Studio PC Displays

Riaan

Hey guys

My oldish CRT PC monitor is on the blink, takes up too much deskspace and causes a very annoying hum when using the single coil on my guitar. So I'm thinking of replacing it with a nice LCD screen.

Since beginning to use Sonar and all the plugins, I also realise that sooner or later two screens will be nice, though for now I'm going to get only one, and hopefully later on upgrade my video card to one with dual outputs and get a second screen.

So what I would like to know is:

Which is better - one really large screen or two smaller (say 19") ones?
Which resolution would you recommend?
Which video card would you recommend?

I'm using a Gigabyte Core 2 Quad PC that is a few months old. The idea is to sometime soon, when I'm able to get a second PC for my other stuff, use this PC purely for recording and nothing else.

Riaan

Oops...just realised that my subject header may be misleading, I'm talking computer monitor here of course, not studio monitors as in "speakers" :-[

AlanRatcliffe

Fixed your header ?

Two smaller displays work out much cheaper than one large screen and are more flexible for positioning. Even two 17" will give you lots of screen real estate, but the bigger the better as long as you have the desk space (and you already gain a lot of desk depth by moving to LCDs). Higher resolution effectively means even more space, as long as your eyes are up to the task, so go as high a res as you can afford. If I were buying now I'd probably be looking at two 19" screens. I've stuck with Philips for years and have yet to have one die on me (I've got a pair of 17" CRTs on my mail server and my daughter's PC that are more than 10 years old).

Video cards don't have to be amazing - in fact it's better if they are not the current cutting edge stuff. The main things to look out for are passive cooling, twin head to drive two screens, and preferably at least the same resolution as your screens. I generally go for something made by the same manufacturer as my motherboard to ensure reliability, but that's not essential.

Gearhead

I changed from CRT to LCD (Acer) about two years ago and found it had lots but I mean lots of squeeky beepie side effects on almost all my gear. So I went back to CRT. I'm trying to say you might want to check any monitor you're about to buy for not creating these noises. No it probably isn't going to be easy.
Maybe some of the other forum members could post about their experiences with LCDs and brands?

AlanRatcliffe

That's odd (although I like the "squeeky beepie" description)! Sounds more like a video card issue - like when you have a video card and an internal soundcard and moving the mouse causes odd noises? Really strange that CRTs would cause less issues than LCDs, because CRTs are monsters for causing noises.

Although I have heard bad things about Acer screens not lasting and had a bad service experience with an Acer laptop a few years ago. Apparently LG and Sony are making the best LCD panels which are used in the screens, so I would guess that either of those are good.

deanBailey

I have two Mecer 19"'s and I feel I work very efficiently on them, but I haven't really had a chance to try one huge screen like a 30". Perhaps that might knock my drum editing time from 2 hours a song to 1 ?.

From my experience CRT's create a hum or buzz in guitar pickups if they are too close during recording and run the risk of needing to be degaussed (sp) every time something too magnetic is near.

FatBoy

I don't have a multiple display setup on my audio pc yet, but I can tell you that for normal office work, 2 smaller screens works much better than one big one for me, just easier to separate things, easier to position etc. I will probably set up 3 screens in my studio when the money / need is there.

CDee

I used to work off 2 19" displays. Worked well but I like working at a high resolution and thus switched to a 22" and I like that more. But in the end try and test it before you purchase. Try and get something with a low ms response and a relativly high contrast ratio.(Not too high though 3000:1 seems like a nice balance, I had a 10000:1 which was too bright and a even the 5000:1 was too much for me.)

Gearhead

Alan Ratcliffe wrote Sounds more like a video card issue

Eh, no... the video card still is in and everything is fine now. In fact it also used to be fine if you took the monitor power supply out of the wall socket - must be something about noise produced by the switching power supply. I meant to have a look at just putting in a proper transformer/rectifier power supply, but there's a lot more important projects to be done. You mean nobody else has that??

nick

I have a 22" running 1600x1050, more than enough real estate ?

AlanRatcliffe

Gearhead wrote Eh, no... the video card still is in and everything is fine now. In fact it also used to be fine if you took the monitor power supply out of the wall socket - must be something about noise produced by the switching power supply.

Ah. That's probably it. My Philips have proper PSUs built in and I've had problems with switching PSUs on a laptop - and only cured by lifting the earth to it. The "squeaky beepy" comment makes perfect sense in context from what I was getting from my laptop - you hear all kinds of interference from the computer's hard drive and zipper noise from the mouse pointer movement, etc..