Benq vs. Gateway 24" LCD

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Edman22

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
158
Although each has it's own thread, I created this to get some clear discussion about which one each of you guys prefer and why. So far here are the pro's and cons as I see it:

Benq:

Good
-looks great
-HDMI
-Good picture quality and response time
-Supports 1080p over component, hdmi, and Dvi ?

Bad
-LACKS 1:1 mapping (Comming soon via factory revision?)
-Not sure if it supports 1080p through component (someone please fill me in on this)
-Costs more than the Gateway
-Can't buy it in a store

Gateway:

Good
-the button look and placement (I like it at least)
-1:1 MAPPING
-Good response time theoretically, and nice picture quality
-DCDi processing
-2 component inputs
-Costs much less
-Can buy it at Best Buy

Bad:
-Doesnt SEEM to support 1080p over component, although this isn't for sure since most have only confirmed this using xbox360
-Lacks HDMI
-humming noise (Not sure about this, read it in the Gateway thread but I HATE electronic hum)

Things I am unsure about:

-Which has the better panel?
-Which one has less backlight bleed?
-Which has a better real-world response time?
-Which has better picture quality?

Now I know that probably nobody has both of these so this comparison is somewhat useless...but hopefully it can lead us somewhere and help me and others make up our minds about which LCD to get.
 
the Benq uses a MVA panel while gateway uses PVA. I have a biased hate towards PVA since i got my 244T that had massive amounts of input lag which made FPS games unplayable (got a NEC 20WMG2 to replace it, prefer IPS panels so the size difference doesnt bug me much). Well i guess i should say i have a biased hate towards the 244T :p The internals should be different than the 244T but it has the same panel so i dont know though.
MVAs tend to be the best panel type for dvds, movies, etc since it has the least amount of shimmering, or "noise" during motion. Not sure about the 1080p but i dont see why not. Response times shouldnt be too bad, i know PVA response times are listed as optimal so u most likely wont get it that low usually, not sure about MVA. Pricewise, for LCDs u get what you pay for. Ex IPS vs TN, big gap difference in price. Hopefully someone with the gateway can chime in to see if there is any banding but if I remember correctly the 2407 had banding issues due to the faroudja chip they used so dell's "fix" was to disable it. Theres a few reports that the gateway has some blacklight bleed too.

Personally i'd get a westinghouse 37" since you seem to want 1080p (also uses MVA, 100-200 dollars more than fp241) but if i had to choose between the 2 i'd get the benq. It seems to be a good "all around" LCD and HDMI is good for future proofing. If the gateway doesnt exhibit the flaws that the 2407 and the 244T i'd say its up in the air. They both have their features and price so look at what features you would want and your budget. Its hard to say which is better if we dont know what you will primarily use it for, console gaming, pc gaming, dvds/movies, graphics, etc.
 
Ricey said:
the Benq uses a MVA panel while gateway uses PVA. I have a biased hate towards PVA since i got my 244T that had massive amounts of input lag which made FPS games unplayable (got a NEC 20WMG2 to replace it, prefer IPS panels so the size difference doesnt bug me much). Well i guess i should say i have a biased hate towards the 244T :p The internals should be different than the 244T but it has the same panel so i dont know though.
MVAs tend to be the best panel type for dvds, movies, etc since it has the least amount of shimmering, or "noise" during motion. Not sure about the 1080p but i dont see why not. Response times shouldnt be too bad, i know PVA response times are listed as optimal so u most likely wont get it that low usually, not sure about MVA. Pricewise, for LCDs u get what you pay for. Ex IPS vs TN, big gap difference in price. Hopefully someone with the gateway can chime in to see if there is any banding but if I remember correctly the 2407 had banding issues due to the faroudja chip they used so dell's "fix" was to disable it. Theres a few reports that the gateway has some blacklight bleed too.

Personally i'd get a westinghouse 37" since you seem to want 1080p (also uses MVA, 100-200 dollars more than fp241) but if i had to choose between the 2 i'd get the benq. It seems to be a good "all around" LCD and HDMI is good for future proofing. If the gateway doesnt exhibit the flaws that the 2407 and the 244T i'd say its up in the air. They both have their features and price so look at what features you would want and your budget. Its hard to say which is better if we dont know what you will primarily use it for, console gaming, pc gaming, dvds/movies, graphics, etc.
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Very good information there, thanks. I have looked at the westinghouse 37", but it is really out of my budget (gotta draw the line somewhere right?) and also it's just too big for me.

