A better picture....

[T6flyer]

As Christmas is approaching fast and soon you'll that you always end up with some kind of present that you dont want (or need), I this year have decided that the best one, is the one you buy yourself and so am at the moment toying with the idea of updating my monitor. At the moment I have a nice 17" CRT screen, but after peering at monitors yesterday down at my local PC World after work (no, I'm not getting one from there) am quite interested in upgrading to a 22" widescreen TFT.

Is this the way to go, or should I stick to what I've got? I currently am running a somewhat lowered powered Athlon XP2800 with a X800GTO Graphics card with a meg of memory. This is fine for my VFR flying and at the moment I'm very content with the way its setup, only if my AI doesnt exceed 25%. I intend to upgrade sometime in the future but think that a nice new big screen would help in the short term, especially as a fan of TrackIR.

Am I making the right decision?

Best wishes to all,

Martin

[Garry Russell]

I have a TFT

Unfortunateley they don't sell CRT here anymore.

For my work the CRT is far superior as it is smoother. Although good for text graphics are too hard

At the moment my Screen is not giving good results and appears not to be supporting anti alias

The upshot of it is that I can't work properly with it and is the reason I have done nothing for about six weeks now

Trouble is when new I had to reduce the shapness to it's lowest setting and even then it was too sharp, from then on it got worse.

OK TFT are clear but real life does not look like that....TBH I hate them

Garry

[TSR2]

Hi Martin,

I have to agree that my 19" TFT is not as good as my old 19" Iiyama CRT... but there are a couple of good ones on the market. My current one is a basic HP, its pretty good, but there are better. A word of caution.... Don't be tempted to buy a LCD TV that has the computer inputs... they will NOT run at computer resolutions. All LCD panels (either computer monitor or TV types) have a native resolution. They may well "support" higher and lower resolutions, but they only run properly at their native res. Example being my HP has a native res of 1280 x 1024. Its pretty sharp at this res and looks great. If you drop it down to 1024 x 748 it looks terrible... same if you go up to 1600 x 1280. So check the native res... or ask what it is if its not supplied. The native res for most good 22" monitors is 1680x1050. Another thing to be aware of is that FS doesn't look pretty in fullscreen mode on a wide screen monitor as it is based arround the 4/3 format. It looks grand in windowed mode though as it can keep the 4/3 format, but you'll need a decent graphics card.

Samasung have some lovely stuff at the minute with 3 year warranties, and they are the largest manufacturer of the panels regardless of whos name is on the plastic arround it. ;-)

EDIT!!!! Just spotted this one... looks pretty good... and its a digital tele!
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... AMSUNG.htm

[ianhind]

Why not add another 17 inch to run alongside the existing one? Or two new matching monitors?

With most graphics cards providing two outputs, it's an option. And 2 x 17 inch TFT monitors has been my choice for the last three years. My wife runs 2 x 18 inch TFT monitors.

So two monitors even with a narrow bevel is not going to give you a continuous screen, but I use one for FS and the other for FS Navigator.

And a wide screen would not give me the screen estate that I need for work - multiple Word documents open at the same time.

My 2p worth.

Ian

[DaveB]

Exactimondo ;-)

My setup is rather more complicated as I run 2 pc's via a KVM. One (this one) runs off my 19" CRT (it used to run off the 19" and a 17" tft).. and the other runs off the 19" AND the 17" tft (it used to run off the 19 and it's own 17 crt.. which is still there on the desktop but has been retired). I love everything about the 19" CRT except it's size (physical size) and don't care to go FULL tft at this moment in time. The 17" tft is great for FSNav.. lovely and clear and whatever down's tft's have in flightsim isn't an issue as it's not my main monitor

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[ianhind]

My setup is rather more complicated as I run 2 pc's via a KVM.

Dave,

That is how we are set up as well - two PCs running into two monitors via KVMs.

Used to have CRTs instead of TFTs - it was the bulk of CRTs that made me switch (plus one was on the blink so had to do something). I got the space on my desk back. And I've forgotten whether I preferred the CRT to TFT.

Ian

[Charlie Bravo]

Whichever large monitor you get, it will have a higher native res as Ben said. I think the X800GTO will struggle and lowering the res down to what you're used to isn't an option.

[T6flyer]

THANK YOU to one and all......well I was expecting everyone to say 'Go and Buy' and now well I'm not going the whole hog and getting that 22". I think the best option is to keep my trusty 17" and go for a smaller TFT with a suitable native resolution for other uses besides FS2004.

And for the money saved....well I should buy you all a drink for being so informative, but I could I suppose save it towards the next upgrade whenever that is. I'm going to stick with FS2004 as have it as I want it and spend too much time and money on the real thing now. All I would like is for it to run nice and smoothly with all the sliders to the right!!

My board takes up to an Athlon XP3100/3200 (cant remember which one precisely off hand) Socket A processor but these I believe are hard to find. I presume one of these would give me a little bit more oommphhh.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

Martin

[RAF_Quantum]

Hi Martin

I run a Samsung 22" widescreen LCD plus a 19" 4:3 LCD as second monitor. Would I go back to smaller or CRT? Most definately NOT! I run FS9 fullscreen but prefer to run with VC whenever possible and TrackIR. 2D panels get stretched across the screen hence my preference to VC models which are great. Before this set-up I was running the 19" as my main monitor and a 15" LCD as second monitor. The step up to 22" was superb. My 22" is the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW which is avail online from eBuyer (@£210) amongst others. I saw it also in Tesco's the other day but can't remember how much it was.

Rgds

John

[T6flyer]

Hi Martin

I run a Samsung 22" widescreen LCD plus a 19" 4:3 LCD as second monitor. Would I go back to smaller or CRT? Most definately NOT! I run FS9 fullscreen but prefer to run with VC whenever possible and TrackIR. 2D panels get stretched across the screen hence my preference to VC models which are great. Before this set-up I was running the 19" as my main monitor and a 15" LCD as second monitor. The step up to 22" was superb. My 22" is the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW which is avail online from eBuyer (@£210) amongst others. I saw it also in Tesco's the other day but can't remember how much it was.

Rgds

John

Umm what do I do now....this is so confusing...perhaps I should just get lots of socks instead. I'm still quite keen to go down the TFT route, but just not sure what to do. I never use 2D cockpit and always fly from the virtual with TrackIR in small general VFR machines I've had a look around at monitors today online and found it hard it find something that runs in a native mode of 1280X1024 which is what I run FS2004 at. If and if I do go ahead now and run it at that on a monitor with a higher native rate, is the picture going to be that bad?

Its all so confusing.....

Thanks to all again,

Martin