Monitor for documents/gaming?

Long story short; my TV died and I need to get a new one. I have a 22 inch Vizio that I'm thinking about replacing it with. Since that will be used for the living room, I need a monitor for my room. Would a 4:3 monitor be suitable for reading online textbooks and a little bit of gaming? I need it to have a VGA input and I want it to look "good." (Good colors, contrast, viewing angles, etc.) I'm willing to spend around $200 for it and have been looking at these monitors: Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Monitors, LCD Monitors, No

The only real downer is that I want to hook my Xbox 360 to it. Anyway I can do that, let me know. Size doesn't really matter as long as it's around 20 inches. The monitor will be mainly used for the documents or if I need extra desktop space. Any other questions, let me know.

~350

 

I find a 24" 1080p panel is the ideal choice between gaming use and productivity work. There is still plenty of vertical space for office programs.

Most will come with a HDMI port, so you can just plug your Xbox straight in.

I had this similar Asus monitor last and it was pretty good:

Newegg.com - ASUS VE247H Black 23.6" 2ms Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor w/Speakers 300 cd/m2 10,000,000:1 (ASCR)

If you can find a Samsung equivalent for cheaper, id get that instead.

 

My 22 inch 1080p TV doesn't do well reading my online books. I figured a 4:3 or maybe a 16:10 would help that out? I rarely game on it and the primary use is more desktop space and online textbook reading.

 

4:3 isnt common even in todays workplace enviroments, but if you do want a 4:3 panel, look at the Lenovo ThinkVisions.

Some TV's dont do well on viewing text, it looks a bit blurry and fuzzy. Normally this is because of your notebook is feeding the TV non native resolutions/formats requiring the TV to upscale it.

Text is always clear in monitors because they have 1:1 pixel mapping.

Make sure you have Cleartype enabled in Windows and tweak the sharpness on the TV. This might help viewing text on your TV.

 

I don't have any problems seeing the text, rather hardly any of it shows on screen.





See what I mean? I thought having a more square screen would make more of the text show up. Maybe a special stand would work just as well? (Making it into a 9:16 vs. 16:9?) Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

Some monitors can be rotated to portrait mode. I just ordered a dell ultrasharp U2211h, which has a stand with tilt, height and pivot adjustments as well as portrait mode, which should be excellent for viewing long text documents (a lot of people also use them for 3 display setups in portrait mode). It is around $230 at the cheapest.

 

I think that's what I'm looking for! I'll look around for those. Is "pivot" the term that allows the screen to go into portrait mode? (Hardware wise.)

Nice laptop BTW.

 

Oh you meant vertical space, i see.

Dell Ultrasharps have great viewing angles thanks to the IPS panel. Ive got the U2711 but i think its too big to pivot vertically.

Though you can get any monitor to portrait, you just need VESA stand/arm that can pivot.

 

I talked to a guy on the chat and indeed the 27 inch and 30 inch can't do it. (I want a smaller one anyways.) Other than the few Dell monitors, do you know off-hand any other companies/monitors that can swing vertically?

 

You will want to stick with PVA or IPS panels, ie, panels that have good vertical and horizontal viewing angles. I tried a pivoting TN panel monitor and it ended badly...........the screen was basically unreadable (in vertical arrangement).

 

Well I just got my u2211h and in portrait mode it is slightly ridiculous; I can view very long pages easily and there are no viewing angle problems (like tint shift) at all from top/bottom or side to side.
The only small issue is that it is sort of easy for the side of the monitor to hit the stand when flipping it into portrait mode, so you have to tilt the bottom out a bit so this doesn't happen while you are pivoting it.