New Monitor

G

GerryD

Messages
3,557
Name
Gerald Davies
Edit My Images
Yes
Right. I'm looking to get a new monitor to use with my laptop. The inconsistancy of results on the laptop is driving me nuts. :cuckoo: So, I have a laptop with both 15pin VGA connector, which I believe is called a D-sub and a HDMI connector.

Am I correct in saying that the higher the contrast ratio on the new TFT monitor, the better it is for photograhic editing?

I don't plan on using this for game so refresh rate is not that important. What would be the minimum to look for?

Also what does 400cd/m2 stant for?

I'm looking to get the montior that is 20" plus as I want to dual it with a free view box using HDMI. Has any one tried this? More importantly will this work?

I was looking along the lines of something like this Samsung SM2493HM 24" TFT Award Winning Monitor 1920x1200 10000:1 400cd/m2 5ms VGA/DVI/HDMI. Which I feel will do the job. I just don't won't to pay out for a TV and Monitor, so will accept the fact that I either unplug the laptop to watch tv on HDMI and vise versa or run the monitor off the vga port. Which will defeat the object of having a nice new monitor.

Memory on the laptop should not be a problem as running with 2gb, although it will slow it do some, but I could always look to upgrade that in the future.

I'll need to get it calibrated, but I can sort that out later.

Tell me what you think of the above and do you have any recommendations of monitors, costing no more than £350, I could look at?

Cheers

Gerald
 
I don't know if the laptop graphics will have enough grunt to make good use of 1920x1200 pixels

As for laptop / TV, you can use it with latop -> DVI and freeview -> HDMI connections. All you have to do is change the source using the TFT menu :)


Ps. I've just bought a 24 " Hyundai W240D with all the required connections for £299 & it's excellent :)
 
Gerald

The 400cd/m2 is a level of brightness. 400 is very bright, for most photo work 120-140 cd/m2 is about right. If you get a monitor calibrator such as the i-one you can set the brightness via it's control panel. You may also find the white point a bit cold. Most monitors seem to have a native white point around 9000K, usually 6500K is best for Photographic work

John C
 
Craikeybaby said:
It may be worth having a read of this: http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php
Click to expand...

Read and informative. Thank you. Looks like IP-S panels are the best to get. I shall see if the model I wont is one of the these, or at the veyr least a VA model

mrgubby said:
I don't know if the laptop graphics will have enough grunt to make good use of 1920x1200 pixels

As for laptop / TV, you can use it with latop -> DVI and freeview -> HDMI connections. All you have to do is change the source using the TFT menu :)


Ps. I've just bought a 24 " Hyundai W240D with all the required connections for £299 & it's excellent :)[/QUOTE

Thanks Mr Grubby for the tips. I know the memory on the laptop is shared between the graphics card and main memory. So 2gb should be enough. There was a formula for working out the amount of memory required for a given resolution. Does anyone know what that is?

Chappers said:
Gerald

The 400cd/m2 is a level of brightness. 400 is very bright, for most photo work 120-140 cd/m2 is about right. If you get a monitor calibrator such as the i-one you can set the brightness via it's control panel. You may also find the white point a bit cold. Most monitors seem to have a native white point around 9000K, usually 6500K is best for Photographic work

John C
Click to expand...

Cheers John. Thanks for the info on the brightness. Surely most monitors allow you to change the white point today. I know my old 20" monitor allowed me to do it.

Little up date. Spoke to the guy at PC world ( never norm ally the best, nut this guy seemed to know what he was on about ), but for myself a usb tv receiver will be better suited with the laptop. If I take the laptop with my, I can take tv as well :). I've got a very large aerial attached to the side of the house, so its just a matter of plugging it in and tuning it :)

Does anyone have a usb tv receiver? If so what do you think of it? I'm about to go and research them now.
Click to expand...
 
I have a TV card in my old desktop, it was like having a sky+ box to record stuff, very useful...
 
Taxi - I ahve a usb tv reciever for sale if you want it ....

It's a dazzle tv stick.

Yours for £25 delivered if you want it - let me know.

Cheers.

Anth.
 
USB tv receiver Got one last year for my sons laptop. Unless you are in a strong signal area don't bother.

