LCD monitors
 

What's everyone's experience with LCD monitors with regard to longevity. The GF had a Westinghouse..........lasted 12 months........bought an Optiquest..........lasted 18 months and the power input apparently as an intermittent fault.

It seems ridiculous to spend $150. on these things every 12-18 months.

Do you need to pay more for a better unit?

My NEC is going on 3 years old and I have never had a problem with it. NEC's are not cheap...

I currently have a 24" LG at home, but it's less than a year old so I don't know about lifespan. About $250 at bestbuy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824002359&cm_re=NEC-_-24-002-359-_-Product
Here is a good one.

I paid about $200 for my 17in.

Samsung, LG, Sharp, etc. There are also many "rebranded" panels that are good. I haven't had any trouble with any of my Dell monitors (they were either LG or Samsung panels). :)

I've lost quite a few, I have 6.

Had 3 die and one repaired under warranty.

Have 2 of the dead one's here now - weren't more than 4 years old.

I do use mine a lot, a real lot. but all running behind good surge or full UPSs.


So I don't see them demonstrating nearly the longevity of our monitors. I have a 19" that must be 12 years only and trashed (recycled) several that were perfectly good and 6 to 10 years old. Swapping out for the LCDs.

Note also I have 2 TVs here that are 25 years old work fine.

I usually recommend Samsung, LG, or NEC Displays to people who are shopping for a new monitor. I have a Samsung LCD thats 4 years old and still working perfect.

I've bought a lot of sony and dell lcd monitors and they have been very reliable. Some are going on 6 years in service.

As an aside, I just switched my workstation from dual 21” CRT to dual 24” LCD monitors. The old eyes love the change!

Viewsonic, LG, Sony, Acer......are brands I use. Most of the monitors my family currently use are Acer....my 20" is 2.5 years old with heavy use....0 issues. Have never had one die.

My dad used his 15" viewsonic for about 5.5 years before he upgraded to a 23" Acer.....the viewsonic still works fine, I use it in our sever closet.

Viewsonic and Acer are not cheap though, especially viewsonic. But you get what you pay for.

Follow up on my earlier note.

I have 4 HannsG monitors, 3 are dead, one has already been replaced under warranty.

I have disassembled one and believe it is bad capacitors on the power supply.
I have found numerous reports on the web regarding bad capacitors plaguing the electronics industry.

All 4 were produced very close to the same date.

It looks like I can replace all of the caps for 10 bucks or so for all 3 monitors and have enough left over for the 4th one when it dies. Figure its worth the shot for less than 20 bucks to get 3 monitors back, even 19" regulars

I have had good luck with the Spectre monitors.

I've seen the capacitor issues in other devices (mostly power supplies)

You can save a few $.01 by using a lower-voltage rated capacitor, the only consequence is sometimes the item fails earlier- And if it takes longer then 6m or a year to fail, you (the manufacturer) can legally skate out of any warranty issues...and either leave the retailer or the customer holding the bag.
Shiznitty business if you ask me, but without taking everything apart and looking at the side of each can...)

-John

Samsung SyncMaster 225, 3 years, not a hitch.

This isn't worth the pennies.

I have identified 2 of the 5 CAPs I need, I need to remove the others to fully read the markings. I am replacing ALL of that type even the ones that aren't showing any bulging.

The most expensive one is 20 cents, I need 4 x 4 monitors, the other is a penny each, I only need 2 per monitor.

I will end up ordering more as they sell them in 10 lots.


Another fun project on my plate. If nothing else the satisfaction of not dumping them into the recycle bin makes me feel good.
Assuming I can repair them.;)

So far my ViewSonic is doing just fine, bought it two days before vista was released in the stores, I forget how long ago that was, near $200.

Experience with Viewsoni /Optiquest
 

I've been a Viewsonic user for years . Their CRT's were some of the best but they have not had great longevity with their LCD units.
I have three of their 17" Viewsionics and all have been relaced under warranty , one twice, for the same power supply issue.
I have 1 Optiquest that is still going strong after 3 years , Optiquest is "supposed" to be the higher end Viewsonic line.

VS is very unfriendly to warranty claims. I had a real problem when the "repaired" 17" LCD died after 14 days and they dicked around about repairing it, told me it was damaged in shipping, etc. Finally a nastygram to the Pres. of VS got me a refurb that worked.

Trouble is ALL the LCD units are sourced from 3 companies in China and 99% of the troubles are the power supplies or main boards. It appears that they cannot take the heat of constant use but then a lot of folks do not turn their screens off at all, they just leave the CPU running all the time.

At work I have to leave my HP CPU running 24/7 but turn off the LCD, we have kept a watch and this seems to lengthen the life by 100% to 5 to 6 years (std CPU is a Dell as are the screens but due to huge AutoCad files and load I use a HP monster.)

For our 24" LCD units we have considered installing an aux fan venting the power supply area, IT is looking into it now. We had 2 new Dell 24's die quick which could mean Dell is back to crap suppliers again as a cost measure.

