Friday, March 30, 2007

How To Improve Picture Quality of LCD Monitors

This week, I bought a new monitor as a replacement for my old Hitachi 17” CM640ET CRT monitor. The picture quality is still very good when it warms up but it is the size of a small bus!

I looked round for a low cost LCD monitor. After reading a few reviews I decided upon the Hanns-G HU196D. The best price was under £100, which I thought was competitive for a 19” Monitor. So it arrived within 24 hours of ordering. It had DVI and VGA inputs but no digital cable came with it? So I connected up with the supplied VGA D-Sub cable.

At first I thought what a beautiful bright picture, then I noticed how the text looked blurry with ghosting. I fiddled with the contrast and brightness but I was still disappointed with the picture text clarity.

So I made some enquiries which led to me buying a digital DVI-D cable. When I installed the cable what a difference to the quality! I am very pleased with the monitor now, except for the small speakers which are a waste of time for music!

Most newer PC's have Video Cards with:

- Standard 15-pin D-Sub VGA connector which outputs an analogue signal
- DVI-D connector which outputs a digital signal.

So, If you do have a DVI graphics card, using a DVI-D cable you'll get a superior picture without any configuration changes compared to Analogue VGA.

The moral is then if you are having problems with your equipment, CHECK your connecting cables and cheapest isn’t always the best option. That goes as well for SCART leads, Home Cinema or Hi-Fi.

If you want to collect my old monitor, it’s for sale in LOOT for £17 ono. I live in Macclesfield Cheshire email rmswing@yahoo.com

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