I bought a new HP w1907 19" widescreen, had a 17" crt, uhg, anyways I just have a quick question. I've noticed in the desktop, moving windows around, and in games, a very slight blur. In games it's barely noticable, not really a problem, but on the desktop, when I drag windows around it has a blur to it, as the window moves across the screen, is this normal? I thought it would be as clear as my old CRT, is there maybe a setting or something? Or maybe I need to manually set a certain mode, it has several to choose from, but I have only changed one, to gaming, and it does the same thing, well, on the desktop, did test the gaming setting in a game. It's 5ms responce time and 1000:1 contrast ratio. It's been a really long time since I've used a LSD so I can't remember if it's normal, but I thought with a 5ms it should look as perfect as my CRT did, there was no blur at all, ever. Thanks much in advance, cause ohterwise the monitor is outstanding.

Any input would be a great help, need to know if it's normal for such a quick LCD, if not I want to return it. Thanks must in advance.

EDIT: See post below>>>

Never mind, I took it back and got an Acer 20", it has the same issues, so I guess all monitors do this. Or am I missing something? I thought newer LCD's didn't have these blur/ghosting issues.

Yeah, basically all lcd's have blurring issues. According to an article at Gizmodo, its not only the refresh rate that causes the problem, its also the frame rate. So they came out with new LCDs that double the standard 60MHz to 120MHz (or fps. I don't know). I think its because LCD's today use the interpolation method where it freezes a frame in transition to the next one, rather than using a black frame (which kills the brightness of an LCD), and hopefully they are trying to prevent the blurring of the interpolation method by doubling the frame rate. I know the article aplies to LCD TV's but PC LCD's are pretty much the same (except not as briliant as the TV!).

Well, this new Acer isn't nearly as bad, in gaming I don't notice it at all, but say, if I have a small window open, and move it across the screen, it gets a little blurry, but, since this doens't really matter, and it games just fine, I'm ok with it.

I'm starting to think it's the size of the monitor, cause my old acer 19" I had last year didn't do it at all, was clear as a CRT when there's motion, also my old acer 17", was perfect too.

I'm definitely staying with Acer until I can test another brand before buying, so far Acers have been best for me, although I'm still considering the possibility it can be fixed. My new one is 5ms responce time, to my knowledge this is supposed to eliminate ghosting all together, but so far not true.
I'd be really surprised if it's only a problem with high resolution monitors, but still, since it's 5ms, I just find it amazing there's any ghosting at all, 5ms is incredibly fast.

Back in the day I had an Acer 19, the older one I mentioned before, it has 8ms, and had no ghosting at all. I hope someone here can give me some insight, I know my way around a PC, but this has me at a complete loss.

Edit: These newer monitors are still very good, I remember back in '00 my friend bought a new, very expensive dell, all tricked out, and it came with a 19" flat panel, and the ghosting was so bad you coulnd't play games at all, it looked horrible, like the images on the screen were smearing everywhere.

Scatter: Please... if you don't know the technical details, don't comment on something technical.

DHRammstein: Due to the way LCD's work (manipulation of crystal alignment to either pass or block the light from the backlight), they are very good at holding a steady image. The physical constraints on the crystals means that it takes a while for them to return to their natural state, and therefore LCD's essentially no flicker at all. For general use on, say, public computers, this is a welcome replacement over the low-quality, 60Hz flicker monsters of old that LCD's replaced in this application.

However, the problem with LCD's results from this same benefit: image stability*. LCD's have tons of it, CRT's have practically none. As a result of physical limitations on the crystals, LCD's will never be as fast as even the cheapest CRT.

FWIW, when my Sony FW900 finally died (24" widescreen CRT, one of the finest CRT monitors ever made), I bought an NEC 20WMGX2 20" widescreen LCD (AS-IPS panel). It was essentially the most CRT-like LCD I could find (great colors, for an LCD, great viewing angle, for an LCD, great speed, for an LCD). I specifically avoided TN and PVA/MVA panels (such as those in less expensive 20", 22", and 24" LCD's) because I knew I'd find them completely unusable after having a nice CRT for so long. I suppose you could say I'm satisfied with it, for now, but there are times when I really wish I just had a nice, fast CRT.

*Example
CRT: A phosphor's natural state, when no energy is applied, is dark. Therefore, by the time the electron beam gets back to a particular pixel in the refresh cycle, the phosphors for that pixel have returned to dark. Fast changes in brightness are limited only by the refresh rate.
LCD: A crystal's natural state, in an LCD that is powered on, is whatever the previous state was. In order to change this state, a different electrical charge must be applied. This is a slow process and severely limits the speed at which changes in brightness take place.

Whoa, that's ugly, smearing??
Anyways, I upped my monitor's refresh rate from 60 - 75MHz and it definately does help with the blurring (sorry, I don't know what ghosting is...yet.) According to the manual it came with, it's recomended that I use 60Mhz with a 1440x900 screen size but I used 75MHz instead, and it runs very smoothly with less blur (its a cheap AMW monitor from Fry's but its still really good). Is your monitor running at max safe settings?

Edit: Well, what's wrong with helping a little? If I caused any problem then I'm sorry.

Well, if I lower my resolution, I can go as high as 75hz, which has less ghosting, but, LCD's look their best in their native resolution, which is always the max resolution, and the monitor can't handle more than 60hz at max resolution. But I'm fairly sure it's the responce time that causes the blur. From what I've read, and I'm not sure I understood it all... It seems that, even if it's running at 60hz, which should be perfectly smooth, or very close to perfect, if the responce time is too high, not all pixels on the screen change quickly enough, enough to match the refresh rate, so while the monitor refreshes to show a new image, some of the pixels are lagging just slightly behind, leaving a blur type effect from the previous image. Ehh, wish I understoood more, or could explain better

It really confuses me, I mean, if the screen refreshes 60/ second, there should be no "ghost" image from the previous frame, so is the blur a result of the crystal leaving it's previous state and producing the new frame....? Jeez I'm not sure I understand it right at all, but this is what's going through my head

Honestly though, it's not even noticeable in LFS, driving straight most of the time doesn't show it, but if the image on the screen has to move left/right/up/down quickly, then I see the ghosting, it's like a translucent image from the previous frame. I'll see if I can take a screen shot.

Honestly though I'm very happy with the monitor, I was stuck at such a low res before, and the CRT took up way too much space, and, well naturally, the LCD is much easier on the eyes, and sharper in it's nice high res.

Edit: This is the best example I can find, it's basically just a blur, but not on certain objest, the entire image has a blur to it..


Basically, if you've ever taken a picture while not holding your camera still, you get motion blur, which is exactly my issue, would love to know if gaming LCD's exist that reduce this, or if there's a setting in some monitors to improve this.

There are TN-based panels that are considered "gaming" panels due to being the fastest LCD's you can buy, but they otherwise look like garbage and still don't come close to the speed of a CRT.

But yes, essentially ghosting results from the inability of the crystals to switch state fast enough and you get a ghosted or blurred image as the crystals are between states. In the case of a bright object moving across a dark background, the blurring occurs on both the leading and trailing edges of the object. In the case of a CRT, there is only a very slight blurring at the trailing edge as the phosphors dim, while the leading edge is always crisp.