DonationCoder.com Forum
Main Area and Open Discussion => Living Room => Topic started by: mouser on February 04, 2014, 06:35 AM
-
I have never worried much about monitor size for my computer, but I do care a lot about resolution, and really love having lots of real estate.
In the past I always aimed for a multi-monitor setup, with monitor resolutions of 1600x1200.
My current setup is three 19" 1600x1200 lcd monitors.
(The text font size is just fine for me with those).
But i'm looking to buy a new central monitor, and i'm trying to decide whether to get a 24" (1920x1200) (apx, $320), or to go all the way up to a 27" (2560x144) ($500).
I love the idea of the additional screen real-estate on the 27". But I have a real concern about the screen being "too large" for daily coding.
For tv/movies, the bigger the better.
But for programming, I need to be staring at lots of small text -- and I sit about 2.5 feet away from the screen.
So at a certain point, a large screen is going to mean having to move my eyes around uncomfortably.
Thoughts?
-
If anyone wants to join me in jumping to 27", this is the one i'm looking at -- newegg is currently having a bit of a sale on it:
LG 27EA83R-D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005494
-
LG 27EA83R-D
-mouser
If you're aiming for a single-screen solution, I'd definitely have a look at this or a similar, super-high res, monitor. But do have a good test in the shop to view the actual brightness of the screen, that is, IMHO very, important too. You may need to make use of the return-policy, when available, if it's not good enough in your environment (like a very bright, sun-lit, location or whatever).
The price definitely sounds right :up:
-
Hmm.
At home I've been pleased with the 24" monitor I bought some seven years ago, though it's really on the tail of its life now! At one time at an old job I had two monitors, but since then I've only used my single one from home recreationally.
I'm thinking that the "programming environment" doesn't need to be maximized, so that "extra real estate" would become just other parts of the desktop housing the partially hidden windows of other apps that you just click to bring to the front.
I'll add a small surprise twist to this discussion by mentioning one of my favorite "under the radar" programs from here: Trandesk. It's not even a NANY. It's from the super obscure "C programming contest" here.
Most of the reason people go into multi monitor setups is because they don't want to play musical chairs with overlapping app focus. But for me Trandesk works as a virtual monitor - In "Workspace 1" I'd have my four instances of Firefox, three PaleMoon, and some five apps open. And that's plenty of noise for one workspace! So then on the second one I'd open the other couple of browser instances and the other few apps.
So my vote is Big Monitor + Trandesk!
:Thmbsup:
-
But do have a good test in the shop to view the actual brightness of the screen, that is, IMHO very, important too.
I never appreciated brightness issues until i tried a different monitor one day that was noticeably clearer and brighter than what i was used to. It was actually labeled a "glossy" monitor when most these days are labeled as "matte". I have to say i much preferred the glossy one, though they seem to be rare for some reason.
-
The 22" is perfect for me. You can use several windows and dont move your head :P
-
But do have a good test in the shop to view the actual brightness of the screen, that is, IMHO very, important too.
I never appreciated brightness issues until i tried a different monitor one day that was noticeably clearer and brighter than what i was used to. It was actually labeled a "glossy" monitor when most these days are labeled as "matte". I have to say i much preferred the glossy one, though they seem to be rare for some reason.
-mouser
a lot of matt ones have problems with clearness, best read reviews. Saying that, I mostly have the brightness at 10% on my matt Dell monitor -- and would not change it for an otherwise similar 'glossy' one. Other models from dell have gotten bad press because of the matt coating - depends on the model (mine is no longer available btw).
FWIW I've read that the model you're looking at has the same panel as the Dell 2713 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260111)
Cant comment on the size, only have a 22" (but it's 16:10 which helps)
-
Have three (3) 24" monitors connected to three (3) 17" laptops, one (1) Win 8.1 and two (2) Win7 Ultimate. All connected by Input Director (only got Synergy to work one (1) time <sigh \>). Use one (1) satellite system for entertainment, e.g.. TV schedule, videos, and the like. The other satellite system is for documentation - nice to be able to open three (3) or four (4) reference docs and be able to read all of them w/o alt-tabbing. Main system is used for Web stuff and what little coding I do these days. I settled on the 24" monitors because anything any bigger than that needs too much head swiveling to be comfortable, at least for me. I believe all the monitors are matte, but never really paid any attention to that aspect. All the monitors and the main box are at [corner] desk level, with two (2) of the slave boxes on a shelf above the monitors, so the arrangement is reasonably compact, and since I don't run anything full screen, it's easy to have multiple windows open such that each is completely visible w/o horizontal scrolling required.
