[passmaster16]

I've done a good bit of reading thru the peripheral forum and it seems to be mixed opinions on the Dell LCDs. Obviously if money was no object, I'd go for the 23 inch Cinema display. But I can't justify spending that much money on a monitor at this time. I like the 20" Cinema, but I'm afraid it won't meet my space requirements.

For a little background, my setup is currently two Sony Trinitrons, Multiscan G420 and G520 (18" and 20" viewable respectively). I run them at 1280 x 1024 as I don't like too extremely high res...my eyes just can't see the small icons

Anyway I was interested in the Dell UltraSharp 1901FP 19" LCDs. Mainly because they are good on price, $543 a piece, and also since they can accept analog/DVI I could use them with my PC...this is an important feature because as much as I hate to do it, I have to use my PC for some work-related stuff. This is why the Sonys work well because they each have two inputs. I can't tell whether the Dells actually have two sepereate inputs or just one input using an adapter...perhaps one of the members can comment. Another thing is that I heard these are basically rebadged Samsung displays. Is this true, and how good are Samsung displays? Also, I plan to run at least one of them in DVI mode off my Radeon 9000 Pro. I do have the ADC>VGA adapter. Would it be worth the extra money to get an ADC>DVI adapter so that I could run both displays thru DVI? Would I notice a difference between the VGA and DVI connections side by side?

In general I'm looking for a decent LCD for basic everyday work. I usually just use my home machine for web surfing, and email. I will do some occasional photoshop, macromedia apps, web design stuff, but I don't need perfect color reproduction. Also I don't watch DVDs on my Mac much but acceptable response rates would be good. Is there a lot of ghosting on these displays? So, to recap, I'm looking for an all around decent screen that OS X will look good on. I know that the lower res of 1280 x 1024 on an 19" screen isn't too good but that doesn't bother me since that is the res I run on my Sonys right now. I like the Sonys but they take up a lot of desk space and generate too much heat. If the 23" Cinema was cheaper, I'd consider it but to pay $1800 (student price) + the cost of a converter switchbox ($200-$300) so I could use it with my PC is a bit out of my price range right now. So any input on these Dell displays or anything comparable would be greatly appreciated.

[schalliol]

I love my Dell 1900FP's http://www.schalliol.com/property/dw...eregrino_high/ & http://www.schalliol.com/property/dw...ice_Living.mov They were basically better than all the other stuff out there when I got them last year in the 19" range.

They are Samsung 191t monitors in Dell clothing, but I don't know about the 1901FP. Samsung is great and has small bezels for multi monitors.

[passmaster16]

Originally posted by schalliol:
I love my Dell 1900FP's http://www.schalliol.com/property/dw...eregrino_high/ & http://www.schalliol.com/property/dw...ice_Living.mov They were basically better than all the other stuff out there when I got them last year in the 19" range.

They are Samsung 191t monitors in Dell clothing, but I don't know about the 1901FP. Samsung is great and has small bezels for multi monitors.

Yeah the 1901 is just the newer revision of the 1900. There was discussion about the 1800FPs having a different pixel arrangement (BGR vs RGB) and that OS X didn't have drivers to compensate for this. Do you or anybody else know if this is the case on the 1900/1901 (or Samsung 191t)? Also, how does text look on your 1900?

TIA

[schalliol]

Originally posted by passmaster16:
Yeah the 1901 is just the newer revision of the 1900. There was discussion about the 1800FPs having a different pixel arrangement (BGR vs RGB) and that OS X didn't have drivers to compensate for this. Do you or anybody else know if this is the case on the 1900/1901 (or Samsung 191t)? Also, how does text look on your 1900?

TIA

I don't know about the 1901, but on mine, text is incredible. Seems way better than with Apple's (though I haven't made a direct comparison with the 20")

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by passmaster16:
Yeah the 1901 is just the newer revision of the 1900. There was discussion about the 1800FPs having a different pixel arrangement (BGR vs RGB) and that OS X didn't have drivers to compensate for this. Do you or anybody else know if this is the case on the 1900/1901 (or Samsung 191t)? Also, how does text look on your 1900?

TIA

This is correct about the 1800FP. Windows XP sp 1 has correct drivers for BGR pixel configurations, while MacOS X does not. However, I have run this display on my Mac (it's currently on my PC) and while the antialiasing settings for flat panels don't look that great on it, the display does look acceptable when the CRT antialiasing mode is selected in OS X's Appearance (10.3) or General (pre-10.3) control panel.