IPS LCD monitors

[karlito]

does anyone here own an IPS panel monitor? (new apple cinema displays are IPS)

http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php

If so are they really as awesome as they sound on paper?  I'm curious about color reproduction, ghosting and brightness.

[bhtooefr]

My ThinkPad's display is a 12.1" 1400x1050 IPS display.

Color reproduction... my Mac is better, I'll go ahead and admit.

Ghosting... not noticeable to me.

Brightness... not great, but perfectly usable. Keep in mind, though, I've got a tablet, so the tablet screen coatings reduce brightness.

Viewing angles... excellent.

[wumpyr]

I've had a NEC 20" 2080UX+ IPS Display for many years.  It is better than a lot of the LCD even being produced today, though I'll probably get a bigger one soon - I was looking at the 30" NEC, but pricey... ouch!

[alexlzl]

Call me picky, now I can't stand any non-IPS LCD panels. My vision will suffer after a while with S-PVA or TN panels. Last time we have to return 5 Dell S-PVA UltraSharp 24" LCDs due to vision issues.

Currently I am either using Apple Macbook Air, or NEC 2409Wuxi. S-IPS is really sweet. For good deal, check Dell outlet, they do have 3007WFP (IPS) selling around $750 with full warranty (don't forget search ebay for coupon). The only thing with 3007WFP is that it has only one input.

[karlito]

Call me picky, now I can't stand any non-IPS LCD panels. My vision will suffer after a while with S-PVA or TN panels. Last time we have to return 5 Dell S-PVA UltraSharp 24" LCDs due to vision issues.

Currently I am either using Apple Macbook Air, or NEC 2409Wuxi. S-IPS is really sweet. For good deal, check Dell outlet, they do have 3007WFP (IPS) selling around $750 with full warranty (don't forget search ebay for coupon). The only thing with 3007WFP is that it has only one input.

hmmm you give a lot to think about .  My wish list will either be 2 20" monitors or that NEC2409wuxi you mentioned that you have.  The NEC is intriguing because it uses a new H-IPS (supposedly an improvement over S-IPS).

I thought i was the only one that had vision issues with dell 24"s, While I think it's a great monitor it just never felt perfect when stairing at it all day.  I would still use CRTs if it wasnt for the reresh giving me headaches.

[wumpyr]

Just go curved DLP! lol

[wheel83]

i own a 24" dell monitor.  and while it is great and i enjoy it.  i wish i had a 22" instead.  24" is slightly too large and also its 16:10 which is annoying.

[Biggs]

I have a Dell 2001FP (LG-Philips S-IPS panel).  The color does not shift when you move your head.  Color reproduction is very good (even more after hardware calibration) that's why it's the de facto choice of panel for photo editors.  Ghosting might be more prevalent in fast action games/scenes but that's a trade-off you should expect.  Dell LCDs are known to be very bright so my brightness is turned down a great deal.

[Hak Foo]

You might also look at PVA/MVA panels; as I understand it, they're very similar internally to each other, and noticably better than TN.

For a while these were widely available in inexpensive 24" monitors.  Soyo did one with PVA panel that was well known for being the first widely available $300 24", and Westinghouse did one with a MVA panel for a bit more, that had more inputs, but this was circa late 2007; now almost all the cheap 24s are TN.

I have the Soyo 24 with the PVA panel, and it's got much better viewing angles than the Samsung 206BW (one of the better 20" TN monitors at the time) it replaced.

[cb951303]

I swear by these http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10016

very expensive though

[iMav]

Just go curved DLP! lol

I'm not thrilled about the resolution on that thing.  If I'm going to spend that kind of jack on a monster display, 2x WXGA+ is not going to cut it.  I want 2x WUXGA at least. (and I'd still rather go with two 30" displays...double WQXGA!!)

[itlnstln]

A big 1080p TV would get you more vertical resolution, although, less horizontal and be $6000 less.  This thing is pretty much a joke at the current resolution, and the price is outright stupid.  I could see $3000, maybe, but $7000 is ridiculous.

[bhtooefr]

Wquxga > Wqxga

[D-EJ915]

if you need high resolution skip the toys and get a T221 lol.  I've never heard of the Apple monitors being anything to talk about, they're average afaik.

[iMav]

if you need high resolution skip the toys and get a T221 lol.  I've never heard of the Apple monitors being anything to talk about, they're average afaik.

