Monitor Choice

[JEB]

Folks,

Some guidance please regarding the choice of a monitor screen size for a desk top PC to be used by my camera club principally for projecting demonstrations of Photoshop (HDR in mind) and running PTE shows.

Recently a number of you kind and knowledgeable folks provided much appreciated assistance in enabling us to specify and select the PC we are almost certainly going to have built by “pcspecialist.co.uk”. For your information the basic spec. is as follows :-

Intel® Core™2 Duo E6550 (2 X 2.33GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache

2GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR DDR2 1066MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY

ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1

WINDOWS® XP Home (inc. Genuine CD & License)

160GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

320MB GEFORCE 8800GTS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER

Comments on any major flaws would be appreciated.

However as I have said my principal concern is with the choice of monitor, bearing in mind our requirement being for using it in conjunction with a projector, which has a native resolution of 1024x768. To date we have been producing PTE shows at 1024x768 though with the advance of wide screen TV and most of our members wanting to burn to DVD I feel we have to try to cater for present and future needs. We also have a space storage problem so the smallest physical size is also important.

The monitors available from our supplier are as follows:-

19 INCH TFT Silver/Black 1280 x1024 8MS D-Sub, DVI, Audio

Wide 17 inch TFT 1440 x 900 8ms D-Sub

I understand from the supplier that the 19” can be set to display 1024x768 but that the wide 17” can’t.

Bearing in mind present and likely future needs which way would you go?

There is perhaps another option, to source a monitor elsewhere but we would be reluctant to go down this route unless for a very good reason.

I look forward to your comments. We hope to take a decision and place an order this week if possible.

Thanks in anticipation,

John

[fh1805]

Hi John,

I don't know whether this will help or merely confuse (if the latter please accept my apologies).

I currently have access to four digital devices (3 computers and a projector). The projector has a native resolution of 1024x768. Until mid-summer I was building all my PTE sequences on a laptop whose native resolution was also 1024x768. I then purchased a desktop system whose native resolution was 1280x1024. The PTE sequences that had been built on the old laptop ran OK on this new system (Vista problems apart!: but see other recent threads on this subject). They didn't fill the screen and text objects appeared to be misplaced. This is a not a fault in any software or hardware. Everything is "working as designed".

I then added a new laptop which has a wide-screen. The sequences run OK this. Again, they don't fill the screen in all directions and text objects sometimes seem misplaced.

The important thing from my point of view is that when I connect the digital projector to the new laptop, the PTE sequences come out at their designed and built size of 1024x768.

My experience is that if I design and build my sequences to the resolution of the projector then everything is OK. If I build them using PTEv5 then they also fill the screen on whichever PC I run them on. I now build solely on the desktop system (almost exclusively using PTEv5) and playback to audiences through the widescreen laptop.

I can't offer any advice in respect of "future-proofing" for DVD and HDTV usage as this is of no interest to me.

Whatever you end up with I hope you and your club's members enjoy sharing their creations with each other.

[davegee]

If there are going to be potential monitor/projector mis-matches use WINDOWED MODE 1024x768 and (I think!!) you cannot go wrong!

This also prevents viewers from running 1024x768 "Fit to screen" shows at 1280, 1600 or 1920 pixels monitor/projectors and thus interpolating shows up beyond their optimum viewing resolution.

It also helps to put "Best viewed at xxxx x xxxx resolution" somewhere at the beginning of a show to tell the viewer what to expect. I see very few people actually doing this.

DaveG

[Ken Cox]

John

your question on the forum re monitor size kind of piqued my interest and the other day i got a chart in a magazine that showed optimum distance to view -- but ARTICLE was not available on the web

if you are planning for the future why would you not get a ws lcd TV big enough to put on wall for all the club members to see -- i think some of the current sets will take a computer input, and i think it would be a whole lot cheaper to run than a a/v projector

- so did a search and came up with a few links

JUST AN IDEA FROM THE COLONY:)

KEN

http://www.bestbuy.ca/learnmore/BuyersGuid...=&langid=EN

Calculate the optimal viewing distance for your TV

by Edmund Tinblock

Copyright © 2006 Best Buy Canada

Is a bigger TV always better? A 60" TV really doesn't look that great if you're sitting only four feet away. Plus, it'll probably give you a headache. Your viewing experience is affected not only by the size of your TV, but also how far away you sit. So just what is the ideal TV viewing distance?

The answer? It depends. If you have a large TV, you will be able to sit farther back than you can with a smaller TV. And, thanks to the high level of detail provided by high definition (HD), you can sit closer to an HDTV than you can to a standard set. The important point is this: to get the most out of your TV, you need to get the right size to fit in your viewing space.

Avoid side effects

The main problem with sitting too close to certain LCD TVs (flat-panel and rear-projection) is that you'll be able to see the individual pixels that make up an image, a phenomenon called the 'screen door' effect. You may also experience fatigue and eye discomfort if you sit too close, particularly if you have a tube (CRT) TV.

A screen that's too small or too far away will just be frustrating to watch, since you won't see all the details. You may also tire out your eyes by having to squint constantly.

