By Kire Terzievski, Technology & Business Magazine
March 25th, 2002.
Editor's Choice
To pick a single winner from a field of 15 was difficult. If you have a little extra money to spend then go for the Eizo L375. Its image quality was second to none, it featured a USB hub and it offered two DVI ports. It also had the best build quality of all the displays. The Viewsonic also deserves honours for its excellent viewing angles and picture quality. And of course, as the best solution for our scenario, the Samsung also takes home an award.
The three LCD displays that receive the Editor's Choice are the Eizo FlexScan L375, the ViewSonic VX500 and the Samsung Syncmaster 151S.
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| Eizo FlexScan L375 | ViewSonic VX500 | Samsung Syncmaster 151S |
How we tested
The test rig used was an AMD Anthon 1800+ with a Leadtek Winfast Geforce 3 graphics card. We evaluated each LCD at its maximum or "native" resolution, this was for the 15" displays 1,024x768 pixels. In all cases the display was 24-bit colour (16.8 million colours). Because of the relatively slow response rate of the TFT displays when compared to CRT for example the user does not experience any flicker that would be apparent from a CRT at relatively low vertical refresh rates. However, some of the LCD's at times experienced phase problems at tested refresh rate resulting in a "jitter" or "pixel crawl" along the edges or fine vertical stripes for example. In these cases we noted the steps we took to remedy the situation, which was usually a quick adjustment of the refresh rate up or down a couple of Hz.We also used a series of subjective "jury" display quality tests for this purpose we used the DisplayMate for Windows from Sonera Technologies (USA 1-908-747-6886; http://www.displaymate.com ). This series of images is designed to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a range of attributes, including geometric patterns, colour scales, greyscales, uniformity, and resolution.
The jury tests consisted primarily of examining screens from Sonera Technologies' DisplayMate for Windows, each of which is designed to highlight specific flaws. Jurors rated the monitors first by whether they showed any of these flaws. If they did, the jurors decided whether the flaws were "barely visible", "easily visible but not an issue for real-world use," or "distracting in at least some circumstances."
Among the many DisplayMate test screens used in the jury test were several devoted to definition. For the horizontal resolution test, the pattern includes a series of adjacent white and dark lines of various thicknesses which displays any phase problems the LCD may have by producing interference such as ripple, speckle or jitter
Master Test Pattern
A lot of the features of the MTP are pretty much ignored for LCD's. Whereas your monitor will need to have its geometry adjusted this is pretty much set in stone, or at least Silicon as far as the LCD's are concerned. In fact the MTP was really only used as an ancillary check for interference patterns arising from the blocks of fine lines and dither patterns.
Extreme Grey-Scale and Colour Bars Test
This test looks at the purity of the primary colours as well as black and white. In some cases displays will lose "colour balance" and display some of the grey squares with other hues such as pink or green for example. The clustered dark grey-scale tests the black-level and accurate intensity reproduction near black. Most of the steps should be visible and distinct. Alternatively the clustered bright grey-scale tests for white saturation and accurate intensity reproduction near peak white. All of the steps should be visible and distinct.
Colour Scales
With this test pattern the staff are looking to ensure that the intensity of each of the colours increases uniformly from black up to a maximum brightness and that none of the hues should change with intensity.
Also that all of the colours fade uniformly to black.
Horizontal Resolution Test
This test pattern checks out the LCD's ability to handle fine vertical line detail. In some cases, depending on the refresh rate, the LCD's will exhibit discontinuities, irregularities, ripples, waves, and wisps of intensity fluctuations that appear superimposed on the image particularly with the finest of the patterns on the far left. In some instances LCD can fail to reproduce the fine pattern correctly at all.
As well as using the DisplayMate tests we used office type applications and switched between charts, pictures and text to see how each of the displays would perform. We also tested the auto configuration feature that most of the displays have and we played a sequence of videos and a fast moving game (Quake III) to determine whether there was any afterglow in any of the displays.
We rated each of the displays in the areas of interoperability, futureproofing, return on investment and service.
For interoperability we were concerned whether a display had a DVI connector, any USB ports or audio connectors and speakers. Also whether any of the displays required drivers and the operating systems that they support.
With futureproofing we looked at the refresh rates that each of the displays were capable of and whether the display has a DVI connector and whether or not you can buy any optional accessories for your display like a USB hub. Build quality and whether the display was built to take a few knocks was also taken into account.
For your return on investment we looked at the price of the display and the overall picture quality of the display.
In regards to service we looked to see how long the warranty was for. We found that in some cases manufacturers will offer a 1 year parts and labour warranty on the screen and 3 years parts and labour on everything else.
Next: Table of specs
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