Contrast_Ratio

I'm getting a new monitor soon, and was wondering what an acceptable contrast ratio would be for a 17" 1440x900 widescreen lcd monitor. The monitor i'm looking at is a Hans-G at Newegg. I'd mostly use this monitor for playing games from my 360 on, so Quality needs to be somewhat high for gaming. I don't know anything about contrast ratio or how important it is for image quality, so any help or suggestions would be helpful, thanks.

surely you would want something a little bigger if youre gonna be playing games on it all day, 17" isn't exactly big.

the contrast ratio is very important if youre concerned about image quality, its the ratio of the brightest color and the darkest color that the monitor can produce

edit: forgot to mention a contrast ratio.. 500:1 is decent, but the higher you go the better

it would definitely be a step up from the 17" square CRT i have been using for the past year. :) and i only have $100-$150 to spend.... so theres not much to choose from...

You're not going to get a CRT contrast ratio from any of today's LCD monitors. So theres really no step up but more of a step backwards interms of contrast quality.

TheHanns-G HW173DBB is a decent 17" widescreen, contrast ratio is okay for the most part(500:1 is alrite, but not really good for pure gaming). Thing with it is that brightness is only at 250 cd(which actually is only 220). Colors aren't very flourish either. But considering it is only $100 after MIR, it is a nice deal.

The BenQ FP94VW is a better choice but alot more expensive(don't know why Newegg is selling it at over $200 though when the MSRP is only $150).

I've just purchased an AMAZING monitor by LG.

It's a 19", 2ms Response time and has a contrast ration of 5000:1. I kid you not. The colours on this monitor is BRILLIANT. And the best part is... It's EXTREMELY cheap.

Model: LG L1919S

The moment you said Hanns-G and quality in the same sentence, you made a grave error. In the price ranges and sizes you're looking at, the contrast ratios might as well have been pulled out of someone butt - in fact, most likely they were. And yes, 17" widescreens are *tiny*, I'd suggest you go look at one in the store before you spend your money, you might be very disappointed to find out just how small of a monitor that is. A 19" widescreen isn't significantly larger than a 17" 4:3 monitor, you really need to go to about 22"+ to start feeling a widescreens area.

But, please, do yourself a favor and wait until you can afford something nicer. TN-panels are utter junk, and regardless of the claimed contrast ratios, they can't do colors properly. Certainly, if you're looking at a low-end TN, the backlight is going to be another problem. There's a huge difference in backlight quality on such a low-end model, that your contrast is simply destroyed by discoloration, unevenness and bleeding.