Well, I bit the bullet and bought the smaller one of these monitors
mentioned below, which can be found here:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8732749type=productid=1201307759117
I must say this is the best $280 I've ever spent on a LCD screen. For
the money and for everyday pedestrian use, this is good.
It came with a DVI-D to HMDI cable so I'm driving it straight off my XFX
GTS 8800 w/ 640 MB ram (kinda old now). It's very bright so I had to
turn it down a bit. Running at full 1920 by 1080 resolution.
I also got this LG Blu-ray drive
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8844655type=productid=1208562591968
which burns various formats and reads blu-ray at 6x. It comes with a
copy of PowerDVD 7.XX that plays Blu-ray discs. Had to update both the
drive firmware and the PowerDVD. Also had to update the driver for my
vidcard.
After doing all of this I can now play Blu-ray discs. $400 investment
(note: I needed a new monitor anyhow which sort of drove this I had
been wondering about Blu-ray for a while). The Blu-ray drive is much
quieter than the Samsung 203H burner that I replaced, so this is
actually a good thing to make my Ultra-quiet PC as quiet as I want it.
The Blu-rays are good. I have to admit though that I wasn't sure there
was much difference until I got Iron-Man on Blu-ray and DVD and plaused
them at the same spot. The difference is amazing. 1080p rocks.
This LCD monitor would make a great cheap PC, console, and DVD-player
screen. It's big brother would be better for watching at a distance like
in a bedroom, methinks.
Is there any reason to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of
PowerDVD Ultra?
Anthony Q. Martin wrote:
Anyone have any experience with this brand of monitor?
Bestbuy has both a 25 version and a 27 (or 28?) version. The smaller
one supposedly had a rather flimsy stand. Both do 1080p resolution and
have HDMI connections. The smaller one is on sale. The larger one
isn't. Thing is, the larger one is too big for my space, standing
almost 2 ft at top. I want this on a PC not as a TV (though I don't
mind the extra options as one could connect a PS3 or an Xbox - I think).
