Re: A question about LCD flat panel displays
On Mon, Feb 18, 2002 at 07:20:37PM -0500, stan wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 18, 2002 at 09:29:29AM -0700, Gary Hennigan wrote:
> > stan <stanb@awod.com> writes:
> > > I'm contemplating purchasing an LCD flat panel disply for use on the new
> > > Debain woody workstation I am building for my wife.
> > >
> > > Having never used one of these before, and since they are failry expensive,
> > > I thought I would ask some advice of this list.
Prices are coming down quite a bit. And if you shop around a bit, you
can find bargains. I got my hands on a whole bunch of Apple Studio
LCDs when the local Mac store was making room for the new models. Too
many, actually -- I'm going to be throwing extras up on ebay.
The original models have DVI connectors and work on regular PCs if you
don't mind not being able to power them off manually -- configuring
console and X for APM screen-saving turns them off just fine. The
color on these things is as good as any CRT.
If you want to go a bit cheaper, you can find the older IBM DVI-D
displays for as little as $225. The color on these is rather washed
out in the lightest and darket ranges - about like an old IBM laptop.
I believe Viewsonic and Dell both have closeouts on older models from
time to time, where you'll catch LCDs near the price of the equivalent
high-quality CRT. I've seen nice 1280x1024s there a time or two.
Mind - you CAN go expensive. I treated myself to a Viewsonic vp201mb
for work, a 20.1" 1600x1200 DVI display. I could never go back to a
CRT after spending time on that! But it cost $2600 when I purchased it
last November. (Ouch.) They can be had as cheaply as $1750 now.
> > > We do a lot of work in console mode, in addition to some work in X. Will
> > > I be able to use all of the framebuffer functiosn on this disply? I
> > > presently use xawtv in the console mode, fbi to display graphics, and have
> > > a custom resolutinon set up for the console sessiosn. Will all of these
> > > work with the LCD flat panel?
These will work with Matrox and nvidia cards. I do not know about
others. You may need to rework your refresh rates: LCDs don't usually
have refresh rates as high as CRTs. This is mostly because they don't
need higher refresh rates. An active matrix display is always on, so
it doesn't flicker. IMHO, a good LCD at 60Hz looks better than a CRT
at 120Hz.
> One quick question. Would it be safe to assume that to run in digital
> mode, your video card ahs to have some sort of special output conector?
Yes. Your monitor and the video card must match. DVI-D is the most
common standard for digital displays on PCs. You can find adapters to
match most any card to most any monitor, but these aren't cheap, and
can go into the hundreds of dollars range.
You should also be aware that DVI card support can be spotty under
X. Be sure to read up on DVI-D support for the video card you intend
to use.
Matrox G200MMS, G400, G450 and all DVI nvidia cards have DVI-D driver
support under X. Console "just works." Newer Matrox models likely have
support too, as do some of the ATI Radeons, but I have no first-hand
experience.
Good luck!
Reply to: