My LCD monitor arrived

[Raziaar]

I have it all set up. Man it's so huge. I mean seriously the thing is a ****ing monster. 25.5"

This is my first LCD ever. Never used or operated one before other than the one my brother owns.

What program should I use to try and find dead pixels? I heard something about Dead Pixel Buddy but haven't been able to find the download for it since the creators website is down.

Any tips on color calibration and brightness and stuff? I know I can just do it until it looks good to me, but almost anything looks good for me. I want it to look perfect, even to my untrained eye!

Are there any calibrator programs or anything?

EDIT: Man this monitor is bright, even at 50% brightness set on the monitor. lol

 

[Ennui]

Calibration is probably best done manually to suit your needs. I just use the "gaming" option on my monitor. Dead pixels shouldn't be an issue, on a new monitor you probably don't have any (maybe 1 or 2) and if they aren't noticeable they aren't really an issue. I only have maybe 2 on mine and it's 1.5 years old.

I got a 25.5" widescreen LCD a year or two ago and god damn I will never regret spending that money. Not only do people comment on the huge size all the time but after watching movies in 1080p and gaming in 1920x1200 it's impossible to go back to smaller resolutions. I have a 17" widescreen 1440x900 laptop and it feels like a frickin Game Boy screen to me now.

 

[PJ]

It should be fine straight out of the box tbh. And if you can see any dead pixels, its not going to affect you. I have one bright pink dead pixel on my old LCD screen, but I barely ever notice it (I'm actually using it as a secondary monitor atm)

First ever LCD? Wow, what's the make etc?


EDIT: Pretty much what Ennui said.

 

[Raziaar]

I think it's going to take a little while for my eyes to get used to this monitor. I can like... see and notice the tiny tiny pixels even though it's further away than my old one. it's a weird feeling.

It should be fine straight out of the box tbh. And if you can see any dead pixels, its not going to affect you. I have one bright pink dead pixel on my old LCD screen, but I barely ever notice it (I'm actually using it as a secondary monitor atm)

First ever LCD? Wow, what's the make etc?


EDIT: Pretty much what Ennui said.

Asus VW266h 25.5"

My old CRT was a Viewsonic Ultrabrite A90f+

 

[MJ12]

I've been meaning to upgrade from my 17". I don't want to waste money buying a 19" or 20", but as soon as I see a 22" the price leaps by like $100.

It's hard to be arsed to buy one sometimes when that $260 could go to buying something awesome, especially since the monitor I have was free.

 

[Raziaar]

One thing I will have to really get used to... especially since I have a TN panel... is the viewing angles and color changes as a result.

 

[Escaep]

I have a 24" now and it feels too small.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

First LCD in 2010 Raz!? That should be against the law, even taviow got a LCD before you and he had the worst monitor in the world for many many years.

Tips - plug it in, turn it on, enjoy it and don't treat it like a CPU. No need to overclock or get busy. Adjust levels, serve with whipped cream on top.

 

[CyberPitz]

I got mine last year.... I'm always late to the party.

 

[Krynn72]

I remember when I got my first lcd. I plugged it in and was like "uhg, wtf this is awful" and then after like 3 days of using it, I had to use my brother's pc with the old crt monitor i had, and was like "HOLY SHIT ITS SO BLURRY GRAWRG NASTY"

Good times.

 

[Raziaar]

I have a 24" now and it feels too small.

Well, this 25.5" one was the cheapest one I could find. The 24" ones were around the same price. With the sale of this Asus one, I had to get it also after doing lots of research on it.

First LCD in 2010 Raz!? That should be against the law, even taviow got a LCD before you and he had the worst monitor in the world for many many years.

Tips - plug it in, turn it on, enjoy it and don't treat it like a CPU. No need to overclock or get busy. Adjust levels, serve with whipped cream on top.

Yep... well... I can't usually get things like a new computer or monitor or stuff unless I buy them myself. And all the computers and monitors I have owned since 2003 I have had to purchase myself.

I got mine last year.... I'm always late to the party.

At least I'm not alone!

I remember when I got my first lcd. I plugged it in and was like "uhg, wtf this is awful" and then after like 3 days of using it, I had to use my brother's pc with the old crt monitor i had, and was like "HOLY SHIT ITS SO BLURRY GRAWRG NASTY"

Good times.