<addendum>
This system has grown over multiple years - doing it all at once would be way too expen$ive :P.
</addendum>
-
If anyone wants to join me in jumping to 27", this is the one i'm looking at -- newegg is currently having a bit of a sale on it:
LG 27EA83R-D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005494
-mouser
Too rich for my blood. I've looked at 27s and 30s, but haven't pulled the trigger. They've been a lot less though... there are some really good deals on IPS monitors on ebay from S. Korea with Samsung screens. I have a couple of friends that have gone that way... and the results are awesome.
But right now, at work, I have 2x21+24+17 (laptop screen).
At home, I have 2x24 + 20. I had 3x24 at one point, but desktop space became a premium, and I didn't want to bother with complicated mounts to go vertical.
And as I've downsized, I realized that I didn't really *need* all of that space. As long as my primary is large enough, the rest is just gravy. What's been more important is the quality of the screen, i.e. LCD < LED Backlit < IPS. The IPS is what makes the larger difference.
I just checked on eBay, and there's an LG on there from Newegg for less:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LG-27EA33V-Black-27-5ms-HDMI-Widescreen-LED-Backlight-LCD-Monitor-IPS-Panel-/291069085391
same price on newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005419
The brightness is a little less... but not sure if that's worth the price difference.
-
I have two Dell S2340M 23" monitors. I really like them and they're really well priced.
NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260109 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260109)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-293M3-IPS-LED-23-Inch-LED-lit-Monitor/dp/B009H0XQRS (http://www.amazon.com/Dell-293M3-IPS-LED-23-Inch-LED-lit-Monitor/dp/B009H0XQRS)
-
Anyone use a rotated monitor in portrait mode for coding?
-
I've done it. And quickly switched back. I can get past a lack of vertical space... but horizontal space is what I crave. Also, looking up and down is more annoying than looking right to left IMO.
-
Similar experience to wraith808 here. My current opinion is that a certain amount of vertical space is important but after a certain amount, horizontal space seems more important (e.g. for comparing two (or more!) documents, segments of code, etc. - sideways seems to work better for me).
On a side note...points I've learned to consider for external displays:
- how easy it is to adjust physical orientation
- how easy are the buttons to push
- how long is one forced to view unnecessary info (e.g. a company logo) when turning the display on
- how much heat do I feel from the display (less the better)
-
Had a rotating monitor for several years. It was great for reading texts and tutorials in portrait mode, but lousy for coding unless I moved it back to landscape. And since most video players are designed to be landscape, it didn't work for video, either, in portrait mode.
-
Anyone use a rotated monitor in portrait mode for coding?
-mouser
I used a Radius Pivot monitor with a Mac IIsi for years until it finally gave up the ghost around 1999. I didn't use it for for coding. But I did use it for some serious animation and comic book scriptwriting projects. (Scriptwriting is very similar similar to coding when you think about it.)
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I really liked it. I noticed I could focus better for some strange reason whenever I flipped it to portrait. But I also find enabling typewriter sounds helps me to concentrate. So take what I've said about the monitor for what it's worth considering it's coming from me. :mrgreen:
8)
-
Anyone use a rotated monitor in portrait mode for coding?
-mouser
I've heard that if you take a 27" monitor in landscape and flank it with 2 24" monitors in portrait mode the bezels line up near perfectly. :)
Always glad to help you spend money, mouser!
-
I can report that a widescreen 27" monitor in portrait mode is a wild experience -- but unfortunately just too tall to be usable -- the vertical neck strain would put you in the hospital after a day.
It's *REALLY* a shame that widescreen monitors seem to be the only format being made these days -- I find it distinctly unhelpful. 27" widescreen is just too wide. a square shaped 27" diagonal monitor would be great.
-
It's *REALLY* a shame that widescreen monitors seem to be the only format being made these days -- I find it distinctly unhelpful. 27" widescreen is just too wide. a square shaped 27" diagonal monitor would be great.-mouser
You can minimize the problem by getting a 16:10 monitor rather than a 16:9 one, but 16:10 monitors are becoming more rare than hens' teeth.
