Vista certified monitors

Just wondering if they're are any major disadvantages with going with Vista and not having a Vista certified monitor.

No doubt Vista will work with any monitor so that's not the question.

I bought a Samsung 226BW which is, but a buddy of mine just picked up a Samsung 2220WM at a great price which is not. Both 22" LCD widescreens with slightly different contrast ratios and refresh rates.

The only info I found from a quick Google was the certified monitors will "maximize space" for some of the vista features like the side bar and "Aero flip". Also the certified monitors has support for HDCP for viewing HD and Blu-Ray disc. I understand that HDCP is more about encryption protection, but from what I've read if a component (in aTV/computer) does not support HDCP the resolution may get dropped or the signal might not work at all.


What exactly do they mean by "maximize space"? I'm assuming those features will still work, but might not be as compact. Are there any other features that might get disabled or not work as well with a non-certified monitor?

Do the certified monitors have a better overall quality in picture due to the ability to support HDCP? From what I understand only HD/BR disc will benefit, but are or will other digital formats *like* mpeg have higher quality and require HDCP in the near future? How about formats such as downloading movies from Netflix as an example.

Do or will games with DX10 have anything to do with HDCP?


I guess the overall answer I'm looking for is how important is a certified monitor for future proofing your system. I'm assuming my buddy could return this monitor for a certified one if it's worth it. Any detail to any of my particular questions would be appreciated.

Thanks!