Life story:
Hi, about 5 months ago I bought an LG 32LH40 on sale at Best Buy for $100 or so off. I found it to be an excellent display in general but it had some really nasty smearing of primary colors, red and blue especially. For instance, in the Lagom LCD test's Contrast screen, all the shades of red and blue would blur into each other slightly, about 3 or so pixels around where there should have been a sharp border between the colors.
As I would like to do some amateur graphic design work with the display, this was totally unacceptable. What really ticked me off was that this was obviously just some kind of "image enhancement" that couldn't be disabled. Displaying sharp color isn't rocket science, and this was a reasonably high-end set. So, unfortunately, I had to take it back.
Now, months later, Dell had a sale on a 32" Philips display, model 32PFL6704D. However, fate has it in for me... there seems to be a known compatibility issue between Philips TV sets and certain Radeon and Geforce cards, and I own one. A 4890, actually.
The problem goes like this: if you plug in the HDMI cable while the TV is off, the TV still passively communicates with the computer and tells the computer what it is, what its capabilities are, etc. Everything works fine - until I try to turn it on. As soon as I turn it on, something goes awry and the TV and computer give each other the silent treatment. It's not shown in any way in Catalyst Control Panel and Windows doesn't detect it either. Turn the TV back off, and still nothing. Unplug the HDMI, plug it back in, suddenly everything's fine again. But turn the TV back on? No signal.
I've visted a lot of forums and done a lot of googling, but it seems there's no clear consensus on what exactly is causing the problem. Some people have said that it's a Windows 7 issue, but I just reinstalled Vista on a secondary hard drive, and as soon as I install the video drivers, "NO SIGNAL". Other people have said that using a third-party DVI to HDMI connector solved the problem, but this sounds pretty much like bogus to me. It's a digital signal, so an adapter is an adapter is an adapter... that's my understanding. I think it's probably some kind of HDCP thing, since apparently Windows XP works perfectly fine and it doesn't use any of that nonsense.
If I didn't say this before, it works perfectly fine in BIOS and post. If you just install the OS without any ATI drivers, the TV works fine, but you can't run it at 1080p, so it's pointless. Just for fun I tried using component video ouptut - it works perfectly. But only at 30hz, as you'd expect, and there are all the telltale signs of an analog connection. Sadly, I can't even provide a review of the set before I send it back, since I am still completely in the dark about its capabilities. I wish I could run it at 1080p for just a few minutes and see what it's really capable of.
From what I could see, the TV had a couple of problems independent of my inability to see it at its native resolution. First, the available controls were very spartan, with only brightness, contrast, color, and sharpness that could be adjusted with any detail. You have to enter the service menu to adjust individual color channels. Settings that I've seen other people mention and which are mentioned in the manual aren't anywhere to be found, leading me to believe they were removed in a firmware update perhaps? I don't really know. Basically I think this TV will be great for nursing homes. The other problem I was able to see was some amount of... I'm not sure what to call it... but when I entered my bios setup, it was like the letters on the screen blurred horizontally. This was not, in my opinion, an example of the TV attempting to enhance contrast... but I'm not an expert with TVs.
So... if you're still reading this, you can probably tell I'm getting frustrated with the depth of TV manufacturers' incompetence when it comes to making their sets PC compatible. I suppose it's a protection game - they can sell their 24" displays for the same as a 32" display as long as they strip out the TV tuner, most of the inputs, and call it a "monitor". As soon as they make it easy, people will suddenly realize that a monitor is just a TV with less features and a higher price tag.
What most people will actually need to read:
Does anyone know of a 32" TV, or even a smaller monitor that fits these requirements:
-Reasonably low lag but doesn't have to be perfect. I will be using the display for gaming and amateur graphics work
-Lowish response time (2-5ms)
-An IPS or VA display, basically anything that's a "true" 8-bit panel that won't display two similar shades of a color identically or show any banding
-Does not blur fine details such as the border between two colors or two shades of the same color
-No panel lottery and a QC department that knows what they're doing
-High likelihood of no stuck/dead/whatever pixels
-Color accuracy isn't really important, I'll be buying a calibrator at some point
-A price under $1000
-Viewing angle is unimportant, as long as it works for at least 10 degrees in front I think I'll be OK
-Sound is not important, I have a speaker setup already
-I don't care about inputs, as long as there is at least one DVI or HDMI.
-*shakes visibly with rage* A way to DISABLE any "Image Processing!" features that destroy my video card's already-immaculate signal
-Available in Canada at a store whose return policy doesn't lead you to believe that it hates its customers
Currently, if I don't find any better ideas and nobody here can offer any, I'll probably be getting the new Dell 24" IPS panel. It's one of those dreaded "wide gamut" things but it supposedly has rather good sRGB emulation.
