LG L1980U LCD: The New 19" Panel on the Block
by Kristopher Kubicki on May 13, 2005 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Application Analysis
The core of our LCD benchmarking comes from real application analysis. We play with a lot of monitors and it gets easier for us each time to pick out problems with an LCD just by using the right application. Here are a few quick looks at some demanding full screen applications. We already ran ColorVision's OptiCal software, so all of our monitors are calibrated and adjusted to the same curves.High Definition Video – As always, we played the WMV9 1080p version of Coral Reef Adventure to test our monitor’s ability to play high definition video. Like the Dell 1905FP, this monitor is not really suited for widescreen full motion video, but we were a little more concerned with the colors on the display anyway. We may just be a little sensitive to the issue, but there was a clear distinction between the 8-bit Dell 1905FP and the 6-bit LG L1980U. The Flatron was less vivid and often off-color in several scenes.
The Matrix Reload, The Matrix - We use the Matrix series to test full motion video on our LCDs. Since the Matrix isn't the best movie to test color reproduction, we typically only look for motion blur on gray-to-gray transitions or other imperfections in the signal. Unlike the Coral Reef Adventure, we detected almost no artifacts or washed out colors in this clip. It may have just been the specific clip that we were viewing, or it may be the case that 480p version of The Matrix doesn’t stress our displays as much as 1080p video in the previous examination.
World of Warcraft – If you have had the misfortune to install this game, then you’ll know that it’s easy to spend hours at a time looking around on the ground for things to pick up. Although other displays like the Apple Cinema 20” gave us difficulty from time to time to detect subtle objects in the game, the Flatron L1980U takes the prize as the worst display on which to play this game. We attempted to adjust our settings with the f-Engine and various color schemes, but much of it was to no avail. Subtle objects like plants were nearly invisible to us on darker levels and instances.
Max Payne 2 - The extreme light and dark transitions in Max Payne still provide us with the sufficient criteria to benchmark transient response time; specifically, we can focus on the light and dark extremes. We found almost identical problems to the ones mentioned during World of Warcraft; specific objects were too difficult to detect under any combination of brightness or in game contrast.
Halo, Unreal Tournament 2004 – Halo, which has relatively muted colors compared to Unreal Tournament 2004, was fairly pleasant to play on the Flatron L1980U. Darks and lights seemed on par, although colors are generally exaggerated to begin with. Both Unreal and Halo were responsive and we could not detect any motion blur.
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nthexwn - Sunday, May 15, 2005 - link
I still like my Samsung 710T for gaming ;) Any word on 8ms displays?phaxmohdem - Sunday, May 15, 2005 - link
LOL Wish this article was published a day sooner. Not even 24 hours before this story went online, I walked out of my local Sams Club store toting two brand new Samsung 913V 19" LCD monitors. I paid around $350 ea for them.It was worth it though, these suckers have an 800:1 contrast ratio and are the durn purdiest monitors I have ever pwn3d. There is not much info online about this particular model, but I would recommend them to anyone in the 19" market. only down sides so far, is no DVI input and teh bases are not adjustable, just a tilt option. (and some ghosting on games which is to be expected from a 25ms monitor.)
BUBKA - Saturday, May 14, 2005 - link
wouldn't it be nice if somebody did a monitor review without a Matrix text complete with screenshot...g33k - Friday, May 13, 2005 - link
Thanks for the review. I enjoyed the read and as I am in the market for a new monitor, this will definitly help in my buying descisions.Spacecomber - Friday, May 13, 2005 - link
Sorry, one more comment. I believe the LG1930B uses a LG Philis S-IPS panel, though it is rated as only a 25ms panel. Still, this monitor might compare well against the Dell 1905FP, and NewEgg currently is selling it for $288 after a mail-in rebate. This might be another interesting 19" LCD monitor to take a look at.Ok, I think I'm done now.
Space
Spacecomber - Friday, May 13, 2005 - link
Thanks for this review. Trying to keep up with how these 19" monitors stack up against each other is important to me, since they do seem to be the sweet spot for recommending a LCD to someone these days (as you noted).I think some of these have been mentioned before, but an interesting comparison would be this monitor to the Hyundi L90D+, which uses a Samsung TN panel, and the Viewsonic VP912B, which I think uses the AUO panel. At the moment, I would think that the Hyundi L90D+ gets the nod for a fast gaming monitor, because of its cost, about $350.
I know you guys really like the Dell 1905FP, but its PVA panel is really too slow for games. In fact, I would like to see the 1905FP compared against the Samsung 910T. Although the 910T is rated as a 25ms panel and the Dell a 20ms panel, I didn't think there was much difference between them when it comes to games. The 5ms reported difference in response times is for black to white transitions, and this doesn't really reflect how the PVA monitor has so much trouble with black to grey transitions. The small 5 ms difference gets washed away by the high response times in these situations.
And, I personally liked the much more extensive control features available on the 910T, compared to the Dell. Currently the 910T is available for $349 at NewEgg after a $50 mail in rebate, and they even have the 193P for $392, after a $200 rebate. So, the market for LCDs using Samsung's PVA panels is actually fairly tight.
A couple of other monitors that I'd like to ask you to keep an eye out for, as they sound quite interesting, are the Samsung 193P plus and the Eizo L778. The 193P+ is suppose to be a 8ms PVA panel. I'm still skeptical if this will really make any difference in games, but inquiring minds want to know. The L778 is also a PVA panel, but Eizo claims that their "overdrive circuit" keeps the response times at a low level across the spectrum of black to grey transitions. If this is true, then this PVA panel might rival the S-IPS panels as coming close to being a good all-around LCD monitor.
Some links:
http://www.eizo.com/products/lcd/l778/index.asp
http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2...
Thanks again,
Space
ocyl - Friday, May 13, 2005 - link
Good poundings on the 6-bit panels, Kristopher! Keep them going :D !!!Samadhi - Friday, May 13, 2005 - link
1280x1024, it's about time someone produced a higher resolution 19" display.rqle - Friday, May 13, 2005 - link
I like these flatron monitor, burrow friend LCD to carry around. I would only pay 15% more then a dell though, so price is a bit high for me.xpose - Friday, May 13, 2005 - link
Nice review. I am glad my Dell is still the champ. hehee. Plus I paid 297.00 +tax shipping for the UltraSharp 1905FP just last week. With a price like that, this monitor doesnt stand a chance.