Best LCD for Games and movies - 1080p

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Cometer

Weaksauce
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Aug 26, 2006
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Choosing a LCD is proving more difficult than I thought.
I've looked into the popular The LCD threat read plenty of reviews all sorts of stuff you all are already used to.

I still have quite sometime on deciding an LCD, as I'm pointing for a January 2009 buy. So If you guys know of anything worth waiting for, for that time frame please advice.

Anyway i think four things pretty much sum up what type of user I am
-I'm a hardcore gamer playing a lot of FPS online. I don't need 0 delay but I also don't want to give an advantage to others because of my LCD.
-I'm an avid movie junkie.
-I spend pretty much most of my day looking at a monitor (i'm a developer)
-I'm looking for quality over price as this will supposely be my LCD for years to come

My pockets aren't full of money so I'm not looking for professional grade LCDs that price themselfs on the thousands. But I do am looking for the best overall experience for both gaming and movie watching. Perhaps something that tops at about $500 no more than that.
 
So you want a 1080p monitor (16:9 - 1920 x 1080) or standard 16:10 (1920 x 1080)? I recommed the latter.
 
I'm leaning more toward the standard 16:10 (1080x1200). But I'm willing to consider 16:9 if the ones available are better for the moment.
 
wow. you guys got your resolutions mixed up in here. There's 1080p (1920x1080) 16x9 and then there's 1920x1200 (16x10) common on monitors.

Anyways, what size are you looking at getting?
 
liar2 said:
wow. you guys got your resolutions mixed up in here. There's 1080p (1920x1080) 16x9 and then there's 1920x1200 (16x10) common on monitors.

Anyways, what size are you looking at getting?
Click to expand...

Hehe. Made a typo there. Anyway, I'm leaning more towards the 1920x1200.
 
Biges said:
So you want a 1080p monitor (16:9 - 1920 x 1080) or standard 16:10 (1920 x 1080)? I recommed the latter.
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16:10 is a standard for nothing. Not for blu-ray, not for HD consoles, not for HDTV. And by using such a deviant ratio, you've gauranteed yourself black bars for television and games that otherwise wouldn't exist, or a vertically distorted image should your monitor's internal scalar (like most) be too stupid to retain the aspect. If the only thing you intend to do is desktop work, then you can forget about standards and buy the biggest deviant resolution you can afford.
 
FitzRoy said:
16:10 is a standard for nothing. Not for blu-ray, not for HD consoles, not for HDTV. And by using such a deviant ratio, you've gauranteed yourself black bars for television and games that otherwise wouldn't exist, or a vertically distorted image should your monitor's internal scalar (like most) be too stupid to retain the aspect. If the only thing you intend to do is desktop work, then you can forget about standards and buy the biggest deviant resolution you can afford.
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Indeed you're right. And fact is I'm not puting the 16:9 LCDs in the can so to speak. I may indeed pick a 16:9 LCD if the best of them end up being better than they're 16:10 equivalent in my price range. But fact is the solution for 16:9 LCD's is reducing its vertical size. There really is no other way to do it really. And as you said if you watch a 16:9 movie on a 16:10 LCD you'll get black bars above and below. But fact is you're still watching the movie at the same size you would on a16:9 LCD. So you're not loosing size, you're just "winning" some black bars on movies and games. But you're also gaining aditional space for other things you wish to do, including watching full size 1080p movie in window mode if you wish.

So I see more benefits in a 16:10 then on a 16:9. Of course in the end it all really revolves around personal taste.

But choosing a 16:10 or 16:9 solution is really on the bottom of my list. I'll pick the LCD that provides the best image quality associated with low delays whatever the size really.
 
Actually, a 24-inch 16:9 monitor will show 16:9 a little bigger than a 24-inch 16:10 monitor would. They don't use the same size pixels. So, the issue is really about the vertical resolution for computer use, and if you're comfortable giving that up.

