Help - LCD/TFT/Flat Screen displays

[fsgregs]

Hi folks:

I have compiled enough birthday money (I won't tell you how old I am) to buy a flat screen monitor as a purely whim purchase. I have done no research into it, but have seen some monitors and am very impressed with their color. I know nothing about the different kinds of thin flat screen monitors. I guess LCD or something called TFT" displays are what are now in use.

I have about $300 to spend. I want a 19" minimum display that is fast enough to showcase Celestia just fine, and to play the most demanding of video games. I will be updating my video card in the next 3 months to the next FX level in Nvidia. My current card is a GeForce 4 TI 4200.

I would greatly appreciate any recommendations you may have.

Thanks in advance.



Frank

[guest jo]

deleted

[maxim]

I have about $300 to spend.

That's a pitty. There is a test of actual UXGA (1600x1200) LC Panels in c't (german computer magazine) of this month, but they range from 890?‚¬ to 1410?‚¬, and are 20" and 21".

In general you can choose between VA (MVA,PVA,ASV) and IPS type panels. IPS types are switching faster and thus better for games and video.

The testsuite was:

Formac, NEC-Mitsubishi, Sony -> VA panels, high contrast and very rich colors, but slow.
IBM -> older IPS panel.
BenQ, HP, Iiyama, LG, Philips -> fast IPS panel, manufactured by LG-Philips, but tends to show stripes on greyblue areas.
Apple -> fast IPS panel, good choice, but only digital signal entrance, no OSM control.

maxim

[Sky Pilot]

Frank, I just purchased two Sony flat panels (a 17" and a 19") for my two computers at home after trying several different displays. Without any doubt, the most beautiful picture quality I found was Sony's newest "HS-Series" displays. They have a 500:1 contrast ratio, compared to 400:1 for all other brands. So they produce a much brighter picture, which makes Celestia's stars look much more brilliant than any other monitor I tried. The quality of the picture (sharpness, color, etc.) is truly stunning!

They're a bit more than what you're looking to spend, but Best Buy has the lowest price I've seen PLUS a $150 rebate on the 19" model and a $100 rebate on the 17".

Here's a link to the specs page:
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSH ... MHS74P%2fS