the tft market needs regulation?

[Chrysalis]

I think the tft market needs regulation I read there is numerous ways to read response times for example and 16ms on one measurement can be the same as 2ms on another, dodgy methods of measuring viewing angles etc.

What frustrates me mainly is 3 things.

1 - most of the tft monitors on sale in the uk are TN panels probably at least 90% of them.
2 - listed specs are often inaccurate and I suspect also a lie at times, when I brought my monitor it had a spec listed as 24bit 16.7million colours, the vendor a month later changed it to 16.2million 18 bit colours , also my monitor which is superior to my sisters smaller tft in every department on listed specs is harder to look at more glare thinner text, worser viewing angle etc. Clearly someone has been fibbing on the specs.
3 - reviews tend to be based on higher priced models only so people with small budgets are left to hope that they not buying rubbish.

So what I want now is a MVA monitor and it defenitly needs to be true 24 bit colour, I ideally dont want to spend over £200 and 19" is my preferable size not wide screen, any reccomendations thanks. In the uk.

[Skeem]

Always read hardware reviews from multiple sites and/or magazines. You can't go wrong that way.
Sites like Ebuyer have customer reviews which are EXTREMELY helpful, particularly when a product has lots of them.

[CrazyMonkey]

Always read hardware reviews from multiple sites and/or magazines. You can't go wrong that way.
Sites like Ebuyer have customer reviews which are EXTREMELY helpful, particularly when a product has lots of them.

So true and Ebuyers images are very good.

[MadduckUK]

1 - most of the tft monitors on sale in the uk are TN panels probably at least 90% of them.

so? is this a complaint or just a statement?

2 - listed specs are often inaccurate and I suspect also a lie at times, when I brought my monitor it had a spec listed as 24bit 16.7million colours, the vendor a month later changed it to 16.2million 18 bit colours , also my monitor which is superior to my sisters smaller tft in every department on listed specs is harder to look at more glare thinner text, worser viewing angle etc. Clearly someone has been fibbing on the specs.

some fair points, we know manufacturers have "different ways" of measuring performance. however the thinner text you mention confuses me, sounds more like it hasn't been configured properly.

3 - reviews tend to be based on higher priced models only so people with small budgets are left to hope that they not buying rubbish.

disagree. however this doesn't detract from the fact that people on a smaller budget SHOULD be getting monitors that are worse, after all, if you shelled out over the odds for a monitor you would want performance to match the expenditure?

i do think that there needs to be some mutually agreed standard for contrast ratio, pixel response etc for TFT's tho.

you haven't mentioned dead/stuck pixels, which would be my No1 gripe

[Chrysalis]

to skeem odd I read advice that is the opposite since reviews in magazines tend to favour the brands that have the largest advertising budgets ie. corruption.

I do read ebuyer reviews but they mostly concentrate on stuff that doesnt concern me eg. comments like the monitor looks good, good for games, fast response time, all stuff that doesnt concern me as much.

in all honesty with reviews, I copy the model number of monitor stick it in google and all I get is links to sites selling the thing no reviews, when I do find reviews its usually selected £300+ monitors. The odd cheap ones are usually possibly rightly so marked as poor.

To madduck.

The TN domination is a complaint, somehow the worst panel has become dominant because of the response time fanfair at the cost of image quality and viewing angles.

Glad you think they good points on inaccurate specs, but the fact each manufacturer measures differently shouldnt that alone be justifiable for regulation. It isnt just about that tho, eg. I goto ebuyer (and other vendors) see monitor specs, then I goto the manufacturers website and listed specs are different (usually worse), so it would appear either the retailer are making mistakes or beefing up specs to sell the product. The more expensive models tend to have accurate specs its the cheaper ones that usually have false specs listed.

Cheaper monitors should be worse correct, but it would be nice for them to be reviewed as much as the more expensive models, one thing that I think is wrong tho is to give the impression a cheap poor tft is superior then a crt when it isnt.

Example.

monitor a - £300 170 degrees viewing angle 16.7mill colours 1000:1 contrast ratio. (mva panel)

monitor b - £150 170 degrees viewing angle 16.7mill colours 1000:1 contrast ratio. (tn panel)

probably many fools buying monitor b thinking they got bargain of the month to find the real specs are worse.

[BUFF]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth...arameters.html

[Skeem]

Try newegg reviews.