CRT vs LCD
LCD monitors have seen such a drastic reduction in price over the last few years that they have leapt ahead of CRTs in desirability. Their lower power usage, small size and reduction in eye-strain made them my first choice. A growing number of LCD monitors now offer the digital interface DVI in addition to the old analogue VGA connector, and I thought it was worth paying extra for this feature. In theory they should make for clearer images. In my experiments I found that a 2m DVI cable produced images indistinguishable from a 2m analogue cable, but that a 4m analogue cable was decidedly blurrier.
As an aside, the DVI cable was not included with my monitor, and I found it difficult to find a reasonably-priced one in the shops. There are three varients of DVI: DVI-A is analogue, DVI-D is digital, and DVI-I is the combination of both. If you look at the cables ends, you can see that you can convert a DVI-I cable into a DVI-D cable by breaking off the analogue pins. However, there is some odd pricing in shops, because DVI-D is aimed at people buying expensive home-cinema systems who wouldn't bat an eyelid at outragous cable prices, so DVI-D prices range from double to ten times that of DVI-I cables, despite being simpler.
When I first connected my DVI-D cable, after using the included VGA cable for a day, I found that it produced awful flickering when watching tv using my DVB-T PCI card. To fix this I had to change the ATI display driver advanced settings, to get rid of default ticks next to "Reduce DVI frequency on high-resolution displays" and "alternate DVI operational mode".
Philips LCD vs other LCD
The only other LCD monitor I've used for any length of time is my brother's 17" BenQ FP767-Ver2. I chose the Philips over another BenQ because it has green and amber power lights instead of the BenQ's excessively bright blue LED. In addition, this particular model has a
perfect panel 1 year warranty, which ensures that I'll not have to put up with any dodgy pixels for a whole year, and it is the first monitor I've ever owned with adjustable height.
I was rather disappointed with the lack of a printed manual. As well, the electronic manual was poor, in that it doesn't explain fully the monitor's features, such as why to use the DVI interface, what the USB port is useful for, how to plug in the USB and audio cables, and what "stand-alone audio for efficient net conferencing", as mentioned on the box, actually means.
Black Philips LCD vs other colours
The monitor box has a TCO'03 logo, and mentions that my black monitor fails it. Most manufacturers wouldn't mention that sort of information, but I didn't know what TCO'03 meant. It's a Swedish ergonomics standard, and my monitor fails because
The display frame must not be too black or too white. This is to avoid contrast with the display surface. Nor may it give rise to disturbing reflections.I guess that's not too serious.
In summary, after only a few days of use, I already feel that this LCD monitor has proven its worth, and I can't imagine living without it.