Quote:
Originally Posted by
backtomac 
You're preaching to the choir there.
But I'll let Mel come by and explain himself.
I was going to let it lapse at this time, but, hopefully, just ONE more point.
The industry today has fewer choices in this regard. As I've mentioned before, the smaller manufacturers of pro level monitors have mostly disappeared. Even Barco, whose monitors I employed at my own company no longer makes graphics models. They now specialize in hi end medical, and other industries.
Because of that, we have less variation in what we can get for this purpose.
The other reason has to do with marketshare. I know some people don't understand marketshare, so they consider it to be unimportant, but it is all important.
What I mean is that when I was doing my work, starting in the latter '80's, there was no consumer market as such. Because of that, most monitors were expensive, and sold in fairly small numbers.
A small company could ask for a specialized tube, and get it, because their share of expensive monitors was fairly high. Their demands were important.
But, starting in the mid '90's, when consumer computer sales really took off, cheaper monitors became much more important than hi end versions. This disparity in pricing became much more pronounced, with top models costing over twenty times what the average monitor cost.
But, with tubes still being the primary source, it was just a matter of getting a different tube, which was easier to do.
But, after tubes began to disappear, even companies like Barco, which had no problem charging about $15,000 for their top models, found getting their spec'd tubes to be too expensive, and dropped them.
The problem with LCD's is like the problem with CD's vs Lp's. The technology to manufacturer Lp's is one in which you could buy a couple of machines, and you were in business. CD's require a vast, extremely expensive plant, though it has come down in price over the decades.
LCD manufacture requires vast numbers of screens to be made exactly the same way. It's really tough to have a small manufacturer get a specialized screen in a number that's too small a percentage of marketshare, even if the number would dwarf the old crt model's sales. The factories cost billions. The glass used is very expensive, and a small company simply can't get in the ground floor.
What this all means is that even the high end graphics user these days has their choices constrained by the manufacturing process, and that has been for matte screens, mostly because the older LCD's weren't that bright, and reflections were a really big problem. Anti-glare coatings were too expensive, and so matte was much cheaper to produce. Most of these screens go for consumer use.
That's beginning to change (matte vs gloss). But, of course, what people are used to is what they prefer.
If it's glossy, or if it's matte. It can be hard to dissuade someone otherwise, I suppose, including myself.
But, in going back to the '70's, when I started out in doing some IQ work for a large professional lab, the color correction system they had purchased used a very expensive 20" 640 x 480 monitor ($6,000!) with a glossy screen that was used in a dark room. There was a choice for a very expensive matte upgrade, but the images were not presented well with it.
Dark rooms and glossy screens were standard for many years for the highest end work, and anyone who does not know that, simply doesn't have the background to comment on anything other than the newer situation, which is not considered to be ideal. But, even for the newer monitors, dim, or dark rooms are still preferred, though most people these days would rebel at the notion. You still need a 5000% corrected viewer to look at prints properly, and a grey wall infront of you, with the lights not impinging on the monitor screen, and of the right color.
I'm not suggesting, that for home use, one must go through all of these gyrations. But, as even matte monitors suffer from bad seating, lighting, and overall placement, glossy ones don't require that much more of a shift.
Now, some people are very sensitive to reflections, and some like to THINK they are. Your milage will vary.
I see the rainbow from DLP chips, but I don't let it bother me. I consider my Tv to be superior in every way that matters, and I'm not about to go to an inferior design to eliminate the occasional eye blink long effect. I feel the same way about glossy screens.
