[Tinalles]

Well, my monitor died the death yesterday. It had been getting flakier for several months, and now it's finally dead - the picture collapsed in on itself and faded out, and nothing seems to be able to make it come back. I'm annoyed; that CRT is only 4 years old, it should last longer than that.

So now I'm in the market for a new monitor. I like being able to change the resolution without nasty jagged artifacts, so my natural inclination is to get another CRT. But those are going out pretty fast now, and my brother tells me that the resizing issue is less serious than it used to be thanks to sub-pixel rendering and more intelligent graphics cards. So I'm considering an LCD.

If I'm going to get an LCD, I want one which:

1) Is widescreen for movie-watching purposes;
2) Has at least one DVI input;
3) Is NOT glossy (those glossy, reflective screens stink);
4) Has a vertical resolution of at least 900px to reduce page-down-ing;
5) Preferably has the capability to rotate to portrait view mode for when I'm reading long documents;
6) Has good brightness and contrast.
7) And a good response time (5ms or less) for when I'm playing games.

What do you think of this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001253

It hasn't gotten many customer reviews, but it's got all the features I want and none of the ones I don't want. Another possibility is this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009094

It's somewhat larger (22") and somewhat cheaper (by $50), and it's been wildly popular. But I found a detailed review of the unit on Anandtech which indicated it's got lousy vertical viewing angles and the height can't be adjusted, which is likely to be a problem given my desk configuration. So ... maybe not.

Then there's this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176091

I'm definitely not getting this one, but I thought I'd mention it 'cause I really like the base. It looks very well designed indeed. Unfortunately, there are three issues with this model - the screen is glossy (YUCK), there's an HDMI input but no DVI input so I'd have to buy an adapter, and at $350 it's awfully pricey. If I were willing to spend that much, I'd be looking at 24" models.

Or maybe I wouldn't. In theory, I'm all in favor of increased resolution. More dots, less eye strain, nicer picture. In practice, I start having usability issues at resolutions greater than 1280x1024, because I'm near-sighted. Everything gets tiny. The text can be adjusted of course, and so can some programs, but in many cases I wind up having to shove my face against the screen and squint real hard to distinguish between "save" and "save as" icons, for instance. If I could scale the ENTIRE interface, then I'd happily buy a giant monitor, crank it up to the very highest resolution, and fiddle with the size of the interface until it worked right for me. But Windows can't do that, I hate the Mac interface, and Linux isn't there yet (neither Gnome nor KDE nor any other window manager that I'm aware of can consistently resize the entire interface).

Thoughts?
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Keeper of The Remnant Minuon (cognomen Lucy, the Eaten One) and the Emissary Caeli

[Grimwatch]

Of the 3 you've listed, I would have to agree the first one does seem to fit yor criteria nicely (the whole adjusting the screen as you pivot it is a nice touch). My own monitor is a 19" widescreen, a bit light on other features, but it runs at 1440x900 native which I find is about right for my eyes (Im nearsighted as well, though I don't think my condition is as bad).
I would point out that a 22" screen may force you to sit a bit further away from your desk in order to view it comfortably, a problem some friends have had (it depends on the person though).
On a side note, most monitors these days should be listing 5ms or better for response time. If they dont, they need to be pushing some serious features in quality to compensate. With that in mind, your requirement of 5ms should be an automatic given. If it isnt there, unless the price difference is spectacular or they're throwing in a complimentry desktop PC, don't touch it with a ten foot pole.
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If it's not on fire, it's a software problem
Asa Dub (Forums Mk1) = Green. Grimwatch = Greenwitch = Green

Coach of the Maulers 'n' Brawlers Blood Bowl team - winner of the "Most casualties inflicted on opponents" award for T.A.G 2008, mwahaha...

[Lady Calie]

i would go for the 1st or 3rd one not that i know anything about monitors but the 2nd one I've heard some issues with mostly that you cant move it and a friend's died in like 2months >.>;;
1st and 3rd one i know the companies are good at least but havn't really heard anything about them (well except HP customer service but i think that is any now days)
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Your neighborhood cat,
Calie

[Tinalles]

After ruminating over it, I went for the Samsung (the first one I linked above). Once I've had it for a while I'll report back on whether it's good or not. I sure hope so; but I opted to spring for an extra forty bucks for a one-year full replacement plan in case it turns out to be a lemon.
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Keeper of The Remnant Minuon (cognomen Lucy, the Eaten One) and the Emissary Caeli

[Tinalles]

*bump*

Well, my new monitor finally arrived. What a trial! I stayed at home all day last Thursday and all day last Friday waiting for their stupid delivery driver to show up, and no one ever came. The UPS package tracking page claimed that they had attempted delivery, but I wasn't there to take it. HA. I don't know where THEY thought they were, but I was at home at both times they theoretically attempted to deliver it last week, and there were no little UPS sticky notes on my door or anything. I'm convinced that the UPS people screwed up and kept trying to deliver it to the wrong place. I called them up shortly after Friday's supposed delivery attempt to say "WTH?" and they told me they'd have somebody try again later that afternoon. Nobody showed up.

On Monday I lurked outside my apartment building where the UPS driver usually parks and pounced on him when showed up. He said "Hey, yeah, I think somebody said something about that this morning," but he didn't have my package. He called his boss, and she promised to send somebody over around 4 PM, which turned out to be 5:30. I was officially NOT pleased.

But at least I finally have a functional monitor for my main system again! It's shiny, and I'm loving having the ability to rotate it to portrait mode. Check this out:



Look at how much of the forum I can see on a single screen! I'm definitely going to do all my web browsing like this, and switch it back to landscape mode for movies and games. ^_^

So far, I have only three gripes, and they're fairly minor.

1) The colors get washed out pretty thoroughly if I move my head too far to one side or the other when it's in portrait mode. They must have assumed that most people would leave it in the standard orientation, which I guess makes sense.

2) I can't see the buttons for adjusting the brightness etc without looking real hard -- In the photo they're above the blue power light, but you can't actually see them. The labels on them are very subtle, to make them unobtrusive, I guess. I'd rather have them a little more obtrusive and easier to read.

3) The case is glossy. It's already accumulating noticeable finger smudges where I grasp the edge of the monitor to rotate it between portrait and landscape modes. Glossy cases are nice 'n all, but they kind of suggest that we mere mortals with oily fingers are not truly worthy to touch them.

Other than that, so far, so good!
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Keeper of The Remnant Minuon (cognomen Lucy, the Eaten One) and the Emissary Caeli

[Violabelle]

Oooo. Neat-o.
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[Maeniel]

I am truly jealous of your monitor. :O!
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Keeper of Zaebos' and Jormand's powers.

[TheBritishInvasion]

That is the coolist thing I have seen all day...Maybe all week.
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Britland as dubbed by AsA
Avatar courtesy of Footloose
Keeper of Tengu's electricity and Willow's 'what did you just say' eyes.

[Shiru04]

Man, I'm so outdated. I had no idea they had sideways monitors these days. Crazy kids and their crazier technology.

[thespaceinvader]

Dang, that's cool.

My plan is to use the old monitor from my desktop system to dual screen with my laptop when i get my my new university course.

Must research how to do this...
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Keeper of Tristram's rings, and Felucca's very expressive ears.

[Tinalles]

[Squeeself]

Squee is stuck with a standard aspect ratio monitor. LCD, really nice one too...but still, Squee would love a widescreen. ENVY.