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Monitor recommendation.

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First post, by borgie83

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As the title suggests, I need help deciding on a new monitor. Recently I had a few issues with Commander Keen 1-6 and Tyrian not displaying on a couple of monitors. See my thread for further:

Commander Keen problem!

My issue ended up being the monitors themselves as once I connected up a Samsung Syncmaster 931BW my issues were gone.

Basically I'd like some help with purchasing a new LCD or LED monitor. Preferably without inbuilt speakers. It needs to be a monitor that is still in production and readily available now. Obviously it's going to be connected up to a retro pc (several retro pc's) so it must have both VGA/DVI connections. I'd also like to know if it works with Commander Keen and Tyrian as these are the games that were giving me my display issues. Oh and I'm talking about the in real dos mode not dosbox.

Hope you guys can help 😀

Reply 1 of 4, by gandhig

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I can't recommend anything as my collection consists of a single 24" Benq GW2450 monitor. However I can assure you keen1 works in real dos(6.22) in my monitor

Dosbox SVN r4019 + savestates Build (Alpha)
1st thread & the only one related to the forum(?)...warning about modern-retro combo
Dead, but, Personal Favourite
Replacement for Candy Crush...Train the Brain

Reply 2 of 4, by borgie83

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@gandhig, I checked out that monitor and then had a quick look on eBay. There seems to only be one for sale in Australia and it's used. I'd prefer a new one if possible. I should also mention that I'd prefer to not buy something as heavy as a monitor from overseas as the postage cost would be more than the monitor itself.

Regarding monitors with inbuilt speakers. Is there any disadvantage to these? Also how hard is it to turn off the inbuilt speakers and use it as a normal monitor? I've never owned one before but figure they would be more like a tv with VGA/DVI connections.

Does anyone else have any recommendations?

Reply 3 of 4, by cdoublejj

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Just no old games and low resolution media looks best on CRTs because of the way they work and how they mace use of scanlines/line spacing. it's not TERRIBLE on LCD/LED but, it's not the sharpest either. EDIT: on top of that i found out on the screen hooked up to my modern machine the VGA image is notably blurry compared to the DVI connection. That's not supposed to be the case but, i'm assuming they skimped on the VGA board.

Reply 4 of 4, by JayCeeBee64

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Since you're in Australia borgie83 and I'm in the US, it's kind of hard to give a recommendation; nevertheless, I'll give it a try:

- You can still get the Acer S230HL Abd from eBay; avoid the Abii, it replaces the DVI input with HDMI. The Acer S231HL Bid and Bbid is also available from eBay; it has VGA, DVI, and HDMI inputs.

- If the S230HL/S231HL is not available locally, the try the Acer S240HL; it's a 24" LED with VGA and DVI inputs.

Regarding built-in speakers, as long as you don't plug in the audio cable in back of the monitor they won't work. The sound they produce is also very tinny and low, but can be useful if you need sound and don't have speakers on hand. They also don't interfere with monitor display and/or functions.

Ooohh, the pain......