TFT recommendation

[sam_p_lay]

Which monitor brands are most trusted/reliable and which should I avoid?

I know the well-established companies from CRT times (like CTX, Iiyama and Viewsonic) but what about the newer brands like HannsG, BenQ, Neovo or Digimate?

Also, is an LED-backlit TFT likely to have inferior blacks?

Thanks for your help!

 

[robjohnston]

I can recommend Samsung and HP monitors in my experience. It would not be fair of me to recommend any others as these are the only two brands that stand out of the manufacturers that I deal with. However I do find that Samsung panels, even though they are superb quality visually, lack reliability.

I would steer clear of Viewsonic personally, and also the Acer branded screens, as you don't know what you are getting. Sometimes some models can be made from decent quality parts and other models can be made from budget parts, its his and miss as they don't manufacture their own components, they just buy the cheapest parts off different manufacturers.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Thanks for the advice, I didn't realise that about Viewsonic but have been wondering why they're so cheap... I saw a report a while back that compared the dead pixel returns policies of various manufacturers (how many dead, hot or stuck pixels were required to qualify for a replacement) and Samsung were one of the worst, which backs up your reliability comment, they obviously lack faith in the ability of their displays to not produce dead pixels.

My other main query (forgot to add to the original post) was regarding aspect ratio... I'm seeing a pretty even split between 16:9 displays and 16:10, and was wondering what reason there is for somebody choosing a semi-widescreen display over a fully widescreen 16:9?

 

[sam_p_lay]

Best answer selected by sam_p_lay.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Just for anyone else reading this thread and wondering which display to choose, I should probably add to robjohnston's helpful reply some results of my own research...

Firstly, that most TFT monitor manufacturers don't actually manufacture the panel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TFT_LCD#Display_industry), most are Samsung or LG... http://www.flatpanelshd.com is a great resource for finding displays of a certain panel type, size and/or response time.

Turns out there are actually three main types of panel and almost all sub-£200 displays are TN (Twisted Nematic), which has the best response times, but poor colour accuracy (that colour shifting you get if your eye level moves up or down relative to the display).

TN panels also typically only output colours at 6 bits per colour component (RGB) or 18-bit/262,144 colours total, compared to 8 bits per component for higher quality panels (PVA and IPS) which produce 24-bit (true) colour or 16,777,216 colours. 6-bit/colour TN panels use dithering and FRC (averaging out colours or rapidly flickering between two shades) to emulate 24-bit colour. 262,144 sounds like plenty, but it's that extra colour quality of 24-bit panels that eliminates that banding effect you see on gradients.

This doesn't apply to all TN panels, there are some 8-bit/component (24-bit total) panels, but they're very rare, and you still have the vertical viewing angle/colour shift issue. Until recently, almost all larger displays (24"+) used PVA or IPS panels (since obviously the larger the display, the farther the edges/corners are from your eyes, so more noticable loss of colour consistency). Recent price drops making 24" displays an affordable option are largely a result of using cheaper TN panels instead of the PVA or IPS previously used.

Also worth pointing out that response times on IPS/PVA panels don't get better than 6ms (grey to grey) or 16ms (full on/off). Samsung's PVA panels would respond far slower still, but use a workaround that involves applying increased voltage to some pixels... since this requires pre-processing, the actual output will lag by two frames (1/30th of a second on a 60Hz display). Some people believe there's a noticable difference. More details about this on Anandtech.

Backlighting also has a big impact on colour quality... apparently LED backlighting improves colour accuracy, but traditional CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) backlights produce a wider colour gamut. I would have thought a wide gamut would be a prerequisite for colour accuracy, but I don't know that much about it... would be interested to hear from anyone who does. RGB LEDs are supposed to be best of all, but very expensive and not currently in widespread use.

LG are only just about to release their 15" OLED TV, and it's looking to be £1500-2000. Sony's 11" Xel-1 OLED is £3500. LG have said that OLED won't be matching current TFT sizes/prices for 7 years yet. And we certainly won't be seeing SED in widescale production any time soon, let alone at affordable prices.

Since the only 1920x1080+ IPS/PVA display within £200 is the Samsung F2380, I'll probably go with that. The Samsung Syncmaster 2343s I use at work show some ghosting alongside blocks of black on light backgrounds, and Samsung's dead pixel returns policy is not one of the best, but the only other options are the 20" version (around £150), the HP LP2275w (22" PVA, 1680x1050) at £250+ or the Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA (22" IPS, 1680x1050) at around £180.