Looking for a new monitor for a comp that I'm building. Mostly photo editing and the usual. Need a starting place for specs. What is IPS and how important is it? Thanks

Originally Posted by Grumpy_one Looking for a new monitor for a comp that I'm building. Mostly photo editing and the usual. Need a starting place for specs. What is IPS and how important is it? Thanks

There are a lot of threads, even recent ones, about this with some great links. See if a search turns them up -

Here's one to start with: http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=102033

Originally Posted by Grumpy_one Looking for a new monitor for a comp that I'm building. Mostly photo editing and the usual. Need a starting place for specs. What is IPS and how important is it? Thanks

Read that Anand thread from the other link, especially the first two posts in it.

In a nutshell, LCD monitors have.... an LCD panel + support electronics. Not all panels are the same and neither are the electronics. Think of CRT monitors and TV's and how Trinitron tubes were generally considered the best for image display prior to the advent of LCD's and plasmas. So it is with IPS based panels and image editing.

In terms of image quality for photo editing, these are the LCD panel types from best to worst:

IPS (newer variants are S-IPS, AS-IPS, H-IPS, etc)
PVA (newer variants are S-PVA)
MVA (newer variants are A-MVA, P-MVA, S-MVA, etc)
TN


The issue that drives IPS to the top is how the screen changes gamma/colour as you move off centre while viewing an area. You can easily see this in a TN paneled monitor if you view the TN from below. The screen image will transform almost to an X-Ray type image appearance. There is also a change in the horizontal but not as great. The view from below is the classic test for checking if that hot priced deal in store is really so hot.

The other point is the electronics. Most budget monitors display a 6bit image. You want at least an 8bit display.

A more recent complication is that many computer monitors now offer a "wide gamut" display. You need to read up on this. It seems to be a somewhat contentious issue in several forums. One point of discussion is that older generation hardware calibrators may not be capable of accurately calibrating these wide gamut monitors.

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Is there such thing as a IPS budget monitor?

Originally Posted by Grumpy_one Is there such thing as a IPS budget monitor?

LOL! Nope!

Though you can find older smaller IPS monitors on sale at times.

For example: HP LP2065 20" 1600x1200 4:3

There has been a panel "lottery" with this product but people purchasing this monitor lately have been reporting S-IPS panels.

http://www.directdial.com/EF227A8%23ABA.html

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=28938204



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http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php