New Monitor - some help please? maybe? go on, be nice...

[Puce Moment]

So my current monitor has started acting silly-buggers a few weeks out of warranty. Apparently it is a very common thing with Samsung monitors that after a while one of the compressors (could be wrong there) starts going wobbly and the screen gets all these distorted lines running down it. This takes a few minutes to kick back in - at first. Each time it kept getting longer. And now it takes about 3-hours before the screen can be used.

Anyway, it's going to cost around £80 at least to get it fixed so I reckon time for a new one.

Basically, I'm not really sure what I need. I know I want the following:

a) At least 27"
b) HDMI
c) £200 or less

And that's it. It would be nice if it had a webcam and mic like the wife's Mac so that I can use Skype more easily, but that might be out of my price range. Looking on Ebuyer there are SO many variables, and I don't really know what I need as an absolute basic. I mean, the two cheapest 27" monitors have this as a basic spec:

Acer V276HLBD 27" LED VGA DVI Monitor
1920 x 1080 Full HD
6ms Response Time
VGA + DVI
Wall Mountable
Tilt -5° / 25°
£139.98 inc. vat

Philips 273V5LHSB 27" LED VGA HDMI Monitor
Resolution 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz
SmartContrast 10,000,000:1
Brightness 300 cd/m2
Response time 5ms
Interfaces: VGA HDMI

I don't understand much of this.

Anyway have any tips? I can pay for help by offering my anus hole karma.

[Nicky]

Well... the second one has HDMI!

[Big Jack McBastard]

HDMI is not all it's cracked up to be, I've never gotten a better picture out of an HDMI than a serial cable, just sayin is all.

[Dex Sawash]

The HDMI does give you option to use as a TV with various sorts of TV boxes. Would be useful if normal TV went tits up, especially if it did so during a period of self-imposed debauchery and isolation.

[Puce Moment]

OK, thanks. HMDI isn't too much of a consideration as the vast majority see to have it.

I am more concerned with what 'response time' means, and whether 1920 x 1080 is a basic requirement, out of date or completely suitable to my needs (I don't game but I do watch Blu-rays).

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

1080 is as good as you can get (unless you spend 500 quid or so - but you'd only want to do that if you were some sort of graphic design pro) and is the resolution that Blu Rays are.

Response time had to do with how blurry moving images are. Faster response time means a sharper image. If I recall correctly.

[olliebean]

Hang on though

1080 is as good as you can get and is the resolution that Blu Rays are.

Hang on though, it's not quite as simple as that because a Blu Ray picture (and a widescreen telly) is 16:9 while a widescreen computer monitor is 16:10, so if you watch a Blu Ray on it you get little black bars along the top and the bottom which means if the monitor is 1080 from top to bottom you're not actually getting the unadulterated 1080 lines of the Blu-Ray on it, but rather 1080 downscaled to 972 lines. Only just occurred to me so I might be wrong but I don't see how I can be because the little black bars are definitely there.

<edit> nah, ignore me about the 16:10 thing, just measured my monitor and it is 16:9, the black bars are because the film is 1.85:1 which is slightly wider than 16:9. Still means the 1080 is being downscaled though.

[Nicky]

A response time of 5 milliseconds or 0.005 seconds means 200 frames per second.

Blu-ray is only 24 frames per second.

You'll be fine.

[MojoJojo]

BluRay can do 60 fields per second, and games can do more. I doubt the refresh rate goes much above 60 anyway.

Basically all those numbers are things which used to be a problem, but aren't anymore. The only real difference is looks and types of ports.

[cptwhite]

Monitors that are HD (1920x1080) are 16:9 ratio.  Monitors used to have 16:10 ratio (1920x1200) but this is rare now and have been phased out.

This would be a good choice as it uses a VA panel (not TN) so you'll get richer colours and deeper blacks:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/benq-gw2760hs-review

or specify your own requirements here:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/selector.htm

[Puce Moment]

Thanks all for your help, I appreciate it.

cptwhite - The BenQ monitors have been especially well received in reviews, and were not something I had come across before. The one you link to looks great, and I will probably get it.

CHEERS!

[Ignatius_S]

...or specify your own requirements here:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/selector.htm

Nice shout - it's the one I always go to.