Computer Related > Monitor upgrade to larger size	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Fenlander	Replies: 31

New Fri 14 Jan 11 16:40   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Fenlander

OK so before I fit a load of bookshelves above the desk that will be quite tightly tailored around the monitor I think I'll upsize it which I've had in mind for a while. We have a HP 19" LCD (gloss) type that came with the PC. I guess any make of monitor will be OK?? Any known good ones/bad ones. I was thinking of 21"-23". Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 17:00   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Fenlander

BTW asking as I've only ever used the moniter which has come with the 4PCs we've had.... so no experience of trying a mismatch. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 17:04   Monitor upgrade to larger size - RattleandSmoke

Just make sure your PC can handle the resolution of the new monitor, if it is less than three years old it should not be an issue. As for monitors quality it really depends what you're doing with it. I've found the cheap ones are perfectly fine for general work but for TV or games you are better of getting better contrast ratios etc. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 17:13   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Iffy

How about a monitor with a built-in Freeview tuner? The 19" Samsung I have at the caravan is a telly with a computer input. Are you sure you need a bigger screen? Might depend how often you look at it from a distance, but I'd have thought 19" was plenty when you're sitting at the desk. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 17:40   Monitor upgrade to larger size - rtj70

iffy, his monitor is already 19" so no point in going for that one. Is the existing monitor 19" widescreen or 19" 4/3 aspect ratio. I'd be inclined to go along to PC World to take a look at sizes etc. And consider what you want it for. We've saved you a pretty sum so far... are we on commission ;-) Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 17:55   Monitor upgrade to larger size - RattleandSmoke

I have a 22" LG 1080P TV which is great and it has the added bonus of having VGA and HDMI inputs. You can get them for about £170 now. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 18:16   Monitor upgrade to larger size - lancara

Have the earlier LG model without TV. No problems using with previous Dell desktop or current Acer one. Subsequently bought LG TVs as well. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 18:03   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Fenlander

Our previous PC had a 15" 4:3 monitor... that was our first experience of an LCD monitor. When we bought this HP setup it came with the 19" widescreen monitor. Of course the measurement is diagonal so the gain from 15" to 19" didn't help as much as you might think with part of the gain being the width of the different aspect ratio... if that makes sense. I'm saying that in respect to the height of the info displayed. Hence the feeling that a "21"-23" might be a bit better. Too right about the money saving. Mrs F came home to hear the progress amazed that the spend had reduced from £800 or so down to a max of £150 (I'm guessing) for a monitor. Bet she'll want a new frying pan now. Edit: Rattle a while back I tried our Sony 20" LCD TV with the PC and thought it blurry when displaying critical stuff from the PC... like small text. Like yours it has VGA & HDMI inputs. Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 18:05 Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 18:15   Monitor upgrade to larger size - rtj70

I asked about aspect ratio because if the 19" was 4/3 ratio you'd need a fairly large monitor to replace it. I have just got a new laptop for work. Same vertical resolution as the old but wide screen. It feels cramped. Better on paper. The physical size of my iMac seems about right to me. Not pushing Macs! Just the screen size. At the time the other option was 24" and that was too big IMO. Now it's 21.5" or 27". Resolution on it also seems okay at 1680 x 1050 so not even 1080p. Time for a trip to a shop... it has to be right! Same as a keyboard has to feel right. It is all ergonomics. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 18:25   Monitor upgrade to larger size - tyro

We got a Samsung T220 22-inch Widescreen LCD TFT monitor back in September 2009 for the computer my wife uses. It was recommended by PC Pro*, and we have been very happy with it. It has now been superseded by a new model, but Samsung do seem to make good monitors. *The current PC Pro recommended 22" monitor is the BenQ G2222HDL. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 18:29   Monitor upgrade to larger size - spamcan61

This looks like a good deal:- www.hotukdeals.com/deals/acer-22inch-monitor-1080p-pc-monitor-2ms-response-rate-hdmi-dvi-vga-connections/852081 Although as rtj70 says I'd check sizes in a real shop before buying. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 18:31   Monitor upgrade to larger size - rtj70

If the current 19" is widescreen then anything bigger is better. But 1080p might be too low a resolution for big screens IMO. Unless you're mainly watching FullHD broadcasts. Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 18:32 Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 18:46   Monitor upgrade to larger size - spamcan61

>> If the current 19" is widescreen then anything bigger is better. But 1080p might be >> too low a resolution for big screens IMO. Unless you're mainly watching FullHD broadcasts. >> I'd think anything beyond 1920 x 1080 is going to be significantly more expensive though? I like the look of this 24 incher:- www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=59345&tid=gsearch Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 19:01   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Iffy

...I like the look of this 24 incher:-... This monitor linked to Freeview box would surely make a cheap but very decent HD television. I wonder how such a set-up would compare to a branded telly of the same size? Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 19:30   Monitor upgrade to larger size - rtj70

If Iiyama make quality LCDs like they did CRTs then that could be a bargain. I had an Iiyama 17" CRT which did very high resolution and refresh rate. I settled for a resolution better than HD now and a 100Hz refresh. And all using a Trinitron type tube... I digress. This all assumes Iiyama are decent monitors now... my 17" CRT in 1998 was £350! Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 19:41   Monitor upgrade to larger size - smokie

