I'm a programmer who spends a lot of time in front of a monitor.. 8-10 hours a day easily. I've never really treated myself and paid more than $300-$400 for a monitor. I'm currently using a Samsung 997DF and would like to upgrade to something nicer... I like the idea of a wide LCD that can also be used to display HDTV.
My current video card is an ATI 9800 Pro, which I believe can support a widescreen resolution. I've also got an ATI TV Wonder pro that I use to watch television on my monitor... not a lot, but I'll sometimes watch a football game in my home office.
I'm not too big of a game player these days, but on occasion I might crank up Far Cry and the last game I spent a lot of time playing was World Of Warcraft. I need to make sure that whatever monitor I buy will have a good enough response time for DVDs and PC games.
I've got a digital cable receiver in my office and can upgrade it at anytime if I wish to receive an HDTV signal from my cable provider.
What I think I'd like to get is something along the lines of a 21"-23" wide LCD monitor with HDTV inputs so I can watch high definition television too. I'm a little concerned that I might not be familiar enough with the necessary inputs. I'm also concerned about whether I should really dump any money into a monitor with these inputs given that HDMI and HDCP supporting hardware is around the corner... this would allow me to plug my cable box into a video card (similar to my ATI TV Wonder) and display content on my monitor via a DVI input, right?
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. I'm thinking I'd like to stay around $800... if there were a compelling reason, I might spend a little more. Also, my preference has always been to buy my monitors locally... if there is anything wrong, I can always take it back without spending a fortune on shipping. I know LCDs aren't as difficult to ship, but I hate the thought of opening up a box and finding a dead pixel with no easy way to return the monitor.
Thanks in advance!
My current video card is an ATI 9800 Pro, which I believe can support a widescreen resolution. I've also got an ATI TV Wonder pro that I use to watch television on my monitor... not a lot, but I'll sometimes watch a football game in my home office.
I'm not too big of a game player these days, but on occasion I might crank up Far Cry and the last game I spent a lot of time playing was World Of Warcraft. I need to make sure that whatever monitor I buy will have a good enough response time for DVDs and PC games.
I've got a digital cable receiver in my office and can upgrade it at anytime if I wish to receive an HDTV signal from my cable provider.
What I think I'd like to get is something along the lines of a 21"-23" wide LCD monitor with HDTV inputs so I can watch high definition television too. I'm a little concerned that I might not be familiar enough with the necessary inputs. I'm also concerned about whether I should really dump any money into a monitor with these inputs given that HDMI and HDCP supporting hardware is around the corner... this would allow me to plug my cable box into a video card (similar to my ATI TV Wonder) and display content on my monitor via a DVI input, right?
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. I'm thinking I'd like to stay around $800... if there were a compelling reason, I might spend a little more. Also, my preference has always been to buy my monitors locally... if there is anything wrong, I can always take it back without spending a fortune on shipping. I know LCDs aren't as difficult to ship, but I hate the thought of opening up a box and finding a dead pixel with no easy way to return the monitor.
Thanks in advance!
