Quote:
JaM said:
I wanna buy a new monitor,so i have question how WinSpmbt looks at 17-19" LCD? Is it possible play it at 800x600 (in not native resolution)?
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having always used real monitors, I have just bought 2 new PCs in the last month or so. Both have LCDS.
Both
VERY dissapointing for playing games on really, or any sort of photo work. Especially anything with browns on them - e.g. trying to get the XP "autumn" backround to show anything other than a washed-out light khaki sort of colour.
One PC is a laptop - a basic IBM thinkpad, cheapes model (allegedly 700 UKP or so, I got mine in Staples for UKP 399 for any UKanians looking for a decent el-cheapo note taking laptop with radio network, 1024 screen decent keyboard and a proper stiff stick, not those flat pads your palms always hit on when typing
!. I only verified that the game loaded and basically played o that one - it has a cheap integrated sound and vido, but seems OK. But washed out/over-exposed.
The other is a new Dell Dimension 5150 which I bought with thier "ultrasharp" 17 inch monitor (1280 by 1024) as opposed to the cheaper version. The new development box, the old Athlon XP box (with a fan like a vacum cleaner
will be looking for a new home with an impoverished student, or someone who can lock it in a sound-proffed server room. The old Dell 98 box will be left in a corner, if I need to do anyy windows 98 compatibility testing.
Anyway - back to the LCD monitor. I like the autumn desktop. But
not it would appear on any LCD screen I have seen.
I tried the OSD controls for contrast and brightness - ramming brightness to nil and contrast to nil helped quite a bit, but still not good. Everything still over exposed and washed out looking. Good for Running Word, or coding in the IDE (blue background scheme with yellow text mainly there). Games and photos - too much gamma. It is like loading a photo into irfanview etc, and then ramming the gamma to 1.4 or so, if viewed on a proper CRT monitor.
The same problem with another favourite desktop background - a T-80 charging through soe smoke and earth, which is a mid brown on a CRT, and light khaki on a LCD monitor.
I tried the "warmth" settings, as supplied in the OSD, the reddish one helped. It really needed a user setting with blue and green reduced, but then I noticed it was a bit red on word processing applications...
Dell sent the machine
without loading the drivers for the monitor, so I loaded those and though the colour settings it used would sort things out. not really.
I had originally set the monitor up with the normal VGA cable. It kept giving internal monitor warnings about not being able to display that mode in analog , in full screen 1152 mode. Dug in the Dell box and found a DVI cable. Changing to DVI enabled it to play 1152 mode full screen DirectX. I do not think the cheaper 17 inch from Dell would have DVI.
I would say from that experience - if a gamer, you
REQUIRE DVI. At least if you play full screen games like the sims 2 say. Seems DVI allows the graphics card to drive it at some resolutions analog wil not allow on a LCD.
I WILL be staying with the LCD screen, have gotten used to the slight wash-out, but disappointed really. Looking into hooking up the old iiyama 17 inch in paralell, if I can drive games on that and do programming and WP on the LCD (without having to faff about changing the cables manually).
The game plays fine on the thing, just looks as if someone is playing a halogen lamp onto the battlefield.
It is a 1280 monitor.
640 full screen - very pixellated
800 - a bit too fuzzy for my tastes
1024 - not too bad, a little fuzzy
1152 - quite acceptable
1280 - the LCD's natural resolution, so crisp as a bell
1600 - the 17 inch LCD cannot drive this, the 17 inch iiyama CRT has no problems
The LCD type monitor has to "interpolate" any non-native resolution, so anything full screen at less than the native resolution gets fuzzy. The smaller the resolution of the full-screen game the worse it gets. Also, when I had the VGA cable in, these lesser than native resolutions at full screen "swam" noticeably at about 30Hz (half the screen update) especially 800 and 640 mode. less of a problem with the DVI cable in place, but still noticeable at 640 by 480.
None of the modes caused any problems being played in windowed mode, other than 1600 which the 128MB x300 SE cannot run at higher than native resolution whatsoever on a LCD.
So - the game does play on LCD, but if you have access to a real CRT, use that. If your job is art-related, or you are a photographer etc, I would get a real CRT as well. Though apparently really expensive LCD screens are worth considering for art production (and presumably games
- the stuff at the consumer end is only fit for word processing, email and web surfing etc.
I think if I had known before what I know now, I would have given any LCD screen (except on the laptop of course where it is part of the portability)a great big body-swerve, and just used the old iiyama 17 inch CRT.
I would advise you,if you can - to test any LCD you are thinking of buying against a "known" game, some photos with landscapes, or simply load the "autumn" desktop background and see if you can get that looking proper. Another thing - these background desktops are often stretched, which looks OK on CRT, the LCD seems to fuzz up a stretched background image a bit as well. Again, the fixed dots do not seem very good at interpolating pixels that are not a 1-1 fit with the native image.
Viewing angle is also not as good - you need to be straight-onrather more, and as I have 2 monitors on the desk, that can get a tad annoying. I'll look into getting tthis LCD in the central desk position, and the CRT off to one side, as the CRT is easily read from an angle.
Hmm - the other game I play a bit is Sims 2. I have not checked the resolution, but on the new PC, I am getting shader effects etc, though as the screen is (I think) 1024, I get some jagged edges due I think to the pixellation of trying to run at a lower res than native. I must try it on native, even if I lose some water effects etc. It's acceptable, but 150% better if I snap the iiyama
real CRT monjitor on instead of the LCD Dell one. Much crisper. The video card is no problem - the LCD technological limitations are the fly in the ointment.
Bottom line - LCD and games, definately an underwhelming experience, compared with a real CRT monitor, which would probably be a third the price, if a bit bigger desktop footprint and weight.
Text
does appear a lot crisper on the LCD - so may be worth it if most of what you wll be doing is word processing, and not games play
Overall impression - LCD only worthwhile for word processing, or where space is at a premium. A CRT monitor will display true colours, will play at multiple resolutions, and without over-gamma wash-out of browns, and some reds etc. CRT is cheaper too!.
Cheers
Andy
LCD monitors and WinSPMBT
) you get image quality way better than a 21" CRTs can offer.
Linear Mode
