Analog Vs DVI on a tft...?

[Reverend Maynard]

Howdy all. I was just wondering if having a digital input on a tft monitor is worth it over an analog connection. The reason I ask is I can pick up a Samsung monitor fairly cheap, but it has only an analog input. A monitor with a digital input would cost $150-200 more.

I do alot of internet browsing and gaming. I know lcd's aren't known for their gaming abilities, but I am sick of taking my crt to lan events.

So is it worth it to put the extra cash into a monitor with a digital input?

[az]

Depends Some TFTs do well with analog, some (too many) don't - they flicker heavily, among other nasty things. Your best bet is to look at the panel yourself and see if you like it. Also know that TFTs do not only have high switching times (causing "ghosting" in games & videos), but only look good in their native resolution (which most of the time is 1024x768, or 1280x1024 for bigger panels). Anything higher is pointless, as it must be scaled down, anything lower might look very ugly - varies from TFT to TFT, so again: have a look (This is always best with monitors anyway, but with TFTs you want to avoid things such as always bright green pixels, which is NOT a reason to return it!)

AZ

[roadie]

i was thinking about asking this question some time soon, i have no idea about the pro's and con's of either, and may be thinking of getting a lcd monitor sometime soon

[Marshmallowman]

A digital connection will compensate for a bad ramdac/filtering on a video card since it being bypassed.

If you have a decent(matrox) card your analog connection should do very well, but if the LCD doesn't have a digital input it is probably a low quality device that would not benefit from a digital input or good video card anyway...do you need to save space

[az]

BUT if it's a low quality device it'll likely have issues with analog input too - digital is much easier done for flat panels

AZ

[Reverend Maynard]

As far as low or high quality I don't know. I am looking at the Samsung 171v. I have heard Samsung makes good monitors, but have never had first hand experience with their lcd line.

As far as video card goes I will probably have a Radeon 8500 or a G400 powering it, with a little Ti200 usage also.

[[Ch]amsalot]

The newest gen. of LCDs do a great job with Analog. If this is any consolation, I have a Samsung 170T 17" flat screen and I'm simply not all that impressed with it even using the DVI input.

While the color is perfectly neutral out of the box, it's just to darn bright. Oww! My eyes, my eyes!

-[Ch]ams

[az]

The problem with LCDs is that they sometimes switch panels WITHIN one series, and almost guaranteed switched panels/backlight/electronics between generations, so I wouldn't say this would be a very good indication, unfortunately

I'd really really go see for myself!

AZ

[Reverend Maynard]

Good thing about the Samsung is I would be buying it from wher eI work, so if it doesn't cut it I can always return it. Unfortunately we don't have anything wit ha digital input for me to compare it with.