My first LCD

[andargor]

Well, there is a difference in measurement. I replaced a 21" Viewsonic P815 with a 20" Viewsonic VP201b.

I could not believe the viewing area was the same, both because of the difference in labelled size and the actual size of the LCD (it's tiny! ). But sure enough, after putting the tape measure to both, the viewing area was the same...

Boy, getting rid of the 60-pound boat anchor was the greatest decision I had ever made!!

 

[Banshee16]

LCDs in general, and Samsungs IME particularly, tend to be fairly bright. I usually have to turn my brightness down, whereas with CRTs I usually had to turn it up.

Also, the Samsung's auto-detect mode actually does a fairly good job at getting the settings to a decent level. You may want to fine-tune from there, but it's a really good start.



Yeah, I sold TVs for a while myself, and it's measured from corner to corner of the screen. Well, actually, I suspect it's corner to corner of the opening in the case, but it's pretty much the same.



As for the increased size, I only have a guess. CRTs are slightly convex, whereas LCDs and flatscreen TVs are, well, flat. I suspect that while the diagonal is measured the same, the curvature of the CRT actually decreases the viewing area even when looking straight on. It's the same reason the viewing angle of a flatscreen is so much greater, I think. So when you switch from CRT to LCD, it seems like you're getting more space, when you're not.

Also, resolution plays into it a bit - but I'm assuming that the LCD is being displayed at the same resolution as the CRT. I know I definitely noticed it, and I was running at the same resolution. I've heard a lot of customers make similar remarks when consumer flatscreen TVs were relatively new. That is, once I spent half an hour on the phone with them telling them how to hook them up.

Thanks....these comments in particular I found helpful. I just checked my LCD monitor's settings, and the Samsung default had brightness at 100....so I dialed it back to 50, and now it looks more like the CRT did. I tend to prefer darker darks, which also, incidentally, seems to make the colours appear more vibrant. I'm liking the new monitor overall.

IKEA had some options to deal with the center channel speaker. In their offices section, they had these mini shelves that go on a desk, with four aluminum legs. Unfortunately, they're only 4.5" tall, and my center channel is 5.5"....so I need to find something similar, but just a bit taller....then I can put the speaker under the shelf, and my monitor on top of it.

Banshee

 

[Drawmack]

Are you sure about that? I sold monitors & TVs for 2 years and all manufacturers always used the diagonal measurement of the screen alone, not the casing for both.

It's why monitors have two specs one is diagonal size and one is viewing area, the viewing area is the screen size.

 

[Umbran]

Are you sure about that? I sold monitors & TVs for 2 years and all manufacturers always used the diagonal measurement of the screen alone, not the casing for both.

As I understand it, CRT measurement is not of the visible screen space, but of the CRT tube. Some manufacturers may also list visible screen space, if they are being nice, but I don't believe they are required to do so. End result is that for the same diagonal measurement, CRTs do have less useable space than LCD.

 

[nick2]

I've only had my LCD monitor for about 6 hours, but I'm enjoying it so far. Can't believe the weight difference when lugging my old monitor downstairs. Gotta love Boxing Day sales

 

[John Crichton]

As I understand it, CRT measurement is not of the visible screen space, but of the CRT tube. Some manufacturers may also list visible screen space, if they are being nice, but I don't believe they are required to do so. End result is that for the same diagonal measurement, CRTs do have less useable space than LCD.

There may be other measurements on the box or elsewhere, but the bottom line is that a 20" TV and a 20" monitor are measured from one diagonal corner to its opposite. Before everything was flat screen and the CRTs were curved there were some differences as far as viewable space and there was room for debate but that has since been eliminated.

And there is a difference with a widescreen vs a regular screen for viewable space but that's a separate issue.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I used to see that the vast majority of old CRT's would also not be making use of the screen space that was actually available. People would be using the default/factory settings which had the viewing area of the output shrunk SMALLER than what the screen was always capable of. They all neeeded some adjustment to widen, heighten, and center the viewing area and where possible a little bit of pinch and keystone to actually render a maximum-sized, genuinely square desktop. This could sometimes be quite significant adding as much as a half inch on all sides.