John C

PS Yes most good monitors do allow you to set the white point. A point worth checking though!!;)
 
Ok done some digging and the forumla I found works along these lines

colour bit depth @ horizontal resolution * vertical resolution = memory required

so that trans lates

32 * 1920 * 120 = 7372800 or 73.7 mb.

The on board graphics card has 128mb, so this should be plenty :thumbs:

Does this make sense to anyone?
 
magpieant said:
Taxi - I ahve a usb tv reciever for sale if you want it ....

It's a dazzle tv stick.

Yours for £25 delivered if you want it - let me know.

Cheers.

Anth.
Click to expand...

Thanks for you offer magpieant, I not sure what verison of the dazzle stick you have, but some version are available new for £25 from PC World.

Chappers said:
USB tv receiver Got one last year for my sons laptop. Unless you are in a strong signal area don't bother.

John C

PS Yes most good monitors do allow you to set the white point. A point worth checking though!!;)
Click to expand...

Chappers, I'm going to use the aerial attached to the house, so this should give me the required signal strength. I'll be checking the white feature on the monitors now. Thanks
 
Okies mate - TBH, I think mine is the basic one (pink box).

If they're that cheap new, make me an offer and we shall see ....

PM me if possible, as bedtime beckons!!!

Cheers.

Anth.
 
Thanks Anth, but I'm def looking at one of the Hauppauge range.
 
Cheers contrastinglight. I looked at the monitor, and is very well spec, but I decided to go with the Samsung monitor listed in my OP. Both have received excellent reviews. It was also a difficult choice. Waiting for it to be delivered. Hopefully tomorrow :)

Also got a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 900 connected it up to the aerial and it works a tried. I've got all the free view channels available.Slowly working it out, bit its a good bit of kit. Only problem is, that when changing channel its a little slow.

Thanks for all your tips. Just need to get hold of some kit to calibrate the monitor.
 
Well monitors arrived. Or should I say I picked it up after ebuyer decided to delivery on Monday when I was out and not Friday of last week as agreed.

The screen area is huge, even compared to the old 20" crt I use to own.

It works at 1920 * 1200, its native resolution, and best for the monitor, but I have to disable the laptop monitor to do it. No great loss there, and I can re-enable it when ever I need to use the laptop away from home.

TV looks great on it, I know just need to get it colour calibrated and I'm off and running :)

First impressions or the Samsung SM2493HM 24" TFT are that it looks like an excellent piece of kit :), Its shown up some dodgy editing on my photos, but I'll reserve judgement on that until I get it calibrated
 
taxi said:
Ok done some digging and the forumla I found works along these lines

colour bit depth @ horizontal resolution * vertical resolution = memory required

so that trans lates

32 * 1920 * 120 = 7372800 or 73.7 mb.

The on board graphics card has 128mb, so this should be plenty :thumbs:

Does this make sense to anyone?
Click to expand...

That's 32 bits per pixel though (not bytes as you've calculated), so it's actually:

(32 * (1920 * 1200)) bits = 8.7890625 megabytes
 
taxi said:
but I decided to go with the Samsung monitor listed in my OP.
Click to expand...

Pity you went for what is effectively a generic TN pannel over a good quality VA at a really good price (the dell is only £50 more then the price you liked to). But I hope you enjoy the new monitor. You going to want to get a high quality calibration device (the Spyder 3 should be ok), as TN pannels can be a little tricky to get calibrated correctly, and you will want to adjust it manually to get the right calibration.
 
NathanJT said:
That's 32 bits per pixel though (not bytes as you've calculated), so it's actually:

(32 * (1920 * 1200)) bits = 8.7890625 megabytes
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction, your method does make more sense. Work out how many pixels first and then multiply by the bit depth :bonk:

FranchiseJuan said:
Pity you went for what is effectively a generic TN pannel over a good quality VA at a really good price (the dell is only £50 more then the price you liked to). But I hope you enjoy the new monitor. You going to want to get a high quality calibration device (the Spyder 3 should be ok), as TN pannels can be a little tricky to get calibrated correctly, and you will want to adjust it manually to get the right calibration.
Click to expand...

Budgets are budgets and I need to stay with mine for various reason. Thanks for the tips on calibration.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top