Need help with deciding between CRT and LCD

[Professor Frink]

On the surface that probably sounds like a dumb question, but here's why I ask. This will be for all of the new computers in my office (about 150), where everyone is used to 800 x 600 resolution on their current CRT monitors. I'd love to go LCD, since we have the money in our budget, but I've played with a few in the stores, and they look like crap at that sort of resolution -- really, really blurry.

When you increase the resolution it becomes crystal clear, but then everything on the screen is much smaller. I'm afraid that if I roll that out to 150 users that a lot of people will complain.

So I guess my main question is this -- is it typical of all LCD monitors that the screen is blurry at a lower resolution (somewhere around 800 x 600)?

And if that is the case, should I go for it anyway? The higher resolution/smaller screen -- is it worth it? Convince me!

FYI -- These will be through Dell, so I am 99% sure that it would be a 1703FP.

Also, a review from CNET

[XtremeMaC]

well i'd buy a nice one that supports at least 1024*768

then if the users are having problems reading things u can set the size of icons/names/this/that to bigger. user large icons and so. less blurry.

and blurry? how so enable clear type and try..

and that 1703fp seems awesome i'm using ultra sharp on dell laptop. nothing is blurry!!! go with that monitor then and why don't u send me one

hey and it also supports 75hz so its a good thing I'm stuck at 60

i'd buy it ( I'd buy samsung but thats another story )

[Professor Frink]

I never thought about clear type -- that would definitely change things. And FWIW, the bluriness I've seen was on other brands. I haven't actually tried out a 1703 yet.

[Professor Frink]

Looking for more suggestions. Has anyone else experienced the same thing -- a blurry screen with 800 x 600 resolution?

And the other thing I mentioned, regarding higher resolutions resulting in everything onscreen appearing smaller. I have two questions about that:

• Will that get exponentially worse as the monitor size increases? In other words, would text/icons on a 20-inch LCD appear even smaller than on a 17-inch one?
  
• If I use a high resolution, how would I make text/icons appear larger on the screen? Is there just one simple setting to bump up EVERYTHING, or are there a bunch of different things I'd need to change?
  

[Ausmith1]

LCD monitors only have a single "native" resolution, usually it is the top resolution listed on the box. (i.e. 1280 x 1024). At any other resolution the LCD panel will scale the input signal to fit the actual LCD pixels.

Some very high end LCDs may allow two resolutions (mine does), but one resolution will only be 1/4 of the other resolution. i.e. my monitor can display either 9.2MPixels or 2.3MPixels.

So if you wanted an LCD that will clearly display an 800x600 pixel input signal will need to get either an LCD panel whose top resolution is 800x600 pixels or a panel that can handle 1600 x 1200 and allows full screen display at 800x600. (Some LCD panels will not allow screen scaling and will only display the actual pixels, leaving you with only a small image in the center of the screen)

There are some good explanations of what I'm talking about at the following URLs:

MULTIMEDIA/PANEL DISPLAYS

http://www.pctechguide.com/07panels.htm

Don't Touch That Resolution on Your LCD Monitor!

http://www.monitorsdirect.com/before/exper...esolution.shtml

High-Resolution, Wide-Aspect, and Wide-Viewing Displays on Dell? Portable Computers

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/glo...=us&l=en&s=corp

[Ausmith1]

The refresh rate on an LCD panel is completely irrelevant to how stable the screen looks. No human could possibly tell the difference between an LCD at 30Hz and and LCD at 100Hz refresh rates. It's simply a factor of how LCDs work compared to CRTs.

In a CRT the electron beam must sweep from side to side and top to bottom to perform a refresh. If it does this 60 times a second we call it a 60Hz refresh rate. The phosphor pixels at the top start to fade before they get refreshed on the next sweep of the electron gun, how much they fade depends upon the rate of refresh and the quality of the monitor. Some people can detect the phosphor fade more than others, that's why 60Hz is fine for most people, but others need 72 or even 85Hz refresh rates.

An LCD on the other hand only updates a pixel when it needs to change. Its pixels once set to a particular color will stay that color, without fading, until told to change to a different color. Therefore a refresh rate of 1Hz is adequate if you are simply displaying static images on an LCD. For full motion video 30Hz is adequate. I run my T221 monitor at 41Hz in 2.3MPixel mode and it's absolutely perfect. When I run it in 9.2MPixel mode it drops the refresh to 13Hz and that's still perfect as long as I don't try to play any videos.

Also while I personally have not used the Dell 1703FP monitors a co worker has a pair of them and they are very nice. The ability to put them in portrait mode is very useful if you do a lot of work processing or viewing of documents.