DVI Flat Panels?

David_Bloom asks: "I've been shopping for flat panels, and have found it very hard to find a good deal on an LCD with DVI. My best bet so far is probably the NEC MultiSync 1550XBK (I've heard good things about its picture quality, and I'm not a gamer, so update times are irrelevant to me), but I've noticed that for about the same cost (~$600), I could buy a 17" Samsung LCD with that TV and video input thingy, but it only has analog VGA input (no DVI). I really don't want to buy a flat screen without DVI to avoid the phasing problems (its a must for me). Any reccomendations on good, low cost DVI-compatible flat screens? Any idea why monitors with DVI support are more (it's digital, so in theory, it should cost less, because there's no need for a analog to digital conversion)?"

Comments

Check THG

[FueledByRamen]

Tom's Hardware Guide just did a review of 17" LCD panels in its Display guide section. Jump to the conclusion page and you'll find a single 17" LCD that they looked at with the DVI input - the "Belinea 10 17 20". Unfortunately, it's not all that great; the brightness leaves a lot to be desired, and it has serious trailing issues. It does cost only around $650, though. At least solutions in that price range do exist, though they're lacking in quality. Good luck finding a good one.

harddriveoutlet.com

[lindsayt]

I recently bought myself a 18" flat panel with DVI-D support for $500 from harddriveoutlet.com. It's an off-brand discontinued model, so if you're worried excessively about support then it's a bad choice, but these things are *really* sweet, and they are actually under warranty for another year. I use Sun 18" flats at work and have coworkers with Dell 18" DVI flats - both are good - but the cheapo offbrand that harddriveoutlet is clearing out is better and cheaper (unless the pixels die in two months).

Disclaimer: I'm not in any way connected with harddriveoutlet, and I'm also going to say anything more than "sorry" if you buy one and it breaks...

I was in the same boat...

[singularity]

Finding a 15" DVI LCD is even more difficult.

I was very happy with my Apple 17" Studio Display (although I did have one pixel get stuck last month) and was looking for a 15" LCD to work as my second monitor. I have a Radeon 7000 working as a second video card, so it supported DVI and VGA.

I searched forever for a reasonably priced 15" LCD that supported DVI. They were simply not to be found. I ended up going with the NEC 1550V LCD that only supports VGA. Getting a similar monitor with DVI (the NEC 1550X, for example) was going to run me at least $100-$150 more.

In a side-by-side comparison, the Apple monitor is much nicer. I am not sure if that is attributable to the ADC connection (Apple's all-digital connector) or just the quality of the Apple monitor (it is frequently ranked as one of the better 17" LCDs).

My only guess as to the mark-up of DVI monitors is demand (lack of it, and then where the demand is coming from).

Most of my reading/research also indicated that, at least for now, there is a little to be gained from a DVI connection. When LCDs get even better, though, LCDs will be better able to take advantage of the all-digital connection.