Well my CRT was already blurry and had an annoying wavering where all the font would waver around, especially when I had my TV on and I knew that before I used a CRT. So this is a good purchase. My brother could barely use my CRT... he'd sit down and say his eyes hurt and that it would destroy my eyes. I put up with it though, but now I'm glad I don't have to.


I have to say this 1920x1200 resolution is ****ing awesome... and on this huge screen I am supremely satisfied with the purchase. When I start back up on my programming and shit or if I take up 3d modeling again all this size and resolution is going to be sweet. And now I can use wide screen backgrounds at full size, yay!

 

[VirusType2]

Not only have I never owned an LCD monitor, I've only even used one for a total of a few minutes when helping family set up their security or whatever.

I was thinking of going with a 24". What do you think about that resolution Raz - do you think you might prefer your 25.5" over 24"?

 

[Vegeta897]

24" is not a resolution. The resolution his monitor uses (and the one I'd recommend over 1080) is 1920x1200.

Unfortunately, according to Raz, these are hard to find these days compared to 1080.

I have a 24" myself, and it is big enough for me.

 

[Quixoticism]

Why are you hesitating Virus?! Unless you have cancer you don't need the treatment.
Go out and buy one!!
24" is the minimum I would go for a 1920 resolution monitor, and it should be big enough for you.

 

[Raziaar]

Not only have I never owned an LCD monitor, I've only even used one for a total of a few minutes when helping family set up their security or whatever.

I was thinking of going with a 24". What do you think about that resolution Raz - do you think you might prefer your 25.5" over 24"?

I don't know if I'd notice too much of a difference between a 24" and a 25.5", but I can tell you this compared to my 19" CRT(which if I think right, for CRT measurements they include the border frame, right?) it's astronomical. It takes up more than half the width of my desk. and only a third of the depth(base), whereas my CRT only took up like a third of my desk and half the width of my desk with almost half the monitor hanging over the back of my desk.

I can read everything so clearly. On my CRT, I couldn't read a lot of the text unless I reduced the brightness significantly... the bottom right area of my screen in particular was really blurry and I couldn't usually read the date and time.

The 1920x1200 resolution is awesome. I'm glad I went with it instead of 1920x1080. Hopefully when you're trying to get one you'll be able to find a good 1920x1200 one you like... as they're becoming increasingly rare from everything I've been reading.

 

[Raziaar]

I'm having difficulty adjusting to my new monitor. Most things look great... but on some things I notice the individual pixels really easily. Like on gifs which have low color depth.

This gif for example...

I notice all the pixels that make up the crowd, and I notice the pixels on the dudes head way more than I ever noticed them on my CRT monitor.

Is this normal? Will I adjust to this? It keeps bugging me out so much. Like when I play Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe, everything looks so much more grainy. The artwork looks like it's noisy and I notice all the individual pixels because the color changes of the ones around them are so drastic.


Is this me simply not living with a "blurry" CRT anymore? On my old CRT, that same image would have appeared splotchy, but I wouldn't be making out all the individual color pixels with such extreme ease.

I am sitting about 2.5 feet or so away from my monitor. Considerably more than with my CRT.

 

[Quixoticism]

That GIF looks horrible to me as well. I think you're still just getting used to having a nice monitor.
At your native resolution each pixel has a specified spot and so you're going to notice individual pixels in image files and other media, especially if it's low quality.

 

[Raziaar]

That GIF looks horrible to me as well. I think you're still just getting used to having a nice monitor.
At your native resolution each pixel has a specified spot and so you're going to notice individual pixels in image files and other media, especially if it's low quality.

Ahhh, okay. That makes me feel a little bit better that it's not only me.

Though, I'm not entirely sure how nice my monitor is. I'm still trying to get it fixed and stuff so I can properly view pages like this...

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php

and this...

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php


I no longer have a problem with the banding with the gradient, but I can't really distinguish 1, 2, 3, and 4, and almost 5 from each other. The viewing angles are kind of annoying, as the color and stuff changes if an image is on the top side of my screen vs the bottom, even after tilting it to try and get it ideal.

