Watching Movies On An Lcd Monitor - Possible?

[Beggar]

I need a bigger monitor and so I plan to buy a LCD monitor in addition to my CRT monitor (will keep it for video and photo editing because of the color problems of the - cheaper - LCDs).

Today I was standing in a shop and watched a movie on a Samsung P2350 for a while. There were some dark scenes. I could not see much then. So I switched around with the settings of the monitor but it did not help. Sure, the room was bright but LCD TVs further away showed a great picture.

So my question - is it possible to watch a movie on such an LCD monitor or is it more a big compromise that will get on your nerves pretty soon? What is your experience? Will a glossy display make a difference?

[niveknedwob]

It very much depends on the 'source' of the video being viewed. "Pirated" copies of videos are not always great to watch because of the 'contrast' encoding problems associated with a lot of video rippers.

Have seen so many movies here where everything seems to happen at night - but then I remember the quality of some of the 'illegal' sat decoders from the early '90's and it is just the same.

'Quality in' usually equates to 'quality out'.

[garyh]

I have the monitor you mentioned, the standard setting with magicolor is garbage. Go into menu and turn off magicolor of and the picture is very good, with that on dark images go even darker for some silly reason. The monitor is good for videos, pictures and gaming with a 2ms response time, also it is full HD resolution so it is perfect for blue ray.

[astral]

Try Monitor Calibration Wizard http://www.hex2bit.com/ for setting up your monitor.

[Beggar]

I have the monitor you mentioned, the standard setting with magicolor is garbage. Go into menu and turn off magicolor of and the picture is very good, with that on dark images go even darker for some silly reason. The monitor is good for videos, pictures and gaming with a 2ms response time, also it is full HD resolution so it is perfect for blue ray.

This is exactly what I did - set it it Magiccolor because the colors looked flat compared to the TVs. They knew why they did not call it Magiccontrast :-)))

Can you have two browser windows next to each other on your monitor (without scrolling in the windows) or is the text too small then? This is what I want to achieve. But I guess I will have to go to a 25" at least for this. Samsung just has a new 27". Somehow too big...and perhaps too expensive. The 26" T260 is a bit old now.

[Beggar]

Try Monitor Calibration Wizard http://www.hex2bit.com/ for setting up your monitor.

Thanks for the tool. Tried it on my old CRT because I do not have an LCD yet. To my surprise it was calibrated perfectly. What a sad start if you need this for an LCD from the beginning. But I read that tools like this are necessary then. On the other hand just change the viewing angle a bit and all the calibration work might be good for nothing. Often I think the LCDs are a big step back...somehow the mp3 of display.

[garyh]

I have the monitor you mentioned, the standard setting with magicolor is garbage. Go into menu and turn off magicolor of and the picture is very good, with that on dark images go even darker for some silly reason. The monitor is good for videos, pictures and gaming with a 2ms response time, also it is full HD resolution so it is perfect for blue ray.

This is exactly what I did - set it it Magiccolor because the colors looked flat compared to the TVs. They knew why they did not call it Magiccontrast :-)))

Can you have two browser windows next to each other on your monitor (without scrolling in the windows) or is the text too small then? This is what I want to achieve. But I guess I will have to go to a 25" at least for this. Samsung just has a new 27". Somehow too big...and perhaps too expensive. The 26" T260 is a bit old now.

You can have 2 open beside each other but some pages dissappear off the side and you need to scroll across but fo most things it is fine. I am happy with the size any bigger and you will get a sore neck turning your head from side to side.

[astral]

Try Monitor Calibration Wizard http://www.hex2bit.com/ for setting up your monitor.

Thanks for the tool. Tried it on my old CRT because I do not have an LCD yet. To my surprise it was calibrated perfectly. What a sad start if you need this for an LCD from the beginning. But I read that tools like this are necessary then. On the other hand just change the viewing angle a bit and all the calibration work might be good for nothing. Often I think the LCDs are a big step back...somehow the mp3 of display.

I am glad you like MCW, it was discussed in the Photography section a while back.

I cannot agree the LCD's are a step back.

Once set up they far exceed the CRT screen,

however the industry does need to look at what comes out of the factory.

My Samsung, 40" series 6 TV was abysmal, out of the box.

Fortunately I found a review site that gave the settings they had arrived.

That improved matters and after a little more tweaking I have a good picture,

BUT as an end user I should not have to radically change the settings.