On the verge of deciding, give me a push! (jaguar & cj plz your input)

[poetic_justice]

hello to all,
i'm about to buy an lcd monitor and have been reading reviews and posts for many days, i can't take it anymore! i have to decide. Any input you may give me to help me decide will be greatly appreciated. so let me tell you where i stand up until now:

First of all you should know that i'm a regular/normal user, meaning that i use my pc
- many hours a day
- mainly for movies/series
- secondly for gaming (i ain't that hardcore gamer, every now and then i play some strategy games and a few fps like mass effect/fallout 3)
- and of course some internet, music and desktop activity (file management,texts,programs, blabla...)

after a lot of reading i've come to look at the following displays:
- NEC 2490WUXi (not the i2)
- HP LP2475W
- DELL 2408WFP
- DELL U2410

also take into account that budget/money is not an issue since it will come from governmental subsidy.

NEC would be my first choice since from what i've read it's a pretty good monitor all around, even the input lag ain't so much.
I Believe an input lag around 2 frames (30-32ms) is ok with me and i am not gonna notice anything.
very good interpolarization as well, better than the other monitors, great colors, and a pretty good black (0.2 after calibration) not better than the other monitors but pretty close to them, so i don't think i would notice a big difference in black among them. Also the A-TW polarization is a pretty nice addition.
Sadly the Nec can't be found in my country (Greece) and i can only find the new model (the WUXi2) which i don't want.
If anyone knows any site that ships within europe and in Greece specifically, please let me know.

If i can't find it anywhere, then i have to pick one of the other models, and here i haven't decided which one to pick.
I was thinking about the HP (better lag, and roughly the same in other aspects with the dell), but then i read that thread in hardforum.com and realize that a lot of people are having troubles with this display and a lot of returns. and that got me thinking that maybe i should go for the 2408 and hope that i get a A02 version and that the lag in that has reached the ~30something level.

Lastly there's the U2410, which i haven't seen any trusted review yet and i don't know if i should wait for it.

 

[poetic_justice]

hmm, something happened and the text got posted before i could finish it, and unfortunately i don't have the rights to edit/delete it. so please some mod delete this thread and i will start a new one with the complete text.thanks, and sorry for any incovenience.
OK i managed to edit it with the quick edit function, so i guess i'm keeping this thread.

 

[jaguarskx]

Since the NEC 2490WUXi is not sold in your country, then that is not really an option for you unless you are willing to buy it in another European country that does sell it; like England.

http://shopping.kelkoo.co.uk/ssc-114401-nec-2490wuxi.html


The HP LP 2475W is a good option, the only bad thing I've read about it was part of the screen could turn pinkish. Not sure if that has been resolved since I haven't really followed it since it was released.

Supposedly the Dell 2408WFP revision A02 has further reduced input lag, but I don't know by how much.

There will probably a review for the Dell U2410 within 2 months after it is released since Dell is popular, but I could be wrong. I am assuming it will replace the 2408WFP series.

 

[cjl]

Well, I've always had great luck with Dell monitors, and I love my Dell 2408 A01. The HP is a great monitor too though. I haven't heard anything about that Dell U2410 - the specs make it look amazing (the IPS panel with 110% color gamut and 1000:1 static contrast ratio is among the best available for that price and size range). I'd be tempted to wait on a review, but it does strike me as one of the best options on your list.

 

[poetic_justice]

thanks for sharing your thoughts guys,
Jaguar i tried the site (novatech) on the kelkoo, at the site they don't have Greece as a shipping destination, but at the support channel they said it could be arranged, but my joy didn't last for long, as i was looking at the product page i saw they have a code for that model and the code was something like
(Manf. Code: LCD2490WUXI2), see the 2 after the i ? that raise a few questions and after i asked them again, what was the model, they finally said it was the WUXi2. Damn, there goes that as well. I think NEC has withdrawn most of those displays (the WUXi ones). Probably gonna settle with one of the other models (DELL, HP).
I guess i could wait for a month or so, just to see what this U2410 is all about in some reviews.

Now there's another big chapter in the displays book, i've seen around people talking about calibration!
up until now on some tn monitors i had, i never bothered with some special kind of calibration, but i guess it would be a shame not to try and take advantage of the new display's full capabilities.

Do i have to get also a calibration thingy? like those eye pros i've seen in the review sites?
somewhere on those sites (prad,tftcentral,xbitlabs, etc) i think i've seen them give some settings like r,g,b, values and contrast, brightness values, and some even upload the ICC profiles from their tests.

- My question is, are these the same as a calibration accesory. i mean if i put those values i see on the sites, or if i load that ICC file, will then my monitor funtion like a calibrated one and very close to the values they get on their review? or is there something more that can only be done with those calibration accesories?

- Another question is, does a calibration needs to be done every now and then? (every month/year for example?) and do i have to have different kinds of calibrations for different uses? for example do i need to calibrate it to see movies and then calibrate it again differently when i want to play a game, or do some office work? or just one calibration is adequate for the monitor to function properly in all kinds of uses?

- And last question, i read around about software calibration and hardware calibration. Are we talking here about 2 different kinds of calibration? or do these 2 go together and are needed both to make a calibration? for example the software does the calibration (sets the values) and the hardware (that eye thingy) does the checking of the monitor performance (like an input-output pair).

well that's all for now, if anyone can shed some light on the above questions, please feel free to do so.
Thank you all