Two new monitors and one new test
This article is an important step in terms of LCD tests for two reasons. The first is that we tested two very much awaited monitors, the Belinea 10 19 20 and BenQ FP91V. The second reason is the most important for us, the testers. We have finally developed a satisfactory test protocol, which visually shows a monitor´s real reaction time.
The problems
The
Belinea 10 19 20 has been eagerly awaited since last June, its first release date. The reason for this is that it was supposed to include the same panel as the
ViewSonic VP191b, have great ergonomics, and be 25% cheaper. Four months later, the 10 19 20 is finally released. It no longer features the VP191b’s 8 ms MVA panel, but a substitute, which will be included in the next
ViewSonic VP930, the 8ms S-MVA with a contrast ratio of 1000:1. The good news is that the monitor price is inferior to the ViewSonic´s. And now, the bad news:
- A first, this monitor won’t be released in the US or Canada. American readers, however, will find comparable results (theoretically) with the future VP930.
- For everyone, the monitor´s price won’t be the 399€ first announced by Belinea in May, but 499€.
The
BenQ FP91V has a TN 4 ms panel, the same as the
ViewSonic VX924. By the way, ViewSonic (who uses the same components) initially announced a 4ms upon introducing the monitor before changing to 3ms without any component modifications (
see our news). 3 or 4 ms doesn’t change much and the only objective is to look the fastest on the paper. From our point of view, if the Samsung SM 930B, also a 4 ms, is a bit faster, this panel is a real improvement compared to previous 8ms TN generations. Up until now we could only explain this with words, but now we will prove it with images:
Like we said above, we have a
new test procedure. For years, I´ve been trying to show images of a monitor’s afterglow and finally you will see it for yourself. It isn’t another measure of response time, but the reaction time as it is actually seen in games and 3D applications. (We remind you that after developing oscilloscopic measures last year, we came back to a visual assessment as the results were in total contradiction with what we actually saw
see this article). Now we can systematically include images in 3D and games for each monitor we test, and there will be a comparison to the fastest monitor on the market and a slower one. You will see that these new results are obvious. One will see afterglow and also overdrive effects when they are significant.
The stakes
The objective of this article is to answer the following questions:
Is the S-MVA 8 ms panel really multi-use?
Is the Belinea 10 19 20 better than the ViewSonic VP191b ?
What is the interest of choosing a fast TN rather than a fast MVA?
On the other hand, what are the advantages of fast MVA panels?
Has standard color quality progressed?
Are you a bit lost ? Here are a few reminders.
If you are not used to our tests and haven’t read last year’s LCD surveys you might be quite lost in the different concepts and terms developed above.
TN, IPS, MVA, PVA panels: you will find explanations on these panel’s characteristics in the middle of the first page of the previous LCD article, here.
Calibration: monitors arrive with factory settings. Unfortunately, these are rarely satisfactory. We examine the standard color quality and then after adjustment with a professional colorimeter (see this article for example), the LaCie Blue Eye Pro.
Overdrive: explanations on this “overvoltage” applied to liquid crystals are found here.
Contrast ratio: is measured by opposing white to black, which should theoretically be 0 but never is. More explanations here
Viewing angles: those which are often given by manufacturer have nothing to do with reality. As we explained in this page, measurements are quite lax.
The tests
Color fidelity, calibration, game reaction time, video quality, ergonomics, viewing angles, interpolation quality, every aspect of each monitor is examined.
For color fidelity we use the LaCie Blue Eye Pro colorimeter, which is based on the Gretag tool and coupled with the new LaCie suite. More evolved than the previous version, this helps us to compare a monitor´s display quality (color spectrum and DeltaE) in standard settings and after calibration. Results are sometimes surprising as it´s often best to take the time to manually adjust colors (or at least contrast, brightness and color temperature).
For games, nothing is better than a couple hours of UT 2004 (we call this work) to have a good idea of a monitor´s reaction time. From now on we have added afterglow images in two environments. The first is between bright colors and the second is for Black / White color. The software used is Pixel Persistence Alalyzer (PixPerAn for intimates). The test computer is home assembled and has an AMD Athlon XP3200+ processor and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT card. Now let’s move on to the latest 19” LCD monitor tests...
