From 19" CRT to 22" WS LCD

chief5286

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Feb 3, 2006
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I know this should go in CE, but that doesn't seem to get much action.

I'm currently running a 19" CRT (18" glass diag.) that supports a max res. of 1600x1200. I've been looking at the 22" Samsung 226wb somewhat.

Can anyone give some of their impressions when they switched from a 19" non-ws (CRT would obviously be best, but LCD would also be helpful) to a 21-22" WS? They seem to be about the same in height, but the 22" is wider. I'd think that would be a major improvement.

I like my CRT, except for some flickering (not bad though) and the HUGE amount of space it takes up. My primary uses would include gaming, general use, some multimedia stuff. It seems the major advantage of the CRT is the adjustible res. How bad do games actually look at non-native res?

The most advanced game I play at the moment is Oblivion. I can play it at 16x12 with HDR+16AF, but it is not silky smooth, though its tollerable. I generally play at 10X7 with HDR+2AA+16AF.

Thanks.
 

choirbass

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Dec 14, 2005
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well... for the longest time i only used crts (up until christmas of 2006), went from a 21" crt (and 2 19" crts), to a single 19" lcd... for size, the 21" crt had about a half inch on the 19" lcd when you compared them side by side, and the 19" crts just seemed small in comparison (which should give you an idea of the difference between a 19" crt and a 22" WS lcd)... i purchased a second identical 19" lcd about a week later to run alongside, definetly was worth it

at a nonnative resolution, the lcd is blurrier than the crt, if only marginally... at the native resolution, the lcd is definetly sharper than the crt, text is definetly easier to read... for brightness/contrast, the lcd blows the crt away, again... (again, this is where the specs of the monitors come into play too)... as far as blacks in contrast though, i guess lcds still have a bit to go before theyre at the level of a crt

on the 21" and 19" crts i had, everything was 'interlaced', such as you could see subtle alternating horizontal lines on everything... but on an lcd, the image as a whole, just was more 'filled in' (i didnt really notice the interlacing until i had a side by side comparison of the two)

also, you shouldnt need to manually adjust the geometry settings either on an lcd, they automatically adjust to fit... ...and as far as the refresh rate too, at 100Hz on a crt i could still see flickering somewhat, nevermind 85Hz... so the move to an lcd was certainly nice there... before i had really started using an lcd, having a crt monitor was perfectly fine for general pc usage, as it had been for years before (didnt realize there was such a difference)... also regarding refresh rates, it wont matter which supported refresh rate you choose (60Hz, 70Hz, 75Hz, etc) theyre just there for compatability reasons really, with the operating system, and with the gpu