19” LCD monitor survey: 4, 8 ms, TN, IPS, VA… (page 1: Introduction)

This wasn’t easy but we gathered in this survey all the latest new 19" panels. There is the

(we make fun of the usual great fluorescent titles, but the real information is below : "the new panels...") :-)

The new Samsung PVA 8ms, 1000:1 contrast ratio (Fujitsu-Siemens P19-2)

The new TN AU Optronics 6ms (BenQ FP91+)

The latest AU Optronics TN 4 ms panel (ViewSonic VX924)

The latest MVA AU Optronics 8 ms included in two monitors (Fujitsu-Siemens C19-4, ViewSonic VP191b),

Fujitsu’s comeback with a new MVA 8 ms, competing with the AUO (Iiyama H1900)

The Sony X-Black panel based on a new MVA 12 ms (HDM-HS95P)

The already well-known Samsung TN 8 ms in an economical monitor <400€ (Iiyama E480S)

A new IPS panel with a sensor to automatically adjust parameters according to the ambient brightness.(Nec LCD 1980FXi)

A multi-source monitor: integrated tuner, SCART plug, YUV, composite, FM input… (Samsung SyncMaster 930MP new version).

It is Christmas in May. It was so exciting to receive all these monitors one by one and finally discover monitors that had been promising us the earth and the moon over the past months. Finally, we will answer a couple of questions that are present in this "crazy about monitors" mind of mine:

Does the improvement to 4ms improve the games’ quality ?

Will Fujitsu provide comparable, better performance or will they fail utterly, compared to the last very impressive improvements of the AU Optronics VA panel?

Sony quickly introduced an X-Black 2 without mirror effect. What kind of results will it provide in our office?

Now that there are monitors that are good in every aspect (viewing angles, reaction time, colors,) what will be the next improvement step, will new functions become generalized little by little?

And, above all, which monitor is the best one on the market today?

TN, IPS, VA, who that? ?

Even if you regularly follow the LCD events and our tests, it is always a good idea to remind you of all the uses of some of the LCD bases.

There are hundreds of monitor manufacturers but only a few of them build the essential component: the panel. This element gathers electronic components and liquid crystals. This is the panel that will determine the monitor’s quality. Four manufacturers clearly dominate the market: Samsung, LG-Philips (in this area, these two are united), AU Optronics and CMO. Monitor manufacturers just buy a panel, design and build a bezel and combine the two of them. Now the most important part is the choice of the panel. Hundreds of products are available and are split in three families, three technologies with up and downsides.

TN panels: these are the fastest and cheapest ones. These panels are the most gifted for games but have a twinkling effect in videos and reduced viewing angles. All panel manufacturers have a TN products.

IPS: developed by Hitachi, IPS panels are ardently supported y LG-Philips and Nec. They are half-way between the TN and VA: good color quality, more or less good reaction time, very wide viewing angles…The only problem is: IPS tends to stagnate when other rival technologies progress quickly.

VA panels: launched by Fujitsu and available under the MVA denomination for AU Optronics, Sharp and CMO, PVA for Samsung, VA monitors have considerably improved LCD color quality. Until last March, however, these monitors were so slow that it was impossible to imagine them in a "gamer’s" home. Then, in April, came the release of AU Optronics the Premium MVA 8 ms in the VP191b…

Tests

Color accuracy, calibration, reaction time with games, video quality, ergonomics, viewing angles, interpolation quality, these monitors were examined from every angle.

For color accuracy, we used a new colorimeter, based this time on a Gretag tool coupled to a new software suite developed by LaCie. More advanced than the previous one, this tool provides us with the possibility of comparing the monitor’s display quality (gamut and DeltaE) with standard parameters, such as those included when you acquired it, to the results after calibration. Results are sometime quite surprising: it will help if you take some time to adjust the colors manually or, at least, the brightness and color temperature parameters.

You probably remember that we gave up the idea of measuring crystals response time for games. The values measured too often contradicted what we saw in games, movies and more generally in animated sequences. So we felt that the best way was to work with the monitors for a few hours. For the benefit of this test, we also spent days playing at UT 2004, WOW...

Our test computer is based on an AMD Athlon XP3200+ processor and an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

It is now time for our new 19" panel roundup.

Welcome in the LCD world...