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vee
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« on: February 05, 2012, 12:31:14 PM » |
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Hi folks,
Just about to upgrade one of our monitors here and would appreciate any guidance please. We have a nice 24" Dell that cost a bundle (£350 + if I recall) a couple of years back and we are thinking of following the same route. However, there seem to be a bunch of 24" LED monitors on the market with seemingly better specs for half the price?
We'll be staring at the thing constantly for hours each day so need a quality piece of kit.
Any views or recommendations please? Also about to spec up a new "workhorse" PC and thinking of using Scan again - not cheap but always had good service from them. Anyone got any recent experience of their 3XS service please? Would built it ourselves but no time....
Thanks
Vee
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familychoice
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« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2012, 12:48:12 PM » |
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Just about to upgrade one of our monitors here and would appreciate any guidance please. We have a nice 24" Dell that cost a bundle (£350 + if I recall) a couple of years back and we are thinking of following the same route. However, there seem to be a bunch of 24" LED monitors on the market with seemingly better specs for half the price?
I'd recommend an HP ZR24w - bought one last year and it's superb. |
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Just another shite talking, unemployable Walter Mitty character living in a blinkered brassed-off, ITV-drama-esque world...
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Steve Lampkins
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« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2012, 02:26:30 PM » |
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I have the same HP, very happy with it.
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spannaa
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« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2012, 02:41:29 PM » |
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And the same one here too!
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Dom
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« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2012, 12:36:56 PM » |
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I've got a 27" Iiyama ProLite something or other, and it's great. I've never been one to spend vast quantities on a monitor, but for £250 I wasn't complaining. We've had three Iiyamas now, and all of them have been superb.
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spannaa
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« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2012, 01:30:33 PM » |
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The Dell Ultrasharp U2412M is also a very good monitor and, if you shop around, can be got for around £230 - £90 cheaper than the HP ZR24W |
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familychoice
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« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2012, 01:43:51 PM » |
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I've got a Dell Ultrasharp as well. Good monitor (though the one I have isn't as sharp and clear as the HP) but the power button stopped working after a few months.
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Just another shite talking, unemployable Walter Mitty character living in a blinkered brassed-off, ITV-drama-esque world...
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robwhizz
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« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2012, 02:45:25 PM » |
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Be careful with Dell Ultrasharps (and many others like HP for that matter)...
The HP Mentioned uses LG's e-IPS LM240WU7-SLB1, which is a good, proper 8-bit monitor (8-bits per channel for a real 16.7m colour display).
Dell's U2412M uses LG's LM240WU8-SLA2 which is a 6-bit panel with A-FRC to generate the missing colours (and reduce cost). It sounds bad (and is a trick used by cheap TN panels), but supposedly it actually works quite well.
If absolute colour quality is what you need then try Dell's U2410 instead, otherwise it'll be fine (but I'd expect the HP to out perform it).
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Great post Jon! I have been following the effort since you started it, and although I have understood its purpose this post does a really great job solidifying the full rationale.
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Steve Lampkins
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« Reply #9 on: February 06, 2012, 03:20:41 PM » |
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In general, it seems you pretty much do get what you pay for these days.
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vee
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« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2012, 04:48:15 PM » |
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Really useful - thanks folks! Indeed it looks like you need to pay more for better kit  |
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familychoice
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« Reply #11 on: February 06, 2012, 05:21:06 PM » |
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I bought the Dell monitor 4 or 5 years ago now, I think it cost about £900 at the time. It's still working fine (apart from the on/off button) but the HP was just over £300 and a better spec so as it's for work it seemed daft not to get one, and the Dell's been used to replace a smaller monitor on another system.
I wouldn't scrimp on a monitor, apart from producing inferior work a cheap screen won't do your eyesight any favours. I can remember 24" colour monitors costing about 5 grand so three hundred quid is almost free.
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Just another shite talking, unemployable Walter Mitty character living in a blinkered brassed-off, ITV-drama-esque world...
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vee
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« Reply #12 on: February 17, 2012, 10:48:39 AM » |
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Hi,
In the end we went for the HP ZR24w and it is lovely. There is a slightly upgraded version but reports suggest the additional £60 is not worth it.
Very easy on the eyes and colour rendition looks good after a fair bit of tweaking. The only slight issue was that we had to wind the brightness down to near zero to save burnt retinas! Looking on the web, this does seem to be pretty standard.
Interested to know your contrast, brightness and rgb setting when you get a mo....
Cheers
Vee
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familychoice
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« Reply #13 on: February 17, 2012, 11:28:42 AM » |
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I went through the wizard when setting it up, my settings are:
Brightness - 90
Contrast - 80
RGB 255/255/255 128/128/128
White point - 6500k
I don't find mine too bright, but my retinas are probably burned out already.
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Just another shite talking, unemployable Walter Mitty character living in a blinkered brassed-off, ITV-drama-esque world...
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vee
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« Reply #14 on: February 17, 2012, 11:54:23 AM » |
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Hi,
Our RGB levels are red 247, green 220, blue 240. 128 for all in the gain. Contrast and white point is the same as you but brightness is pulled way back.
A very nice bit of kit - thanks for the recommendation.
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familychoice
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« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2012, 12:23:26 PM » |
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A very nice bit of kit - thanks for the recommendation.
No problem, glad you like it I've had mine nearly a year now and the power button hasn't broken yet so I'm well chuffed. |
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Just another shite talking, unemployable Walter Mitty character living in a blinkered brassed-off, ITV-drama-esque world...
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robwhizz
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« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2012, 03:14:14 PM » |
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I'd recommend some hardware calibration. Makes a world of difference. I use a Pantone Huey Pro, which you can pick up for around £60 and does the job well. I know Mr Anderson uses a Spyder and likes it. I picked the Huey years ago because of cost, but if need to buy again in the future I'd pay a bit more for the Spyder (they all seem to have come down in price a fair bit too) as you can add on printer profiling too.
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Great post Jon! I have been following the effort since you started it, and although I have understood its purpose this post does a really great job solidifying the full rationale.
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