I had a 30" HP that was quite nice.  Three dual-link DVI inputs.

[bhtooefr]

That was what I meant by WQUXGA. The only monitors that support it are the T22x and its rebadged variants.

Oh, and the T221 is IPS, so talking about it is even on-topic.

[D-EJ915]

I had a 30" HP that was quite nice.  Three dual-link DVI inputs.

I was interested in that one until I read it only accepts digital inputs

[bhtooefr]

Most 30" monitors are digital-only - DVI is the way of the future.

Friggin laptop makers aren't implementing it, though.

[mcr]

I have NEC 20WGX2 Pro 20" (it has ISP), it is really sharp, colours are good, view angles are good and reaction time is decent. I have it for about a year now and it's doing well. When I was looking for lcd monitor back then, I wanted something for my photoshop/illustrator work, fpp games and films. And I think this model is doing quire good for those purposes. This monitor won't be good for full hd movies and for watching from more than 2 m distance. I think now main disadvantage is that it doesn't have HDMI port.

[chongyixiong]

http://geekhack.org/showpost.php?p=25662&postcount=182

There's my S-IPS LCD Monitor, a Dell 2007wfp.

Good saturation and good colours!

[huha]

S-IPS are getting harder and harder to find, but I managed to buy two Dell 2007WFPs some years ago and they are great. They may not be the best S-IPS panels you can find, but they were significantly less expensive than any other options. I haven't calibrated them, but color reproduction seems to be okay (the first versions had problems, but the later revisions--which the ones I have are--are fine). Viewing angle is absolutely stunning with almost no color shift if it's not black. To be honest, black does suck a lot on IPS screens. Depending on viewing angle, it's either black, deep purple or purple-orange. It's no problem when reading text, but large dark/black areas do look weird from extreme angles, so this has to be taken into consideration when choosing the background picture or working with very dark content.
Other than that, it's just great. Reaction times don't look good on paper (16 ms), but I can hardly notice any ghosting.

-huha

[eugenius]

H-IPS monitor are getting a lot easier to get, not harder.
Besides the 30" monsters, here's the best one - the HP LP2475W, there's Hazro in the UK, some other american / chinese brands like Planar, Doublesight.
Most importantly there's E-IPS at 22"-23", very good monitors like the Dell 2209WA.
The latest trend is 1080p (booo!) monitors - LG launched some 22" and 23" models .. and they already had cheap 26" and 30" ones.

[IBI]

H-IPS monitor are getting a lot easier to get, not harder.
Besides the 30" monsters, here's the best one - the HP LP2475W, there's Hazro in the UK, some other american / chinese brands like Planar, Doublesight.
Most importantly there's E-IPS at 22"-23", very good monitors like the Dell 2209WA.

Yeah, there have been quite a few new ones in the last year. Unfortunately, none of the <£600 ones come with LG\NEC's A-TW polariser so they do all apparently have the white glow in the corners. If LG can combine their E-IPS with that then we may finally have a reasonably priced LCD with very few shortcomings.

[cb951303]

My cheap TN monitor is going to die in a few months (OSD menu opens up by itself) and I want to buy a pro grade LCD this time (I prefer 24'' - 1920x1200 resolution).

I'm torn between H-IPS (LG LM240WU4 panel like in current Apple Cinema Display) and S-PVA (Samsung LTM240M2 panel like in EIZOs)

Which one would you chose?

EDIT: for web and graphic design of course

[keyb_gr]

Hmm, graphics folks usually prefer *-IPS because of yet more stable colors and viewing angles (though *-PVA is no slouch to begin with). In any case pay attention to a good brightness adjustment (cheapies tend to have a fixed-output backlight, which at normal brightness settings tends to result in lousy contrast); a brightness auto-adjust such as found in Eizos might also be handy though I don't know how that affects calibration. Generally you probably can't go very wrong with a decent Eizo or NEC model.

[IBI]

I'm torn between H-IPS (LG LM240WU4 panel like in current Apple Cinema Display) and S-PVA (Samsung LTM240M2 panel like in EIZOs)

EDIT: for web and graphic design of course

For something like web design where you audience will largely be using rubbish monitors you probably don't need to be very discriminating, although you probably want an sRGB monitor as that's the standard for the internet (despite some manufacturer's heavy handed attempts to try and introduce wide gamut models with no colour correction).