Calculate the right viewing distance

To find out how far away you should be sitting from the TV screen, you just need to do a little math. For standard TVs, multiply the screen size by 3. For HDTVs, multiply by 2.5. See the table below for some examples.

Screen Size Viewing Distance

Standard TVs HDTVs

27" 81" (6'9") 68" (5'8")

32" 96" (8') 80" (6'8")

37" 111" (9'3") 93" (7'9")

42" 126" (10'6") 105" (8'9")

50" 150" (12'6") 125" (10'5")

60" 180" (15') 150" (12'6")

This also works in reverse. If you know you have eight feet (96") between where you want to sit and the front of the screen, divide by 3 to find out the screen size of the standard TV you should be getting or 2.5 if you're looking at an HDTV.

http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.co...g-distance.html

Viewing Distance Calculator

http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/vie...calculator.html

UK's biggest and best home cinema discussion forums and audio visual home consumer electronics resource.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312431

[Conflow]

Ken,

Thats seems a good simple way of calculating 'viewing distance' for 525 Line NTSC Systems

thats USA etc;...

In EU Land we use 625 Line Pal System and 1000 Line HD (French) and as the definition is

some +20% better and Luminance is much higher ~ I expect we should use a 4:1 ratio.

So for a 24" Set we should use a viewing distance of (96") or 8.Ft ~ that seems just about

right for our TV Systems and the general publics' choice of TV/Room sizes here.

I agree with you about a Wall-Monitor for the Camera Club. They might they have a Wall-TV

as most Clubs have these days ~ however they will probably need a PC Monitor for Editing etc:

Brian.Conflow.

[Ken Cox]

UK's biggest and best home cinema discussion forums and audio visual home consumer electronics resource.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312431

IMHO

if they get a big enough one they edit on it

ken

[Conflow]

Ken,

Yep, I know that AV.Forum and have used it in the past and I just had a quick visit to

that thread in the Link you provided and it looks as if my previous calculation of 4:1 was

just about correct for the EU. At the end of the day, it really is down to the "goodness"

of the TV viewers eyesight, despite what the boffins say.

So in reality I think we should take the advice as being a good general "yardstick" rather

than a Technical Spec. cast in stone. (3:1 for 525 Systems and 4:1 for 625 Systems)

Brian.

[cjdnzl]

John

your question on the forum re monitor size kind of piqued my interest and the other day i got a chart in a magazine that showed optimum distance to view -- but ARTICLE was not available on the web

if you are planning for the future why would you not get a ws lcd TV big enough to put on wall for all the club members to see -- i think some of the current sets will take a computer input, and i think it would be a whole lot cheaper to run than a a/v projector

- so did a search and came up with a few links

JUST AN IDEA FROM THE COLONY:)

KEN

Ken,

If I understand you correctly, are you advocating a WS HDTV for club use rather than a data projector and regular screen? That idea simply floors me. In this country at least (New Zealand), WS HDTVs are about 3 to 4 times the price of a reasonable 1024x768 data projector, which can show images 6, 8, or even 10 feet wide, with less power consumption than a TV. Further, data projectors are eminently portable, which is certainly not the case with 60-inch TVs, and a 5-foot image is just not big enough for a room full of 50 or more persons.

Although film use seems to be dying, some club members still exhibit 35mm slides, which mandates the use of a regular screen as well.

Finally, LCD HDTVs are a prime target for thieves, and leaving one on the wall of an unattended club rooms is asking for it to be ripped off. At least a data projector can be locked away out of sight.

YMMV,

Colin

[Ken Cox]

JUST AN IDEA FROM THE COLONY:)

from what i have heard bulb replacement is expensive for projectors

sorry i have no control over your pricing

ken

[JEB]

Gentlemen,

Thank you all for your contributions.

Peter – Your situation is very similar to my own personal situation and its comforting to know I am not on my own!

Dave – You also are confirming my own thoughts, thanks.

Ken / Brian / Colin – Nice thought but as Colin points out this would both be too expensive and impractical for our club. However, this information will be useful to me, as I will soon have to upgrade my TV. We start the cut-off of analogue and move to digital within a few months in my part of the UK.

Returning to my initial concern. The decision has I think been made for us in that it turns out the wide screen monitor option can’t be set to 1024x768 whereas the “square” monitor can. So we will go with that.

Thanks again for your contributions

John

[cjdnzl]

JUST AN IDEA FROM THE COLONY:)

from what i have heard bulb replacement is expensive for projectors

sorry i have no control over your pricing

ken

Ken,

Yes, bulbs are expensive, but their life is typically 2000 - 3000 hours. At an average of, say, an hour or two a month for camera club use, that's 1000 months minimum, or 83 years!!!

And LCD TV's don't get off free, either, the projected life of an LCD display is about five years, when the brightness will be about 50% of new.

I can't control pricing either, so we're evens there

Colin

[Ken Cox]

COLIN

I was under the impression bulb life was only 700 +- hrs

but according to this

http://www.amazon.com/Epson-Powerlite-76C-...r/dp/B000B6V6UQ

you are correct

thks for the enlighting

ken