Flat screen recommendation (PC) for high res graph?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

William Gaffga noted: <<... as much as I dislike the company, Dell  
produces a good LCD at very reasonable prices.>>

I can second that. My wife has a gorgeous widescreen 20-inch Dell  
model, and I'm seriously thinking of getting one myself. She also has  
an LG 19-inch screen which is lovely. Samsung also appears to produce  
really good displays based on what I see in the stores. I've heard of  
a few recent problems with Viewsonics, but please treat those as  
anecdotal; they used to have a decent reputation.

David Neeley noted: <<Dell produces nothing in screens. Like other  
brands, when it comes to flat screens they buy them from an OEM  
manufacturer...just as they do for CRTs.>>

While this is true for many products, not just LCDs, it's also  
important to note that a large part of the product's final quality  
comes from the assembly. LCD screens, for example, are produced by a  
limited number of manufacturers, yet if you look at the reviews in  
consumer magazines, there are clear differences in how well products  
based on the same underlying screen are rated. Some of this comes  
from the inevitable variation among individual units (no  
manufacturing process is ever 100% perfect), but much of it comes  
from each manufacturer's quality control. For example, a name brand  
like Dell often accepts only the top X% of the production run,  
rejecting adequate but not exceptional screen components that a  
cheapie manufacturer would accept, and the difference in quality  
across the brand is predictable.

Before buying a computer product, I always check the PC Magazine  
review (www.pcmag.com); I don't always agree with what they have to  
say, but they have often pointed out a problem I might not have  
noticed on my own. I also check their annual survey of reliability  
and customer satisfaction; as with mutual funds, "past performance  
does not guarantee future performance" (witness the serious problems  
with a whole batch of Dell laptops a few years ago), but it does help  
weed out obvious problem brands.

<<Brightness in an LCD monitor comes from a fluorescent light tube  
within the monitor and the design of the illumination area that  
reflects the light through the screen. LCDs themselves have no light  
of their own--you are looking through the liquid crystals to the  
light field behind them.>>

Interestingly (and as you noted), a geek friend told me yesterday  
that Apple's next batch of laptops will use LEDs rather than  
fluorescent lights to generate the light behind the LCD layer.  
Brightness is expected to be comparable or better, the cost will be a  
bit higher, but power consumption should be much lower (thus, better  
battery life). I'll be interested to see whether they apply this to  
their desktop monitors too, and how well the technology holds up in  
the long run! I have an instinctive distrust of version 1 of any new  
technology. <g>

<<Image artifacts from motion should obviously be less of a concern  
if you aren't viewing video or animation on the screen. However, it  
is quite true that the higher-quality screens typically have faster  
response times anyway.>>

It's also important that you judge the store display models with  
caution. Because these are often driven simultaneously by a single  
graphics unit, the display quality suffers; in particular, you see a  
lot of cursor ghosting, something I rarely see outside a computer  
superstore. If you want to see the real image, ask them to plug the  
display into a single computer that is only driving that one display.  
If you're buying the screen to extend your laptop's screen, ask to  
plug in your laptop and see how it works.

<<Be careful in that many screens operate at a higher resolution than  
you may find comfortable. A 14" LCD with 1024x768, or one with 1280 x  
800 or so if it's in widescreen format, may be very hard to read when  
text is displayed over many hours of work. As you know, constantly  
zooming an image is something of a pain, too.>>

I second that. Make sure you test out the screen at the resolution  
you'll actually be using. I find high-res screens often default to  
uncomfortably small text. You can fix some of this by adjusting  
system-wide settings and some of it by adjusting settings in each  
application (e.g., in Word, I routinely zoom text to 150% using a  
keyboard macro I created). But sometimes you end up with an  
uncomfortable match for your eyes. Antialiasing sometimes helps, but  
not always. In that case, you have little choice than to choose a  
different display.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
***Now available***  _Effective onscreen editing_
(http://www.geoff-hart.com/home/onscreen-book.htm)


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.