coming from a CRT...

[scoutme]

Hi all. I have a wonderful 23 inches professional Viewsonic CRT. I'd like to spare desk space, and I really want a wider display format, since playing with 4/3 is like driving and shooting with a swimming mask on...

My problem is everyone is comparing IPS with TN, and VA, but I fear I'll be disappointed in any case, since my CRT has great colors, contrast and refresh. No lag, no ghosting, and good vertical space.

Any opinion by anyone knowing what a CRT really means, about a good replacement?

[Osmium]

So you have to choose, do you want good color accuracy or high refresh rate? You don't usually appreciate either of them until they are gone. Personally I'd rather have the refresh rate over the colors but everyone on this forum will tell you the opposite. IF you want good colors you should get an IPS screen while if you want high refresh rate you should go for a 144hz monitor. 

 

So yes I am afraid you will have to choose which you like more.

[Askew]

Have a look at this.

 

It's a blend, and very fast.

[WinNut]

Ahh, a member of the CRT master race. They make good space heaters in the winter, and I love the sound it makes when the ray turns on.

A Dell S2240M is a good buy in my opinion, it's an IPS 60Hz 1080p monitor. My younger brother has one and he barely uses it, and it pisses me off to see a good monitor go to waste like that, considering I use an Acer S200HL paired with my laptop (the s200hl has been suspended for the summer since the room where it is has no air conditioning and summer in NY is pretty bad.)

I love CRTs, even the stock Dell ones were somewhat decent. I'll miss them.

[Yummychickenblue]

Ahh, a member of the CRT master race. They make good space heaters in the winter, and I love the sound it makes when the ray turns on.

A Dell S2240M is a good buy in my opinion, it's an IPS 60Hz 1080p monitor. My younger brother has one and he barely uses it, and it pisses me off to see a good monitor go to waste like that, considering I use an Acer S200HL paired with my laptop (the s200hl has been suspended for the summer since the room where it is has no air conditioning and summer in NY is pretty bad.)

I love CRTs, even the stock Dell ones were somewhat decent. I'll miss them.

I hate that sound.

[Hoppa]

I hated my CRT, it made a really high pitched sound that hurt my ears, (parents couldn't hear it) and it took up way too much space on my desk.

Also I was probably receiving way too much radiation from that thing.

 

To be honest, I prefer the nice flat IPS/TN monitors that you can buy today.

[WinNut]

I hate that sound.

I love it.

However screen flicker does piss me off as Windoze has a default rate of 60Hz. I tried 55Hz on a Dell CRT once and my eyes were molested.

[Flyguygamer]

http://www.vpixx.com/products/visual-stimulus-displays/viewpixx.html

 

http://www.eizo.com/global/products/duravision/fdf2405w/index.html

[scoutme]

Thank you all for your feedback. Those Eizo monitors are pretty nice, but they do not produce (yet) big size panels. I'd prefer a 27+ panel. Should I wait for them to join the big size club?

Anyway: a lot if people talks about qnix qx2710. They talk about vibrant colors and very nice "speed". Keeping reliability out of our speech, are qx2710 really THAT good, or just good for the money? And are they fast enough when OCed not to disturb a poor CRT user like me?

Bear in mind that I play fpss (not in a competitive way, though), driving games (with a freaking wheel and stand setup, and this is the main reason I'd like to step into wide format monitors) and soccer games (wide format useful too...)

[scoutme]

I love it.

However screen flicker does piss me off as Windoze has a default rate of 60Hz. I tried 55Hz on a Dell CRT once and my eyes were molested.

Actually that should have been a broken/poor CRT issue. You should never use less than 80hz on a CRT, to me. And windows is not locked to 60 hz at all, if your monitor can reach higher refreshes.

[WinNut]

Actually that should have been a broken/poor CRT issue. You should never use less than 80hz on a CRT, to me. And windows is not locked to 60 hz at all, if your monitor can reach higher refreshes.

I never said it was locked, I said that it was the default. I tried 55Hz for shits and giggles. Normally I do 75-85 Hz.

[scoutme]

I never said it was locked, I said that it was the default. I tried 55Hz for shits and giggles. Normally I do 75-85 Hz.

