Questions about LCD monitors

[Donut417]

Background: For years I have been using my HDTV as my computer monitor. My HDTV is 720p which is kinda a bummer because I just build a nice rig. My first LCD TV ended up having burn in issues and I think the bulbs discolored because I had funky lighting where it was darker on one side. Im looking at the possibly of buying a monitor with my tax money.

Questions:

Im guessing TV's have IPS panels. Do TN panels really look that bad or is it just a slight diffrence when it comes to colors being washed out? Any thing Up to and under 5ms should be good for gaming right? I know hard core FPS gamers go for TN panels, but even though I mostly play FPS's I wouldn't say Im that hard core, so maybe an IPS panel would be fine for me. What are features I should look for? Ill probley use my TV as a second screen connected thru HDMI so I can watch videos and such.

On a side note. My friend has 2 TV connected to his computer. One of them is 1080. We have never noticed input lag, but I have never had a computer monitor to compare it to. If you have any sites I could go to so I can learn that would be cool.

My rig

i5 3570k

8 gigs DDR3 1333

HD 7850

Samsung 830 SSD

2x 1Tb HDD

[Guest]

The best advice I can give is actually go to the store and try them out. Specs can only tell you so much about something visual.

[Donut417]

Thats part of the issue. Not many stores around here that have monitors actually displayed. Bestbuy is the only one I can think of and they have a very limited selection.

[Bob]

An IPS panel will be just fine for gaming. I use a vizio 19in TV(720p) for gaming and it is just fine. If you do want the best response time you should get a TN panel.

[GoodBytes]

Once you go IPS, you can't go back down to TN, is what I say (unless you have a specific need that only TN panel offers).

Your TV was most likely an IPS panel (if it's not, then it's Plasma).

TV's have the most input lag, as they are not designed for computer monitors. They are designed for you to sit on your couch and enjoy TV and movies. Colors accuracy is put aside (hence why HDMI is not used on desktop computers, is slowly disappearing on laptop, in favor of DisplayPort (DisplayPort is backward compatible down to HDMI and carries audio)

Why the input lag? 1080p or 720p at the size of a TV is horrible. To make the image smoth and nice, especially due to teh size of the pixels and the distance between each of them, the monitor does a lot of image processing to output a smooth looking image from your sofa.

So, an IPS computer monitor panel will not be a problem, as long as you are not hardcore, competitive FPS player with twitch fast reflexes.

Computer monitors input lag are very good, 30ms is considered very good for gaming if, again, you are not a competitive hardcore FPS player with twitch fast reflexes.

IPS panels are arround 20-30ms input lag in the high-end consumer grade monitors (that means, true 8-bit panel, Look Up Table, and color processor that is turned on)

Lower end IPS panels or TN panels, as they don't have color processors and such, have a lower input lag, at around 20m mark.

TV's are usually have way more than 30ms... they are around 100ms+

Here is an example of this in action with the WiiU, you can see a 116ms on this LG monitor.

(you can confirm that the input lag is not due to the WiiU, as the gamepad controller is displaying the same thing as the TV, and it's wired connected for the press event)

[Donut417]

Thats what I was thinking. I rather my stuff look good. I figure if Im using a screen with a lot of input lag now then I should be good with an IPS panel.

[GoodBytes]

oh yes big time. Check out the Dell UltraSharp series monitor. They all use LG 8-bit IPS panels (the innexpenisve models: U2412 and U2312HM uses 6-bit eIPS panels), and the worst input lag, is 30ms with the U2711 and U2410, the rest are faster. I don't know about the U3011.. but if you want a 30inch monitors, you don't have much choice.. you have a handful of options only.