-
I'm using 27" monitors for everything, and wouldn't want anything smaller. Have two side by side and that works fine for me.
-
My current monitor is a 26 or 27 inch 16:10 (1920x1200) monitor. I really like the 16:10 aspect ratio, but it seems to have pretty much gone the way of the dodo shortly after I ordered this thing a few years ago.
I've been wanting to get a second monitor for a few years since my last one died, because I feel there's just not quite enough space for coding efficiently on this monitor. It's nice to be able to see a lot of code, and also see a lot of info in a web browser or chat room at the same time, for reference or questions, etc.
I finally saved up enough money to buy a second monitor, and after looking at my options, I decided to spend a little extra and order a new 39-inch Seiki SE39UY04 4K (3840x2160) LED TV (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DOPGO2G/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DOPGO2G&linkCode=as2&tag=deozaan-20&linkId=PPCDLHULZ4GXFLPD) to use as a monitor, since with that resolution it's basically the same thing as four 1080p monitors in a 2x2 grid.
It should arrive today. I'm pretty excited. :)
-
I've been thinking about going that route- let us know how it goes!
-
I'm also curious to know what you think of it -- give yourself a week to get used to it.
I have adjusted to a 27" main display, surrounded by some smaller ones.
I haven't tried anything bigger than 27" but from my experience i would still say that:
- I think bigger than 27" would be too much vertical space to have to cover with my eyes when sitting at desk -- it would require neck straining.
- Having multiple monitors has some advantages over having the same pixels on one monitor; easier to keep things segregated, easier to mix and match and replace; easier to move windows around; psychologically easier to segregate tasks; easier to ANGLE the monitors into more of a semi-circular arrangement, etc.
- If you are going to have multiple monitors in a horizontal row -- having them be the same vertical resolution is convenient.
-
If you are going to have multiple monitors in a horizontal row -- having them be the same vertical resolution is convenient.
-mouser
I'll totally agree on this one. At work I'm using my laptop with an external 24" on one computer, and two 21" on the other. The two 21" just feels more comfortable, even though the 24" is better for coding.
-
It arrived, and I just got it set up. I gotta tell you I'm definitely in love with the extra space already!
Here are some screenshots (resized to 25%) for comparison:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And when I really need to have more context in some code I'm working on:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
-
WOW! :-*
-
What resolution are you running at, deo?
-
Now you're going to have to find 4k resolution wallpaper that you like. :)
-
How does it work for gaming? (you knew that one was coming...)
-
^ and how about viewing angles?
(so long as they're okay when you look from your 'fixed' sitting position)
-
Anyone use a rotated monitor in portrait mode for coding?
-mouser
A bit old but...
Yes. And I love it.
I have 3 monitors on this box. 2 x 24" and a 22". The setup is 24" (landscape) - 24" (portrait) - 22" (landscape).
I keep Visual Studio on a landscape monitor, then tear off a document tab and put that in the portrait monitor. Generally I work with 2 monitors side-by-side for 1 task with the third being for email, surfing, video, Skype, or whatever else.
But portrait is beautiful, especially when you want to see more of your code.
I didn't go for 27" because of space limitations on my desktop and costs. 24" is lots big enough for me (even if I'd rather have 27"), and the limited space with 4 monitors (I have a Mac as well) on my desktop really stops me from having more. I already have about 120 degrees of monitors, and pushing that to 180 degrees would really make things more difficult.
-
Nice to have so much space!
On a side note, I've taken to trying to keep the length of my functions short enough so I can see each one in its entirety without scrolling. I also try to keep my screens adjusted so the "viewable-without-scrolling" attribute remains true across a variety of screens (the smaller end being around 1024x768 with typical font sizes). This has the side benefit of making it easier on other folks who might work with code developed in this environment -- also leads to more functions :)
-
1024X768 was my golden setting for years on older monitors.
These days on my newer (but dying!) 24" I'm at 1280X960, though I think the relative fonts are a hair big due to my less that fantastic vision. The monitor itself can go far higher, I think up to 1600X something, that I use about once a year for some extremely specific use case.
-
Really nice, Deozaan :)
-
What resolution are you running at, deo?
