Curious about monitors..

[MandoPatriot]

First off, I am very confused about monitors and stuff like that. I have a Dell e228 WFP 22" LCD monitor, and it looks really good. But, I don't know if it is really that "good" or not.

 

The contrast ratio is 800:1. Is that good? I thought lower the better, but maybe higher the better?

 

Second, how do you deal with the screen refresh rates and all that? Right now I am at 1680x1050 resolution with 60hz refresh rate. That only gives me 60 FPS max, right? So how do I get a higher refresh rate?

 

And last, what exactly is HDCP? My monitor has it but I dunno what it means or does.

 

Thanks for helping out this noob haha.

[Timmy94]

I believe HDCP stands for High Definition Content Protection, although I do not know what that means. A 60hz refresh rate is the most common in LCD's, anything above that is negligible and the human eye cannot see much more than that, so 60hz is fine.

[dling]

I belive the higher the contrast ratio the better, I think its the difference between black and white. the higher the number

the greater detail in color. As for the refresh rate I belive most lcd mon. if not all are 60hz. The 1680x1050 resolution

is set buy two things, the vga card and the monitor, the video card has limtis as to the resolution it can produce and the monitor has a recommend res. Use the recommend for ur monitor.

Hope this helps.

[Zertz]

The contrast ratio is 800:1. Is that good? I thought lower the better, but maybe higher the better?

 

Higher the better. but anything like 10000:1, 50000:1 is dynamic contrast ratio and doesn't mean anything. 1000:1 is about the highest it'll go

 

What makes a LCD look good is mainly the type of panel it uses (TN, PVA, IPS), but no company advertises it...

[lost]

Higher the better. but anything like 10000:1, 50000:1 is dynamic contrast ratio and doesn't mean anything. 1000:1 is about the highest it'll go

 

What makes a LCD look good is mainly the type of panel it uses (TN, PVA, IPS), but no company advertises it...

IPS is the best type?

[taowulf]

Second, how do you deal with the screen refresh rates and all that? Right now I am at 1680x1050 resolution with 60hz refresh rate. That only gives me 60 FPS max, right? So how do I get a higher refresh rate?

 

And last, what exactly is HDCP? My monitor has it but I dunno what it means or does.

 

Thanks for helping out this noob haha.

 

Refresh rate has to do with the rate as which the monitor image is refreshed. This mattered in the tube monitor days because the electron gun that excited the phosphor dots could not illuminate all the dots at the same time. So basically, the electron emitting guns scanned across the entire monitor at a specific rate. While anythign above 60hzt is normally not distinguishable by the human eye, unless you lock your framerate to the refresh rate, you CAN get higher framerates, but you really wont see them (the average eye can't really tell between 30ish FPS and 60 anyway). In the old days, this is why the screen appeared to flicker at lower frequencies and why when you see a recorded tube TV image, it has lines going across the screen. The FPS of the camera shootign the image was slow enough to catch the screen in the process of the scan.

 

Anyhow, 60hz is standard these days, and it is really a leftover from pre-LCD days anyway.

 

HDCP is part of the evi that is DRM. As part of the Digital Rights Management garbage, a modern commercial OS like Vista (or whatever Apple passes as a modern OS) has to have the capability to protect the media YOU buy from duplication. As part of this protection, the OS has to be able to lock out your media from being played on any device that will not protect it from being copied. Basically a HDCP monitor will conform to this horrid abridgment of Fair Use. Theoretically, prior to DRM, if you could copy the output of a video card to a recording device, you could make a copy of it. A HDCP device check prevents that from happening.

 

Oh yeah, it is supposed to prevent piracy too. But they are crafty and don't care about rules or pesky software limitations, so it only hurts people that want to make legitimate backups.

 

And just so you know I am not blowing smoke up your exhaust port, here is the wikipedia definition.

 

"High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation [1] to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across DisplayPort, Digital Visual Interface (DVI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Gigabit Video Interface (GVIF), or Unified Display Interface (UDI) connections, even if such copying would be permitted by fair use laws. The specification is proprietary, and implementing HDCP requires a license.[2]"

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidt...tent_Protection

 

 

I like my definition better. Sounds less boring.

[Krieg1337]

Higher the better. but anything like 10000:1, 50000:1 is dynamic contrast ratio and doesn't mean anything. 1000:1 is about the highest it'll go

 

What makes a LCD look good is mainly the type of panel it uses (TN, PVA, IPS), but no company advertises it...

 

 

You don't any of the expensive ones if you just game, TN is fine for that. The more expensive panels are better for doing things with pictures and stuff like that.

[lost]

You don't any of the expensive ones if you just game, TN is fine for that. The more expensive panels are better for doing things with pictures and stuff like that.

less blooding? better color? you can see different shades of black? no ghosting? i've never been happy with my samsung 226bw

[Jump4h]

Thats funny, I have the 225BW and I've never had any problems with it, and I've used it like 4 years ^^

[Krieg1337]

less blooding? better color? you can see different shades of black? no ghosting? i've never been happy with my samsung 226bw

 

 

Hmm, thats weird, my samsung 19" has none of these problems and I am pretty sure its a TN panel. And ghosting is probably because your ms is high.

 

 

EDIT: Oh I forgot, lost is the one saying that CRT's have the best picture out there, so I won't even try to argue with him

Edited June 29, 2009 by Darkfuneral1337

[KK_]

First off, I am very confused about monitors and stuff like that. I have a Dell e228 WFP 22" LCD monitor, and it looks really good. But, I don't know if it is really that "good" or not.

 

The contrast ratio is 800:1. Is that good? I thought lower the better, but maybe higher the better?

 

Second, how do you deal with the screen refresh rates and all that? Right now I am at 1680x1050 resolution with 60hz refresh rate. That only gives me 60 FPS max, right? So how do I get a higher refresh rate?

 

And last, what exactly is HDCP? My monitor has it but I dunno what it means or does.

 

Thanks for helping out this noob haha.

 

 

1. i dont like Dells.

2.i dont really think anyone can tell the difference unless there next to another screen with the same picture

3.refreash rates only effect people with Vsync enabled , this will syncronise the graphics card to the refreash of the screen for "perfect" preformance eg

60hz = 60fps

70hz = 70fps

etc etc

 

also , the max your screen can go what im asuming is 1680x1050 is called the Native Resolution of your screen is what it must be set to for the best quality. this is why its not such a great idea to go buy that 30" with your 5200fx

 

4. i too have a HDCP screen , it hasnt given MY FRIEND any troubles watching any "Obtained" movies , altho MY FRIEND hasn't tryed copying them

 

hope somthing helped

[tkrow21]

3.refreash rates only effect people with Vsync enabled

 

Completely wrong?