Questions Re: CRT's and LCD's

[IbramGaunt]

First off, when it says its 17" or 19" or whatever, where is that measured from? Is it bottom left to top right of the screen itself or is it bottom left to top right of the whole monitor, including outside plastic surrounding aswell, or is it just from left to right?

Next, what is the best monitor for games? I have a Dell CRT, but was thinking of changing. I heard that LCDs can have dead pixels and you can't replace them if they do. Is this true? Thanks.

[danthemanohhyea]

as far as the inches goes, for an LCD monitor its the actual screen from the bottom left to the top right or whatever, for a CRT, they usually measure the plastic from bottom left to top right, and you'll get another measurement of "##" viewable"

I'm not sure what monitor is best for games but i can tell you that not every LCD monitor has dead pixels but some do and no you cant repair them.

[Peter M]

For CRTs the size is tube size, for LCDs it's visible image size.

[MJCfromCT]

AFAIK, LCDs only display 16.7 million colors, this is not an issue with CRT monitors. With LCDs, you also have to worry about ghosting and fast response times, again, this is not an issue with CRT monitors. That being said, CRTs are larger and consume more power than LCDs. If you have the desktop real estate for a large CRT, go with it.

As for dead pixels, most manufacturers will not give you a new screen if you have 1 or 2 dead pixels. There is usually a minimum number of dead pixels required before they will replace the screen, sometimes 5 pixels, sometimes 7, if not more.

[Midknyte]

some LCDs are only 6 bit.

http://compreviews.about.com/od/multimedia/a/LCDColor.htm
* 2^8 x 2^8 x 2^8 = 256 x 256 x 256 = 16,777,216

* 2^6 x 2^6 x 2^6 = 64 x 64 x 64 = 262,144

the amount of dead pixels to qualify for an exchange varies with the vendor. do your research on that before you buy.

I still think crts are better for gaming, but there are some good lcds coming up. The dell 1905fp is solid. the samsung 930B is pretty good too.