how to buy a flat panel monitor
Are you thinking about buying a flat panel monitor? We did and here's what we did to figure out which flat panel monitor was right for us. So I figured I'd post about how to buy a flat panel monitor.
It's actually a funny story really. First off we knew we wanted to get rid of the huge honking 19 inch monitor we had on our desk top.
Neither of us really had any idea what we should look for in a flat panel monitor, other than what our budget would allow us. SO bearing that in mind we went to our local big box stores . Future shop and best buy for a look see. And man what an education in monitors that was. We looked at LG 19 monitors and syncmaster monitors and a few other I dont remember which ones they were any longer. We finally settled on an NEC Multisync 1940wcxm its the model in the pretty picture you see there.
What attracted us to this one is it was about 40 dollars cheaper than the equivalent LG Monitor we were also looking at.
Here are its features and I'll explain why we chose this one in a few moments.
NEC MultiSync 1940WCXM - flat panel display - TFT - 19"
Description: The NEC Multisync 1940WCXM is a 19 in, flat panel computer monitor. Compared to other flat panel monitors on the market, it is relatively inexpensive at around $260. Comes with a built-in set of stereo speakers. Weighs 10.1 lbs.
Pros: Has 700:1 contrast ratio, which is higher than some similarly priced monitors. In fact, the typical cost of a product with this high a contrast ratio is $360. This monitor can eliminate the need to have PC speakers sitting on your desk -- just plug your PC's audio into the monitor and use the speaker that it has built in. Accepts DVI input.
Suitability: A flat panel monitor, suited for those who want a spacious thin screen monitor. The 5 ms response time of this screen makes it ideal for fast-moving games and for watching movies.
What you want to look for is at least a 600:1 contrast ratio, above that you really can't see the difference. We looked at a few of the higher contrast ratios and could see no difference in the quality of the images on the screen. So that narrowed down a few of the more expensive monitors right away. We liked the idea of having built in speakers though it wasn't a biggy because we have a great sound system for our computer. We or rather I liked the fast response time of 5ms (milliseconds) I do a bit of gaming though not a heavy gamer. Its just fast!! Hey I'm a guy and I like fast things!!The dvi input was also important for me.
Digital Visual Interface. The DVI port provides a pure digital video signal to a digital flat-panel display or projector. Using a digital signal for the entire path maintains the image quality at the highest level, because the signal is not degraded as a result of a digital-to-analog conversion.. We watch alot of movies on our computer. So having this capability is important. And beign that the way that media industry is going digital is just better. So you definately want a DVI capable monitor.
Now heres the funny part and why we chose this monitor.
We liked the look and the above mentioned qualities and so decided NEC was the way to go. So we dragged the tech guy over to that monitor and said we want this one. Funny thing was there wasn't any boxes above or below the display model. The price was 229 which was right in the ball park we were looking to spend. SO we said we'll buy the display model (do this if you can it's cheaper) So he mumbles something about not being able to sell the display. I asked him to check with his manager, he ran off , 20 minutes later he shows up with the manager in tow. The manager tells him to disconnect it and gives us the price point of 179$! SCORE. To say we were Pleased about it was a bit of an understatement. Always pays to ask doesn't it!!!
So in short this is how you buy a flat panel monitor
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