monitor recommendations

Post by **Skylace** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:04 pm

A good place to look online as well for stuff like this is NewEgg.com

6ULDV8 · Post by **6ULDV8** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:41 pm

Skylace wrote:A good place to look online as well for stuff like this is NewEgg.com

Yes, new egg is a great place...

Alas for Faceless they don't export to the UK.

It is a great source of info on all things, item specs, customer reviews etc...
But when it comes to the consumer electronics side of things the UK also has differing standards (Power / Scart etc) & thus dif' model numbers & tech stuff...

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:37 pm

I hope i'll be able to buy one soon. Viewsonic, JVC, Sony, NEC and Samsung are really good.

Luke, one thing, when you're not using the monitor, or doing something that doesn't require full brightness, please reduce it. If you keep your pc/laptop on 24x7, then you can enable the option to turn the monitor off after 5-10 minutes idle.. i think this helps the screen to last longer.

6ULDV8: you have more options available than what we get here. HW are also cheaper in US. In addition you don't have to pay sales tax or VAT in most of the states... Gordon BroOOOOOOwn

Can anyone please explain what dead pixels (i.e. how to detect them) are and how to fix 'em (, if possible).

Cheers

6ULDV8 · Post by **6ULDV8** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:06 pm

Ash wrote: 6ULDV8: you have more options available than what we get here. HW are also cheaper in US. In addition you don't have to pay sales tax or VAT in most of the states... Gordon BroOOOOOOwn

Can anyone please explain what dead pixels (i.e. how to detect them) are and how to fix 'em (, if possible).

Cheers

Ash, yes we do have a great many options, but it's not always good to have too many... I end up spending hours scratching my head over which looks better on paper & in real life etc...

Yup, we in Delaware have no sales tax at all

But as far as buying stuff online, there is no tax for the rest of the country either, well, unless you live in the same state your supplier is...

As for dead pixels... in laymans terms.. an LCD screen is made up of Pixels (lil' blocks of color / light)...
When a pixel is dead, it appears as a tiny black dot no matter what colors you are showing on the screen.
Most companies (manufactuers) are pretty good at catching these nowdays before it hits the consumer... however, some find (companies, not consumers) that up to 5 dead pixels on the screen is acceptable (which is not).

As far as what to do with dead pixels... it's tricky, best to complain to the place you bought it (TV / Monitor) & get it replaced, however, if the screen is 'soft', sometimes massaging the area with the dead pixel can bring it back to life... I'd not reccomend doing so as it can damage more than it fixes & could void warrenty etc...

Should you find a dead pixel or two & not find it acceptable (as you shouldn't), check online forums about the 'brands' policy... or the store you bought it at...
If by chance it's a company that says up to 5 dead pixels are ok (which we know is not)... then find another excuse to have it replaced

(Some stores take items back within the first week if boxed etc because it didn't do what you required... so always keep ya' box & stuff).

Hope that helped.

luke · Post by **luke** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:01 pm

Ash wrote:Luke, one thing, when you're not using the monitor, or doing something that doesn't require full brightness, please reduce it. If you keep your pc/laptop on 24x7, then you can enable the option to turn the monitor off after 5-10 minutes idle.. i think this helps the screen to last longer.

no worries, i turn the whole thing off, pc as well, when i'm not using it - trying to be green ( and keep the electricity bill as low as possible! )

6ULDV8 wrote:Ash, yes we do have a great many options, but it's not always good to have too many... I end up spending hours scratching my head over which looks better on paper & in real life etc...

i know what you mean, its like when i was looking for a camera - theres just so many!

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:31 am

Thanks for the info, Dr. Who

Post by **faceless** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:49 am

I got a call on Friday from the funding group who helped me setup in business - it turned out they hadn't given me all they could. Nice. So I went in today and they gave me £150 which I promptly used to buy a 20" widescreen Asus monitor which was on offer on PC World. And it's great!

I'd never usually use a large chain to buy hardware, but a decent guarantee was worth the hassle I'd have got on ebay with postage etc.

luke · Post by **luke** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:43 am

that was a bit of a result! welcome to flat screen world faceless - nice isn't it

6ULDV8 · Post by **6ULDV8** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:05 pm

Nice one Faceless.

I love ASUS products, their monitors are not as available over here in the USA as I'd like.

It'd be a toss up between a viewsonic or an Asus if I ever needed to replace what I use at the moment.

I have been trying to find out who / what Asus use for the LCD itself, it could be phillips, samsung or LG.

I know this tho'... every forum I know that discusses monitors rave about the Asus.

Sounds like a great price too if you could get it for 150 squid (or less).

LCD TV's that can be used as a monitor are dropping like crazy in price here, but good dedicated monitors seem to be stuck fairly high in price.

Sounds silly, but do you know if it's 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio?

Would ya' mind posting the model number so I can look it up & see what dif' specs are in / on the Euro versions.

Post by **faceless** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:58 pm

The model number is 2020 or something - all I really know is that it's 20" and works great. It also has a sticker in the top-right corner that says 'Splendid' which was obviously the clincher for me.

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 2:38 pm

Great to hear. Asus are a good make.

As a general rule of thumb, look for monitors with 3 years on site swap-out guarantee .. then it doesn't matter where you buy them from (with my two favourites ebuyer & shop.bt.com [which is dabs.com]