 

 

Ok, got it

[solomongrundy]

Ahh, a member of the CRT master race. They make good space heaters in the winter, and I love the sound it makes when the ray turns on.

A Dell S2240M is a good buy in my opinion, it's an IPS 60Hz 1080p monitor. My younger brother has one and he barely uses it, and it pisses me off to see a good monitor go to waste like that, considering I use an Acer S200HL paired with my laptop (the s200hl has been suspended for the summer since the room where it is has no air conditioning and summer in NY is pretty bad.)

I love CRTs, even the stock Dell ones were somewhat decent. I'll miss them.

nothing like the sound of gamma radiation pumping into your eyes and genitals .

[GoodBytes]

What type of games do you play?

My knowledge on monitor has really develop when I jump from CRT to LCD, and I just got horrible advice after horrible advice, making me purchase and return 5 monitors, when I decided to simply do my research myself, where information was much more scares as now, and had to rely on research papers for a nice heavy read.

It is true that the trade off for a sharper image, low desk space taking monitor, which LCD provides you can't have both (at least not right now), beautiful rich colors and speed.

However, it's not: Oh you have colors, now anything that moves on the screen will be a blur and you won't see anything, Oh you want speed, then you are stuck with 16 colors. That is untrue. And by now, your colors are completely off, due to the wear of the phosphor layer, due to the age of the monitor.

However, if you seek for the best similar experience, where you had no backlight bleeding, and output true 8-bit colors per channel, then a high-end consumer grade IPS panel if what you need. Back light bleeding will still exists regardless of the LCD monitor you buy at the consumer range, however, the more up you go, assuming no manufacture defect, of course, the less you'll see. IPS panels are usually good, even entry level one. The better news with IPS panel, is that even if you get the budget models with sever level of back light light bleed on a corner, it doesn't affect colors, like it does on TN panels. It is only visible on blacks. TN panels have back light bleeding regardless. Granted you see much less with a high-end TN panel, but it is visible on colors if you pay attention.

IPS panels, do however, face with something called "IPS glow", which TN panel does not. It is a glow effect that appears on corners of the display when looking at an angle. That is also visible only on black. It is a technology limitation. Even the most high-end professional grade IPS monitor, will have this. They is a process to diminish it, which involves polarizing the LCD grid, but it is very costly, and does not really help. So it is something to expect.

So every LCD panel technology has their ups and downs. It sucks, but keep in mind that CRTs also have their set of ups and downs. They are not as sharp (that is why you have ClearType that was introduced in Windows, as the LCD displays are too sharp, so text was harder to read), they face geometric image issues, where over time the image isn't correctly displayed edge to edge, or some areas are squished than others stretch, and they are things you can't really fix at all, or to the needed extent.

CRTs are big, bulky, consumes a lot of power, and output radiation, despite the dual layer glass shielding on the high end ones. The image flickers. Even if you have a high end monitor where they used a high quality, and thick layer of phosphor to retain light (which also diminished response time), over time it burns out, and doesn't retain light, and the colors are faded. Look at those CFL light bulb as an example. Look at one being used after a couple of years, you'll see the tube is black at some areas... the phosphor has burned on these areas, granted it isn't high quality stuff being used, but you get my point. it wears out eventually.

What I have. I wanted to get the closest experience as CRT monitor, I was desperate. My budget was over 1000$ a 24inch monitor. That was back in 2009, where fast response time IPS panels came out to the consumer market, and IPS panels where also fairly new to the consumers during this time. I got the Dell U2410. A true 8-bit IPS panel (H-IPS), with Adobe RGB and sRGB color calibrated profiles ready to be selected once turned on, done at the manufacture with report on the calibration. The monitor has a color processor and Look Up Table for the best image production based on monitor settings. 750$ monitor, and worth every penny. (Build quality was extremely high, with a solid metal base, and metal arm (they no longer do this), metal mechanical system (standard these days, by back in the day it wasn't, it was just plastic holding with friction on the cheapo models, or no adjustment at all beside tilt, like budget monitors now). It beat my 17inch 500$ NEC pro grade CRT monitor. I miss the pure blacks of a CRT monitor, put that is it. IPS glow isn't an issue, as again, it's visible on full black screen only, and at an angle, AND at near max brightness which is a setting from my monitor that allows you to see the screen despite being 1m away from the sun behind you (so freaking bright). It had 30ms input lag, at it's worst (has game mode, which drops it, but never used it), no problem in gaming. I do play FPS games but casually, and for fun. Nothing competitive. I play mostly other genre which doesn't need such high reflexes which I don't have, nor have the mouse and keyboard for, or care about them, as I prefer a high quality office keyboard and mouse, like the Logitech MX Revolution or Performance MX mouses.

