Need Advice on Buying an 24-27" LCD Monitor
 

my crt (yes i'm still using a crt monitor! :o) is dying.
i want to replace it with a LCD monitor.

i want to get a 24" or a 27" LCD monitor.
i'm in UK and my budget is around the £350 mark.

that does not mean i want to spend all £350.
for example, if a 24" monitor costing £200 will best fit my needs, then i'm more than happy to go with that.

i want the monitor to be better suited to do Photoshop-ing.
so, a monitor that displays truer colours is a bit more important than having a "gaming" monitor that has fast response times and 120Hz refresh rates.

ok, over to you experts to give me a few examples of what you consider to be good quality monitors.

thank you very much.

I'm following this thread. Someone on this site once said "Never use your tv as a monitor (in regards to recording vhs to the computer). Not now, not ever" when I mentioned that I use my tv as a monitor. They never elaborated on it though.

I've been quite satisfied with Dell UltraSharp series 24" monitors for my video and graphics editing purposes. Generally speaking computer monitors and graphics systems are typically optimized for computer graphics, not video (as in NTSC/PAL). So you should to read the specs and reviews with care to sort out how they will work for your applications.

(For video editing output and preview from my NLE I use HDMI output from a video (not graphics) card (Intensity Pro or HD Spark) to a dedicated TV monitor.

However, some TV sets include automatic image correction features (brightness, contrast, color correction) meaning that they are not suited to use in video editing environments because they hide the real signal behind their processing.

hey people, thanks for your initial thoughts.

but please, don't get too side-tracked with my crt usage.
it is a iiyama hm903dt and it was quite decent.
at least until it started to die. ha ha.

dpalomaki: yes, i've had an eye on Dell Ultrasharp 24" monitors.
can you suggest a specific model or two?

thanks.

The specific models I am using (e.g., U2410 and U2407)) have been replace by newer models in the DELL product line. I cannot personally speak to the replacement models (currently U2413 I believe), the U2412 may have been the last model with analog video ports if that is important and is still in the retail chain. Be a good idea to review user reports and specs to see if it meets your needs.

CRTs worked well for years - the issues being weight, energy use, support for HD, and aging components. I still have several around (to the dismay of my wife).

over the weekend, i busied myself researching which monitor to get.

i think for my budget, one of the dell 24" monitors will do the job.

i'm not going to get too worried about all the technical aspects since, from what i've read, i'll need to spend £1000+/£2000+ to get a "pro" monitor. to be honest, right now, i simply do not need such a high quality monitor.

so thanks people. i appreciate your help.

I use a TV and play videogames and edit videos.

Most TVs dont offer the pixel count or color depth of a decent monitor. If you don't mind that you should be fine. I use a $350 37" JVC Blackcrystal HDTV. Its too big and I sit too close, but it has built-in surround sound and well worth the money.

What you need to look for is "IPS" technology on the LCD. IPS give accurate colors, while normal cheap consumer LCDs do not. When you're doing video and photo work, that is very important.

I've had an IPS monitor since 2004 or so, when I switched away from CRTs. Back then I didn't even know what IPS was, but saw that the monitor was not like the others on the shelf -- it was accurate. It wasn't until shopping for my next LCD that I really paid attention.

Is that what you ended up with? Many of the better Dell 24" are IPS, as are HP and Vizio (what I use).

While LG has IPS monitors, they dither to achieve it, so not true IPS. (They used to not dither. My first LCD was LG.)

You will find a ton of in-depth monitor information at this site, with enough reviews to keep you busy for a month: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews.htm. The left-hand panel leads to other articles, the right-hand panel deals with calibration gear. Yes. some of the products are very pricey, but many are mainstream. Going through a few reviews will give you quite a heady idea of what to look for.

Working with uncalibrated monitors for photo/video is shooting yourself in the foot. There are also quite a few economical and even some free devices for getting it right. You'd be surprised at how off-spec some products are out-of-the-box, while there are some brands that tend to get it fairly close straight out (Dell UltraSharp and HP seem to be rather consistent).

I believe that almost all of the affordable IPS monitors today use dithering of some kind, some better at it than others. Many of the front panels on popular models are made by LG to the manufacturer's specs (don't let that throw you off. Just because somebody else makes the ips panel doesn't mean it's one of "that brand's" sets. Manufacturer's specs differ). There are only a few front panel manufacturers out there. Samsung doesn't even make most of their own. The reviews also test how well dithering is performed, if it's used. Many sets are pretty good at it.