P1 Enthusiast

See alot of you buying TFT screens currently. As an avid tech forum reader i just want to advise all of you to show restraint and wait 6 months, the screens you are buying currently are very over priced due to volume of 17 inch TFTs made this year - this will increase by a significant amount next year making them much cheaper.

Also, there is not a 'perfect' CRT clone yet, none of those TFTs you are buying display games perfectly yet nor will they for another 6 months. Even the best screens from Hitachi, NEC and Iiyama all suffer from incorrect colour paletting in some way eg too bright, bad with dark area's, off reds or blues. Not to mention dead pixels etc.
Limitations include capping your resolution to 1024x768 etc. So just wait and those refresh rates and resolution limitations will disappear.

Alot of investment has gone into TFT screens in the last 6 months eg 6 billion into LCD forges in far east. Hang on in there and much better screens will be out in 6 months, TFTs have come along way and have a bit further to go yet before being worthwhile.
Just dont want to see ppl wasting 500 quid on a screen that is only really good for surfing / office work / some slow games. Those screens will be 200 quid cheaper and much better in 6-12 months and well worth having then, stick to your CRTs for now

chiark

Cheers for that

You could keep on waiting forever for the "next" generation, but it sounds like this is one that's worth waiting a tad for

Hammy Hamster

Interesting. BTTT.

mega_stream

I see where your coming from, but isn't that the same with all technology?
You can forever be waiting for the price to come down and by next year will pay £300 for a £500 monitor, but £500 will get you a £700 one

Buy cheap, buy twice is my motto

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

Yep, tech is tech and always jumps from time to time performance-wise.

I have just forked £400-odd on a tft to try it out.

No doubt I will get another one in 6 months time when/if there is a significant improvement.

You pays your money and takes your choice imo.

Cheers,

Nick.

DazV

Yep, I've just bought one of the new 16ms screens too.

Will no doubt sell it on and get a higher spec model *WHEN* they become available. In the meantime I'll dig the space saving and cool looks!

suba

is the "new" technology TFT the ones using MVA or IPS technology? rather than the "old" TN+film technology?

SCOSaltire

hallo
how much longer before I can buy this new better TFT technology?

Been searching, but cant find info.

suba

you can buy them now. check it out at tomshardware.

[Edited by suba - 7/31/2003 12:01:05 PM]

SCOSaltire

have things really changed?

they still saying that there is not a zero tolerance on pixel death, and they using TN+film

Surely this isnt the product of the new forges?
Is it Samsung and LG that are making the new forges and TFT technology? Coz I dont see their panels out yet.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Just lovely how someone wants to p on your fire when you've just fired up your brand new Hitachi 16ms 17" TFT for the first time this morning



Never mind, in the meantime, I'll enjoy the extra terrain and the low response time to hopefully catch back some ability on CS where my ping is ISDN 80-100 against "most now" people's ADSL 20-30

I'll be on-line tonight - so watch me rock

SCOSaltire

lol puff
how is ur display?
the reason i wanted one now is - new graphics card with DVI will be winging its way myway - and my current monitor clicks sometimes and the screen goes zoomed in - think somethings up

J1nxy

The Hitachi running off of the DVI connector on the 9700/9800 pro is unbelivably nice. It feels like the picture is out of focus on a non-tft screen now.

I've had the hitachi for nearly 12 months and there has never been any ghosting etc. If they can/do improve on this I'm buggered if I know how...................

Steve

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

It's the resolution limit on desktop TFTs I don't understand. My laptop's 15" screen runs at 1600x1200 and it's great - but why can't I buy a desktop screen like that?

I don't see any dead pixels either - maybe they're just too small?

carl

If you turn on ClearType font rendering ("recommended for LCD monitors") you can make it look all blurry and out of focus like a CRT again

J1nxy

I run that all the time, as Civ 3 needs it and it doesnt make any difference to how it looks. Everything is still in focus and very sharp. Mine is set to a 75hz refresh which imporoves things further.

Steve

[Edited by J1nxy - 8/1/2003 2:17:53 PM]

DazV

J1nxy - you sure 75Hz is correct ?

J1nxy

Yes, it comes with the .inf file produced by Hitachi. Otherwise it sits a 60hz. With 75 the sharpness goes up another step

Steve