Could you tell us everything you want to use the monitor for? I mean, be more specific about what kinds of movies you want to watch (DVDs or Blu-ray Discs), what kinds of games you want to play on it (computer or console), and what sources you would want to connect, if any, besides your computer.
 
Cometer said:
But fact is the solution for 16:9 LCD's is reducing its vertical size.
Click to expand...

Correct, it's reducing the vertical res slightly to eliminate black bars or improper scaling on 16:9 content. The intelligence of the internal scalar will determine which of those you'll get, but one of them is guaranteed. You lose a measly 120px of vertical desktop real estate, but you remove those possibilities. Pick which one is more important to you.
 
So in a 16:10 monitor I not only get black bars. Due to some internal differences he wont show me 1080p content at the same size displayed on a native 16:9 monitor?
But aren't some 16:10 monitors capable of showing this content at its correct pixel size?
Well if there is a solution that can give me the best of both worlds I would prefer that.

I'll be playing alot of Blu-ray discs and a lot of gaming. But keep in mind I use the computer a lot for work. I'm a computer programmer so this probably gives you a better
look into how I use my computer. The extra size could be usefull while programing on visual Studio or browsing the web. That is something I do a lot too.
Fact is I'm looking for an overall good experience. But mainly that it has a good image quality and low delay (for gaming).
Because really from someone that comes from a 17'' CRT loosing that extra vertical space that comes with a 16:10 display is not that important. But if I could get picture perfect 16:9 content on a 16:10 display I would defenatly pick that.
Right now I'm used to eighter get black bars or incorrect pixel size on my CRT so I know it is not perfect but I'm also used to that.

Point is. I don't really care if its 16:9 or 16:10 as long as it is a quality display for movies and games.
If I'll have to compromise and go to a 16:9 display in order to get accurate picture I may be willing to do so as at 24'' my screen will be much bigger than the one I have now anyway.
But I do lean more towards a 16:10 solution.

So any sugestions?
 
Westinghouse 37w3 would be the perfect choice for movies, but the screen is too big to play FPS games on competitive level. Get a cheap and small 20'' TN monitor for gaming and Westy for everything else.
 
What if you got dual monitors? Like two 22" Benq E2200HD (1920x1080)? Should be about $400 shipped from NCIX.
 
450 said:
What if you got dual monitors? Like two 22" Benq E2200HD (1920x1080)? Should be about $400 shipped from NCIX.
Click to expand...

I'm going for a single display. But anyway would you recommend the E2200HD or the E2400HD for movies and games.
How does it fare against the Benq G2400WD that seams to be quite popular too?

Also the top size I'm looking into for an LCD is 24''. Nothing bigger than this as I'll stay most of the time close to it.
 
Cometer said:
So in a 16:10 monitor I not only get black bars. Due to some internal differences he wont show me 1080p content at the same size displayed on a native 16:9 monitor?
But aren't some 16:10 monitors capable of showing this content at its correct pixel size?
Well if there is a solution that can give me the best of both worlds I would prefer that.

I'll be playing alot of Blu-ray discs and a lot of gaming. But keep in mind I use the computer a lot for work. I'm a computer programmer so this probably gives you a better
look into how I use my computer. The extra size could be usefull while programing on visual Studio or browsing the web. That is something I do a lot too.
Fact is I'm looking for an overall good experience. But mainly that it has a good image quality and low delay (for gaming).
Because really from someone that comes from a 17'' CRT loosing that extra vertical space that comes with a 16:10 display is not that important. But if I could get picture perfect 16:9 content on a 16:10 display I would defenatly pick that.
Right now I'm used to eighter get black bars or incorrect pixel size on my CRT so I know it is not perfect but I'm also used to that.

Point is. I don't really care if its 16:9 or 16:10 as long as it is a quality display for movies and games.
If I'll have to compromise and go to a 16:9 display in order to get accurate picture I may be willing to do so as at 24'' my screen will be much bigger than the one I have now anyway.
But I do lean more towards a 16:10 solution.

