Do all lcd monitors look this bad ?

November 20, 2009 10:41:19 PM

My old crt monitor just died, so I bought a new lcd monitor. It looked fine in the shop but now I have it at home I'm finding it practically unusable, it really makes my eyes hurt.

It's an NEC LCD 195NX monitor, and the problems I have with it are these. I seem to see a kind of sheen, a sort of metallic effect over the surface of the screen, particularly noticeable on white backgrounds, makes surfing and word processing very cuncomfortable. Despite setting brightness and contrast really low, white backgrounds are to bright, and have nasty shimmery or pearlised effect espeicially in low light. The monitor seems to have very poor viewing angles, even when sitting direct in front of it, I will notice how colours etc change near tops and sides of screen, and it's driving me mad. I don't know if my eyes are weird or not, I have some eye problems but my old crt could be used for hours without this amount of pain and discomfort.

My monitor is matte, I'm won dering if I would have been better off buying glossy ?

Do all lcd monitors have these problems ? Am I the only one who has noticed sheen or shimmer on lcds ? No one in my house notices it, only me.

If I thought buying a better more expensive lcd monitor would solve these problems, I'd do so. Would it be worth doing ?

Thanks for any help.

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Kaeo1701

November 20, 2009 11:24:47 PM

I know when I first switched from CRT to LCD it hurt my eyes for awhile, but I don't remember any short of extreme shimmer or anything like you describe.

I suppose I would use it a little while longer and if your eyes don't adjust I'd maybe think about going back to the store and if the display one doesn't have that problem like you say maybe ask them what settings they are using?

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jaguarskx

Monitor Master

November 21, 2009 12:37:05 AM

The NEC LCD 195NX is basically a cheap monitor because it uses TN panel tech which explains the poor viewing angles and shifting colors. That "shimmery" or "pearlised" effect is what I assume you are referring to the dithering process. TN panels can only produce 256k true colors, thru dithering (blending of colors) the remaining 16 million colors can simulated.

More expensive monitors use PVA and IPS panels which can truly produce 16.7m colors and you will not get the dithering effect. However, LCD monitors using these types of panels are not without their flaws as well. When it comes to LCD monitors it boils down to the matter of compromise. The same can be said of CRTs, but the switch from CRTs to LCDs can be rather jarring; like your case for example.

I tend to spend months of research before buying an LCD monitor or HDTV. And I tend to go for the higher end models since I basically detest TN panel monitors. I paid $1,200+ for my 26" NEC LCD2690WUXi, and $800 for my 26" Planar PX2611w. They are not without their flaws, but I do not regret purchasing them. My monitors costs more than my PC.

My advice is to bulk up your knowledge of LCD monitors. Do some reading at the following site, they also have some reviews as well which talks about good points and bad points of specific LCD monitors:

http://tftcentral.co.uk/

The following site has additional reviews that are also worth reading even if you are not interested in the particular monitor. It's just to give you an idea about what to look for.

http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/reviews.html

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SylvaDragon

November 22, 2009 5:55:52 PM

Thanks for the help and the links. I'm now doing a lot of reading about monitors, but more and more it seems to me that I'd be vastly happier if I could just have my old crt back again. So I think at least short term I might try to grab a secondhand one and hope it lasts a while.

I now have brightness set to zero and it still makes my eyes scream, in daylight it's about bearable but at night it's horrid.

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