-mouser
4K resolution, which is four times the pixels of 1080p. Or in other words: 3840x2160 (1920*2 = 3840 and 1080*2 = 2160)
At 39", it's basically like having a 2x2 grid of 19" 1080p monitors. :D
And don't ask me why they call it 4K. There's nothing 4K about it. IMO they should call it 2K since 2160 is just over 2K pixels and for HD they measured by vertical pixels when advertising 1080p.
Now you're going to have to find 4k resolution wallpaper that you like. :)
-Mizraim
I already went to VladStudio.com to re-download the majority of my wallpapers at a higher resolution. Sadly, they aren't offered in 4K resolution. So for now I've resorted to the largest images I can get (2880x1800 which is 16:10) with the option to "fill screen but maintain aspect ratio" which means that parts of the images get cut off, but surprisingly they still look pretty good.
How does it work for gaming? (you knew that one was coming...)
-wraith808
Even though my previous monitor was HD+ (16:10, 1920x1200), this is kind of my first HDTV. I bought an HDTV several years ago when the 19" LCD panels were still about $350. I wasn't willing to get one that small for that price, so I managed to find a fairly cheap CRT that was something like 32" (4:3) and could only handle 720p or 1080i at the best, so not fully HD. It worked alright, but honestly I never really tried much HD gaming on that TV until a couple of months ago when I got a WiiU and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. It was not a good experience because I couldn't read the text on the TV. It wasn't a matter of it being too small or me being too far away. It was literally illegible on that TV. So I did try that game again on this TV and even though technically it should look somewhat worse than on a 1080p screen due to having four times as many pixels (thus, the image is scaled at 2x which should result in more jaggies and artifacts, etc.), it's a vast improvement over my old TV and I thought it looked great and it was really nice, as this is also the largest screen of any kind I've ever owned. Console gaming on a big TV is really nice. It's no 70", but I'm perfectly OK with that.
My experience with PC gaming on this TV has been both glorious and frustrating.
The fan on my GPU started acting up a couple of months ago (actually it started acting up about a year or two ago, and only recently started failing almost completely), so it doesn't spin up properly and will often stop spinning entirely for a second or two before attempting to spin up, only to repeat the process again and again and again. This means that my GPU tends to overheat, especially when doing GPU-intensive things such as watching video or playing games. Combine that with the fact that the GPU has to work even harder to push 4 times as many pixels each frame, and it makes for a very hot GPU.
Honestly, I've been pretty busy this week and haven't done much gaming on it. But even before I got this TV I was having to drastically reduce graphical settings to keep games from making my GPU so hot (over 100 C) that my computer would shut down without warning. (I've since installed SpeedFan and set it up to beep at me when my GPU starts getting that hot, so I can alt-tab out of game, or move the camera somewhere less graphically intensive to let the GPU cool down a bit).
But the bad thing about this TV is that it uses an older HDMI standard (and no DisplayPort) which means that it can only run 4K and 2K resolutions at 30Hz refresh rate. This low refresh rate can cause some issues. I tried out CS:GO at 4K at max settings for a few minutes just to see how it ran. It was nice. But screen tearing always bothers me, so I enabled V-Sync (which limited the FPS to 30) and it made the mouse movement feel lagged. Even in the menu/UI, I'd move the mouse and wouldn't see the cursor update the position right away, so I'd often overshoot when going for a button on the UI, and go right past it. It was very difficult to play the game with that kind of delayed input.
I played an older game called Majesty 2 at full settings (with shadows turned down one notch, since somehow that made things go from super choppy to super smooth even though I couldn't tell any visual difference between the two settings). It's pretty awesome to see it so big and pristine. But there was one big problem! The UI didn't scale with the resolution. So all the UI seemed super tiny on the borders of the screen. It plays like an RTS, so unit information will be at the bottom, with action/build shortcuts in the bottom right corner, minimap and related functions in the bottom left corner, some special use items in the top left corner, and game speed controls and menus in the top right corner. They were so small, it felt like a real chore having to move my mouse cursor all the way across the screen to press the icons. It made me really wish there were more hotkeys for all the different actions.
Here's a screenshot of what I'm talking about (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=262035854). It's hard to even see any UI on the top of the screen of the smaller preview of the image.