Hi, about 5 months ago I bought an LG 32LH40 on sale at Best Buy for $100 or so off. I found it to be an excellent display in general but it had some really nasty smearing of primary colors, red and blue especially. For instance, in the Lagom LCD test's Contrast screen, all the shades of red and blue would blur into each other slightly, about 3 or so pixels around where there should have been a sharp border between the colors.
As I would like to do some amateur graphic design work with the display, this was totally unacceptable. What really ticked me off was that this was obviously just some kind of "image enhancement" that couldn't be disabled. Displaying sharp color isn't rocket science, and this was a reasonably high-end set. So, unfortunately, I had to take it back.
Now, months later, Dell had a sale on a 32" Philips display, model 32PFL6704D. However, fate has it in for me... there seems to be a known compatibility issue between Philips TV sets and certain Radeon and Geforce cards, and I own one. A 4890, actually.
The problem goes like this: if you plug in the HDMI cable while the TV is off, the TV still passively communicates with the computer and tells the computer what it is, what its capabilities are, etc. Everything works fine - until I try to turn it on. As soon as I turn it on, something goes awry and the TV and computer give each other the silent treatment. It's not shown in any way in Catalyst Control Panel and Windows doesn't detect it either. Turn the TV back off, and still nothing. Unplug the HDMI, plug it back in, suddenly everything's fine again. But turn the TV back on? No signal.
I've visted a lot of forums and done a lot of googling, but it seems there's no clear consensus on what exactly is causing the problem. Some people have said that it's a Windows 7 issue, but I just reinstalled Vista on a secondary hard drive, and as soon as I install the video drivers, "NO SIGNAL". Other people have said that using a third-party DVI to HDMI connector solved the problem, but this sounds pretty much like bogus to me. It's a digital signal, so an adapter is an adapter is an adapter... that's my understanding. I think it's probably some kind of HDCP thing, since apparently Windows XP works perfectly fine and it doesn't use any of that nonsense.
If I didn't say this before, it works perfectly fine in BIOS and post. If you just install the OS without any ATI drivers, the TV works fine, but you can't run it at 1080p, so it's pointless. Just for fun I tried using component video ouptut - it works perfectly. But only at 30hz, as you'd expect, and there are all the telltale signs of an analog connection. Sadly, I can't even provide a review of the set before I send it back, since I am still completely in the dark about its capabilities. I wish I could run it at 1080p for just a few minutes and see what it's really capable of.
From what I could see, the TV had a couple of problems independent of my inability to see it at its native resolution. First, the available controls were very spartan, with only brightness, contrast, color, and sharpness that could be adjusted with any detail. You have to enter the service menu to adjust individual color channels. Settings that I've seen other people mention and which are mentioned in the manual aren't anywhere to be found, leading me to believe they were removed in a firmware update perhaps? I don't really know. Basically I think this TV will be great for nursing homes. The other problem I was able to see was some amount of... I'm not sure what to call it... but when I entered my bios setup, it was like the letters on the screen blurred horizontally. This was not, in my opinion, an example of the TV attempting to enhance contrast... but I'm not an expert with TVs.
So... if you're still reading this, you can probably tell I'm getting frustrated with the depth of TV manufacturers' incompetence when it comes to making their sets PC compatible. I suppose it's a protection game - they can sell their 24" displays for the same as a 32" display as long as they strip out the TV tuner, most of the inputs, and call it a "monitor". As soon as they make it easy, people will suddenly realize that a monitor is just a TV with less features and a higher price tag.
What most people will actually need to read:
Does anyone know of a 32" TV, or even a smaller monitor that fits these requirements:
-Reasonably low lag but doesn't have to be perfect. I will be using the display for gaming and amateur graphics work
-Lowish response time (2-5ms)
-An IPS or VA display, basically anything that's a "true" 8-bit panel that won't display two similar shades of a color identically or show any banding
-Does not blur fine details such as the border between two colors or two shades of the same color
-No panel lottery and a QC department that knows what they're doing
-High likelihood of no stuck/dead/whatever pixels
-Color accuracy isn't really important, I'll be buying a calibrator at some point
-A price under $1000
-Viewing angle is unimportant, as long as it works for at least 10 degrees in front I think I'll be OK
-Sound is not important, I have a speaker setup already
-I don't care about inputs, as long as there is at least one DVI or HDMI.
-*shakes visibly with rage* A way to DISABLE any "Image Processing!" features that destroy my video card's already-immaculate signal
-Available in Canada at a store whose return policy doesn't lead you to believe that it hates its customers
Currently, if I don't find any better ideas and nobody here can offer any, I'll probably be getting the new Dell 24" IPS panel. It's one of those dreaded "wide gamut" things but it supposedly has rather good sRGB emulation.