Iiyama are still considered a good brand - that looks good value. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 20:49   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Fenlander

Decided I'm not going to do any more than drive up the the local PC World to look at a monitor. As said above by others seeing the size I want in the flesh will be the deciding factor. They stock several HP models around 23" for £160-£170 which is near enough. The only alternative at PCW seems to be an AOC for about £20 less but I've never heard of them. I see some are LED backlight types... wonder what that does? Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 21:02   Monitor upgrade to larger size - spamcan61

>> >> I see some are LED backlight types... wonder what that does? >> Most monitors still use mini fluorescent striplights for backlight; this is relatively fragile and needs a high voltage power supply. Using LEDs for backlight means no fancy power supply and should be a longer lifetime for the display. Some TVs (dunno about monitors) do fancy tricks like turning the LED backlight off in dark areas of the picture to make the blacks blacker. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:33   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Zero

did we establish what fenlanders highest resolution was on his card? to ensure it matches the native resolution of the monitor? he will end up with fuzzy text again otherwise, Reply to this message | Report message       1

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:40   Monitor upgrade to larger size - rtj70

Don't think we did - Dell do a nice new 30" LCD I see. More than his ideas of an all in one PC mind. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:47   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Old Sock

>> did we establish what fenlanders highest resolution was on his card? to ensure it matches >> the native resolution of the monitor? >> >> >> he will end up with fuzzy text again otherwise, >> Quite correct. Larger widescreen monitors will often come in at 1600x1200 resolution, which means wasteful vertical truncation when displaying 1080p video. If video is important, then choose a vertical resolution of just 1080, and no more. I've never really warmed to widescreen monitors for general PC usage, preferring a 20" 4:3 model. Maybe I'm just a square (or nearly so) :-) Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:51   Monitor upgrade to larger size - rtj70

>> I've never really warmed to widescreen monitors for general PC usage, preferring a 20" 4:3 >> model. Maybe I'm just a square (or nearly so) :-) No just thinking about what really matters. Widescreen is not so good for most PC use apart from watching videos. They are popular partly because they are cheaper and that is due to them getting more widescreen panels out of a sheet of the LCD. Simple maths. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:57   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Zero

>> They are popular partly because they are cheaper and that is due to them getting >> more widescreen panels out of a sheet of the LCD. Simple maths. Simple economy of scale. Its because of widescreen TV's, all using the same panels., Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:58   Monitor upgrade to larger size - rtj70

>> Its because of widescreen TV's, all using the same panels., But from the panels they get more widescreen ones than 4x3 ratio.... simple maths. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 15 Jan 11 00:01   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Zero

Sorry - but the tv aspect ration came before panels. maths was never a part of the original aspect ration choice. The maths is a fortunate side effect. Last edited by: Zero on Sat 15 Jan 11 at 00:01 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 15 Jan 11 00:36   Monitor upgrade to larger size - rtj70

>> The maths is a fortunate side effect. Which is why widescreen panels got cheaper quicker for monitors. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:53   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Fenlander

I've found this on the net about my video card... When connected with a DVI cable, the GeForce 8500 GT supports a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600. It seems the 23" monitors I'm looking at are 1920x1080... will that be OK? Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:55   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Zero

>> When connected with a DVI cable, the GeForce 8500 GT supports a maximum resolution of >> 2560 x 1600. >> >> It seems the 23" monitors I'm looking at are 1920x1080... will that be OK? Yes. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 14 Jan 11 23:57   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Fenlander

Great thanks. BTW... As I'm not square I like widescreen. It seems right now as we are so familiar with it from the TV. I have my digicam set to that format now and the images look great on a wide monitor. Last edited by: Fenlander on Sat 15 Jan 11 at 00:00 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 15 Jan 11 21:39   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Fenlander

After a look at monitors in the flesh... inc hassling the PC World guys to go and get ones out that interested me but weren't on display... I decided on a LCD HP 23". I liked the idea of the LED backlight version but... it didn't have standard wall mount facility on the rear and I will need this eventually... it didn't have a mains kettle lead straight to the monitor but a lumpy power supply that needed putting somewhere... it was a little wider in the case too and every cm counts on the desk here. The one I bought was supposedly plug and play but didn't alter the video card resolution to that of the monitor when plugged in or when the driver CD was run. It looked dreadful until I'd done this manually. At 23" it's not huge but I was interested to see a multi page Word doc open with the pages side by side... never seen that before... but I don't get out much. Also there is now the width for the whole of the TVcatchup screen to show TV with car4play beside it and no overlap. Or you can open 2 TVcatchup windows and watch 2 channels at once... combined audio a bit of a challenge though. Actual picture quality the same as our old one which was excellent anyway. Thanks again for all the PC help over the three threads... it's come to a good resolution! Last edited by: Fenlander on Sat 15 Jan 11 at 21:43 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 16 Jan 11 22:32   Monitor upgrade to larger size - Bellboy

be careful if you buy a new lg widescreen from pc world like i did 2 weeks ago ive just had a reading light near the top of the screen, smelt smoke and set fire to the top edge of the plastic dratt still a good picture mind Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 17 Jan 11 09:54   Monitor upgrade to larger size - spamcan61

>> >> ... it's come to a good resolution! >> Bit of a pun there. I'll get me coat. Reply to this message | Report message