It's hard to express it properly. The UI actually isn't tiny. It's the size it always was on my 1920x1200 monitor. But it is tiny relative to everything else. And there's so much space between everything, there's so much distance that my mouse or eyes have to travel to see or click the pertinent information that it's kind of annoying. I'd rather it all sort of hug the top center and bottom center of the screen instead of being docked to the corners.
I've also been playing a lot of Dungeon Defenders lately, and... I have to say that local multiplayer is where this thing really shines! As I said, it's like having four 19" 1080p monitors. So 2-4 players on the screen at once, splitscreen, is awesome! (Interestingly, I have VSync enabled in DD as well, but I haven't noticed any input lag)
Or if the game can be played well entirely with a controller (such as Dark Souls), the cable on my Xbox 360 Controller (for Windows) is so long that I can go sit or lay on my couch and play. It's essentially the console experience of playing with a gamepad on a big screen but with the benefits of the PC experience such as mods or graphics/texture fixes/improvements, etc.
But like I said, I've been pretty busy this week and haven't had much time to do much real gaming on this thing yet. And that combined with my dying GPU fan means that I've testing some things out for a few minutes here and there, but I'll probably need to either find some aftermarket cooler for this GPU or buy a new GPU entirely.
Speaking of which, can anybody help me find an aftermarket cooler for the XFX Radeon HD 6870? So far I've found:
- Gelid Solutions Icy Vision (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U8BLJI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003U8BLJI&linkCode=as2&tag=deozaan-20&linkId=BJBDNCI47TF74VRF): This one seemed highly recommended and is considered the better of the two (according to my findings) but there's a review that says it's not compatible with the XFX 6870 (http://www.amazon.com/review/RDZUQ7BLKO4QX/?ASIN=B003U8BLJI&nodeID=541966) even though the product says it should be.
- ARCTIC Accelero Twin Turbo III (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IEO8H22/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00IEO8H22&linkCode=as2&tag=deozaan-20&linkId=MAINB6DSEMT4KGOY): This one is just expensive enough to make me consider whether or not it would be worth it to splurge the extra cash to just buy a new GPU. But I'd really rather not spend another $200 on a GPU when the one I have would function perfectly well if the fan would just operate the way it should.
I'm still very happy with the graphical processing capabilities of my current GPU, and I feel like the only time I should have to upgrade my GPU is when I need more graphical capabilities out of it, not because it's impossible to keep cool (or impossible to repair/replace the fan)! It's so infuriating that they don't just use a regular fan mount bracket thingy so that I can buy a $10 replacement and fix it!
Hmm... Actually I just went to the NewEgg listing (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150561) for the card (since I can't even find the card on XFX's website) and saw others complaining about the fan dying, with a response saying to contact their support for a free replacement fan. Technically it should still be under the original 3 year warranty, but I don't think I "registered" the product and the 3-year warranty only applies if you register within 30 days of purchase or some such nonsense. I've sent them an email and hopefully they'll fix it for free.
^ and how about viewing angles?
(so long as they're okay when you look from your 'fixed' sitting position)
-tomos
Viewing angles seem pretty good to me. Probably even better than my previous monitor. On my old monitor I could tell a difference in the color from the top and bottom of the screen, even from my "fixed" sitting position. The way I have things set up in the summer is my desk is in the living room, so if I'd have company over for a movie or whatever, we'd usually pull the couch out from the wall and put it in front of the computer since my monitor was better quality than my TV. But if I laid down on my couch without adjusting my monitor's tilt, the screen could appear pretty dark and hard to see the details.
But I'd guess this TV has about 160-175 degree viewing angle. As I move to the side while looking at it, there's a point at which it appears to darken slightly, then it stays at that same level of brightness and clarity until I'm almost completely at a 90 degree angle to it. And just to test, I move my office chair to the side and laid down on the ground (so, lower than the couch would be) and I could still see the screen just fine. In fact, just today my girlfriend and another friend and I watched a movie on Netflix on this thing. We were all tired since we'd just gotten back from hiking for a couple of hours around the mountains nearby, so my friend laid on the floor while watching, and my girlfriend and I were on the couch and we all could see it just fine from our various odd angles. I didn't even realize how that would not have worked well at all on my old monitor until you got me thinking about it just now. Cool!
If you need more information about the TV, you can check the specifications here on the Amazon listing (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DOPGO2G/) (where I bought it) or from Seiki's own website (http://www.seiki.com/products/tv/SE39UY04-detail.php). But I don't see any viewing angles listed anywhere in there. . .
