I need some advice. I'm looking for a 20" or larger widescreen LCD. I do
not need speakers built-in. I would like to have a DVI connection on it at
minimum. I'm looking for a rather high-quality monitor that will last me
for no less than 4 years. It might be my luck, but I've had two Acer
AL2016W widescreen monitors, and they both failed with an inverter/backlight
problem. My first one failed in two weeks and my replacement one failed in
two months. Thanks for any advice.
Travis King wrote:
> I need some advice. I'm looking for a 20" or larger widescreen LCD. I
> do not need speakers built-in. I would like to have a DVI connection on
> it at minimum. I'm looking for a rather high-quality monitor that will
> last me for no less than 4 years. It might be my luck, but I've had two
> Acer AL2016W widescreen monitors, and they both failed with an
> inverter/backlight problem. My first one failed in two weeks and my
> replacement one failed in two months. Thanks for any advice.
I found this article, by searching for LED based backlights. This article
is actually about professional monitors, and the NEC one here appears
to use the traditional CCFL/inverter backlight method. They compare it
to a Samsung LED illuminated one. The Samsung fares worse, because of
their implementation details, but the technology is promising.
I believe NEC also makes raw panels with LED illumination, but I don't
know if they use them yet in the monitors they make or not.
If that archived page won't render properly, just the picture of the LED modules is here.
A red, green, and blue LED are present in the module and adjusted to give white light.
Many modules are used to get enough contrast.
Based on the specs of the monitors, the NEC using 50W and the Samsung using
85W, it looks like LEDs use more power. Working against the LED design, is
the sheer number of modules involved. The LEDs need to be individually
controlled and calibrated, which means the LED would likely have a monitor
photodiode, to monitor the level of light output. LED output drops to 50%
of original intensity, over a period of a couple years, so closed loop
feedback via monitoring each LED, helps keep the intensity uniform. (It
means when the monitor is new, the LEDs might be fed 30% of full power, and
near end of life might receive 60% of full power, leaving a bit of room to
account for differences between LED module units.) To do that, the LEDs
would be pulsed at a rate above human eyesight, and the on-time of the pulse
is controlled to give the desired intensity. By doing it that way with a LED,
you can vary the intensity, but keep a constant color output.
So, that means there is a bit of complexity in each LED module. The
advantage of the LEDs, is they are solid state and reliable as any other
integrated circuit. It means no need for high voltage, like in the CCFL
lamps. But there are quite a few of them, and only one has
to go bad, to give a dimmed patch on the screen.
I hope to seem more monitors designed that way, but only time will tell
whether LED backlighting will trickle down into the economy market. The
price of the LED modules would drop, as the quantity made went up, and
with the price of the above monitor, they aren't going to sell very many.
(Especially when so much of the advertising copy, is not noting the use
of the superior backlight technology.)
In looking at the Newegg reviews for monitors, I notice quite a few
entries where the reviewer has nothing critical to say about the product.
Which makes me wonder why they'd even bother to write one. The monitor
is the most critical part of the computer, in terms of everyday experience,
eyestrain and general enjoyment. I would expect every "real" reviewer, to
have something to say about the monitor he/she bought, no matter what
price was paid for it.
Good luck in your search. Reliability is a hard thing to measure,
especially when models don't stick around long enough for all their
faults to become apparent.
Travis King wrote:
> I need some advice. I'm looking for a 20" or larger widescreen LCD. I
> do not need speakers built-in. I would like to have a DVI connection on
> it at minimum. I'm looking for a rather high-quality monitor that will
> last me for no less than 4 years. It might be my luck, but I've had two
> Acer AL2016W widescreen monitors, and they both failed with an
> inverter/backlight problem. My first one failed in two weeks and my
> replacement one failed in two months. Thanks for any advice.
I have a Samsung 206BW (20") for almost a month now. Very nice, makes
all my digital photos look better than ever. ;-) Very fast response
time, almost never see blur when dragging a photo.
So far, so good. FWIW, MaximumPC liked related models, which is why I
bought this one.
"Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> wrote in message
news:sf2Ji.97665$Xa3.97160@attbi_s22...
>I need some advice. I'm looking for a 20" or larger widescreen LCD. I do
>not need speakers built-in. I would like to have a DVI connection on it at
>minimum. I'm looking for a rather high-quality monitor that will last me
>for no less than 4 years. It might be my luck, but I've had two Acer
>AL2016W widescreen monitors, and they both failed with an
>inverter/backlight problem. My first one failed in two weeks and my
>replacement one failed in two months. Thanks for any advice.
I just recently , about a month ago, purchased the Samsung 226CW, 22"
widescreen LCD, and am very pleased with it. Very low response time, very
high contrast ratio.
I also have a Samsung 19" 930B, that I use now as my secondary monitor, it
has served me well also.
> I need some advice. I'm looking for a 20" or larger widescreen LCD. I do
> not need speakers built-in. I would like to have a DVI connection on it
> at
> minimum. I'm looking for a rather high-quality monitor that will last me
> for no less than 4 years. It might be my luck, but I've had two Acer
> AL2016W widescreen monitors, and they both failed with an
> inverter/backlight
> problem. My first one failed in two weeks and my replacement one failed
> in
> two months. Thanks for any advice.
Like others in this thread I'm a Samsung fan. One 226BW and two 19" 930B
models. After having three CRT monitors die in a little over three years,
Samsung has been very good to me.
Acer is considered a discount brand. Next time go with a higher quality
brand such as Samsung or NEC. They cost more, but you get more.
--
---------------------
DaveW
---------------------
"Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> wrote in message
news:sf2Ji.97665$Xa3.97160@attbi_s22...
>I need some advice. I'm looking for a 20" or larger widescreen LCD. I do
>not need speakers built-in. I would like to have a DVI connection on it at
>minimum. I'm looking for a rather high-quality monitor that will last me
>for no less than 4 years. It might be my luck, but I've had two Acer
>AL2016W widescreen monitors, and they both failed with an
>inverter/backlight problem. My first one failed in two weeks and my
>replacement one failed in two months. Thanks for any advice.
I originally before buying this Acer was looking at some Samsungs. Could
anyone shed some light on the "Samsung Lottery"? That's my main concern
with that. My Mom has an NEC CRT and we were told that they're the greatest
kind you can get, yet the colors have never been good on it, and now it's
got problems when switching users on Windows. (The screen goes black.
After you switch users, when you turn the monitor off and back on, it
works.) It's not a Windows or a particular computer problem because it has
done this to every computer we've used on that monitor.
"DaveW" <nothing@bot.org> wrote in message
news:-4udnRYHB_WbPmjbnZ2dnUVZ_tuonZ2d@comcast.com...
> Acer is considered a discount brand. Next time go with a higher quality
> brand such as Samsung or NEC. They cost more, but you get more.
>
> --
> ---------------------
> DaveW
>
> ---------------------
> "Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> wrote in message
> news:sf2Ji.97665$Xa3.97160@attbi_s22...
>>I need some advice. I'm looking for a 20" or larger widescreen LCD. I do
>>not need speakers built-in. I would like to have a DVI connection on it
>>at minimum. I'm looking for a rather high-quality monitor that will last
>>me for no less than 4 years. It might be my luck, but I've had two Acer
>>AL2016W widescreen monitors, and they both failed with an
>>inverter/backlight problem. My first one failed in two weeks and my
>>replacement one failed in two months. Thanks for any advice.
>
>
On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:19:54 -0700, "DaveW"
<nothing@bot.org> wrote:
>Acer is considered a discount brand. Next time go with a higher quality
>brand such as Samsung or NEC. They cost more, but you get more.
Actually acer is a daughter company of BenQ, who has
ownership in one of the 3 biggest panel manufacturers and is
one of the largest monitor manufacturers. They just (it
seems) happened to turn out one product with a flaw, like
many companies do from time to time.
Monitor Suggestion 
Linear Mode
