Dell Computers - Upgrading to LCD monitor

Author

Upgrading to LCD monitor - help please

Nikki

2005-02-20, 4:46 pm

I have a 17" monitor (one of the big fat ones that look like a tv
sitting on the desk) and I would like to upgrade to an LCD monitor,
19".
My questions - what are the most important considerations if I also
want to be able to watch movies and TV using this monitor (my pc has a
tv card fitted). Will an LCD monitor show DVDs, movies and TV as well
as the 17" old one did (when I say old, its like a year old)

Pinger

2005-02-20, 4:46 pm

Great question Nikki, I'm looking to upgrade my system and thinking of going
towards a LCD monitor to save space. For I have found so far in my hunt is
you need to make sure you go towards the higher end of the LCD monitor group
to get the best possible picture quality such as Dells "UltraSharp" series
or equal quality monitor from the better company's such as Viewsonic which
seems to always get good reviews from they're users. Although another
question I would like to pose is picture size, seems to me a 17" flat panel
LCD looks to be the same size picture wise to an 19" CRT (regular monitor we
have now). Is this true or just a optical illusion on my part??

<Nikki> wrote in message news:4218bf81.9623046@news-text.dial.pipex.com...
>I have a 17" monitor (one of the big fat ones that look like a tv
> sitting on the desk) and I would like to upgrade to an LCD monitor,
> 19".
> My questions - what are the most important considerations if I also
> want to be able to watch movies and TV using this monitor (my pc has a
> tv card fitted). Will an LCD monitor show DVDs, movies and TV as well
> as the 17" old one did (when I say old, its like a year old)
>

Patrick L. Parks

2005-02-20, 4:46 pm

Pinger wrote:
> Great question Nikki, I'm looking to upgrade my system and thinking of going
> towards a LCD monitor to save space. For I have found so far in my hunt is
> you need to make sure you go towards the higher end of the LCD monitor group
> to get the best possible picture quality such as Dells "UltraSharp" series
> or equal quality monitor from the better company's such as Viewsonic which
> seems to always get good reviews from they're users. Although another
> question I would like to pose is picture size, seems to me a 17" flat panel
> LCD looks to be the same size picture wise to an 19" CRT (regular monitor we
> have now). Is this true or just a optical illusion on my part??
>
>
> <Nikki> wrote in message news:4218bf81.9623046@news-text.dial.pipex.com...
>
>
>
>
One thing to keep in mind is that a 19" CRT (old style) monitor gives
you about 17.8 inches of screen space, but a 19" LCD monitor gives you
exactly 19 inches of screen space.

So, technically in terms of size, 17" LCD's usually are closest to 19"
CRT's.

While I own both a Dell Ultrasharp (connected via DVI) and a 17" analog
flat panel, I don't see much difference between the two. I would figure
out what your budget is and then find a monitor which fits into your budget.

raystation

2005-02-20, 11:45 pm

I've been using my new Dell Ultrasharp 1704FPV 17" LCD monitor about a week
now via DVI and love it. It's definitely very bright and sharp. My 3 year
old 17" Dell Trinitron was nice, but I do not regret upgrading to LCD. You
can sometimes find the 1704FPV on sale at Dell's site for around $250.

The only concern I've had with the 1704FPV is with the stand. No doubt Dell
offers the most sturdy LCD stands available, but with this unit the monitor
would not center perfectly level on the stand. It's built to rotate only one
direction and not the other. When rotated to top dead center as far as it
would go it would not center on the stand. Finally had to take the rotation
mechanism apart and remove a metal pin that restricts full rotation. That
fixed the stand for good, but the display quality has been nothing but
perfect.

<Nikki> wrote in message news:4218bf81.9623046@news-text.dial.pipex.com...

> My questions - what are the most important considerations if I also
> want to be able to watch movies and TV using this monitor (my pc has a
> tv card fitted). Will an LCD monitor show DVDs, movies and TV as well
> as the 17" old one did (when I say old, its like a year old)

User N

2005-02-20, 11:45 pm

"Pinger" <Pinger@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:aYGdnU_B-qNcTIXfRVn-oQ@adelphia.com...
> [] Although another
> question I would like to pose is picture size, seems to me a 17" flat panel
> LCD looks to be the same size picture wise to an 19" CRT (regular monitor we
> have now). Is this true or just a optical illusion on my part??

