CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

ecrabb

I'd like to find a cheapie little LCD - like under 17" - to put in my rack to use for scheduling records, checking on the HTPC, etc. VGA is fine, but I need something that will sync to 1080i and 1080p, so I don't have to switch settings all the time.

There are a slew of cheap ($100-150) 15-17" LCD's in the 1440x960 ballpark with VGA input. They'd work perfectly if any of them would display 1080p (I know it won't look great, I just need it to display a picture). All the specs for LCD's list the panel resolution as their max resolution, even though I know some would probably display a picture. Anybody know of one that might work for me?

I know some CRTs would work, but they take up too damn much room in the rack!

Thanks!
SC

Clarence · Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject:

I can't find any 17" that does 1920x1080, but I'm amazed at how the price keeps dropping...

21.5" 1920x1080 HDMI 20000:1 5ms... $199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009157

ecrabb · Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 8:59 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Clarence. Yes, LCD displays are getting stupid cheap. I always assumed they'd never hit the price that old CRT's were, but they're cheaper - even the good ones - than CRT's ever were. It must just be ridiculously cheap to crank out the low-end displays in large quantities. It makes sense if you think about it, considering how complex, heavy, and material-filled (glass, lead, copper, dozens of feet of wire) the CRT's were. Heck, just the shipping would have been a portion of the cost - think of the size and weight. An average LCD monitor probably has less material in it than just the CASE on a large CRT display!

That Acer looks great for the money - and HDMI to boot - but, it's just about as wide as my rack and almost 15" tall - more than 20% of my rack height. I just want something small. I think I'll just my damn laptop, set the video output to 1080p, and go to a couple stores with a VGA cable and see if they'll let me try it out on a few of the cheaper displays. I'm not sure what else to do.

SC

ecrabb · Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:08 pm Post subject:

I did find this Viewsonic 16" HDTV with an HDMI input:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889107040

It's $220 w/free shipping. That might as cheap as it will get. That would work because I could connect it to the second output on my prepro and set the prepro to downscale that output to 720p.

I was hoping one of the cheap VGA displays would display 1080p, because I could just mirror the output to my projector (from the HD Fury) and go 1080p and not even have to switch the prepro at all...

I'll keep looking. No big rush.

SC

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

I would be careful of some of those inexpensive LCD monitors that seem to meet your needs, but are actually terrible to look at. I bought a 22" Hyundai from Fry's about 3-4 months back and quickly returned it. The only color temp was >9000K. With the backlight completely shut off this thing was more like an LCD display for outdoor use.

Crappy colors and way too bright resulted in a return. I wound up paying $100 and got a good Samsung that actually had some ability to be calibrated to something familiar with daylight and incandescent lighting environments.

But I am curious, SC, why the need for 1080P for something seemingly non-critical, and are there really and LCDs monitors accepting interlaced resolutions? Is there really a need to interlaced ability?

ecrabb · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:16 am Post subject:

Here's the deal. My sources are now all getting switched through my new prepro - both HDMI and component sources. Some are 1080i and some are 1080p. One of the reasons I got the prepro with Reon VX scaling was to try the 1080i -> 1080p upconversion and see how I liked it. Even if I don't end up using the internal scaling and switch to an outboard scaler, I still wanted the HDMI switching (and greatly simplified switching, too) and most of all, the advanced audio.

Soo.... my setup looks like this:
Sources (HDMI and component) ---> Prepro ---> HDMI out---> HD Fury ---> Kim gamma booster ---> Extron Crosspoint (switcher, line driver) ---> RGBHV to projector

Given my setup, I have two choices to monitor a source - both require the prepro to be fired up, now (I used to route everything through the Crosspoint - nice, powerful, but a pain in the ass to use)...

1) Use the second HDMI output on the prepro. The nice thing is that I can set the scaler in the prepro to scale to only 720p, if that's what the monitor accepts. The bad thing is I then need an HDMI-based display (not small, not cheap), or I need another HD Fury - which adds expense, and again, I need a display that can accept 720p over a VGA connector.

2) Use another output on the Extron and just mirror the same signal on both projector and monitor. Analog. Must accept 1080i or 1080p because that's what I'm sending to the projector.

So, that's the dilemma. Not sure if there's an inexpensive solution. I might just have to suck it up and get a nice and big HDMI-based display and put it in my office directly behind the theater and rack, and use it for both monitoring and setup, as well as my workstation. Of course, then it's not in the room, which is something I kind of wanted...

Still thinking about the best options.

SC

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:58 am Post subject:

Too bad you couldn't use a CRT I have found some of the 17" CRT's will do 1080P no problem. Specifically the VIEWSONICS I have played with. Looks great!

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

I wish I could find some really good (even used) CRT monitors that can do 2048x1536 or better in the 19-22" range. I use to have a Viewsonic Professional series 19" until it died after about 7 years of good service. The Viewsonic Graphics series just sucks as the gain is too high and cannot be corrected without opening up the case.

