Really whats the big hype about LCD's?

[RP Racing]

Friend has a 15" and 17" LCD on his pc's and all he does is "ya got to get a lcd, ya got to get a lcd.". I understand the 15" one on his one downstairs since he is space limited, but damn, a 19" CRT fits his desk upstairs without a problem. My desk I could put a 25" regular TV on it and still have room for a printer and scanner.

Reason why you bought a lcd or not?


Personally I'm not gonna pay $500 for a 17" LCD when I can get a 19" or 21" CRT for a lot less.

[Tebore]

I would like to know as well.

I think the big hype comes from people who are going from crappy 3 year old 15inch CRTs to nice and big 17inch LCDs. I mean that's night and day.

[Quattro]

I've got a 19" NEC CRT and I am not planning on buying a LCD for a long time yet and when I do it'll be a 20.3" one or whatever it is.

[nealric]

Personally I'm not gonna pay $500 for a 17" LCD when I can get a 19" or 21" CRT for a lot less.

Is that canadian or something? I payed $500 for my 19 - ive seen 17s for around $220

I have to move every year (college), but I demand screen real estate. I was on a 21inch, but almost died every time I had to move it (even took it to lan parties :rollleyes: )

My 19 is the same screen size but 1/10th the weight. Plus, I get far less eyestrain.

[uno]

Yea some people just like to say "I have" , my wife had to have one but i'm still using a CRT and you know what any viewing angle is good for me.....not to mention I dont have to count dead pixels.

[David]

LCDs use less power than CRTs, take up less space than CRTs, and look more stylish. They are also brighter than CRTs and will not degrade as much over time.

Thats probably about the jist of it.

[KoolDrew]

I guess because of the size of LCD's. I don't care about size at all and would much rather have a larger better quality CRT.

[warlock110]

for me, it's because the LCD is lighter on the eye, and hey i got a bigger screen with my 17" LCD compare to my dam 17" CRT. only cost me 200 bucks, i think it's a good investment, besides, with the CRT that's laying around i can always get another dell box, or maybe built a box and use that as a 2nd system. and yeah it saves space too. looks nicer, basicly alot more feature for a bit more money. think of the 17" LCD as a 19" CRT because that's a better match up in size, how much does a 19" CRT cost? and how much does the 17" LCD cost? not that much difference.

[larva]

Well, LCD's do have some benefits. But that's not why people buy them. They buy them because when the see one from the side and realize how thin it is, they are overcome by the neatness of it. They then decide they must have one, and then start comparing the merits of the CRT and the LCD to rationalize their knee-jerk reaction to it.

After thrashing my mother's new Dell 1905fp to no end, I have come to a few conclusions. Firstly, if you want it to look better than a decent CRT, you must have DVI input. Those that say you can't see the difference don't know what they are looking at.

Secondly, if you do have DVI, color calibration on the LCDs is about perfect out of the box. You would have to spend some time with a (somewhat expensive) calibration tool to get even the best CRTs to a level of color accuracy found on nearly any LCD running off of a DVI input.

Thirdly, being able to rotate the LCD rocks. Portrait mode is all there is for document work, and so much work is just that. Gotta love the pivot.

Aside from those bennies (and the space/weight), CRTs still own. The response time of even expensive LCDs is still sluggish in comparison. CRT image quality can be equal (even superior to most eyes, as the individual pixels are not as noticeable) to a LCD. Sure, you must get a good CRT (not a simple task, most users have never seen anything better than mediocre), but you also need a good LCD and a DVI input for top results. And if you play games, the CRT is still superior.

Personally I find a great LCD on the DVI perfect for all uses outside gaming. My Nokia 21" CRT is still clearly superior when it comes time to play. One of each, perhaps...

[MLMIB]

widescreen LCD=the sexies

been on one for 4 months, never lookin back

[alphasl]

Ever try lugging a crt then a lcd :)

[hduong]

I have a nice 21" FD Trinitron Dell and BenQ 17" fp737s-D using DVI. I can tell you, for text and surfing, a LCD is the way to go. Text look so much better on the LCD compared to the CRT. The Dell look kinda blurry right beside the BenQ when it comes to text. And I do have my CRT convergence calibrated. As best as a 21" CRT can.

LCDs have perfect convergence, focus and geometry. Also, very little heat outputed and less electricty consumed. I had the 21" and a 1 year old 17" NEC flat diamondtron before the LCD. The heat that was generated in my room was enough to allow me to close the heat vent completely in my computer room and still feel a tad warm in -25c weather. I still perfer my Dell for games and movies.

I bought my 17" LCD for $330cnd after $50 rebate. This the price you would pay for a good 19 CRT monitor.(Viewsonic pf95+) So the gap isn't as big as it used to be. For someone who doesn't play games and LCD is a good way to go. I found text to be tad too small on a older 19" LG flatron CRT,(1280*1024) but is fine on the 17" LCD. So a 17" LCD is more comparable to 19"crt.

So size wasn't the only reason I got an LCD monitor.

[larva]

Well, I did mention another factor. The fact that most people have never seen anything better than a mediocre CRT. As you noted there is a lot to go wrong with a CRT. It's a complex device, and sensitive. 99 times out of 100 CRTs will not survive a UPS journey without ruining them, even the best, most high dollar, I-just-know-it's-perfect model. I had to purchase CRTs by the pallete and have them trucked in via RL Gator to get consisntantly good examples. FedUP and UPCrash are just too tough on the packages.

Also beyond the fact that CRTs are essentially scrambled by rough handling, they just plain vary a lot. Perfect examples are tough to find. And tougher to get to your PC un-damaged. I think if you tried 10 more CRTs of the same make, you would find one that was clearly superior to the others, equal to a LCD in text quality, and in fact providing the smoother appearence that the "clear type" crap was invented to simulate on LCDs. That makes it superior to many users.

So I guess what I am saying is fuzzy text and poor geometry are not absolutes in CRTs. I have one right here that has more pleasing text than my mother's very spiffy 1905fp, and her's is as good as they get.

As far as size goes, all 17" panels available now are 1280x1024 also, so if you think the text is too small on the 19s you won't be able to use the 17s at all. Older generations of 17" panels had the 1024x768 resolution required to produce a usable interface at that screen size. Apparantly you needn't be able to perceive the interface anymore if you buy a current model 17 LCD.