TN vs. MVA question.

gamerguy1

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Jan 17, 2007
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Hello.

Been reading a lot on LCD screens lately. Went out to see if any of the SOYO or Westinghouse LCDs were in stock at the local stores. They were not.
I have never really seen any screen that is not a TN panel. From someones previous post, I read that MVA panels are going to be hard to find. Is the technology for TN LCD monitors going to catch up with the MVA panels. I read that the new Dell Crystal screen is a TN panel, but the price is higher than an MVA or I-IPS screen. I have 2 TN panel screens, and for most games and movies, the picture seems good. The colors and brightness although "inaccurate" seem very good compared to TVs and CRTs that I have used in the past. However, I do notice that on RTS that the "problem" of seeing the pixels is real. One of my RTS games looks poor on the older LCD TN panel, while the newer one, which is supposed to have 1.5x the pixels per square inch, looks a little better. Havent increased the settings for the game (Sins of a Solar Empire), but NWN2 and DMMM both look fine on the screen.
So, if in the future, I buy a 22 or 24 inch TN panel for $300-500 can I expect that the quality of these screeens (brightness, contrast, and color accuracy etc) will begin to close the gap between higher quality panels. I will assume that the viewing angles will always be poor. But was that person correct in saying that higher quality panels will become rarer and if so, can you expect that buying a TN panel in the future will have more features (Already noticed that the TN panels have higher brightness and higher contrast as well as 1920 resolution which was normally reserved for MVA panels). Or is there a possibility that MVA panels will always be around and perhaps the 24" ones will stay between 500-600+ or drop in price for home use as well as have lower response times (noticed that some MVA have 6ms or 5ms now).
 

MagicPants

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Jun 16, 2006
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Nope TN panels are bad, just most people can't tell the difference so most of the manufacturers have stopped making MVA panels. The price increase in TN panels is just because they can get away with it, it's a really bad deal for consumers.

As for TN technology catching up to MVA or IPS technology, that's like asking when standard DVD technology is going to catch up to blu-ray.
 
Depending how critical you are with regards to color accuracy, image quality, etc. TN panels will never approach the quality of good MVA or PVA panel because of the fundamental limitations of the technology.

Most people simply buy monitors using TN panels because they are cheaper than higher end panels.

$600 is basically the starting point for MVA/PVA monitors (unless there's a sale or rebate).