Get the Planar 26" or wait for the new Doublesight?

L

lobski

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
460
What do you guys thing? I do want to move to a monitor ASAP, and I know I've waited this long, perhaps I should wait for the Doublesight.... My main problem is the input lag, I know the Planar and the Doublesight has CRT-like input lag.

Money is no problem. I want a 26" or even a 24" that has very low input lag, and is not a TN Panel. Seems like the Planar or the Doublesight fits my description (anything else?).

Should I wait for the new 26" Doublesight, see how it performs...

OR should I just get a Planar right now?
 
I would wait.

The Planar will still be there when the new Doublesight comes out. Might as well wait and get the better of the two unless you are dying right now.

The only issue will be availability to Canada, as you know.

Regards,

10e
 
I think it all depends on your timeframe. There should be at least some more details on the Doublesight soon, and it's not that long to wait, if you can wait. Keep in mind if it were me and I wanted to consider the Doublesight, I'd probably wait until a little after release as well to see some reviews, etc., before jumping, so you might be talking 6 weeks instead of 4, but that depends on how you do things - if you get a good return policy, might not be necessary. It's the same panel with new features, so it should be great, but sometimes that math doesn't always add up. (I remember when I was first considering building Dell's 2407WFP was rated phenomenally and I was all set to go with it...then the HC version...and eventually 2408...came out and added all sorts of input lag.)

If you want something now and don't mind not having the polarizer, I think the Planar's a great option and that's what I did because I wanted to build now and didn't want the hassle of a temporary solution. I also like a few things about the Planar better, like the support policy.

Good luck. It's not an easy decision. It all comes down to what you think in the end will make you happier.
 
lobski said:
I said I wanted something at 27" or smaller...
Click to expand...
Umm, no you didn't. You said "I want a 26" or even a 24" that has very low input lag" but never anything about 27" (or 26") being the max. Anyway, sorry.
 
I'm assuming you're referring to the DoubleSight 30" that's coming out soon?

Or is there a DS 26" coming out soon that I don't know about?
 
New 26" -> http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1319356

Was a splash page on the DoubleSight site. Now there's a new one for the 30" (they're releasing several new monitors).

Got my Planar today as I personally elected not to wait, though I haven't tried it yet; gonna try and do my build this weekend and try it all together, but if things don't go as well as I'd like, I'll try the monitor on the old machine next week to make sure I have a "good" one and I like it okay.
 
WolfpupNX said:
New 26" -> http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1319356

Was a splash page on the DoubleSight site. Now there's a new one for the 30" (they're releasing several new monitors).

Got my Planar today as I personally elected not to wait, though I haven't tried it yet; gonna try and do my build this weekend and try it all together, but if things don't go as well as I'd like, I'll try the monitor on the old machine next week to make sure I have a "good" one and I like it okay.
Click to expand...


Hi, please tell us of your experience... Please see if it came with a A-TW! :)
 
Will do when I get a chance. I don't believe the Planar's are supposed to come with the A-TW polarizer, but I will let you know when I get a chance to test it out.
 
So my curiosity got the best of me and I just had to hook up the Planar to my current rig (only a few minutes, so I don't have a full review or anything). My impressions:

The Good:
---------------
- BEAUTIFUL picture; looked for dead pixels and couldn't find any (though I want to look again thoroughly when I get my new rig up); I think I'm going to be very happy with this! Seemed uniform, great color, not too much backlight bleed, etc.

- I was pleasantly surprised with viewing angles. I had it on the floor and had no problem seeing the picture even from strange angles. No idea if it has the legendary A-TW polarizer, but the only "glow" I noticed was a tiny bit (and I mean tiny) at extreme angles. I know this much - if mine lacks that polarizer, it's nothing that bothers me personally - I think it looks great.

The Not-As-Good:
---------------------------
- Not a big fan of the stand that comes with, but it's okay. A little bit annoying to work with - fortunately I picked up the Ergotron widescreen stand (haven't installed it yet 'tho) which should give me a lot more options and also allow rotation (as this thing will do *beautifully* rotated 90 degrees for full page views and such).

- I was a little surprised how hard the connectors are to access...it's almost like they're in a little cave on the underside of the back of the monitor and I had to insert the DVI connector, then use a screwdriver to tighten it as it's not so easy to get fingers in there and thoroughly tighten. Why not make this more accessible?