Hopefully it's not all simply because I picked a bad monitor. 500 reviews on newegg at 4 eggs, people say it's pretty good... maybe I just need to keep calibrating it.

 

[VirusType2]

I no longer have a problem with the banding with the gradient, but I can't really distinguish 1, 2, 3, and 4, and almost 5 from each other. The viewing angles are kind of annoying, as the color and stuff changes if an image is on the top side of my screen vs the bottom, even after tilting it to try and get it ideal.

Welcome to a $260, 25.5" monitor.

 

[Raziaar]

Welcome to a $260, 25.5" monitor.

lol. yeah. I didn't have the money for, nor would I be willing to pay twice that for the next steps up.

Everything else about the experience is great. The size, the screen real estate.

I mean... I'm not a picky dude by any means... I put up with the shit my CRT monitor gave me forever... i'm just wondering when I'll be able to adjust to and get used to these quirks... when my brain stops focusing on it so much.

 

[VirusType2]

These are just traits of the inexpensive monitors, some are worse than others, it's true, but the really expensive monitors are not ideal for games, from what I hear.

...

The ghosting might even be noticeable in certain video and movies. Maybe even watching car racing; I don't know about this part though, just a guess.


Basically, a CRT has some advantages over LCD (of any kind). There's no way around it. That's one reason why I've been waiting. I thought they would have come up with a better way by now.

Remember, they suggested in the future we were supposed to have display screens on our clothing and... anything else you can imagine.

 

[Acepilotf14]

You will. I've had an LCD for.. well, many years now. I don't think I could go back to a CRT monitor. Everything is blurry and there's little definition compared to even these school LCDs.

I got my bigger monitor a few years back, I think it's a 25.5", with 1920x1200 resolution, and the LCD I had before that was a 1024x786(i think) standard-sized 4:3 monitor. I absolutely hate working on my laptop(1280x800) because everything just seems so cramped, especially after working on my desktop for an extended period.

The advantages are many, but there are a few major disadvantages to a big monitor. For one, like you said, older games that rely on sprites are going to look TERRIBLE in full screen, since some relied on blur from the CRTs to create definition. With LCDs, we can see every individual pixel easily, which makes it much easier to see faults in sprites or pixel art.

LCDs are much brighter, and strain your eyes faster especially if you work on one a lot(ALTHOUGH FOR EXPERIENCED COMPUTER USERS SUCH AS OURSELVES A LITTLE EYE STRAIN IS NO PROBLEM).

you said you were gonna be playing RDR on this, right? Which means you can support nice high resolutions, especially if it has HDMI. Feels weird for me to play console games on a PC monitor though, and I have a 32" HDTV(which one of these days I want to hook up to my PC and see how that works out), but that's certainly a step up.

p.s. virus crts suk and r 4 old ppl like urself

 

[Raziaar]

These are just traits of the inexpensive monitors, some are worse than others, it's true, but the really expensive monitors are not ideal for games, from what I hear.

...

The ghosting might even be noticeable in certain video and movies. Maybe even watching car racing; I don't know about this part though, just a guess.


Basically, a CRT has some advantages over LCD (of any kind). There's no way around it. That's one reason why I've been waiting. I thought they would have come up with a better way by now.

Remember, they suggested in the future we were supposed to have display screens on our clothing and... anything else you can imagine.

I'll believe that when they install a display screen on my jetpack.

You will. I've had an LCD for.. well, many years now. I don't think I could go back to a CRT monitor. Everything is blurry and there's little definition compared to even these school LCDs.

I got my bigger monitor a few years back, I think it's a 25.5", with 1920x1200 resolution, and the LCD I had before that was a 1024x786(i think) standard-sized 4:3 monitor. I absolutely hate working on my laptop(1280x800) because everything just seems so cramped, especially after working on my desktop for an extended period.

The advantages are many, but there are a few major disadvantages to a big monitor. For one, like you said, older games that rely on sprites are going to look TERRIBLE in full screen, since some relied on blur from the CRTs to create definition. With LCDs, we can see every individual pixel easily, which makes it much easier to see faults in sprites or pixel art.

