Have 2 2001FP's, need 3rd, should it be widescreen?

The 2007FP costs more than the UltraSharp 2208WFP 22-inch Widescreen (I assume that's what you are looking at) because of the panel technology.

The 2007FP uses either a S-PVA or IPS panel depending on the batch (both are the same price). IPS is the more "advanced" (and more expensive) panel tech, S-PVA is less expensive than IPS, but nearly as good.

Nearly all 22" LCD are built with the really inexpensive TN panel tech. TN panels are inferior to both S-PVA and IPS because they cannot produce true 16.7 million colors. TN panels can only produce 256k real colors and through a blending process (dithering) the remaining 16.0 - 16.5 million color can be created. S-PVA and IPS panels can truly produce 16.7 million colors.

I will not bore you with the technical details. To be brief, TN panel technology is suitable for most users. The casual user will not be able to tell the difference between the panel tech unless they are placed side by side. Unless you are a professional graphic artist or demand better color accuracy, then a monitor using TN panel tech should be fine.

On major characteristic you may notice is viewing angles. When viewing a TN panel monitor off center you will notice that the colors will fade more quickly than other panel technologies.

Since you are a trader, monitors using TN panels should suffice for your needs since probably just wanna chart / track the stocks you are interested in trading. If you are not sure about the quality of a TN panel simply go to your local computer (like BestBuy of CircuitCity), all computer LCD monitors being sold at those stores are based on TN panels. I know I did the research.

Personally, I do not like TN panels. But that's just me.

Too bad I'm restricted from day trading; I must hold my securities for at least 30 days and I must have clearance from my firm's Compliance Dept. before I can initiate a trade.

If you wish to learn more about LCD panel technologies then click the following link:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/specs.htm

Tnx! Yea, I don't play games at all, and rarely do much more than web browsing & home video editing (besides trading).

So besides the TN issue (which I doubt I'll notice like you say and it'll be the middle monitor so the side-viewing issue won't be a problem either), if I get the 22" (you are correct), do you think I'll be able to put the wide in the middle between my 2001FP's on the left & right, and get them to match height-wise (adjustable stands), and not notice any distortions across the 3 screens?

I don't mind the extra money for a 2007FP if it means I won't have any distortion or weird issues dragging my mouse across all 3 screens or viewing charts/level II across all 3 screens, etc.

Tnx again

Sidenote: Yea, I have a few friends also who have the 30 day hold. But trust me, it's taken me many years (around 4-5) to become consistently profitable w/ daytrading, it's NOT as easy as it looks and it all has to do with one's psychological ability, very easy to master the technical ability. I try to turn people away from daytrading whenever possible to save them much heartache, pain, and losses. Of course, if you overcome & master yourself (psychological hurdles), it can be as rewarding as any other entrpreneurial/self-employment endeavor, but 90% of businesses fail in the 1st year, numbers aren't diff. for daytraders either.

A 22" widescreen should more less line up with a 20" regular monitor. While 22" widescreen has more pixels across the screen (1680 compared to 1600), it has few rows of pixels (1050 vs. 1200). Therefore, a 22" Widescreen LCD monitor actually has less total pixel count than a 20" regular LCD monitor.


Yeah, day trading is not for everyone and I don't wanna be a day trader myself. My previous job wasn't in an investment bank so I was free to do some intra-day or short-term investments (speculation) to net out some extra cash for the month from time to time.

Still just a little confused. Will less pixels mean distortion when viewing Tradestation across the 3 monitors?

I.e. - Don't want a chart to look stretched on the Widescreen, or the Level II data to be stretched/distorted on the widescreen vs. the regulars.

If no distortion, and if I can get equal height of display, I'd get the widescreen...tnx again.

A 22" widescreen will not stretch an image on the screen (unless it is a game that doesn't support widescreen formats), it merely means you can see more horizontally across the screen, but less vertically compared to a standard 20" LCD monitor.

Take Excel for example.

Scenario #1 - 20" LCD monitor
You will probably see across to column W and down to row 55.

Scenario #2 - 22" LCD monitor
You will probably see across to column Z and down to row 51.

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Caveat:

A widescreen monitor can stretch an image if the resolution you set is not wide format. For example, if you were to set the screen resolution to 1280 x 1024 (a resolution of standard 19" LCD monitor), then yes this "square" image will be stretched across the screen. Kinda similar to what I stated before about a game not supporting widescreen resolutions.

You cannot get "equal height" because the vertical resolution of a 20" standard LCD monitor is 1200 (lines), whereas a 22" widescreen monitor only has a vertical resolution of 1050 (lines).

What about a 24" then, that's 1200 lines...The screensize from what I've seen at other forums is about 32.5cm, my 20" is 31cm or so. Assuming I'm ok with the 1.5cm discrepancy (maybe having .75cm below/.75above the adjoining monitors), then I guess I should be ok with a 24" ws?

Below is a comparison of LCD panels dimensions. It is a little dated because it does not include 22" LCD monitors.

Also, there is one 22" monitor which does have a resolution of 1920 x 1200; the Lenovo ThinkVision L220x. It will be closer to the actual physical size of your 20" Dells and it uses a S-PVA panel rather than a TN panel.



As you can see from above, a 23" LCD monitor comes the closest to matching the physical height of a 20" LCD monitor, but the only 23" monitor that I know of is sold by Apple for a price tag of around $800 - $900.

Awesome, thanks for all the replies & help. I am asking around some daytrader forums, one guy actually has exactly 2 2001fp's + 1 24" wide and said noticed the height diff. the first day and hasn't since then until I reminded him w/ my post, so I may just go for the 24" (or I may say screw it and just add 2 more 20"'s). Tnx though!