Personally I'm looking at an IPS for a general use non-graphics monitor since S-PVA apparently has a 'black crush' phenomenon where all the black shades tend to get crushed together when viewed head-on and the similar vertical phenominon on TNs annoyed me. They're apparently almost as good as IPS for colour rendering though (Eizo use them a lot).

[huha]

I'd at least keep a really bad TN panel for web design testing. Actual designing should be done on a decent monitor so it doesn't look bad on other decent monitors.

Getting S-IPS or PVA/MVA/SVA/whateverVA is largely a matter of taste. You can't really get VA panels without overdrive, so they all have some output lag, one frame at minimum (which isn't really noticeable unless you construct test cases for it). There are S-IPS monitors without overdrive, though.
Colour reproduction is absolutely great with S-IPS and decent VA panels; however, colours tend to shift a bit when changing the viewing angle on VA panels, whereas they don't with S-IPS panels (remember, we're talking about a bit here, nowhere as extreme as TN panels; when doing photo work, you'll most likely be sitting directly in front of the monitor anyway; it's more of a concern when having several screens). On the other hand, S-IPS monitors have absolutely horrible black levels and large, dark areas exhibit a nasty colour shift when changing the viewing angle (they turn somewhat violet or orange).

So what should you get? I went for S-IPS panels for several reasons:
- The monitor featuring them was good value (Dell 2007WFP)
- I don't care about power consumption (S-IPS draws considerably more)
- I use two of them, so I can't stand colour shifting; naturally, when using two monitors, you will look at them at an angle, especially with widescreen ones.
- I don't care much about black reproduction.


My recommendation would be to look for tests and reviews of the monitors you're interested in. There are crappy monitors with decent panels, because the manufacturer didn't think enough or made stupid decisions. A good panel can be ruined by firmware-induced colour banding or generally crappy behaviour, so if you're unsure, read reviews and see how both monitors compare. The panel is important, but even if the panel is decent, you still can't buy pretty much anything.

-huha

[IBI]

On the other hand, S-IPS monitors have absolutely horrible black levels and large, dark areas exhibit a nasty colour shift when changing the viewing angle (they turn somewhat violet or orange).

So what should you get? I went for S-IPS panels for several reasons:
- The monitor featuring them was good value (Dell 2007WFP)
- I don't care about power consumption (S-IPS draws considerably more)
- I use two of them, so I can't stand colour shifting; naturally, when using two monitors, you will look at them at an angle, especially with widescreen ones.
- I don't care much about black reproduction.

You're a bit out of date there, The newer H-IPS and E-IPS panels (sometimes labled as S-IPS but I don't know if there are any true S-IPS panels left) have a white glow rather than a purple/orange one at extreme viewing angles (except those with the A-TW polariser), and have similar black levels (objectively) and power consumption to VA screens.

[cb951303]

thanks guys, after reading your posts and researching for ips and va monitors in local shops I decided to go with a HP LP2475W because it's cheap compared to other h-ips monitors and as it turns out, it's quite impossible to find a reasonable s-pva in my country. the problem worked itself out

by the way, does led lighting has anything to do with panel technology? I mean, do h-ips led lcds exist?

thanks

[keyb_gr]

by the way, does led lighting has anything to do with panel technology?

Not per se, no. I do think that panels are generally supplied with backlights already included though, so it would depend on the panel manufacturer.

[IBI]

I mean, do h-ips led lcds exist?

Yes, the HP Dreamcolour or 24" Apple Cinema Display for example. LED lighting seem to be just becoming mainstream though, a year ago there were much more expensive so in a year or two we'll see a lot more screens using it. The only real advantage they seem to offer for most users is the lower power consumption though, the ACD is 50W at 200cd/m² compared to 80-90W for most VA/IPS screens of the same size.

[huha]

You're a bit out of date there, The newer H-IPS and E-IPS panels (sometimes labled as S-IPS but I don't know if there are any true S-IPS panels left) have a white glow rather than a purple/orange one at extreme viewing angles (except those with the A-TW polariser), and have similar black levels (objectively) and power consumption to VA screens.

Oh, that's quite nice. Do you have any information about technological differences?
I always liked IPS more than VA, but it seemed as though IPS was dying out a few years ago due to the gigantic leap VA-based panels made. Nice to see IPS panels to be on the rise again.


-huha

[IBI]

Oh, that's quite nice. Do you have any information about technological differences?

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1262785