Hi all,

 

Looking for some advice here. would you recommend getting a 32inch HD TV or a 27inch LED monitor. i mainly fly the NGX and play BF3. Currently, i have a 22inch samsung monitor and think its about time i upgrade for a more immersive experience.

 

thanks.

I think 27" is more than enough

I am a great advocate of maintaining the use of a 'computer monitor' and not one of the new breeds of TV monitors that seem to have become so popular for computer use. The new computer TV monitors have a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 and maintain that resolution right up to 42" and beyond! Which is fine if you are going to view the monitor at some distance, but if you are going to use a computer monitor in a desktop scenario then anything beyond 24" in size, IMO you need to increase the resolution to 2560x1600. This is a resolution that is used on several 30" and 27" monitors such as HP (I think) Dell Ultrasharp and the Apple monitors. These are true computer monitors in the real sense and also have a native display format of 16x10 and not 16x9 which is the standard TV broadcast format. It may be interesting to note that addons such as PMDG's NGX are designed around a 16x10 format too. That's why flying the NGX with a 16x9 TV monitor will result in slightly eliptical instruments and not perfectly circular. So IMO, my advice would be, if you go for a computer monitor around those dimensions you are suggesting, then go for a monitor with a display of 2560x1600

A few years back I decided to hook up the 42" LCD in my living room to my main pc (was using a 27" previously) the change in immersion was huge so I have to disagree with the other guys here.

 

Personally I wouldnt go lower then 32" now, the 42" LG screen I have makes the sim look stunning, yes the resolution is only 1920x1080 through HDMI but with all the effects you can add on these newer tv's you wouldn't want to go back to a normal monitor.

 

Regards

I guess it gets back to the old question of quality or size?

I guess it gets back to the old question of quality or size?

 

True, but it looks great to me, a huge screen combined with trackir is pretty much nirvana in my opinion.

Since you want a more immersive experience according to your post, did you think about a LED projector? Of course it is twice what you would pay for any top of the line monitor, but it does address your objective fully with a 4/3 ratio and a screen that is 1.2 x 1.0 m before your eyes (it is also better for them). I have this setup and can assure you that with TrackIR, I would swear at times I am in the "real thing"...

Food for thoughts.

 

Jean-Claude

Since you want a more immersive experience according to your post, did you think about a LED projector? Of course it is twice what you would pay for any top of the line monitor, but it does address your objective fully with a 4/3 ratio and a screen that is 1.2 x 1.0 m before your eyes (it is also better for them). I have this setup and can assure you that with TrackIR, I would swear at times I am in the "real thing"...

Food for thoughts.

 

Jean-Claude

 

Jean-Claude, what projector are you using and at what resolution?

Howard, I am using presently a JVC D-ILA 21 SX21, that is an old model (I mean seven years), as I am away from home for a few days i cannot check the resolution to answer your question precisely, sorry about that, but I am going to replace it next month with an EPSON EH-TW 3200 LCD (better than the 3600 if you check the comparative tests) that offers full HD and extraordinary sharpness at a short projection distance. Personally I prefer keeping the old 4:3 ratio because I feel better with more panel visible at a glance and great outside views as well - that's less "panning around" in critical flight phases but it's anyone's preference since they are native 16:9 projectors anyway.

Reply to your query Howard. Presently with my JVC D-ILA I get a resolution of 1280 x 1024 in 32b at 60Hz. With the Epson, I will get the HD in 1920 x 1080 (provided I want to use the 16:9 ratio which I dislike due to the restricted vertical view).

 

Best regards,

I would rather go for PPI over total size. I had two spare monitors in my house to choose from when I got my new flying computer. The first was a 48-inch TV screen, but only 720 pixels tall. The second was a 32-inch computer monitor that was 1080 high. The difference was phenomenal. On the 720 screen you had to zoom in pretty far to clearly read the smaller numbers. But on the HD-1080p monitor you could zoom out a lot further and still have the detail.

 

So my advice is to go for whichever has the highest pixel count, preferably vertical pixels, those make a huge difference.

Reply to your query Howard. Presently with my JVC D-ILA I get a resolution of 1280 x 1024 in 32b at 60Hz. With the Epson, I will get the HD in 1920 x 1080 (provided I want to use the 16:9 ratio which I dislike due to the restricted vertical view).

 

Best regards,

Thnaks for the info Jean-Claude