It just so happens that tonight I was gathering/generating some related
data, and in case you are interested, here it is. For proper alignment,
copy/paste the following into notepad or some other editor that uses
fixed width fonts.

In the following table, "Display Width" and "Display Height" are for
the viewable area of the displays.

Monitor Display Width Display Height Aspect Ratio Native Res
17" CRT 12.5 9.4 4:3 N/A
19" CRT 14 10.5 4:3 N/A
1704FPT LCD 13.3 10.6 5:4 1200x1024
1801FP LCD 14.1 11.3 5:4 1200x1024
1905FP LCD 14.8 11.9 5:4 1200x1024
2001FP LCD 16.1 12.1 4:3 1600x1200
2005WFP LCD 17 10.7 8:5 1680x1050

Below are figures for what I'll call "logical pixels per inch" (LPPI). If a
monitor is 12.5" wide and running at 1024x768, there will be approx
1024/12.5 logical pixes per inch. I say "logical" so that there is no
confusion with LCD panels, where the 1024 logical pixels will be scaled
to the N physical pixels of the display. Assuming all other things are equal
(Windows is using the same DPI, fonts size prefs are the same, etc),
I believe the following gives one some idea of how large things will look
on the various displays. For example, a 19" CRT at 1024x768 displays
roughly 73 LPPI. On a 2001FP, that same resolution would produce
roughly 63.5 LPPI. Thus the same text or picture would appear approx
13% larger on the 2001FP at that resolution.

Notes: The greater the difference between horizontal LPPI and vertical
LPPI, the more elongated text and images will be. If you run an LCD
display at a non-native resolution, the image quality will be reduced. In
some cases a little bit, in some cases alot.

Logical PPI data (hLPPI = hRes/dWidth, vLPPI = vRes/dHeight)...

17" CRT
1024x768: hLPPI = 81.92, vLPPI = 81.7
1152x864: hLPPI = 92.16, vLPPI = 91.91
1280x1024: hLPPI = 102.4, vLPPI = 108.94

19" CRT
1024x768: hLPPI = 73.14, vLPPI = 73.14
1152x864: hLPPI = 82.29, vLPPI = 82.29
1280x1024: hLPPI = 91.43, vLPPI = 97.52

1704FPT LCD
1024x768: hLPPI = 76.99, vLPPI = 72.45
1152x864: hLPPI = 86.62, vLPPI = 81.51
1280x1024: hLPPI = 96.24, vLPPI = 96.6 (native)

1801FP LCD
1024x768: hLPPI = 72.62, vLPPI = 67.96
1152x864: hLPPI = 81.7, vLPPI = 76.46
1280x1024: hLPPI = 90.78, vLPPI = 90.62 (native)

1905FP LCD
1024x768: hLPPI = 69.19, vLPPI = 64.54
1152x864: hLPPI = 77.84, vLPPI = 72.61
1280x1024: hLPPI = 86.49, vLPPI = 86.05 (native)

2001FP LCD
1024x768: hLPPI = 63.6, vLPPI = 63.47
1152x864: hLPPI = 71.55, vLPPI = 71.4
1280x1024: hLPPI = 79.5, vLPPI = 84.63
1600x1200: hLPPI = 99.38, vLPPI = 99.17 (native)

2005WFP LCD
1024x768: hLPPI = 60.24, vLPPI = 71.78
1152x864: hLPPI = 67.76, vLPPI = 80.75
1280x1024: hLPPI = 75.29, vLPPI = 95.7
1600x1200: hLPPI = 94.12, vLPPI = 112.15
1680x1050: hLPPI = 98.82, vLPPI = 98.13 (native)

A 19" CRT at 1024x768 compared to LCDs @ native...

1704FPT = 96.42 vs 73.14 = 31.8% smaller objects
1801FP = 90.7 vs 73.14 = 24% smaller objects
1905FP = 86.27 vs 73.14 = 18% smaller objects
2001FP = 99.28 vs 73.14 = 35.7% smaller objects
2005WFP = 98.48 vs 73.14 = 34.6% smaller objects

Comments/corrections welcome, I cranked this out pretty
quickly.

Sponsored Links