People in the Gateway thread don't seem to be having many problems with lag or anything like that, although there is a slight backlight bleed in the upper and lower right hand corners. Unlike the 2407 the component inputs on the Gateway seem to work, but early results show that it doesn't do 1080p through them. As far as banding goes, there hasn't been much said about it so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I am going to be using the monitor for basically everything. I watch a lot of movies, play games, browse, and even some graphic editing every now and then but nothing that important. It is also very important for me to be able to hook up my xbox360 to it which is the reason why I'm so concerned about the inputs.
 
The 360 itself seems to have the component 1080p issues. Use the VGA cable and you're good to go with better image quality anyway.
 
bigddybn said:
The 360 itself seems to have the component 1080p issues. Use the VGA cable and you're good to go with better image quality anyway.
Click to expand...

Yea that's what I figured. If nobody does it soon I might go down to Best buy and try to get them to hook up a 1080p source via component to the Gateway and see how that goes.

To me having HDMI isnt THAT important since I can just get an HDMI-DVI converter, but my problem is that the DVI slot will be taken up by my video card. Does this mean if I get the gateway I'll have to constantly disconnect and reconnect the cables everytime I want to swith to a new DVI source, or can I buy some kind of inexpensive switching device?
 
What else are you planning on hooking up? With your PC on DVI and your 360 on VGA I'm failing to see what needs to be switched? You'll just change inputs on the monitor or use PIP.
 
bigddybn said:
What else are you planning on hooking up? With your PC on DVI and your 360 on VGA I'm failing to see what needs to be switched? You'll just change inputs on the monitor or use PIP.
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Just thinking about future things here. Things like HD-DVD/Blu-ray, PS3, or anything else that would output 1080p. IF this monitor won't support 1080p over component then I would be forced to use hdmi output which I would then have to convert to dvi.
 
I was also wondering what the real response time of these two monitors is. They both seem to be okay with people, so I'm guessing there are no lag issues with either of these?

...still can't make a decision about which one to get.
 
by lag are you refering to input lag or ghosting? Response time has to do with ghosting mostly. The input lag i experienced with the 244T is that when i move my mouse theres just this ever slight delay when the cursor actually moves. Its VERY slight but it annoyed the heck outta me. I've read that input lag is caused by the overdrive that they use, circuitry or just too much of it.
Response time should be fine as long as its below 12ms so there shouldnt be too much if any ghosting, at least noticeable ghosting.
 
Ricey said:
by lag are you refering to input lag or ghosting? Response time has to do with ghosting mostly. The input lag i experienced with the 244T is that when i move my mouse theres just this ever slight delay when the cursor actually moves. Its VERY slight but it annoyed the heck outta me. I've read that input lag is caused by the overdrive that they use, circuitry or just too much of it.
Response time should be fine as long as its below 12ms so there shouldnt be too much if any ghosting, at least noticeable ghosting.
Click to expand...

Input lag would bother me the most for everyday tasks. Ghosting would be my worry for games or other motion related things.
 
i dont think you will notice much ghosting with either panel. As for input lag from what i read most people dont notice it with the gateway (also depends how sensitive you are to such things) but I THINK it should be ok, dont quote me on that :p Once again they seem about equal. I'd say decide based on your budget and if you really want HDMI or not.
 
Ricey said:
i dont think you will notice much ghosting with either panel. As for input lag from what i read most people dont notice it with the gateway (also depends how sensitive you are to such things) but I THINK it should be ok, dont quote me on that :p Once again they seem about equal. I'd say decide based on your budget and if you really want HDMI or not.
Click to expand...

That's what's driving me insane. I would like HDMI, but do I NEED it? I might get a ps3 in the future, or possibly a Bluray player, but is an HDMI connection worth spending an extra $130?
 
if you will be connecting it to your monitor then i'd say HDMI would be a must for future devices. Its the only 24" LCD monitor out at the moment with hdmi. And who knows, microsoft may make a hdmi adapter for the 360 since everyone is yelling for one.
 
Ricey said:
if you will be connecting it to your monitor then i'd say HDMI would be a must for future devices. Its the only 24" LCD monitor out at the moment with hdmi. And who knows, microsoft may make a hdmi adapter for the 360 since everyone is yelling for one.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't an HDMI-to-DVI adapter solve that problem?
 
deekayex said:
Wouldn't an HDMI-to-DVI adapter solve that problem?
Click to expand...

That's what I've been asking. I think it would solve the problem, but then you would have multiple sources to plug into one DVI input which means you would either have to change cables all the time manually, or buy some kind of switch.
 
Well if you are dealing with an analog video signal such as the Xbox 360, it would have to be converted to be able to plug it in to HDMI.

VGA to HDMI converters you can usually find for around $150.00
 
Yea I'd looked at those switches before. The cost makes the lower price of the gateway almost not matter. :(
 
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