Page 1 of Cheap 19"TFT - £351.32 inc VAT

In this weeks Novatech news letter listed is a LiteON 19"TFT for £351.32 inc VAT! Don`t know anything about monitors but surely a bargain!?

Click here to see this offer.

On the face of it it looks great
However, if it`s anything like their 15" model - it has a very poor response time (40ms) which means it wouldn`t be much good for gaming or DVD watching on the PC.
For general usage (ie non fast moving graphics) - then this is a great price

It also appears only an analogue interface, not DVI

The problems come with Novatech`s lack of specs for it!
Like I said - for everyday usage this is a great price, and if you`re not worried about a little ghosting, then for gaming as well

I`ve been seduced by the price of this, I didn`t know that 19`s were getting down to this area so I`ve dug around a bit...

This one is 12 quid more but has a 25ms response, DVI-D and a 4 port USB hub thrown in too.... is this worth my hard earned pennies?? :/

Thanks for any advice!

I`ve got the AOC and think it`s fantastic, but it didn`t get a particularly good review in this month`s PC Pro. The speakers are a bit of a waste of space and I sometimes have problems with 1 of the USB ports not working, but I just unplug and switch to one of the other ports so no big deal. I certainly don`t regret buying it and that`s a pretty good price as well.

The AOC one on that link definitely looks pretty good, although better response times can be seen in some of the LG Flatron models (down to about 15ms I think). 20-25ms should be acceptable for DVD/gaming - IMO

DVI-D is definitely worth it - as the clarity (especially on bigger screens) is really good, although the price of cables can vary wildly. Dabs.com do one for about £15 I think, but that`s the cheapest I`ve seen one.

FYI - the AOC comes with a DVI cable.

This item was edited on Friday, 6th February 2004, 23:24

If you are thinking of buying an LCD (TFT) monitor, please remember that they work very differently to CRT (Glass) types...

1. They work best at their native resolution (1 pixel = 1 dot), ie 17" 1280X1024 monitor must do some downsampling to display 1024X768, resulting in blocky text etc., unlike CRTs which can downgrade easily and clearly.

2. However, just like CRTs, DPI (dots per inch) are very important for sharpness of picture. My old Trinitron 0.25" monitor was vastly superior to 0.28" normal tubes.

3. The AOC 17" has a 0.264" dpi and is very sharp. I note that the 19" AOC has a 0.294" dpi and has exactly the same native resolution as the 17", ie just spread further apart. This is probably fine for business graphics or if you have trouble reading a 17" at full rez (I do!), but it is something you should consider as most 19" TFTs seem to have this dpi.

4. The rather fine and well-priced 17" AOC 729 has analogue, DVI and Pivot function, and is pretty hard to beat IMHO. Best of luck!

Thanks for all the advice... I`ll report back when it arrives on Tuesday!! :D :D

Anyone looking to buy a CRT??? :p ;)

Pete

Hi all,

mine arrived today, so here`s my first impressions.

Oh my god! it`s so big!

(I`ve never actually seen a 19" TFT, and so was pleasantly surprised).

The monitor seems exceptionally clear and bright, and runs at a native 1280x1024. Although not mentioned on the site, it has both DVI and D-SUB connectors, and comes with both cables, as well as 2 power cables - one for mains, one from the base unit.

Setup is a doddle, it comes with a floppy with INF file and an auto-setup utility. Wasn`t really necessary, as the out-of-the-box setup was pretty optimal.

Windows operation is superb, played a couple of DIVX and DVDs back and looked really smoooth. From the manual, the response time is 25ms - if anyone wants any of the other numbers, I can post them.

Just had a final test, Serious Sam The Second Encounter. Not a big FPS fan, but didn`t notice any issues at all around refresh rates, or ghosting images.

All in all, delighted at my new toy. I haven`t tested the inbuilt speakers, as I also got the Aego2 set mentioned in another thread. Damn, this forum costs me a lot of money to save a lot of money.....

Sandy

That`s very encouraging - thanks. FWIW, I think that there are only a handful of manufacturers that make the glass bits (i.e. the LCD) and the rest just package them, so there isn`t usually too much to choose in image quality. I`ve used a Samsung 19" (not mine, unfortunately) which I thought was wonderful, but it wasn`t £350!