Can somebody enlighten me on what I should be looking for in the way of display devices. I am looking for a 32" or 37" display that will be capable of producing a high resolution image along with a smooth image quality. I don't know if I should be looking at strictly a monitor or a HDTV television that could be used as a monitor. What spec's should I be looking for in order to achieve a good quality and blur free video image? I mostly fly the PMDG MD-11 using FSX. I still have the 8800GT video card and the rest of my specs are: Q6600 2.67mhz quad-core, 4 meg of DDR-3 ram and a Asus P5Q3 motherboard. Regards,jack

hi, if you go to page 2 you will see a post named "best monitor ratio" and i have replied to a post regarding my 37" tv which i use with a 19" monitor. richard welsh.

The largest monitors you're going to find are 30" at 2560X1600 and they'll be over $1000. (Dell and Apple basically make the two that everyone uses) Any bigger than that and you're only talking HDTVs, which are limited to 1920X1080.

Ryan or anybody else out there,How would I fare if I ordered a 1080P 32" HDTV with 120mzh picture-smooth system? Would it have enough resolution to run the MD-11 sufficiently as my 21 " 1680X1050 resolution Gateway monitor? I kind of want to upgrade to a larger screen and am wandering what would satisfy my needs outside of a extremely expensive 'monitor'!! Anybody!Regards,jack

Can anybody comment on using an HDTV of 32" 1080pi or better? jack

I'd go with the largest monitor that you can afford. The problem with true HDTVs (Plasmas or LCDs) is that they are limited to resolutions of 1920x1080. While this is fine if you are sitting 8 feet away from the screen, if you are sitting 2-3ft away as you would be if you are at a desk, many things (especially text) will begin to look slightly pixelated.If you can't afford a large monitor, using two or three smaller ones is also a posibility. I'm using two 22" LCDs now and I love it. The only downside is that you need Dual/Triple Head 2 Go or a new ATi HD5xxx card if you want to stretch single monitor programs (like FSX and other games), across both screens.

Jack,I'm using a 30 inch TFT and decided against a HDTV. The reason is resolution. HDTVs are just not designed to sit 50cm in front of them, so for the instrument and panel label reading purposes it's just not as well suited as a good high-resolution TFT. Now if you say you'll just sit further away from the screen to overcome this issue, then there's the question of why buy a large display if you need to place it further away...Since the 30" display by Apple isn't the newest one anymore, have a look at HP's 30", the LP3065. That's the one I use and the price is fine for what it delivers. Great picture, fast response and a well distributed backlight important for those night time flights. There would be an alternative, namely the 30 inch screens by NEC. Those are professional screens, they are excellent of course, but not really needed for flying, the HPs will do just fine. Unless of course you intend to use the screen for graphic/design stuff too, in which case you'd go for NEC...I don't know if the Dell 30" screen is any good. My experience of Dell TFTs is that they are clumsy and ugly, not always the highest quality. Maybe that's not true for the 30 inch, I don't know. Find a good review before you buy a Dell screen...Markus

There is a lot to be said for a simple overhead laser projector, as opposed to numerous small screens. With this setup, the home flight deck can be de-cluttered down to the existential elements of a flight yoke, rudder pedals and throttle quadrant, with all instrumentation panels and external scenery projected to fill an entire wall, which, in my humble opinion, beats any configuration of multiple monitors hands down, for sheer breath-taking realism.For anyone out there willing to try a laser projector, do yourself a favor and acquire a copy of Fly Tampa's Hong Kong Kai Tak scenery, shoot that IGS Runway 13 approach over the Hong Kong harbor city-scape, and then note how you find yourself leaning hard into that right turn at the checkerboard on short finals. Nothing presented on any number of small screens could match that level of realism, and you'd only need a trial to become a believer.Projectors rule !Regards, Tony Selario

Thanks Gents.BTW Tony, Where did you purchase your laser projector and what price was it? I just saw some of the U-Tube's on this device and it is quite interesting. Regards,jackTony,One more item: Can you post a video of your laser projector in action?jack

A really good way to find out what you want would be to loan a powerful laptop (if you don't have one), install your preferred simulator on it and go to an electronics store. Ask nicely to plug in and try out different displays and TV's using your simulator. That's a quick way to really see the differences between different display units.I'm using an old 32" LCD 720p TV for simming, but it's really not the best solution. You're stuck with the relatively low native resolution of the "HD Ready" TV which does cause very visible shearing with fonts and other small details. I'd like to try out a full HD 1080p TV as I believe the higher native resolution would be sufficient for sim use.

Hello Jack, I use a Sharp XR-10S-L laser projector, made by Texas Intruments, which I purchased a couple of years ago when it ran about US$900, BUT, as with all things electronic, prices are likely to be much lower for comparable models today.To position the projector, I fabricated a wall-mounted wooden platform affixed at a height of about 8 feet from the floor, with the projector facing the opposite bare, white-washed wall of my flight sim room, to serve as the screen, twenty feet away. The very crisp picture produced on that opposite wall is about twelve feet square, and due to that large size, a fair bit of peripheral vision is also filled with the on-screen imagery, which dramatically enhances the realism of the visuals, in comparison to what is possible with video monitors.My flight deck sits on a wooden platform, riding on small furniture wheels so that I can simply roll it out of the way when I need to use my flight sim computer for work. To mount my CH flight yoke, I got a welder to fabricate a two-foot high metal stand consisting of 2-inch diameter pipe with a flat plate welded on both ends - the lower plate to bolt to the wooden floor, and the upper plate to affix a slab of wood just wide enough to attatch the CH flight yoke. My pilot's seat comes out of an old Range Rover, and sits atop a 4-inch high raised platform, so that the CH yoke and Saitek rudder pedals are within comfortable reach. Finally, the GoFlight throttle quadrant sits to the right of the seat, atop a fixed wooden box which is about the size of a shoe-box standing on end. Using a 4-in-1 USB hub connector, the entire flight deck is up and running with just a single USB hook-up to the computer.I will try to get some decent photos of the flight deck, because it is much simpler in appearance than the above paragraph suggests, but as I have so far been unable to register with YouTube, I might not be able to upload a video of this system at work. In summary, I sit with my back to my flight sim computer and the projector, facing the opposite wall on which the imagery is projected, and since the keyboard and mouse are on the flight deck platform beside me, just behind the throttle quadrant pedestal, I don't need to turn back to the computer for any reason other than to switch the system on and off.RegardsTony Selario

Thanks for the inputs. The laser projector sounds like a winner. Thanks again for the updates.Regards,jack