Page 1 of 1

S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:35 pm
by ludi
I needs a quality monitor that will support my photography habit. Currently using a 3-year-old 22" TN panel that has served me well as a general office/Internet user and gamer, but now that I'm editing raw digital photos, the missing color gamut and over-bright rendering are magically visible. Since I haven't done much online gaming the past couple years, I'm going to skip PVA-type panels and go straight to S-IPS. I don't want a grotesque amount of input lag as I still fire up an FPS game once in a while, but the crack-addled fast twitch days are largely behind me.

I don't care about built-in speakers, USB hubs, etc. although the presence of such is not a deal-breaker, I just won't use it. Price range is about $300 with a Franklin or two of flexibility.

TR had this post a few weeks ago. The Dell U2311H has gone up a bit -- at this moment, it is $319 on the Dell website -- but that's tolerable. Another possibility is this NEC (a little pricey) or possibly a good buy in a Viewsonic. The HP ZR22W is also an option.

Any thoughts, suggestions, musings, etc.? I've got about one more month to think about this before I'll click the Buy Button.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:40 pm
by JustAnEngineer

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:43 pm
by wibeasley
I haven't been noticing the U2311 price fluctuations, but given Dell's other IPS monitors, I wouldn't be surprised if it dipped before you have to buy in a month. Is there anything that you do that would benefit from a 1920x1200 more than a 1920x1080?

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:45 pm
by DancinJack
I have the Dell U2410. 24", IPS, usb hub, tons of inputs and media card reader make it very flexible. The abundance of inputs and IPS really sold me on it. I have really loved using it coming from a 17" TN LCD. It may be a little out of your price range, but i would give it a long, hard look if I were you.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... u=320-8277

You can generally find them on ebay for ~ $100 less than dell sells it for retail. I got mine off ebay from the dell store on there and I haven't had any issues and if you buy a new one you still get the warranty and all that. It also has the color gamut you're going to need and the color profiles let you customize the color depending on what you're working on. It also has selections for sRGB and AdobeRGB so you can use whichever suits you best.

(ebay link) http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-DELL-U2410-24in ... 529wt_1213

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:50 pm
by ludi
wibeasley wrote:
I haven't been noticing the U2311 price fluctuations, but given Dell's other IPS monitors, I wouldn't be surprised if it dipped before you have to buy in a month. Is there anything that you do that would benefit from a 1920x1200 more than a 1920x1080?

I have 1680 x 1050 both on my 22" TN and a 19" PVA that I use as a spare, and the rest of my time outside of work is invested on a Timeline 1810TZ notebook. So in short, no.

EDIT: The only thing that I can think of is that I have a pair of new Dell 20" 4:3s at work (can't remember the p/n, but the wide available viewing angle suggests either PVA or IPS) and something about the screen looks "sparkly" when viewing lightly-colored areas. Drives me nuts.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:51 pm
by Fighterpilot
Yup, U2410 is very good and anyway HIPS sounds better then SIPS. :wink:

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:26 am
by Flying Fox
With regards to the U2410, is the sRGB emulation still as bad as in Cyril's blog showed? The ZR24W is attractive in the sense that I don't need the wide gamut stuff and I don't edit photos professionally enough for me to want to use a calibrator.

The U2311 is a good compromise, but the lack of inputs and 1200 vertical pixels on the 24" keep me flipflopping between these 2. How is that colour profile by TFT central that you have posted?

JustAnEngineer wrote:
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2071442

I don't think the deals are in effect anymomre?

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 8:49 am
by MadManOriginal
ludi wrote:
wibeasley wrote:
I haven't been noticing the U2311 price fluctuations, but given Dell's other IPS monitors, I wouldn't be surprised if it dipped before you have to buy in a month. Is there anything that you do that would benefit from a 1920x1200 more than a 1920x1080?

I have 1680 x 1050 both on my 22" TN and a 19" PVA that I use as a spare, and the rest of my time outside of work is invested on a Timeline 1810TZ notebook. So in short, no.

EDIT: The only thing that I can think of is that I have a pair of new Dell 20" 4:3s at work (can't remember the p/n, but the wide available viewing angle suggests either PVA or IPS) and something about the screen looks "sparkly" when viewing lightly-colored areas. Drives me nuts.


This would be the Dell anti-glare coating which some people notice and others don't. I noticed it immediately when I tried a 2407W a few years ago and just couldn't stand it so I returned it. I went with an NEC 20WMGX2 instead at the time (glossy is really nice for indoors when you can control the environment - it makes it so you're looking directly at the image instead of at the panel surface) but now I've got an HP LP2475W and the antiglare is not nearly as aggressive as Dell's. If the anti-glare bothers you you might as well scratch Dell off your list now.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:18 am
by Fighterpilot
Unfortunately you are incorrect.The U2410 anti glare screen is very well done and hardly too aggressive.
Panel finish varies widely not only between manufacturers but models also.
Dell did this model well in that respect.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:24 am
by ludi
Hmmm...well, I'm at work right now and it looks like the monitors that are bugging me are a pair of 2007FPb Rev A05s. Does that ring any bells?

I definitely don't want to see this effect on a personal monitor, at any rate, especially not while doing photo or graphics work.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:53 am
by riviera74

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:49 pm
by ludi
So now I'm thinking that HP ZR24W looks like the right deal. $400 is a bit more than I want to spend but I could do it by mid-August.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:58 pm
by wibeasley
I wouldn't expect that to fluctuate much. The ZR24W is already cheaper than the U2410, and it's been $400 since at least April. I've been very happy with mine for three months, but it you don't benefit from going from 16:9 to 16:10, I'm not sure it's worth the extra $100+ over then U2311.