Anyone know of a place to get [even used] good CRT (ahem, computer) monitors in the 19-22" range? Sorry, I do not mean to play thread hijacker. Smile

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

I've seen a lot of 24" LCD monitors, and the cheapie ones REALLY suck. Not just, oh, the contrast is a little off, but - 'color uniformity literally worse than the 1997-vintage dual-scan Toshiba laptop that's in a pile under an old steel desk in the prototype room'. Godawful stuff. The lower end ones also tend to have abysmal firmware which totally barfs on any non-native resolution, displaying half of it off the screen or not displaying it at all.

The Dells and Samsungs seem to be uniformly nice. I've also had reasonably good luck with the HANNS stuff, oddly enough - though they're not up to serious graphics work.

I was originally going to use a CRT as a monitor, and just use one video card output, but I didn't happen to have a good one on-hand that would play nice with RGBHV -and- 1440x960, so that idea disappeared, and I'm using a 19" LCD to do setup and running the CRT on the second desktop. That does have the advantage of keeping a working display if I f*ck up the timings, and of transparently (to the madding crowd in my one-couch HT) starting a movie. At least, all they see is me dragging the Zoom Player window onto the PJ screen and fullscreening it. Gotta work on that. Wink

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

SC, I eventually caved! I needed a monitor for scheduling recordings, verifying my D-VHS dumps etc. I could not find an LCD monitor to do it, so I went with a 15" CRT monitor. Yes, they are deep and heavy, but the front of them is not much bigger than a 17" LCD--so they have the same "footprint" on the front of the rack.

With the CRT, I used an Extron 202Rxi to split the RGBHV signal out of the kimcoder. Currently, all my sources that can run HDMI to my Lumagen do--but the fios box and the D-VHS box both also have component runs to the lumigen. I use the digi out of the lumi to the PJ and the RGBHV out to the VGA monitor. I looked and looked, and I could not find anything to use but a CRT monitor. And these days, you get a 15" CRT monitor for...well, for free.

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:29 pm Post subject:

I'll consider that, Dave. A 15" would be almost perfect (save for the depth). The nice little Sony 17 I have won't even sync to 1080p, while the Viewsonic 19 I had did. What 15" are you using and what signal is it seeing?

I have my rack almost finished, but now that everything is in there, I don't have nearly the room I thought I would. I think the LaserDisc player is going to go bye-bye. I thought I'd keep it in for nostalgia's sake, and because I thought it'd be fun to borrow discs from dad's fairly extensive collection, but I barely have time to watch new stuff, let alone any old stuff.

SC

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:27 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I know... Like I said - it's not like I'd watch it all the time. I had the room in my rack, so it was probably more of a conversation piece and a "look where HT started" kind of thing... Now, I don't have the room in my rack, so I'll probably just throw it on the shelf.

OK, 720p... That makes sense. Lots of CRTs would handle that res - 1080p is a different story, of course.

I just got this deal in email this morning from Buy.com...

Gateway 17" Widescreen LCD Monitor, 8ms, 1280 X 720, 16:9, DVI HDCP - 1 Year Warranty

$99.99 w/free shipping. Schnikees, that's cheap. I'm sure it's a POS, but all I need it for is scheduling recordings!!!

Not bad looking, either.

SC

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

Damn, only 2.3" deep without the stand. My rack is in a niche at the back of the room. I could mount the monitor to the back of a rack enclosing door, or maybe put in on drawer slides next to the rack. Slide it out at a right angle to the rack when needed. That would be cool!

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 5:54 pm Post subject:

That's funny, Dave - those were EXACTLY the two ideas I came up with - inside of the rack door at the back of the hole, or on a mount of some sort on the side. I didn't think of the drawer slides - that's a great idea. I was thinking of some sort of VESA mount, but the drawer slides would be cheaper and more space-saving. Thanks for the ideers!

SC

Clarence

Electrogeek · Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:42 am Post subject:

If anyone is questioning the existence of 17" 1080p lcd panels, they do exist, in fact my laptop that i am using right now to type this is 17" and is operating at a resolution of 1920x1200, that said if anyone ever finds one that is not in a laptop let me know, I'll buy 4 Smile

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Why does it need to be 1080P? In order to resolve that resolution on such a small display would require nose grease on the screen. This ain't for porn, is it?

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:45 pm Post subject:

Wan, you'd have to read back through the thread for the whole story, but the dilemma was that I wanted a "rack monitor" that I could easily mount in my equipment rack for the times I wanted to schedule shows, do something with the HTPC, etc. without turning on the projector every time.

So, I either needed a VGA display that would display 1080p (the settings on all my existing devices, split from the projector feed), or I could let the scaler in my prepro scale its second output to 720p and use a display with an HDMI input.

I kind of gave up on the issue, and now I just VNC to see the PC (and therefore the DirecTV output via Hauppage HD-PVR), and I can schedule recordings remotely with a browser or the iPhone app.

A small monitor would still be a cool feature at some point. I'll have to see what's available now that two years have passed.

SC

EDIT - Wow, what a difference two years makes...

Newegg has a 20" 1600x900 Hanns with HDMI for $130 and it even has audio:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254049

VESA mount, too. Might make a fun, cheap, little after-Christmas winter project.