Need help deciding what kind of computer HD monitor I want

  • Thread starter Delirious
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Delirious

Delirious

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Metroider17
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009125

Like: 24 inches, 1920 x 1200
Dislike: Price, lack of Component

My first choice and seems many people like it due to "1x Winner of Customer Choice Award - LCD Monitors"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116400

Like: PRICE!!!
Dislike: Not 24 inches, lack of component.

If component won't be necessary to my needs I may settle for this...it just seems like a sensible choice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824002359

Like: 24 Inches, 1920 x 1200, component!
Dislike: PRICE!!!

The main reason I have currently for wanting component is so I can hook up my xbox original (I think) up to the monitor and so I can try some homebrew games in HD (480p, 720p, 1080i) (see my thread in the xbox sub-forum for more details)



Also I am HD illiterate. This will be my first HD monitor purchase. I don't care for HDTV so that won't be a worry to me. I made sure the monitors have HDMI, HDCP, and 1080p support (unless I missed something in the three I am trying to choose from).

The uses for the monitor would be for my ATI HD 3850 AGP with HDCP support and to play games not only at a high resolution but perhaps in HD. I would also be attempting to hook up my PS3 to the monitor for playing games in HD and movies in HD.

Any help/advice/suggestions greatly appreciated. You guys have served me so well in the past and recent past and this site is the #1 I trust in any type of electronic advice. :)
 
Having seen and played with both that Acer and that Viewsonic, I have to say that the Viewsonic is a much better screen. That said, it's not that the Acer is bad and if you desperately need 24" screen then it will be fine. Personally in the 24" Range w/HDMI, I found that the LG was much better than the Acer and only slightly more expensive. However, the previous LG model has gone and made way for a new more expensive one, but I have no doubt that it's a better monitor than the Acer.

However, the problem you may have is running a HD3850 AGP at 1920 x 1080. I think it would struggle to run newer games at such a high resolution.
 
Thank you for the insightful reply...reading on about the 21.5 incher...I have read that it reduces the size of HD movies a little due to smaller screen size and that text size at that resolution will be small and perhaps hard to read. True?
 
Delirious?
Thank you for the insightful reply...reading on about the 21.5 incher...I have read that it reduces the size of HD movies a little due to smaller screen size and that text size at that resolution will be small and perhaps hard to read. True?
Click to expand...

Well, when running an LCD anything other than it's native resolution looks like ass, in this case 1920 x 1080. So with more pixels on a smaller space, things that are 50 pixels wide (Something like icons for example), will look smaller on a 21.5" screen than a 24" screen. Despite technically being the same width. So things will look smaller. However, most things like Icons and Text size can be resized in Windows, so if you have a problem it can be changed.

With HD movies, with the Acer you'll either have Black Bars above and below or a slight expansion. The Acer is a 16:10 screen, at 1920x1200 resolution, anything that's a HD movie, or 1080p from PS3, etc, will be 1920x1080, because it's at 16:9. The Viewsonic is a 16:9 screen, so it shouldn't have a problem, because it's native resolution is exactly 1920x1080. The disadvanage obviously of this, less vertical screen space.
 
So if I may ask...would you rather have 16:9 or 16:10?

Also what are the advantages of having a monitor with component cable ability?
 
It depends on a few things. If the monitor is functioning primarily as a multimedia display, such as ps3, hd movies, etc, than a 16:9 screen is probably more sensible.

Its really down too how much screen space you want vs quality. With some basic trig you could work out the actual physical display size of each. Then you could measure it out and decide that way.

Having component inputs does not change anything regarding the quality/capabilities of the screen other than you can plug a component source into it and view it. If you dont have any component products then it isnt an issue, if you want to plug component devices into it then its a deal breaker. The other thing is that the viewsonic has built in speakers whereas the acer doesnt, which may or may not effect your decision?
 
I'm gonna go with the Acer 24 inch...since I can live with my xbox in SD :P

Thank you for your help and insight Casio :)
 

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