So it depends on the games you play, and your budget. IPS panel has dropped in price since 2009 as you can imagine, and now you have much cheaper 6-bit panels variant, which are said by some people, including myself to be still better than a high-end TN panel, despite also being 6-bit panel as well. We have now 8-bit TN panels, but there is only one at the consumer market, it is a 4K 28inch monitor. I would avoid 4K for now, because 1) most don't really have the computational power to play games under such setting, although you can play them at 1080p as 4K is 4x 1080p, so you double the pixel, so the image is still fairly sharp. 2) expensive, and dropping in price. You'll find IPS 4K monitors at the same time soon (1-2 years), I believe.

 

Anyway: a lot if people talks about qnix qx2710. They talk about vibrant colors and very nice "speed".

Keep in note that: Most of these people comes from shitty TN panels where colors are either too over saturated (cartoon-like) or washed out.

Also keep in mind that QNIX uses rejected uncertified panels. They do pick the best they have, but regardless they are uncertified. Some people say, it's a whole batch being rejected from 1 panel among them that failed, but that is up to you to decide. You have 0 warranty. They say 1 year, but you need to figure out how to ship the monitor to them, which is South Korea, so good luck. And keep in mind you may need to pay duty fees when you first get the monitor, and also for the replacement one you pay. And depending on where you live, it might several hundred of dollars each time. Some people had such a bad experience, they ended paying more than a trusted manufacture like LG or Dell, or ASUS, which includes a far better build quality, better image quality, non-glossy (believe me, if you don't live in a cave, it will be worst than looking at a 27inch iMac in front of you, as it has no coating on the display. In other words: a mirror), no on screen menu. Hyper cheap build quality (think dollar shop quality), in a generic case with buttons that don't do anything, beside 2 buttons to increase or decrease between a few brightness levels. The monitor warranty is filled with conditions and policy to not cover you as well, just in case you were willing to go through the headache and funds of shipping it.

You get what you paid for. Many got amazing experiences. And their monitor is perfect to them, and see that the value they are getting is great. But not everyone, and you have to consider the risk.

If you are interested in them, I know a few people on this forum would love to help you properly in finding the best of these eBay Korean manufactures monitors to pick that fits your budget and needs, and also get the best price.

 

Keeping reliability out of our speech, are qx2710 really THAT good

I am bias against them, which I am sure you figured it out by them. The reason for that, is that I see a monitor as a CRITICAL computer component. Without one, your PC, it can have the best leading edge technology, without a monitor, it as useful as a door stop. The monitor is your main hardware, which you use hours on end, to interact with the system. A monitor is not about "just visuals". Even if the QNIX was outputted pin point color accuracy which would make a professional that does color critical work and drools over it, it will be a bad deal.

The monitor needs to be non-glossy, it needs to be fully adjustable to help you get the most comfortable setup. I can already be sure that if you get an adjustable stand monitor, and you are on a normal desk, you are probably going to set it up at the highest setting. The build quality maters. You seek reliability, and not break on you after 1 year or 3 year because some component broke as they used cheapo ones. After sale service and warranty service and converge is equally important.Every aspect of the monitor is important and considered when I suggest one. Granted, some people don't care about any of this. They just want a high resolution screen at the lowest price possible, no mater what. That is fine. We are not all the same, and have different needs and budgets. Some NEED 27inch 2560x1440 monitor, but simply don't have a budget for it, and have to go with these ebay manufacture, that is also fine, and fully respect that as well.

I just wanted to share my perspective on things, and my opinion as I fan of CRT monitor going to LCD, with my high standards.

[scoutme]

Pretty good insight, indeed. Thank you!