Why are Apple Displays picture quality so good?
Other LCD monitors have better specs than Apple displays but when I look at them I always seem disappointed. I am not talking about the case which is of course is beautiful but the quality of the picture. I want an LCD that is larger than the 17" Apple but don't want to spend the money for the 22" or 23". I looked at the Viewsonic VX900 (couldn't find the VX2000 anywhere) which has some very impressive specs. ie 600:1 contrast, 170˚ viewing angle, 25ms response time. I was very disappointed in the clarity in comparison to the apple 17". It seemed that only the text directly in front of your eyes was crisp and sharp. As you looked from side to side the text was noticeably worse.
All I want is a 19 to 20 Inch LCD display that has as good a picture quality as the Apple displays.
Anyone know of which I speak?
All I want is a 19 to 20 Inch LCD display that has as good a picture quality as the Apple displays.
Anyone know of which I speak?
Comments
Take the top 10% or even 50% of a batch of LCDs and you'll have a pretty nice batch. I don't know how many LCDs Apple keeps and how many they decline (perhaps going to employee raffles, donations, selling to other companies, selling as refurbs, etc).
Furthermore, other manufacturers are now well ahead when it comes to quality control and the dead/stuck pixel issue. I have personally seen Dell's and IBM's panels exhanged for a new unit when they had ONLY ONE dead/stuck pixel. I have also seen Apple flatly refuse to exchange large displays with up to half a dozen dead/stuck pixels.
How can tell a display is digital or analog? I thought that any LCD display that has a dvi input is considered "digital" regardless if is also has an analog input. That is as long as you hook it up to a video card with DVI.
[ 11-18-2002: Message edited by: Eotku ]</p>
<strong>Hark! The delicate cry of the wild Matsu!</strong><hr></blockquote>
He's a wily bastard. Using words like "furthermore", which are beyond the scope of a regular troll, he attempts to elude criticism.
We're on to him though.
OK. So if I bought a display with both DVI and analog inputs then I could hook it up to my new DP 867G4 and then when we go to a cabin up in the woods I can hook it up to my wife's Pismo and watch my DVD movies without having to be within 3 feet!?
CHYCH, How do you like your Samsung?
19" for about $800
400:1 contrast, easy controls, and it has dvi and vga outputs.
I heard the Formac is great except the frame is very flimsy and feels cheap.
I'm very happy with my viewsonic...
<strong>Other LCD monitors have better specs than Apple displays but when I look at them I always seem disappointed. I am not talking about the case which is of course is beautiful but the quality of the picture. I want an LCD that is larger than the 17" Apple but don't want to spend the money for the 22" or 23". I looked at the Viewsonic VX900 (couldn't find the VX2000 anywhere) which has some very impressive specs. ie 600:1 contrast, 170˚ viewing angle, 25ms response time. I was very disappointed in the clarity in comparison to the apple 17". It seemed that only the text directly in front of your eyes was crisp and sharp. As you looked from side to side the text was noticeably worse.
All I want is a 19 to 20 Inch LCD display that has as good a picture quality as the Apple displays.
Anyone know of which I speak?</strong><hr></blockquote>
If you have been following the rumor boards, Apple is "supposedly" replacing the 22" with a 19" monitor to bridge the gap. there will then be a 17", 19" and 23" LCD monitor available, however, if they do discontinue the 22" they may be a good bargain to clear out inventory.
It is true that for years Apple has had the best looking LCD displays around. In Japan the stores often have setups showing the same video on twenty or thirty displays. Apple displays were clearly crisper, cleaner and sharper. Recently the other displays have been narrowing that gap a lot.
I think you have to consider both the driver chips and the display itself when trying to understand this. The display itself contains the liquid crystal material whose properties have to be considered. It contains the polarizers which have their own optical properties. And it contains the backlight which has its own properties. The drivers can have an immense effect on the resulting image.
An LCD is not as simple as a CRT. In a CRT you simply crash electrons into the phosphor to make light. In an LCD you need to manipulate an electric field to properly agitate the LC material in the display. There is a lot of intellectual property based on clever ways of doing this in order to get a better display. Two systems with the same display but different drivers can perform quite differently.
<strong>Hark! The delicate cry of the wild Matsu!</strong><hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
This was my reason for my original inquiry. I am getting ready to update my whole out-of-date home Mac system. My plan is to buy the DP867 and boost the ram to 1.5 gig. The display is the only thing I haven't decided on. I have the option of the 17in Apple display at the $799 price but I really want a larger 19 to 20 in display. Since the bulk of my work is going to be 2-D illustrations for print, photo manipulation and some graphic design I want the image to be as accurate as possible. I know that CRT's are much more "True to color" for print than LCD's and have used them for years but want to make the switch anyway. The quality of LCD's seem to have improved dramatically in the last 8+ months so I am trying to make the best informed decision that I can.
The 20" Formac 2010 with it's supposed "Pantone standards" sounded like the best candidate for what I do but is still a little expensive at $1570 and I wasn't able to find one in my area to look at. I did some digging and it looks like the Viewsonic VX2000 uses the same screen as the Formac at a cost of $1395. Both use the MVA technology. But like neutrino23 said spec's aren't everything. When I looked at the Viewsonic VX900 at CompUSA the other day (See the first post) I didn't like the the picture. I did some thinking and went back to the store and found out that they had the display plugged into the analog port. Big difference when switching to the digital port. Unfortunately It was attached to an Alien computer and so it' was still not a good comparison.
But now I am on a mission to get the best picture quality 19/20 inch monitor for the price that I can. The other candidate that I found was the Samsung 191T which has great spec's (there's that word again) at a beautiful $769 but so far I haven't found a unit to look at.
So that's it so far. I plan on going back to CompUSA in the next couple of days and have them hook up the Viewsonic next to the 17in Apple on a DP867 and compare them the way they should be.
Any other suggestions and or words of wisdom?
<strong>like mine, Samsung syncmaster 170T
CHYCH, How do you like your Samsung?</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's really nice, looks good, silver, matches the DP1250, dual inputs, and quality is superb (there's an Apple HD screen behind me to compare it to). I really want another one
[quote]<strong>OK. So if I bought a display with both DVI and analog inputs then I could hook it up to my new DP 867G4 and then when we go to a cabin up in the woods I can hook it up to my wife's Pismo and watch my DVD movies without having to be within 3 feet!?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yeah, hook it to your DP867 via the DVI (or VGA), hook it to the laptop via VGA, even at the same time... a VGA only display would be just as effective though (cheaper probably, though you don't get the DVI advantage).