Do you own an LCD monitor? If so, can you read this?

[Cobra]

Hi

I need a little advice. I want to buy a TFT LCD monitor, but I spotted a thing called "Response time" - on the one I am looking at it is 30ms, but the cheaper one is 40ms. That's almost half a second!

What does "response time" mean? Is 30ms any good?

I use my computer for games (sometimes) and video editing/playing DVDs on, if that helps.

Thanks for any advice - I appreciate anything anyone can tell me!

CobraDMX

[nwf_snake]

No, 500 ms is half a second. A 40 ms response time is 25 Hz. You want one with a 30 ms or lower response time to play games.

[leebo]

The problem is that few monitors list their response times.

As I understand it, it is the time it takes to renew the displayed frame. So for instance, when looking at email the response time makes little difference, but when watching video it makes a big difference.
slow response time results in image ghosting, where the last frame continues to be displayed while the next frame is displayed.

I discovered a simple test that I think will give you an idea of how well (or poorly) one LCD compares with another, though it wont tell you exactly what the response time is.

Display a page of text on the LCD.
Grab the scroll bar and scroll up and down rapidly. The text will blur due to the much slower response time compared to a CRT monitor.

This will give you some indication of one monitors response time compared to anothers.

[Cobra]

Thanks Leebo, that was a good test after all!

And guess what? I'm investing in a 17" normal monitor after the really poor performance offered by budget TFT monitors. You know that some manufacturers have a 16 DPP (dead pixel policy) - you would need to have 16 black/white "sticky" pixels before they would help you out? That sucks...

Thanks again!

CobraDMX

[flaninacupboard]

Sixteen?! i'd want to take it back after one!! i suppose it's just another example of big companies telling us we want something that's more expensive with poorer quality. i recently saw Dell selling their computers on QVC, they had a whole range of computers, from the "family" machine the "games" machine, and i pissed myself, the "professional multimedia" machine, complete with TFT monitor! "this computer is perfect for scanning and manipulating photographs and doing graphic design" what a load of bull!!
i remember my first laptop, it had a DSTN screen, now that -did- have a 500ms refresh, playing doom was kinda trippy.....

[Bob W]

I bought a ViewSonic 19 inch LCD monitor a month ago and absolutely love it. I have however been told they are not that good for games but I have another computer I can do that with if I wanted to play games. The only thing I don't like so far is that the display is best when viewed in the monitors native resolution and in my case thats 1280 x 1024. I would normally like to run at a lower resolution but if I do I can tell the image quality suffers.

[leebo]

The only thing I don't like so far is that the display is best when viewed in the monitors native resolution

I've read that's normal.

[bladestorm]

Is this any good?


Specifications:
LCD Panel
- Screen Size: 304(W) x 228(L)mm (15.0") 380mm Diagonal
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Resolution: XGA 1024(H) x 768(V)
- Pixel Pitch: 0.297(H) x 0.297(V) mm
- Brightness: 230 cd/m2 @ 8mA (Typical)
- Contrast: 400:1 (Typical)
- Viewing Angle: 60(R) / 60(L) / 55(U) / 45(D)
- Response Time: 13(Tr) / 27(Tf) ms (Typical)
- Expected Life Time: 30000hr (Min) @ 8mA

[leebo]

Is this any good?


Specifications:
LCD Panel
- Screen Size: 304(W) x 228(L)mm (15.0") 380mm Diagonal
- Resolution: XGA 1024(H) x 768(V)
- Pixel Pitch: 0.297(H) x 0.297(V) mm
- Contrast: 400:1 (Typical)
- Response Time: 13(Tr) / 27(Tf) ms (Typical)

I'm no expert on these, but that response time looks pretty good to me for video and gaming.

I'd like a better pixel pitch (smaller number).
I'm in the States so I have no idea what those screen dementions mean, but I'm guessing it translates to about 15 inches judging from the low resolution.

[DigiToast]

Is this any good?


Specifications:
LCD Panel
- Screen Size: 304(W) x 228(L)mm (15.0") 380mm Diagonal
- Resolution: XGA 1024(H) x 768(V)
- Pixel Pitch: 0.297(H) x 0.297(V) mm
- Contrast: 400:1 (Typical)
- Response Time: 13(Tr) / 27(Tf) ms (Typical)

I'm no expert on these, but that response time looks pretty good to me for video and gaming.

I'd like a better pixel pitch (smaller number).
I'm in the States so I have no idea what those screen dementions mean, but I'm guessing it translates to about 15 inches judging from the low resolution.

With a 13ms rise and 27ms fall, the total response time is going to be 13+27 = 40ms - thus not very good for gaming.

Edit: BTW, higher response times cause an effect more commonly referred to as 'afterglow' where pixels stay lit up after being instructed to turn off. Afterglow and 'image ghosting' are very different problems. Image ghosting occurs as a result from signal degradation and loss when being transported in an analog form. Image ghosting is where you see more than one of the same screen image shifted in a single and linear direction from the original; this is most commonly seen on analog televisions but not limited to. Ghosting is also seen in many monitors when high resolutions used - thus the need for very expensive video/monitor cables, coax(RGBHV) monitor cables, component cabling, DVI, etc..

[leebo]

Sorry, I was only going by what I've read in PC Magazine.