I currently work for a company where I can take advantage of their Employee Purchase Plan.
I can get Dell monitors through my company at a 25% discount, so I thought I would purchase a monitor specifically for video gaming. I can purchase anything that Dell makes. I am looking for a 17" to 25" monitor that I can switch between YOKO and TATE easily. I am looking to purchase a Flat panel LCD monitor.
As far as input, this is the thing I'm not sure of. Some models of Dell monitors have 15-pin or 24-pin D-Sub/DVI-D/S-Video/Composite Connectors, but should I stick with what Dell gives me with the monitor, or shell out the money for an upscan converter?
In looking at the monitors, I'm not quite sure which model would be the best for video game display. I also don't know if refresh rate for a flat panel LCD monitor is that big of a deal when running console games.
Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated as I know some forum members have had experience with Dell monitors for gaming.
Dell Monitor Help
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FatalError
- Posts: 98
- Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:37 pm
- Location: Denver, Colorado
Well overall the upscan converters in those monitors are atleast as good if not better as any of those cheap standalone ones found for around $50. Although it depends on how picky you are about the quality, a XRGB2 converter would give you more options tweaking, and slightly better picture quality. But in my opinion not enough difference to be worth spending the extra cash on (would rather spend that money on a monitor with more inches instead, and I recommend refresh rate of 8ms or better for gaming)..
Although I actually work for Dell, don't quote me on this as a official company statement
Although I actually work for Dell, don't quote me on this as a official company statement
) but I really do love this monitor.
Up until recently, I've used a Dell 2001FP for most of my consoles, and it works well, and as long as the input is decent, has very good video quality on the S-video input. The one drawback is that I haven't been able to get a Dreamcast VGA adapter to work on it (although I haven't really messed with that in a while.) My Xbox360 with VGA cable looked quite good on it though. You should be able to find a 2001FP fairly cheap these days.
I have a Dell 1707FP. For most stuff, it's fantastic. Very bright and crisp.
However, I have one gripe, which is TATE. Although the monitor stand pivots, I don't really think the display was designed with it in mind. When I set the monitor vertically, the colors on right side of the screen are a shade darker than the colors on the left. This is because LCDs don't have very forgiving viewing angles (look at one and move your head around, you'll see the colors change), and I'm thinking my monitor was engineered to show the truest colors throughout the screen for the most common condition: when it's horizontal and you're looking slightly down (the top of your monitor is supposed to be at eye level). However, if you TATE, you are now looking at the monitor straight-on (relative to the short axis), as opposed to looking down.
This might be an problem inherent of all rotating LCDs, I don't know for sure. Hopefully somebody else can fill you in, because I'd like to know the answer myself.
I'll admit, though, that I have a slight bias against LCDs. This is because everybody creams themselves over them (especially at my old job), yet they don't notice the drawbacks, most notably the viewing angle/color issue and the fact that they look crappy at anything but the native resolution. I really hated the people who were like "I want a flat panel!", and then they'd get one and set it to 1024x768 because the text was too small at the native resolution. The result was a fuzzy, crappy image, but they'd still comment on how great it looks. Fucking ugh. No. You're just bragging about your shiny new gadget, completely oblivious to the fact that your old 17" CRT looked sharper at that resolution. Oh, and they have more desk space! (Pfft. Unless you store shit in the tangle of wire behind your monitor, you're not gaining any real space, just another place to lose stuff).
However, I have one gripe, which is TATE. Although the monitor stand pivots, I don't really think the display was designed with it in mind. When I set the monitor vertically, the colors on right side of the screen are a shade darker than the colors on the left. This is because LCDs don't have very forgiving viewing angles (look at one and move your head around, you'll see the colors change), and I'm thinking my monitor was engineered to show the truest colors throughout the screen for the most common condition: when it's horizontal and you're looking slightly down (the top of your monitor is supposed to be at eye level). However, if you TATE, you are now looking at the monitor straight-on (relative to the short axis), as opposed to looking down.
This might be an problem inherent of all rotating LCDs, I don't know for sure. Hopefully somebody else can fill you in, because I'd like to know the answer myself.
I'll admit, though, that I have a slight bias against LCDs. This is because everybody creams themselves over them (especially at my old job), yet they don't notice the drawbacks, most notably the viewing angle/color issue and the fact that they look crappy at anything but the native resolution. I really hated the people who were like "I want a flat panel!", and then they'd get one and set it to 1024x768 because the text was too small at the native resolution. The result was a fuzzy, crappy image, but they'd still comment on how great it looks. Fucking ugh. No. You're just bragging about your shiny new gadget, completely oblivious to the fact that your old 17" CRT looked sharper at that resolution. Oh, and they have more desk space! (Pfft. Unless you store shit in the tangle of wire behind your monitor, you're not gaining any real space, just another place to lose stuff).
I have a 2001FP at work, which I also use for MAME occasionally. It's a nice monitor, but keep in mind that the rotation is clockwise, whereas most console games only offer a counterclockwise TATE mode- if you want to play those you'll have to take it off the stand and brace it against the wall or something. I haven't noticed any discoloration when rotating this model, however.
I do agree with Davey that running stuff in non-native resolution on LCDs looks nasty.
Only buy an upscan converter if you're willing to buy or build RGB cables for the consoles you plan on using. Of course, even then, the upscaling makes it kind of a waste IMO.
I do agree with Davey that running stuff in non-native resolution on LCDs looks nasty.
Only buy an upscan converter if you're willing to buy or build RGB cables for the consoles you plan on using. Of course, even then, the upscaling makes it kind of a waste IMO.
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