So any sugestions?
Click to expand...
I don't think you understand the geometry of the situation. If you compare a 40" 16:9 display and a 40" 16:10 display, the 16:9 display will be able to display a 1080p video slightly larger than the 16:10 display. The 16:10 display will still show the content without scaling at all, but it will have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. The overall diagonal measurement of the 1080p video on the 16:10 screen will be slightly smaller, even though it's still a pixel-for-pixel reproduction.

The other thing to consider is that most movies aren't a perfect 16:9 ratio anyway: a lot of them use even wider ratios that will give you black bars even with a 16:9 screen.

If you will use the display for things other than gaming and video at least 50% of the time, I'd invest in the extra vertical resolution of a 16:10 display.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
I don't think you understand the geometry of the situation. If you compare a 40" 16:9 display and a 40" 16:10 display, the 16:9 display will be able to display a 1080p video slightly larger than the 16:10 display. The 16:10 display will still show the content without scaling at all, but it will have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. The overall diagonal measurement of the 1080p video on the 16:10 screen will be slightly smaller, even though it's still a pixel-for-pixel reproduction.

The other thing to consider is that most movies aren't a perfect 16:9 ratio anyway: a lot of them use even wider ratios that will give you black bars even with a 16:9 screen.

If you will use the display for things other than gaming and video at least 50% of the time, I'd invest in the extra vertical resolution of a 16:10 display.
Click to expand...

Point taken. And this does lean me toward a 16:10 display. I've been looking into other posts showing 1080p movies running on 16:10 displays, with 1:1 mapping and they seamed good enough for me. And understand the implications here. And yes, the truth is this will be a general purpose monitor. So 16:10 seams to be the better choice to me.

What would you recommend taking this into count?
 
Can anyone sugest a good monitor for what I'm looking?
22'' or 24'' capable of outputting 1080p, 16:10, low delay for playing games, good image quality for watching movies. Price around $400.
 
Well, what I'd like to know is if you will be connecting something besides a computer, such as a BD player or game console. The reason is, if you will only be using a computer, you don't really need aspect scaling. The Samsung monitors I looked at had to be ruled out for me because they didn't do that. There may have been one that did it for certain resolutions, but not 720p which is very important for the PS3.

As for BD movies, if you will be playing them on the computer, again you don't need special scaling because the video card will handle it. So, we could narrow it down by determing whether you need aspect scaling and/or 1:1 pixel mapping.
 
Drexl said:
Well, what I'd like to know is if you will be connecting something besides a computer, such as a BD player or game console. The reason is, if you will only be using a computer, you don't really need aspect scaling. The Samsung monitors I looked at had to be ruled out for me because they didn't do that. There may have been one that did it for certain resolutions, but not 720p which is very important for the PS3.

As for BD movies, if you will be playing them on the computer, again you don't need special scaling because the video card will handle it. So, we could narrow it down by determing whether you need aspect scaling and/or 1:1 pixel mapping.
Click to expand...

Only computer. Very unlikely to have a console in the near future. But if I can get one with 1:1 pixel mapping I wouldn't mind eighter as it would be more future proof. If as you say I get the same results on the computer without having this feature its not a priority at all.
 
If you want a good 24 inch gaming monitor (TN) then I suggest you look at the Benq V2400W or the G2400WD. From what I have heard they are both essentially the same monitor, just the V2400W is thinner and more "stylish." I bought the V2400W a while back and I am completely satisfied. Use if to game on my PC via DVI and my xbox 360 via HDMI.
 
Proteos said:
If you want a good 24 inch gaming monitor (TN) then I suggest you look at the Benq V2400W or the G2400WD. From what I have heard they are both essentially the same monitor, just the V2400W is thinner and more "stylish." I bought the V2400W a while back and I am completely satisfied. Use if to game on my PC via DVI and my xbox 360 via HDMI.
Click to expand...

Do you consider it a good all around monitor? Good enought in terms of visual quality despite being a TN panel?
 
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