Finnaly got a LCD display!

[Nuno]

Finally got a LCD. I was waiting for 18´´ DVI to come down on price, but I saw a promotion on a Sony SDM-S71RB and I bought it. You know, one of those urges to buy
I wasn´t expecting much, it´s a 17´´ Analog only monitor, but when I set it up, WOW! So bright and sharp it almost hurt my eyes. When I mean sharp it´s really razor sharp, perfect uniform colors, no ghosting, no blurring, nothing. So much about DVI
Gaming is also superb, no noticeable ghosting. Of course if you are really picky, there´s no LCD that has the same response time of a CRT.
So where´s the catch? I don´t know. Maybe they are fasing out this product line, hence the promotion. The S71R line is also not very known, because the original S71 was a so-so monitor with 400:1 contrast, 250 cd/m2 brightness and a 40ms response time. The S71R is a diferent monitor, with 500:1 contrast, 260 cd/m2 brightness and <25ms response time (I saw 16ms on a website). What´s still even more curious is that a search on sony.com doesn´t show any results for S71R, they still have the old S71 listed.

Oh well. I´m still in awe with my new buy. I keeped my old Samsung 900B, so I went multimonitor with my R9700, wand it´s quite nice.

[The PIT]

Glad you like your purchase. You're probably not seeing any ghosting if the 16ms response time is correct. I was hoping they'd be some quick larger models out by now but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe next year.

[Umfriend]

Nuno, that samsung a 19" CRT? How do they compare? I am dying for a good LCD to replace a 19" CRT, and this one sounds just like it. WHat games have you done on that thing sofar?
Umf

[Nuno]

Yes, it´s a 19´´ CRT. It´s an old 900B (If I can remember correctly) sold under Samtron name. It was cheap and it´s decent really, not flat (not even close ), does 1600x1200@75Hz. I run it at 1280x960@85, though. The LCD does have a native 1280x1024 resolution, that actually looks correct because the screen is wider. The LCD completely blows it out of the water. Not even a chance. It´s my secondary monitor now, and everything seems so blurry now when I look at it

[Nuno]

Sorry, forgot one thing. I fired up UT2003 - I think things move fast enough there .
Keep in mind a couple of things when going LCD: On *every* LCD you can see a little blurring when moving too fast, compared to a CRT. It actually looks more real and smooth things out, if you ask me. There´s no way a LCD with current technology refresh as quickly as a CRT. But it don´t has any "ghosting" in a sense I can see it as on my laptop 14´´ TFT display (that I cansider pretty decent also).
There´s also resolution scaling, that althought very good (another strong point) it will never be as sharp as its native resolution. But you get free antialiasing, if you think at it.
You may also get a chance getting a few dead/locked pixels. I noticed only 1 locked green lcd on the 2st or 2nd row on upright corner. Not really noticeable, specially on light backgrounds as any office application or a brownser. Every vendor has a error margin and they won´t replace your monitor if it´s within their range.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

hmm... seems like Sony has improved their LCDs... the original ones were crappy IIRC.

[Nuno]

Yes, if the reports on the SDM S71 were accurate, they were a bit flaky. One can wonder why Sony doesn´t even mention the updated version on its websit. Hmmm.

I can only say the S71R (the B is from Black Version) looks totally wonderfull. I still can´t believe it´s running on analog. ATi R9700 should have its credit too.
Anyway, best piece of hardware I bought since a long time.

[Umfriend]

Nuno, thx alot. That is valuable info to me. WOnder if I can find one closeby.
Umf

[Kurt]

Acer is having a promo on its AL922 19" TFT screen. I got mine for a bit more than 500 € (w/o VAT). 1280*1024, 25ms, 500:1 contrast and 250 nits, DVI+analog. It just replaced another Acer, the AL432 (their high-end 17" TFT, 1280*1027, 16ms, 450:1, 250 nits). The Al732 has DVI+Analog and even some RCA jacks in case you want to plug a TV tuner in...

I'm not fond of their low-end models, but the high-end ones are cheap with respect to the other manufacturers and quality is definitely good. So far I've replaced some NEC, HP/Compaq and Iiyama monitors with Acer's.

http://global.acer.com/products/monitor/al922.htm

http://global.acer.com/products/monitor/al732.htm

They're not EIZO, but it's the best bang for the buck in a long time. BTW, the 16ms screens that are available (and that are used in the Hitachi TFT that everyone was raving about +/- recently) are made by AU Optronics. The A standing for Acer...

[CHHAS]

I got an Acer AL732 last week, and I love it.
Picture is great, no visible ghosting, and the monitor itself is very stylish with a slim border, solid aluminium stand and a blue led.

[Paulr]

The AL732 is specification identical to the NEC 1760NX I have - so it looks like the majority of the componets are going to be the same.
Only one manufacturer currently makes the 16ms response rate panels, so any LCD with 16ms will be using the same physical panel.
It's down to the backlight to give the improves specifications.
The Hitachi for example only has a contrast ratio of 400:1 whereas the NEC & Acer have 450:1 - I'm 99% sure NEC make their own backlights, wouldn't be surprised if there is a bit of a deal going on there - Acer supply the panel and NEC supply the backlight, both companies get a TFT on the market at minimal cost.
The bottom part of the bezel on the Acer just looks that little bit large again, similar in design to the Hitachi.
The NEC I have has a tiny bezel all around the screen, one of the things that made me go for that one even though it was slightly more expensive.

[az]

It's not just the backlights, it's the electronics, firmware, panel revision (yes, there are revisions and updates to panels as well), transformer...

AZ

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Paulr
The AL732 is specification identical to the NEC 1760NX I have - so it looks like the majority of the componets are going to be the same.
Only one manufacturer currently makes the 16ms response rate panels, so any LCD with 16ms will be using the same physical panel.
It's down to the backlight to give the improves specifications.
The Hitachi for example only has a contrast ratio of 400:1 whereas the NEC & Acer have 450:1 - I'm 99% sure NEC make their own backlights, wouldn't be surprised if there is a bit of a deal going on there - Acer supply the panel and NEC supply the backlight, both companies get a TFT on the market at minimal cost.
The bottom part of the bezel on the Acer just looks that little bit large again, similar in design to the Hitachi.
The NEC I have has a tiny bezel all around the screen, one of the things that made me go for that one even though it was slightly more expensive.

The Acer has a small bezel, smaller that the otehr screens I described. The only thing is that it has a couple of speakers so the bottom part is larger. But it _is_ very thin.

Somehow, the 1760NX isn't that great a monitor. I considered it to replace my 1711m but I choose the Acer instead. As a sidenote, I replaced the Acer by a Philips 107S2B in an instant of folly and immediately regretted it! The things was so huge compared to the Acer! It looked just out of LCD prehistory!

Just to remind me what cheap screens look like on the street.

I swiftly replaced it by the Acer AL922. Gosh! Now it's better!

[CHHAS]

The bezel on my AL732 is 17 mm, except for the bottom where the speakers takes up space.

[Paulr]

Speakers at the bottom, well that will explain the larger bezel across the bottom.
Oh and by the way, you'll be rather hard pushed to beat the NEC - I did plenty of research before I purchased it two months ago and I found nothing around that could compete, but that is only personal preference of course.

Somehow, the 1760NX isn't that great a monitor

But please tell, you obviously know something I don't