[PLUG] LCD thingies

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Fri Dec 1 23:05:15 UTC 2006


On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 11:39:51PM -0800, Jeme A Brelin wrote:
> 
...
> So, I looked and found that there are some VERY affordable widescreen LCD 
> monitors that would be comparable to my current screen, but actually 
> readable and maybe radiating less and certainly taking up less desk space.
> 
> There are all kinds of interesting little specifications for each one and 
> I have a vague idea of what each of them would mean in terms of 
> performance.  However, if a person has an opinion on a drop-dead minimum 
> contrast ratio, I'd like to hear it.  I'm seeing that the difference in 
> price really jumps between 800:1 and 1000:1.  Am I really going to be 
> disappointed with the lesser contrast?
> 
> Is there another vital spec?  I'm assuming 6ms DVI is what I really want.

DVI solves one problem - if you use analog HD15, you may have problems
with sampling ripple with some old cards.  This makes a checkerboard
pixel array shimmer.  Not a problem with DVI, but folks that want to
use their old VGA port should be careful here.

Another thing that may matter is off-axis viewability.  How far off
"straight on" do you want an acceptable picture?  The stated "degrees"
are exaggerations;  the picture starts looking crappy long before the
big angles quoted.  One thing they do not quote is how it looks off
axis towards the corners;  the viewable angle on most monitors looks
like a blobby plus symbol, with crappy presentation for modest angles
towards the corners.  This is especially so with faster displays;
viewing angle trades off against LCD spped.

One thing that is important to us Portland area granola-heads is power
consumption.  The ViewSonic VG2021m that I bought (for $230 from "that
big store that hires the mentally challenged") is a bit of a watt hog
according to the comparative specs - 55W compared to typical 35W or
40W - but if I set the intensity to halfway and the power drops to
a tolerable 25W (this is measured with my Kill-A-Watt power meter,
available from GoLinuxShop for $18.13, see http://snurl.com/13uq0 ).
It is still quite bright.  I figure I will get extra life out of the
CCFL backlight, and have extra drive power in the future as the bulb
dims.

Oh, and one annoyance on the ViewSonic is the "Resolution Notice",
which pops up during boot to tell me that the monitor can do better
than 640x480.  Fortunately, you can turn it off.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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