-
with the new one being so large, do you find its like in your face? which can be uncomfortable.
-
I tried to find a 4K 'rated' TV/Monitor like this one, locally, but the 'smallest' I found so far are 55". And Amazon doesn't ship this cutie to EU :(
@Deozaan:
I am a bit worried about the refresh/flickering at 30 Hz; is that in any way noticeable? I can be quite tiring if the screen is flickering, even when hardly noticeable.
Though technically our 50 Hz AC frequency shouldn't interfere in any way with the 30 Hz of the screen, I'm not convinced until it's actually tested and proven :huh:
-
I recently had the 'pleasure' to use a 32" monitor from Dell that ran at 3840x2160 for a couple of days and I must say, I prefer to have multiple monitors.
Even though my RDP sessions at 1920x1200 only took up a quarter of the screen I just found it harder to manage my windows.
I seemed to just end up with everything on the either the left or the right (why doesn't windows 7 have a built in horizontal snap).
Plus I had to crank the DPI right up to the max to make the text bearable to read.
I use 2 x 20" at 1600x1200 and sometimes wouldn't mind a 3rd monitor, even a widescreen one would probably do the trick for some of those side x side code windows/log file trawling.
-
New 19" 5:4 (!) IPS monitor from EIZO coming out in the autumn
http://www.eizo.com/global/products/flexscan/s1933/index.html
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
probably not of much interest to coders (?) but nice to see the option.
-
with the new one being so large, do you find its like in your face? which can be uncomfortable.
-techidave
I did feel it was a little bit too close. I thought I had scooted it back as far on my desk as it would go (which isn't very far because my desk has a printer stand (or something) on it) but I just checked and I was able to move it a few inches farther back. It feels a lot more comfortable now, though I still turn and tilt my head slightly to see all the corners. (But I'm sure I'd turn my head if I had a dual monitor setup as well.)
This "problem" with having to turn/tilt my head is exacerbated somewhat by the fact that I am now far enough away from the screen that things start to get a little blurry. This means that I have to wear my glasses (which I usually don't wear at home, since most of the time when I'm at home I don't need to see far distances). So the top of the screen is not within the viewing frame of my glasses, so I have to tilt my head upward somewhat to see the top of the screen clearly.
I'm worried this might cause issues for me as I tend to get headaches when I wear my glasses for too long.
Basically, in order for me to sit far back enough for the TV to be a comfortable distance where I can view all parts of the screen by only moving my eyes instead of my head, I'm no longer close enough to comfortably reach my keyboard and mouse. This could be fixed with a different desk, or wireless keyboard and mouse setup, but those solutions each have their own drawbacks (such as cost or convenience) and I'd still need to wear my glasses while using the computer.
I tried to find a 4K 'rated' TV/Monitor like this one, locally, but the 'smallest' I found so far are 55". And Amazon doesn't ship this cutie to EU :(
@Deozaan:
I am a bit worried about the refresh/flickering at 30 Hz; is that in any way noticeable? I can be quite tiring if the screen is flickering, even when hardly noticeable.
Though technically our 50 Hz AC frequency shouldn't interfere in any way with the 30 Hz of the screen, I'm not convinced until it's actually tested and proven :huh:
-Ath
I haven't noticed any flickering on the display at all. This was something that worried me as well, as I've been very sensitive to flickering on CRT displays in the past. Thought honestly, I can't remember if it was ever a problem for me on LCDs. But that could be because every LCD I've used had a good refresh rate, though I think perhaps it's a difference between the display technologies of CRT and LCD/LED.
But anyway, as I said, no problems at all with flickering at the lower refresh rate. And as I said before, the viewing angles are really nice. It's been a real pleasure to look at this thing. :-D
I recently had the 'pleasure' to use a 32" monitor from Dell that ran at 3840x2160 for a couple of days and I must say, I prefer to have multiple monitors.
Even though my RDP sessions at 1920x1200 only took up a quarter of the screen I just found it harder to manage my windows.
I seemed to just end up with everything on the either the left or the right (why doesn't windows 7 have a built in horizontal snap).
