Advice for Monitor

[Phil_]

If your development monitor is a different size to your deployment monitor I find it a good idea to use some of the techniques found in this webcast: http://zone.ni.com/wv/app/doc/p/id/wv-3497 to use separators and auto control/indicator resizing to let your front panel expand gracefully with your monitor.

[billko]

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@johnsold wrote:

I like two monitors in a development environment. You can put front panels on one and block diagrams on the other. Or BD and Requirements documents. Or BD and Profile. Or many other combinations, depending on what you are doing at the moment.

If the deployment system will have smaller monitors than you use in development, have a setting on (one of) the development monitors to make it work like the deployment system so you can see what your end users will see.

Lyn

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Or (at least in my case) code on one side, help file on the other.  😉

[billko]

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@mikeporter wrote:

In addition to size, the other thing to consider is resolution. I have found over the years that while my monitors have gotten larger, the resolution has remained the same.

Mike... (middle-age is not for wimps)

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And that trend really annoys me! on a couple of different levels.  First, it's such a marketing scam.  The average Joe sees bigger = better, but if the pixels are bigger, then it leads me to annoyance #2 - blocky pixels.  I have a monitor that is 20" and one that is 22" (widescreen), but they both have the same resolution, but the 22" monitor is very distracting to look at because when my eye moves from place to place, I actually can glimpse the indiviual pixels, and for a moment, it loks as if I am viewing the desktop through a screen door.  This, of course, is terribly distracting in games; therefore, the 22" monitor is my secondary monitor, not the primary.

Of course, the opposite end of the spectrum is bad, too.  Sometimes screen makers will cram too many pixels into a small screen, making stuff nearly unreadable.  Then I have to make the icons larger, and that defeats the whole purpose of a high-res monitor.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, DPI is something that you should also consider.

[GuenterMueller]

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billko wrote:  [...]

And that trend really annoys me! on a couple of different levels.  First, it's such a marketing scam.  The average Joe sees bigger = better, but if the pixels are bigger, then it leads me to annoyance #2 - blocky pixels.  I have a monitor that is 20" and one that is 22" (widescreen), but they both have the same resolution, but the 22" monitor is very distracting to look at because when my eye moves from place to place, I actually can glimpse the indiviual pixels, and for a moment, it loks as if I am viewing the desktop through a screen door.  This, of course, is terribly distracting in games; therefore, the 22" monitor is my secondary monitor, not the primary.  [...]

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That's why I still have a CRT, 21" with 0.2mm pixel pitch. Regrettably I cannot recommend it - due to unavailability.  The image quality is still superior.

[altenbach]

I am currently using a Samsung SA850, which is fantastic for LabVIEW programming.

27" with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 provides a very good balance for a single monitor solution. Highly recommended.

(of course most plain old widescreen monitors are now 1080p because of the economy of scale and the huge market for TV panels. The SA850 is a bit more expensive)

Rant: On a sidenote, I wish that users would stop attaching VIs that are maximised to the screen for the diagram and front panel. It is absolutely silly to open a small VI from the forum that immediately fills the entire 2560 x 1440 with white(or grey)-space, obscuring everything else I am doing concurrently. Like LabVIEW, my brain is multithreaded and I usually do several things in parallel. No random VI should be able to hog the entire screen, ever! Maybe I write up an idea to globally ignore full-screen settings when VIs are openend. Also, the size of New VIs adapt to the current screen resolution. If I create a new VI using that monitor, they are actually too big for my taste (~1500x850, excluding the scrollbars)

[GuenterMueller]

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@altenbach wrote:

[...] Like LabVIEW, my brain is multithreaded and I usually do several things in parallel. No random VI should be able to hog the entire screen, ever! Maybe I write up an idea to globally ignore full-screen settings when VIs are openend. Also, the size of New VIs adapt to the current screen resolution. If I create a new VI using that monitor, they are actually too big for my taste (~1500x850, excluding the scrollbars)

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Kudo for this, Christian.  If you put it in the LabVIEW Idea Exchange, you will certainly receive further Kudos.

[altenbach]

Actually, the second idea (size of new VIs) was posted in 2009 and did not get a lot of love. I just added another comment.

(for the "maximized" issue, there is this declined idea, which would go too far, of course. I see if I can come up with smething more reasonable ;))

[Bublina]

I like two monitors setup,

1. Primary is wide 16:9, most VIs you code (block diagram) is usually half of that screen, so you can swap @ copy between VIs.

2. Secondary is vertical 16:9 or 4:3, there I keep my project window, rest of VIs and documents I use to create code.

If you choose monitor, the best parameter (for me) is the ratio between totaly dark pixels and bright pixels given some brightness level.

For me, this is very important because I like to set the monitor brightness as low as possible, since the white block diagram background, white document background

burns your eyes whole day.

I believe this is called contrast ratio. The higher the better.

Second most important is size, pick the primary monitor as big as possible, but not so big you have to move your head in order to watch the whole screen. This also depends on the monitor distance and position.

For the rest of the parameters; I do not recommend selection based on numbers in specs. like pixel resolution, contrast, maximum brightness etc., best you can do is take a look at the monitor, and display on it

some sharp image using the interface you want to use. Pick the sharpest one.

[altenbach]

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@Bublina wrote:

Pick the sharpest one.

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In the goodbad old days of CRTs, this was a valid concern. For LCDs, you simply need to make sure that you set the computer to the native resolution of the monitor panel and one displayed pixel will be exactly one physical pixel and "sharpness" is no longer an issue. A pixels is a pixel, even under the microscope. Native resolution is an absolute must for pixel based diagrams where everything (icons, wires, etc.) are quantized to pixels.

Interesting differences occur for panels that have a irregular pixel arrangement (eg. pentile variations as seen on some phones).

Most monitors allow you to set brightness or contrast. While these direct settings are important, equally important is the ambient room lighting. The human eye can deal with an amazing dynamic light range, but any LCD panel will look crappy on the beach in full sunlight and gorgeous in a slightly dimmed room. Of course people with marginal eyesight or incorrect lenses see sharper in bright light where the smaller iris of the eye will increase the focal depth to bring things into marginal focus while a large iris can no longer compensate the optical mismatch.

As the pixel pitch increases with new models, this will be less and less a concern. once the pixels are smaller than the resolution capabilities of 20/20 vision, these things no longer matter. 😄

[stevem181]

My main monitor is a Dell U2412M. You would have to pry it from my cold dead hands to get it away from me.

o 24 inches – I’ve tried 27” panels but really prefer the smaller footprint

o IPS screen

o 1920x1200 – displays 2 full pages of a Word document – great for documentation

o 6 bit – works fine for my use – photographers might need 8 bit (U2410M)

o Very good adjustability – plus you can rotate it 90 degrees

o I use a Dell soundbar for speakers – not great, but less clutter

o Cost effective (~$360)  – watch for discounts

Limitation – does not have HDMI input. Not a problem for me. When I travel with it (rarely) I use VGA from laptop.

I don’t think anyone has mentioned the screen type. IPS (In-Plane Switching) is much better than TNT. My eyes get tired less and off screen viewing is improved with this technology.

steve