On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 16:14:54 -0400 Andy Stewart <andystewart@comcast.net> wrote:
HI all,
My 9 year old Nokia 447X CRT monitor appears to be on its way out. At maximum brightness and contrast, I can't get a good picture. I'm using xgamma to crank up the colors, but that creates a washed out display. The picture size wavers and occasionally goes out of sync. I think I got my $1000 worth out of this monitor!
At the risk of starting a religious war, I'm wondering if I can get some
objective commentary regarding CRT vs LCD and any issues there might be with Linux.
I would like a display that can do at least 1280x1024@75Hz and possibly up to 1600x1200@75Hz. I think that puts me in the 18" - 19" monitor category, which is OK with me (I have a 17" monitor now). I occasionally play games but mostly its text, websurfing, email, and some photo editing.
Does the LCD quality degrade when using the VGA input vs. the DVI input (assuming that the monitor has both) ? Are there any major Linux related issues when using the DVI output of a video card ?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts, opinions, flames, etc. :-)
My experiences, having played with a bunch at work, is that you can find a decent 17" LCD that will do 1280x1024x75 for around $400-500 with both VGA and DVI inputs, and a 19" with better resolution between $700-900, depending on the model. I don't understand the intricasies of refresh rate on an LCD versus a CRT, but the 75Hz on an LCD is more than sufficient for the average gamer. I haven't noticed any difference when using the VGA versus DVI inputs on the same system, but it's been only desktop stuff. The LCD is definitely much easier on the eyes, and the sharpness of the screen is considerably better (as I'm sure you know from your laptop). No matter how nice a CRT seems, every time I switch back from a flat panel to a CRT, I think "My eyes!!" You also get the extra viewable area of a 17"/17" veiwable versus a 17"/16.1" viewable. I'm looking at monitors now for when my 6 year-old 19" Viewsonic gives out (it's not that bad yet, but I need to use xgamma to get it to a reasonable brightness level). It's tough for me to justify an LCD when $250 will get me a fantastic 19" flatscreen CRT that's leaps and bounds ahead of what I have now (hell, the no-name 17" flatscreen CRT that I bought for my second desktop for under $150 recently is miles ahead of the 19" in picture quality). If someone here can justify paying 3x as much for an LCD that could arguably be worse for gaming, I'd love to be convinced (and power consumption doesn't count). =) Brian J. Conway bconway(at)alum.wpi.edu "LINUX is obsolete" - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix - Jan 29, 1992