Plus I had to crank the DPI right up to the max to make the text bearable to read.-kwacky1
I'm experiencing some of these feelings as well. There is so much space that I almost don't know what to do with it. I'm still trying to tweak the settings to get things to display to my liking. I've had to go into accessibility settings to increase the size of the mouse cursor, because I'd have a hard time locating it, or I'd lose it while moving it across the screen. I also had to increase my mouse movement speed and acceleration settings so that it didn't take so long to get across the screen. I've also increased the text size for everything, and often press ctrl-+ in my browser to increase font sizes there as well. And I made the start menu/task bar larger (disabling the "Use small icons" option) for the first time in forever because it was a little difficult to accurately get my mouse over the right window. This somewhat defeats the purpose of all that extra room. What's the point of quadrupling the pixels if you also have to increase the size of all the text and windows and everything just to be able to see it?
As for window management, I've installed DisplayFusion (http://www.displayfusion.com/) which is an application to improve the multi-monitor experience--even though I only have one display connected to my PC right now. It has window management shortcuts and options that help with things, such as hotkeys that move and/or resize windows to certain positions or sizes. It also enables window snapping to the edges of the screen or other windows. I'm currently trialing the "Pro" version of DisplayFusion and I like it enough that I will probably buy it after my trial ends.
Sure, a lot of my previous posts about the TV were extolling its virtues, but to be honest, there are some fairly significant downsides to the TV as well. Some of them may be due to this particular model of TV I'm using (such as the 30Hz refresh rate at >1080p resolutions), or the fact that I'm using a TV rather than a display that was designed to be used as a PC monitor.
Some other downsides I haven't mentioned yet:
Because it's a TV, it's not designed to allow the PC to put the display to sleep after a period of time. That is, the display will sleep after some time when there is no signal to display, but it won't automatically wake up again once the PC starts sending a signal. The TV shuts off and I have to press the power button to turn it back on again. It probably takes the TV about 30 seconds or so from pressing the power button before it displays anything (not counting the Seiki splash screen).
This has the added detriment of repositioning my windows because somewhere along this process, it would seem the resolution gets temporarily changed. So all my windows that I had in the lower or right areas of the monitor are squashed up into the upper left section of the screen, and I have to move all my windows back to the positions I want them in. This is made somewhat easier with some custom hotkeys I defined in DisplayFusion, but it's still an annoyance that I have to face every time I come back to my PC after stepping away long enough for the display to shut off. This has caused me to actually enable a screensaver for the first time in years and leave the display on for a couple of hours before finally shutting off. Whereas in the past I'd often make the screen go blank after 5-10 minutes and have the PC actually shut off the display after another 5-10 minutes.
The colors are strange. The brights are really bright and the darks are really dark. I read in some reviews for the monitor that other people were complaining about the colors, they said that after some adjusting/calibrating the colors were fine. But I don't know exactly how to calibrate the colors. I don't have hardware or software for that. I just know that photos of people look... off. Everything looks a little cartoony or washed out or something.
At this point I'm not convinced I'll really like using this display as a PC monitor, especially if I think about having to deal with the annoyances listed in this and previous posts on a daily basis for the next 5+ years. I'm going to give myself a few more days to try to get used to this display, and if I'm still unsure about it, I'll likely return it and look into getting one of these 27" 2560x1440 monitors (http://www.ebay.com/itm/330932578190?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649), which should give me some extra space but also avoid most, if not all, of problems this TV has. This will also bring the cost of the new monitor back down to what I was originally hoping to pay for a 2nd monitor. And it has the added benefit that if I do need to get a new GPU, I can afford to buy both the 27" monitor and a new GPU for about the same price as this TV cost me.
-
There's also this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824238028
I have one of the 24" and I love it... thinking about upgrading to this and making a panorama setup with the two 24" on the sides and this in the middle
-
My previous monitor (http://www.asus.com/Monitors_Projectors/VW266H/) is 25"-26" (I think it was advertised as 25" when I bought it but the model number (which often indicates the size) includes the numbers 266 in it) at 1920x1200, and I wish I had a little more space, so I'm not sure I'd be satisfied with a larger monitor (27") with a smaller resolution (1920x1080). That's why I'm thinking the 27" 2560x1440 monitors will hit just the right spot.
-
My previous monitor (http://www.asus.com/Monitors_Projectors/VW266H/) is 25"-26" (I think it was advertised as 25" when I bought it but the model number (which often indicates the size) includes the numbers 266 in it) at 1920x1200, and I wish I had a little more space, so I'm not sure I'd be satisfied with a larger monitor (27") with a smaller resolution (1920x1080). That's why I'm thinking the 27" 2560x1440 monitors will hit just the right spot.
