[The Great Waka]

Well, my bank account has somewhat recovered after buying my G4 and my DV camcorder, so now I'm looking for a monitor. And upgrade is required as right now I am using the old 15' IBM that came with my old PC. I was looking Apple's 17' studio, but it is a bit pricy, and I would have to save up a bit more first. Is it worth is though? The other option I was thinking was going for a 19' CRT. One thing I don't like about the studio is the (relativly) low resolution. It says that its equal to the size of a 21' CRT, but the CRT would have a much higher resoultion, or are they talking about something else here? Also, I heard that LCDs don't last too long, and if I'm investing that much money, I want something that would last my a while. One more thing: does the ADC port make a big difference in quality, or is it just convenience?

Thanks all, any advice would be great.

 

[gordguide]

There are a lot of opinions about this subject, as I'm sure you will find out. Perhaps the best short answer is that LCDs are the future, but they're not there yet.

LCDs have some major advantages:
Absolutely no flicker, period. If you get headaches or eye tiredness, this may be important to you.
Low power consumption.
Small footprint/low weight: more important if you are looking at 18" or larger.
Higher security: there's a reason why your bank seems to have bought a bunch of them. CRTs can be read (remotely) with various sophisticated means.

CRTs advantages are:
Cheap. If money's important, CRTs are good for one more generation.
Screen brightness, colour fidelity. Although some LCDs claim to match CRTs, nobody claims to beat them.
The ability to change resolutions without compromising image quality: important for gamers & web developers.

If you're looking at an LCD, buy one with the native resolution you need. You can't change resolutions and expect the same image quality as the native res. The digital connetor is better, assuming your video card has one.

If you have demanding requirements for image quality, the better CRTs cost 30-40% more than the generic versions. Try to buy one that supports a resolution higher than you use, so you can be sure to be able to select a high refresh rate ( ~85Hz) at your preferred resolution.