I know they did not support their LCD TV line at all as they suffered massive power supply issues and Dell dropped the whole line and screwed all their customers.

Typical Dell!

Call me old fashioned but....Dell Trinitron CRT 10 years old and still working perfectly. Old technology all the way :D

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/828/dellflatcrt.jpg

Thanks for the responses.

This Samsung seems to fit the bill.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4420150&sku=S203-2261

Best I can tell it's also a 16:10 format which is preferable to this new extra wide BS.

Anyone see any issues with it?

^ But for just another $130 you can get the 24 incher!
Fulcrum, yeah, a CRT is probably better, but you need to take size (depth) and weight into the equation.

Thankfully my old desk at home was built specifically to hold a monitor this size (Or a little bigger) so it works perfectly. If I was to get a larger monitor I would run the risk of it not fitting into the cubby hold.

1080P (1920x1080) is 16:9 ;)

There's nothing wrong with that resolution, it's pretty common. If you want 16:10, you're going to have to look for 1920x1200 :cool:

PS. I like newegg a lot more than tiger direct... Same monitor, same price

I gotta say, I still prefer the "old" aspect ratio which isn't as popular as it used to be.

My workstation at work has twin Dell 20" Ultrasharps (each 1600 x 1200), and I've really been happy with that setup.

One of my went bad. I replaced 5 capacitors on the power board and now it works fine. Cost me less than $10 for parts & extras & shipping off ebay. I will never throw an old one away without first trying to fix it. Its just too easy.

I tried to determine size from the screen dimensions. They don't appear to make 16:9. From the site, I estimated a screen of 19W x 12H. This is almost identical to 16:10............so I don't see how it gets to 16:9???:confused:

I definitely want to find a 16:10.

That's what I'd like to do with the old one, as well. The LCD screen is fine........it's something in the power supply.

16:9 is the same ratio as 1920:1080. Don't bother trying to estimate with the screen size, use the pixels :)

I've run 4:3, 16:10 and 16:9. I definitely prefer the later, but, 16:9 isn't as bad as you think (go look at a HDTV in a local store and see if you'd like that on a computer). You can find the 1920x1200 resolution on 24" monitors, maybe on some lesser ones as well. 1680x1050 is the next step down (and also 16:10).

Thanks.

I'm looking right at a 16:9 as I type.............she bought a cheapo at BestBuy because of the need for an immediate replacement.

It's just too GD wide............

Well I'm on both sides.
The image quality etc from the LCDs really does exceed the old monitors.
Then the space thing, like I could have 6 monitors on my desk right now.

Mostly though is the power issue, figure a 23" LCD consumes less power running than an old 19 or 20 monitor does sleeping, you do the math.

Figure a monitor at 120 watts / 30ish sleep.

LCD 30 to 40 watts, my new ones UNDER 1 sleeping.

But I hate throwing away perfectly good products, I have monitors on a number of servers. They are rarely turned on, generally remote in.

My 22" HP is still doing fine. I think it's at least 2 years old (maybe 3).

I found a Samsung at 1680 x 1050 at an attractive price:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3920261&SRCCODE=NEXTAG&cm_mmc_o=2mHCjCWw0fzTCjCVqHCjCdwwp

I've dealt with TD in the past without too many issues.

LCD = almost zero radiation.

My old 21" HP monitor really scared me.

That was one of the models I was going to recommend :D

I only held back, after seeing that it supposedly handled 1080P (which is odd, because it's higher than the native resolution - the specs on newegg were confusing, to say the least). After looking at the display area in millimeters, it's definitely 16:10. Sounds like a winner!

Brian -

I just finished a TON of research before buying a new LCD. I ended up purchasing a Dell U2410. It's a fantastic monitor.

Some caveats/advice -

1 - Get a PVA or IPS panel. Most LCDs (especially the cheaper ones) have TN panel technology. The worst thing about this panel type is that the viewing angles are really poor. Unless you are looking dead center, there is considerable fade - both in color and brightness. This is VERY noticeable if you get a larger screen, say 22" or more. Since many cheaper monitors also lack height adjustment, this can be an annoying issue to deal with if you spend a fair bit of time staring at your monitor. IPS panels have the best color reproduction and tend to be the most expensive. PVA (or MVA) panels are somewhat in between and are an excellent choice as well, though they can be hard to find.

2 - The best 24" panel is probably the NEC 2490WUXi, however these are expensive (~$1K).

3 - The Dell U2410 is an IPS panel and is loaded with every option in terms of connections - from VGA to DisplayPort and everything in between. It is a wide gamut monitor, but more and more are anyway and it has two RGB modes if you want a smaller color space. If you don't know what this means, don't worry about it. ;) The picture quality and sharpness of text are both excellent.