-Deozaan
Good points. let me know how your international experience is. That's been the only thing holding me back from buying from one of those (there are several on ebay)
-
Just thought I'd mention it here officially that I returned the 39" 4K TV. It was just too large and I couldn't concentrate on the task at hand.
I'll most likely buy this one as a 2nd monitor:
X-Star 27" WQHD 2560x1440 Monitor (http://www.ebay.com/itm/330932578190?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649)
-
Good decision.
-
How long did it take you to receive the monitor when you ordered it? I'm seriously thinking about that last one you posted...
-
How long did it take you to receive the monitor when you ordered it? I'm seriously thinking about that last one you posted...
-wraith808
If you're talking about the 4K Seiki TV, it was ordered on Amazon with free 2-day shipping using Amazon Prime. So it arrived very quickly.
If you're talking about something else, then there must have been a misunderstanding because the only monitor/TV I've purchased in the past couple years was that TV.
-
About a month ago, I went from a 24” 1920x1080 monitor to a 27” 2560x1440 monitor.
While I greatly appreciate the larger work space, I had to increase the default Windows text size from Medium to Larger in order to be able to read much of what is on the screen. This has made me acutely aware that support for large fonts is really inconsistent in a lot of software. All too often, text in dialog boxes is cut off or nearly unreadable. I’d guess this problem would be worse on a 4K monitor.
-
This has made me acutely aware that support for large fonts is really inconsistent in a lot of software.-xtabber
Hear hear. As a programmer, I (and mouser) can attest to this. In most cases, it's a pain in the ass, programmatically, to deal with.
-
I just got my 27" 2560x1440 monitor.
I'm still trying to figure out how to position it on my small desk next to my 25" 1920x1200 monitor, but so far I'm liking it.
I was worried about ordering it off eBay from a Korean seller. Worried it might be a piece of junk, or that it would be damaged, or have tons of dead pixels, or that if I had to return it due to defectiveness it would cost an arm and a leg for shipping, etc., but the seller had a very high rating and I searched through the customer feedback for the monitor and all but one were good feedback. So I took a chance on it.
I'm happy to report that shipping was really fast (it came from Korea faster than some items I ordered from elsewhere in the USA from Amazon!) and there are no dead pixels and the image quality seems to pretty good. It's at least superior to my old monitor as far as brightness, contrast, viewing angles, etc. go.
I would definitely recommend it for a single monitor setup.
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to handle the dual-monitor setup. To get it to fit on my desk I've turned my old monitor at an angle and pushed the new monitor a lot farther back than my old one used to be. This means that in addition to the higher resolution (which means smaller looking text) it's also far enough away from me that my myopia affects how well I can see it. This means I will likely have to wear my glasses while at my desk, and they tend to give me a headache after a while. But who knows. Maybe my next big purchase will be some LASIK surgery to fix my vision and that will no longer be an issue. If it wasn't for the vision issue, I think I'm already at a point where I like it enough to say that I would wholeheartedly recommend it in a dual-monitor setup. Heck, two of them would be pretty cool side by side!
-
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to handle the dual-monitor setup.
-Deozaan
Mostly driven by life circumstances, I have moved away from the dual monitor setup in favor of that incredibly under-rated type of software called Desktop Splitters, and my signature one I use is from that obscure one from here called TranDesk *Not a Nany* but actually from some kind of C+ test.
The point is, the big gain of a dual monitor is how you get a second field of view. But what if you an have *four* views, just a click away!? The fourth one I use for low level utilities like the Task Manager and the master archive of Stickies and a couple other things. So that leaves three. But I am bit prone lately to info overload. So what if you have seven sets of browser windows with five tabs each, and a couple other things going, then you want to start fresh? Just click to a new desktop split!
All that important stuff from tab 1 is saved, then you get a fresh slate to work on. And then when you overload that one, you get a third.
To me all it takes is one good monitor. I am currently on a (dying) 24" but it's a bit of a push that 27" could be better, sure, once you get used to it.
I am just suggesting that for fellas who don't have the money to get whole new hardware, those desktops splitters are incredibly under-rated.