I don't have a handle of the color/coating differences. But I'm skeptical it's worth 33% more money.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:39 pm
by Dieter
I have 10 of the Dell U2311H's, and I like them. HOWEVER, I am not convinced they are IPS panels, no matter what the specifications say.

I have put them up side-by-side to our older Dell Ultrasharp 1908FP's (19" non-widescreen TN panels. Nice monitors, BTW). When viewing at different angles, the U2311H's definitely keep their color better than the 1908FP's, but TO ME, they still appear to be a TN panel, as they appear more dim when viewing off center, their color seems to shift slightly, etc.

When I've seen the U2410 (I do not own one), it did not do this. It looked almost like a (good) CRT: nearly uniform brightness and color, no matter what angle you're looking at it.

I was a little disappointed with the U2311H's when we received them, as I was expecting the superb picture produced by the U2410, just in smaller size. TO ME, they do not appear to match up.

I'm still happy with them, but I would call them a very good TN panel, but not up to U2410 standards.

I don't do color work, so maybe the U2311H's really are IPS and can be properly calibrated and are the bargain that they appear to be. I think you'd have to calibrate one to know for sure.

Hope this helps!

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:23 pm
by continuum
Color on the U2410 is fine in uncalibrated applications when in sRBG mode (it's not perfect but this is a $500 monitor, not a $1200 one!)... Cyril's the only one who thinks the TR background is blue instead of the blue-purple the rest of us find it. :P

Although if you just want a pure standard gamut monitor, buy the ZR24w (which is also 1920x1200, IPS) and call it a day. :P

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:34 pm
by ludi
I don't have a handle of the color/coating differences. But I'm skeptical it's worth 33% more money.

If you could see what I'm staring at right now you would understand. I'm getting both the actual display image, and a refracted image of the lighter areas that appears to hover faintly above the visual surface, a scatter pattern of pastel pixels that are coarser than the display resolution. My eyes are constantly shifting focal depths between the actual display image and the refraction that is occurring on the surface of the display.

I think I was able to get a picture of it using my macro lens, I'll see if I can get that uploaded when I'm at home tonight.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 5:01 pm
by wibeasley
ludi wrote:
I don't have a handle of the color/coating differences. But I'm skeptical it's worth 33% more money.
If you could see what I'm staring at right now you would understand.
I'm sorry, I don't understand the comparison you're making. Are you talking about the 4:3 20" Dell that you think is IPS? And you think it has the same coating as the U2311? If so, I don't have an opinion -the newest Dell IPS I've seen is the 2005WPF.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 5:41 pm
by Flying Fox
continuum wrote:
Color on the U2410 is fine in uncalibrated applications when in sRBG mode (it's not perfect but this is a $500 monitor, not a $1200 one!)... Cyril's the only one who thinks the TR background is blue instead of the blue-purple the rest of us find it. :P

Although if you just want a pure standard gamut monitor, buy the ZR24w (which is also 1920x1200, IPS) and call it a day. :P

I don't really care about the purple vs blue thing, but the ZR24W surely looked different on the picture in his blog entry. And I think the sRGB ZR24W is correct? That said, does the L2475W have sRGB mode emulation?

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:41 pm
by continuum
Cyril had something funny on his setup. The LP2475w does *not* have an effective sRGB mode to contain down to the normal gamut, while the U2410 does. The U2410 in sRGB emulation is pretty close to the ZR24w if your standard of sRGB is a "reasonable" approximation-- note that neither is perfect, the ZR24w extends only a little past sRGB in reds and blues, while the U2410 in sRGB mode does go somewhat more past it in reds

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_zr24w.htm

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2410.htm

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_lp2475w.htm

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:09 am
by Flying Fox
continuum wrote:
Cyril had something funny on his setup. The LP2475w does *not* have an effective sRGB mode to contain down to the normal gamut, while the U2410 does. The U2410 in sRGB emulation is pretty close to the ZR24w if your standard of sRGB is a "reasonable" approximation-- note that neither is perfect, the ZR24w extends only a little past sRGB in reds and blues, while the U2410 in sRGB mode does go somewhat more past it in reds

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_zr24w.htm

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2410.htm

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_lp2475w.htm

How's the input lag on the U2410 with sRGB emulation? And what about that profile thing from TFT central, is that good enough? Would I be better off just to get the non-wide gamut U2311 and call it a day? If I were to choose between the U2410 and the ZR24w, the HP does not do pivot nor it does proper scaling, even with newer firmware. Meanwhile at least the U2311 has 4:3 aspect so you can feed SD contents there.

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:10 am
by ludi
According to what info I can find the Dell 2007fp revA05s I have at work could be PVA or IPS, but in any case, here's what the antiglare coating does:

Image

The monitor is displaying white. On the far left, I focused in on actual pixels. In the center, at the exact same shot position and settings, I simply adjusted the focus slightly until it captured what's happening on the antiglare coating. Already, this looks like a problem. Both of those are a 400x400 pixel sample from two source images.

On the right is a 1200x1200 pixel sample from the second image. Notice the random interference pattern emerging? I tweaked the iamge's brightness and contrast slightly to clarify it, but at a normal viewing distance this looks like a hovering "sparkle".

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:23 am
by JustAnEngineer
Are you supplying that monitor with a DVI-D digital signal or using analog?

Re: S-IPS in the 20-24" range

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:29 pm
by ludi
It is connected with analog. The desktop unit (also Dell) has a dongled video card and two analog feeds come out of the dongle.