4 - Definitely go for a 16:10. I'm not sure why so many manufacturers are pushing the 16:9 other than for movies, etc. but most people will have a flatscreen for TV viewing anyway. The extra vertical height is useful if you actually work on your PC...:P :)

The U2410 has a couple of known issues. One is a pink/green tint that some specimens seem to have (mine is fine) and there is some dithering in the RGB modes. Dithering is a slight pixelation effect noticeable when rendering grey shades. This dithering only effects the monitor's RGB modes - it has 5 other modes you can choose from anyway (dithering free). :) Dell has apparently fixed the dithering issue via a firmware update and they are now apparently shipping the newest revision (though I would call to confirm before ordering).

The U2410 has been going on sale and you should be able to get it for $500 or less. I was able to negotiate a lower price than list (which is $750 CDN) by simply opening a small business account online with Dell and speaking with a rep. He gave me a substantial discount over the phone.

For $500, you'd be hard pressed to get a better 24" monitor IMO.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Thanks, I'll get it.

I don't see the need to spend $500. on a 24" monitor for the GF where she uses it for e-mail and some web surfing............maybe one hour per day.

The 22" Samsung would be a substantial improvement over the failed 20".

I have a Samung T240hd. I would recommend that for anyone... I can run my xbox 360, my bluray, and my computer. I just switch the inputs. The less device available T240 is also a good pick. It could only be used as a monitor though... Might want to go to a store that hast he monitors you're looking for, and do some looking...
The fact that the T240 or T240hd play at 1080P for native input from a dvd player really attracted me....

Here's an update, and another thanks to all here.

I opened up the 3 bad monitors and replaced all the capacitors of a certain style, several on each board were showing bulges.

I even found a very bad one once I removed it on 2 of the 3.

I have ALL 3 working !!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 bucks in parts, 8.50 shipping ( Arrgh), and a couple of hours of time.
Actually the desoldering and putting them back together was the worst part.
And I have enough parts to fix another one or 2.

Did end up with 3 screws leftover, I know where 2 go, I noticed them after I had gotten them partially back together. Not bad considering the 15 or 20 screws in each.
Since the board and bracket they go to had 4 screws holding them in place I figured missing the 4th wasn't a real issue.

BUT THEY ALL WORK NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks again to the guys that mentioned they fixed theirs and whoever named JameCo.

Maybe not really worth the time and effort at prices of new ones, but very rewarding.

That's good to know. I missed out on a few rather large LCD tvs in the Seattle area that needed this simple fix, they were FREE! Some other techno-geek must have snagged them, oh well.
As far as reliability, I have a 19" widescreen Envision that is two years old. I had a giant HP CRT that started randomly shutting off, and Best Buy had a huge online pre-Thanksgiving day sale. I got the monitor for $100, free shipping. The only thing that would be nicer is if it had the speakers in it as well, it would save some space on the desk for other clutter.
It's usually on for 8-16hrs a day seven days a week, plus it's been through three moves. Screen does dim a bit towards the edges, but it's not a huge deal since I usually sit a ways back from it.

I bought that monitor for $200. after a $10. rebate from Paypal..........no tax and no shipping.

I'm looking at it as I type and the display is amazingly brilliant. Had to turn the brightness down to 50% or I'd need sunglasses.

With a three year warranty, I'm very pleased.

One interesting aspect of the monitor...........it's both a computer monitor and a TV all in one. The instructions, however, say nothing about selecting the mode............so I struggled with a screen full of snow and the words "no signal" for about an hour.:rolleyes:

For $395 with 2-year warranty at Costco, I just replaced my 32" 720p with a 32" 1080p - what a world of difference in desktop space! We don't watch TV in the house, these "TVs" were/are used as PC monitors. I stopped messing around with the dinky ones and went to a 32" a year ago. Tons of desktop space, and I can work on spreadsheets, have multiple browser instances open, all while watching a DVD in a good-sized window in another corner. I don't think I can ever go back.

I'm sitting about 18" from the 22" and I cannot fathom using anything larger at this distance. It's so large that my head must move to take in the entire screen............the eyes just don't cut it.

.............32" on a desktop...........:eek:

I have a 24" on my desk, and that' plenty large for me. It's a wide (movie) format and I can easy put two documents side by side and work on them. I have it all the way on the back corner of my desk. The only problem is the small type on the icons if I set it to the maximum bit size.

It is pretty nice for watching movies.

I use a 32" 1080p HDTV as my primary computer monitor. I have to sit pretty far back to use it. :)

Glad you like the monitor !

Yup, I think the 32 1080 is perfect. Everything is so small that it doesn't matter how close you are to it. I can have multiple windows, apps, and a movie going all at the same time. You really should try it. You won't be able to go back to a dinky monitor.

I agree on not needing anything bigger. At work I use two "square" 19" LCD's next to each other (I do separate tasks on each). At home I have just one 20" wide screen currently.....I might consider a 22-24" when it dies some day, but never 32" for a desktop.

My brother is insane, he uses a 22" PC monitor and a 32" HDTV next to each other. :eek: