get one even though they are only a few bucks.

[maxparot]

The Wide screen format is great if you are going to use it as a dual purpose PC and Home theater. If so an LCD HDTV monitor of 32" or larger would be my first choice. Starting Prices @$700 and they go up from there real fast.
For PC use the widescreen format is neither an advantage nor a problem. It's just another screen setting. I have a widescreen laptop and it's only advantage is that it a hi res monitor. Otherwise it is just a different desktop resolution.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I am not a fan of widescreen for PC. This sentiment seems pretty common in the industry. Dells 20.1 Wide Screen was always $100 less than the regular FP (flat panel), in fact that phased it out and now have widescreen in 24" and larger. Whatever you go with Dell is the way to go. Like I said I have a few of them here in front of me and not 1 dead pixel. I originally purchased Sony FP's and they ALL had 2- 10 dead pixels. I was advised by Sony that they would not replace anything with less than 5 dead pixels as that was their acceptable tolerence. I took them all back to the retailer. I have never had a single dead pixel with my Dells. I do have 1 dead pixel on my 37" Dell LCD TV, which was dead when I got it. You can only see it when you are close up and when the screen is projecting a solid dark color.

[sacherjj]

I prefer dual screen to wide screen. But if you are getting just one, go wide screen. I also would recommend Dell LCDs. They are a great deal. DVI makes a difference in lack of ghosting and similar artifacts. Check out slickdeals.net and hotdealsclub.com for Dell coupons and deals.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I wasn't going to get into it but yes multi-monitors are awesome. On my main system I have a 3 DVI card which has 3 of the Dell 20.1s hooked up to it. My wifes system has a 20.1 Dell LCD and an 19" VGA. That works really well for her when she is doing work at home. Being able to reference different programs withouth switching back and forth is great.

[Wood_workur]

yeah- will your mother board support sli videocards? I would reccomend a nvidia 6800 card (or two-in sli mode) to make to the most of out your new monitor(s)

but dell monitors RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUY A DELL. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!!!!

[LCHIEN]

One mode of thinking is to buy more than what you need, e.g. DVI inputs even though you only have VGA...

But, I think the reality is don't overbuy even though you think its cheap, I think we'll see dropping prices for quite a while on LCDs and plasma.
I remember when I bought my first VGA monitor, a NEC Multisync. 14" for $700! The last CRTs I bought were 17" with vastly better performance for $89.
Same thing will happen with LCDs, just buy what you need for now, when you need something better, they'll be cheaper and better.

[mpc]

As much as I hate to admit, I have to agree the Dell LCD displays are darn good. I'm not a Dell fan in general - I absolutely DETEST their keyboards, I've also had problems with laptops frying because heat sinks separate from the processor - machines where I work... but my company recently swapped all CRTs for the Dell 1905FP panels - they can do analog or digital input and I have to admit the images are very very good. I run dual-monitor at work; one is DVI and one is analog (that's the best my company laptop/docking station can do) and I really can't "see" any difference on the screens. The analog one is not the least bit blurry nor does it show any sync jitter issues.

Back to the original question: wide-screen or not. I'm absolutely addicted to twin monitors now - mega-wide-screen - it's great for engineering work where I can have my work document/spreadsheet/program source code/whatever on one screen and a reference or two just off to the side. A co-worker loves the screen twist capability of his Dell panel: it pivots 90 degrees so word processing is more natural and he can see many many lines of programming source code. If you type a lot, that alone is worth the "wide screen" mode if the panel can pivot it to a "really tall screen" mode instead. Some "wide screen" panels though are actually fairly low in pixel resolution; that's something to be wary of.

Typical LCD screen issues to be aware of:
* they respond slower than CRTs so gaming on them often is a challenge... if gaming matters to you or the kids.

* Many LCDs have a difficult time handling dark shades; the often just end up pure black instead so photo-editing purists often don't like LCDs.

* The dead-pixel issue that was already brought up. Or the always-on pixel counterpart.

* The default setting on many LCDs is rather bright - to make the contrast ratio spec look good. Some LCDs, including the Dell 1905FP, disable many of the user adjustments when the panel is hooked to a DVI port. One of the adjustments not available on my work panel was brightness... and I found it painfully bright. I was able to work around it by using the "color" menu instead, dialling down the gains on the RED/BLUE/GREEN channels just like dimming the guns (aka"drive" controls) on a CRT. That did trash the dark colors a bit more though.

Having said that, my next display probably will be LCD over CRT as well. It's really nice to NOT have to tweak convergence controls to get rid of red/blue ghosting on the screen edges/corners. And it's nice to have lines that are actually STRAIGHT rather than bowed at the top/bottom or left/right edges of the screen. No pincushioning distortion on LCDs!

mpc

[LinuxRandal]

I have a 19" "square" screen at work. Given the option now, I would definitely go widescreen and the biggest you can afford. My reasons may be different than others, as I do Autocad and it is awesome on a widescreen monitor, as paper layout is always wider than tall.
When I finally do make one of my home monitors die (hammer?) I will be going widescreen with DVI connection. DVI only becasue my vid card accepts it, as do most today.
Can you hook up both?

I looked for reviews online, before posting this, and according to some of the posts over at the widescreen gaming forum, You CAN hook up both. You just hit the input switch on the moniter to choose. As both my kvms are analog, I would still like that option (can cascade the kvm's). Unfortunately for me, the budget only allows as big as a 19" ( I was looking at the Viewsonics) @ around $240 delivered. I just have never seen one up close (locally they only carry the square ones).
Even though my old moniter can go up to 1600 by 1200, I tend to keep it at 1024 by 768 due to font sizes verses ease of reading, so it still seams like the 1400 by 900 would be a bigger display.

Thanks all,

[LinuxRandal]

Update

Ok, so my moniter started flaking out more the last couple of days. I friend of mine who works on them, said it was more likely the power supply. He said it wasn't cost effective to replace that either. So I had been watching the ones I wanted, and watching the ads, and a new model came up. I did get to see most of the models I was interested in, and ended up with an AOC 193fwk. To me, it actually looked better then the Viewsonic I was looking at (although, running that on analog, through a video extender, is not a way to display a moniter).

Here is my test from real world experience with the analog and digital switch. I have both hooked up, but when I switch it to analog (even through the kvm, on the other machine), Windows detects the analog, and drops down to that mode. I will have to try disconnecting the analog completely from the Windows box, another time.
As for screal estate, Oh my, it's freaking gorgeous. And as two of my other old moniters were 20" or bigger, and won't fit my desk, it's awesome, and incredibly lightweight.

[scorrpio]

The Wide screen format is great if you are going to use it as a dual purpose PC and Home theater. If so an LCD HDTV monitor of 32" or larger would be my first choice. Starting Prices @$700 and they go up from there real fast.
For PC use the widescreen format is neither an advantage nor a problem. It's just another screen setting. I have a widescreen laptop and it's only advantage is that it a hi res monitor. Otherwise it is just a different desktop resolution.

Never get an HDTV if you plan to sit right in front of it - HDTV resolutions, even the 1080p, are designed to be viewed from several feet away. Up close they are no good. Now when I hook up my PC to my 37" LCD HDTV, that looks great for games.

For PC use, widescreen is a lot better IMO - sure, web browsing, word processing and most games are no better off - though games that fully support widescreen give you a more immersive feeling due to larger view angle. Where widescreen really kicks is design/editing. Graphics, video, CAD - the extra screen space really helps.

[LinuxRandal]

Well, With the switch from Digital to analog, if I switch it, Windows will switch back one it senses the digital connection.