- Menu's a little clunky but not nearly as bad as I had read. I'll still need to figure out the best settings for this, though the default "text" mode looks pretty good to me out of the box, if a bit bright.

Overall, I don't think I could have made a better choice and am glad I went with this. Pretty sure I'm gonna love it. Unfortunately, my current rig is way underpowered for games at this point, so I wasn't able to test input lag or anything, but if everything goes well with my build, hopefully next week. ^.^
 
I installed the Planar on its new Ergotron stand tonight, and a few observations:

- The complaint yesterday about the ports being hard to reach is not as much of a problem as I thought. There's a panel that detaches (though this isn't immediately obvious; at least it wasn't to me) and allows much easier access to the cables, etc., underneath. In fact, I'm just leaving it off as I don't see much of a purpose to it.

- Unfortunately, a closer inspection today did reveal one stuck pixel (orange). The pixels are so small on this thing it's quite hard to see, so I dunno. I'd love a perfect monitor, but...I also realize stuck pixels are a fact of life and chances are if I swapped it out the swap would have one too.

- The Ergotron stand is pretty awesome with one exception. There appears to be a rather...amazingly strange...design flaw. It was designed so you could *lock* it to rotate 90 degrees instead of allowing 360. Well, it appears they cut the slot wrong, and if you try to set the stand up this way, you can only switch it 45 degrees one way to 45 degrees the other way (angled). Essentially useless. I was going crazy trying to figure it out as the directions indicated 90 degrees right angles, but in my head I knew it wasn't possible from the way it was working. Found out from Newegg reviews others had the same problem and the manual on the Ergotron website actually excludes directions now to lock it into 90 degree rotations. At any rate, the fix is easy - don't use the screw and use 360 degree rotations instead - it holds in place very well.
 
So, now that the new doublesight's out and is getting a less than warm reception, would this Planar be the best bet?

For myself personally, I'm looking for a gaming/art-design display.
 
WolfpupNX said:
So my curiosity got the best of me and I just had to hook up the Planar to my current rig (only a few minutes, so I don't have a full review or anything). My impressions:

The Good:
---------------
- BEAUTIFUL picture; looked for dead pixels and couldn't find any (though I want to look again thoroughly when I get my new rig up); I think I'm going to be very happy with this! Seemed uniform, great color, not too much backlight bleed, etc.

- I was pleasantly surprised with viewing angles. I had it on the floor and had no problem seeing the picture even from strange angles. No idea if it has the legendary A-TW polarizer, but the only "glow" I noticed was a tiny bit (and I mean tiny) at extreme angles. I know this much - if mine lacks that polarizer, it's nothing that bothers me personally - I think it looks great.

The Not-As-Good:
---------------------------
- Not a big fan of the stand that comes with, but it's okay. A little bit annoying to work with - fortunately I picked up the Ergotron widescreen stand (haven't installed it yet 'tho) which should give me a lot more options and also allow rotation (as this thing will do *beautifully* rotated 90 degrees for full page views and such).

- I was a little surprised how hard the connectors are to access...it's almost like they're in a little cave on the underside of the back of the monitor and I had to insert the DVI connector, then use a screwdriver to tighten it as it's not so easy to get fingers in there and thoroughly tighten. Why not make this more accessible?

- Menu's a little clunky but not nearly as bad as I had read. I'll still need to figure out the best settings for this, though the default "text" mode looks pretty good to me out of the box, if a bit bright.

Overall, I don't think I could have made a better choice and am glad I went with this. Pretty sure I'm gonna love it. Unfortunately, my current rig is way underpowered for games at this point, so I wasn't able to test input lag or anything, but if everything goes well with my build, hopefully next week. ^.^
Click to expand...

1. Where did you get it? If it was CDW, exchange it and have the new one cross-shipped. No problem, no charge. For what these things cost, you should be completely satisified.

2. In text mode, leave contrast at 50 and turn brightness down to 25 or less (Toasty recommended 12.5). Turn sharpness down to 40. If its still too bright or washed-out, turn the gamma down in your video card's control panel until it looks perfect, using this site: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/#gammacalib.

3. The connectors are hard to access because you didn't take off the plastic cover. ;) Remove cover, connect cables, replace cover (or leave it off, its just a shroud for your connectors).

4. The menu is almost exactly the same as that on the NEC 20WMGX2 and 2470WNX, the joystick nub is just a bit bigger and clunkier. Planar was obviously attempting to mimic NEC here, so for me it worked well because I was already used to it.
 
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