Widescreen Gaming Forum

My current 20" monitor is starting to feel kinda small, especially since I use it so often to watch movies and TV shows from 10 feet away.

Any word on good 26" monitors?

I saw the Viewsonic VX2640w at Costco the other day, and the listed specs are fantastic. Is it really that good or is it to good to be true?

This one is getting popular. Close to the image quality of the professional 26" NEC, cheaper and with almost no input lag at all:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1268063

I agree with Tamlin on that, the Doublesight 26" is one of the best deals going in a large high quality display. It's made by a Korean manufacturer that recently bought the company that was making the 26" displays for Planar, which is almost identical to it.

Latest word too is evey Doublesight unit is coming with the polarizer feature the NEC has, so you get ultrawide viewing angles with no washout. Want to lay off to the side of the room on a couch while watching a movie, game with a friend without having to act like Siamese twins, no problem. In fact Newegg actually advertises the polarization feature now, though you can get it cheaper at Buy.com, about $708 with free shipping vs $720 with $25 shipping at Newegg.

To be more comprehensive in responding I will back up the extra $250+ expense of the DS-263N vs the Viewsonic you mentioned with other reasons for justifying that expense. You indicated a need to watch movies and TV shows. That by definition requires a multipurpose display to do so well if you game also.

The 26" Doublesight is the best balance of good gaming and movie watching and will even do photo stuff pretty well once calibrated should you need it for that. The Viewsonic you mentioned is a mere 6 bit TN panel vs the highest quality 8 bit IPS panel in the Doublesight. TN's have to dither (pixel blend) to synthesize colors they can't produce, and it results in color smearing that is very noticeable, like on faces in darkly lit movie scenes.

Even PVA panels exhibit poor traits like color shifting when viewed at angles. The $250 more you spend will be well worth it and conversely you will likely end up kicking yourself should you opt to get the cheaper panel. Think in terms of how long it takes to save $250 vs how long you will enjoy a top notch monitor and you'll get an idea of what decision to make.

That doublesight is a really nice display, and I'm surprised I didn't notice the Viewsonic used a 6-bit panel (bleh).

Problem is $700+ was more than what I was planing to spend. Perhaps I should get a really nice 24" monitor instead? I know the cheap ones are going for a little over $300 now. That should put the higher end displays in the $500 range, right?

Then again, I am planning on using this monitor as a TV as well... so I'd be saving money, right? :P

That doublesight is a really nice display, and I'm surprised I didn't notice the Viewsonic used a 6-bit panel (bleh).

You can usually tell if it's a TN by the price and the 160x160 viewing angles, though I did search and found it to be a TN.

Problem is $700+ was more than what I was planing to spend. Perhaps I should get a really nice 24" monitor instead? I know the cheap ones are going for a little over $300 now. That should put the higher end displays in the $500 range, right?

You could do that out of anxiety and as I said probably regret it. Though on PVAs it really comes down to how much you need the wide angles and how much the resulting color shifting at slight off angles bothers you. Some like Tamlin can't stand it, and I can see his point. Again, how long does it take you to save up another $250 vs how long you'll be enjoying a nice high end IPS panel?

Then again, I am planning on using this monitor as a TV as well... so I'd be saving money, right? :P

There you go, and that's something I often forget to tell those looking for multipurpose displays. I am currently setup with a 21" CRT G220fb Viewsonic monitor behind which sits my Samsung 26" CRT HDTV on a 4' high shelf. Between the two I spent about $1050 and it's a hassle to go back and forth between them as well as space consuming and the ATI card I use does not support dual display ideally. I have to go into extended desktop mode then turn off the monitor when I watch movies on the TV via my DVD drive in the PC. The only nice thing about it is I can be on the net at my desk and also have the TV on vs picture in a picture that many monitors and TVs have now.

I have long been looking forward to building a rig that incorporates gaming, movies, net, TV, etc, into one display. If you go the monitor route the 26" Doublesight is hard to beat for such a setup. You could also look for an HDTV but personally I won't even consider that until they start making some 27" 1080p ones at a reasonable price. Even then though you get a 3rd the warranty, less rugged construction, and no flexibility in res options. You do get a better 16:9 fit for movies, built-in HD tuner, and video processing, but I'm not sure that's worth the trade-offs. There are many that build a multipurpose rig around an HDTV display though, so it's something to consider.

My PC already has 2 TV tuners (one QAM/ATSC & one SDTV) and since I prefer to watch TV using my DVR software (Beyond TV) any tuner built into the display would mostly be a waste. Playing 16x9 movies on a 16x10 26" display would still be far better than what I'm already using now, and the black bars on the top and bottom don't bother me.

You're right in that I would be a lot better off waiting a little while longer and getting a display I'd be happier with. Chances are thats the route I'll go.

Any ideas on when OLED monitors are going to be released and at a decent price? TBH I was expecting them to be on the market by now back when I bought my current display a few years ago.

Sony's the only one I've heard so far that are even making OLED, in 11" and 27". The picture quality is great and there's no light bleed because they don't even use backlights. However the lifespan is really low. Even if you believe Sony's claim (and some like Sharp refute it) they only last 30,000 hrs vs twice that for an LCD.

I'm hoping eventually LG/Philips will market a PLED. Last I checked Philips was the only big TV name backing that technology. In PLED tech they use polymer rather than pure organics which resist deterioration from moisture in the air much better than OLED does. OLED was invented by some guys working for Kodak back in the 80s, so Sony and others using it have to pay to use it.

Some students at Cambridge University in the UK discovered PLED tech some time ago which spawned Cavendish Labs. PLED diodes have been tested to last 198,000 hrs, so even when you account for the fact that the blue spectrum of OLED/PLED tech wears out faster than the red and green, it's still upwards 100,000 hrs, as long as a CRT.

As for those Sony OLEDs, word is the 11" is priced at $2500 and God knows what they want for the 27". Considering this is technology that uses an inexpensive manufacturing process (screens can be made by inkjetting) and the lifespan short, they should be priced much lower.