LCDs are much brighter, and strain your eyes faster especially if you work on one a lot(ALTHOUGH FOR EXPERIENCED COMPUTER USERS SUCH AS OURSELVES A LITTLE EYE STRAIN IS NO PROBLEM).

you said you were gonna be playing RDR on this, right? Which means you can support nice high resolutions, especially if it has HDMI. Feels weird for me to play console games on a PC monitor though, and I have a 32" HDTV(which one of these days I want to hook up to my PC and see how that works out), but that's certainly a step up.

p.s. virus crts suk and r 4 old ppl like urself

Yeah man you make some good points man. I haven't really noticed the eyestrain much, but then again I don't get a whole lot of eyestrain using a computer all day long, typically.

And yes I will be playing RDR on this. Question regarding that... you mention HDMI... my xbox 360 has a cable for that, but I'm using my one that allows me to connect it to a monitor using VGA. My monitor does have HDMI connectors, but I'm not sure how I'd do the audio with that. My monitor has speakers, but I'd rather use my own speakers and my speakers do not interface with the audio cables on that thing.

Is there going to be any difference you think viewing it with the VGA cable vs the HDMI cables?

 

[Acepilotf14]

Is there going to be any difference you think viewing it with the VGA cable vs the HDMI cables?

Since the 360 can't do true 1080p(not that RDR is even in 1080p lolol), no.

 

[Ennui]

That's the exact same monitor I have Raz I bought it two decembers ago for about 50 bucks higher than the current Newegg sale price.

edit: lol Virus you're about 10 years behind. Ghosting hasn't been an issue with LCDs since like 2000. Pretty much any LCD on the market now is not going to give you ghosting problems in games or media, the response time is too high.

 

[Raziaar]

That's the exact same monitor I have Raz I bought it two decembers ago for about 50 bucks higher than the current Newegg sale price.

edit: lol Virus you're about 10 years behind. Ghosting hasn't been an issue with LCDs since like 2000. Pretty much any LCD on the market now is not going to give you ghosting problems in games or media, the response time is too high.

What did you do to calibrate your vw266h Ennui? It's cool that we have the same monitor

Did you just runs yours as default? How are you finding it after 2 years of use? What kind of things can you nitpick about it and what things are awesome?

Since the 360 can't do true 1080p(not that RDR is even in 1080p lolol), no.

Good to know, thanks!

 

[VirusType2]

edit: lol Virus you're about 10 years behind. Ghosting hasn't been an issue with LCDs since like 2000. Pretty much any LCD on the market now is not going to give you ghosting problems in games or media, the response time is too high.

No, they have ghosting. We were talking about the expensive desktop publishing monitors (that don't have viewing angle problems and color uniformity problems, like the cheaper LCDs do.)

It's a trade-off, they are completely different types of LCD monitors.

* S-IPS/H-IPS panels are generally considered the best all around panel type, but they are more expensive and very few are made. High end, expensive.

* S-PVA/MVA panels offer better color reproduction and viewing angles than TN panels, have slightly worse response times than TN or S-IPS, offer the best contrast ratios, may suffer from color shifting or input lag and have higher availability than S-IPS panels. Mid range, fair price.

* TN panels are very cheap and have the fastest response times, but suffer from inferior color reproduction, contrast ratios and viewing angles. Low end, inexpensive.

http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php
The 'cheap' monitors I was refering to are the TN panels, like Raz's new monitor.

You can't have it all on LCD, but you can on CRT. If you guys have blurry CRTs, that's because you have shitty monitors.

 

[Raziaar]

No, they have ghosting. We were talking about the expensive desktop publishing monitors (that don't have viewing angle problems and color uniformity problems, like the cheaper LCDs do.)

It's a trade-off, they are completely different types of LCD monitors.

http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php
The 'cheap' monitors I was refering to are the TN panels, like Raz's new monitor.

You can't have it all on LCD, but you can on CRT. If you guys have blurry CRTs, that's because you have shitty monitors.

My CRT is blurry just because it's old. I mean shit, I got it back in 2003.

I can't wait for the day when a "cheap" lcd doesn't run you $280. It sucks that high end LCD monitors cost as much as the computer itself.

Here's hoping for rapid technological advancement and production ease!