Couldn't vouch for "easy on the eyes", but you could get 1 or 2, 21" CRTs and run at lower resolution so things would be bigger.
Thanks guys, i get the picture I am able to focus on everything fine (old but not quite decrepit just yet LOL) but can just tell that after a while eyes are getting tired and don't know if having an LCD would be easier on the eyes than a plasma (CRT is out as it takes up too much space) for the same resolution. I know refresh rate has something to do with it and that you should have the highest hz setting that you can have but all mine say that the hardware only supports 60Hz? Also something about 25ms or 20ms? I know smaller number is better but again not sure if plasma and lcd even have this and if it is comparable.
I'm 42 and many trading sessions I look at my LCDs for 10 hours straight. My eyes do not get tired. I have no direct experience with plasma displays though.
Your Planar PL191M are all LCD displays. The specs for your monitor can be found here: http://www.planar.com/Products/Print_layout_1_951_951.html They are a bit older and less bright than the ones that are coming out now, but they are definitely not plasma displays. You will get 60Hz as the prefered (native) refresh on many new 19" monitors as well. However, you can uncheck the button that says "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display" under the Monitor tab of your display setting and then select 75Hz for your monitor and it should work fine. If you don't get this option, then your video card might not be able to support that resolution on your monitors while running on multiple displays. Generally, you won't notice the difference between 60Hz and 75Hz. You don't describe if it is the size of the characters on your display that are bothering you or if it is the characteristics of the monitor itself. If the characters bother you, then buying bigger monitors and keeping them at a lower resolution as described by Omni will help you out. I think Gnome had the right idea but I have a problem with CRT's because of their space consumption, bulk, power consumption and higher radiation (even if they are certified to meet Swedish standards). Good luck.
Hows it going F71! It has been a while. I agree with this. I am used to 19's and sitting in front of 20's is odd. They look better for surfing the web etc. But for trading---the 19's seem to work very well. I can lipe up 3 big charts on a page. The extra inch of the 20's does nothing for me and the different resolution is just too different for me. I guess that I could get used to it. But why bother? You can just throw up an extra 2 19's like F71 suggested.
Thanks guys and especially FT71 for your detailed advice and for point out that I actually have LCD's and not plasma screens as I thought. I looked on Cnet and it seems that maybe a couple of those Dell 2405FPW may work as they have good brightness and contrast and response time. Only query i have is that I read that if you chnage the native resolution then quality suffers substantially. The native resolution on those monitors is 1920 x 1200. If I have it correct that would make things very small indeed right? If I then switch to a more readable resolution wouldn't that then reduce image quality and thus negate the benefit of trading up? By the way, does it make a difference if you have the light on in a room when using these LCD's vs just using the light of the screen only? During the day it is obviously not an issue but I do a lot of work at night on them and don't usually bother to turn the light on.
you have to turn the light on! or you are asking for eye problems ps. and leave the lcd on their native resolution and frequency, or yes, the quality will suffer. 60hz is native for lcd's and it doesn't matter because lcd's don't "flicker" anyway. pps. 19" lcd at their native resolution you'll show bigger fonts than 17" both have same resolution, but 19" is obviously bigger. if you go to 20" or 21" then you'll have higher resolution, so smaller fonts, even though the screens are bigger. maybe 22" or something might be good, but then we are looking at major $$$ i guess.
fwiw, you can get a 26in plasma for about the same as the 24in LCD: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/pro...cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~page=6&~tab=specstab#tabtop it runs at 1280x768, so you would have bigger area without decreasing font size (and losing a little off of your current setup of 1280x1024). also, you can always adjust font size and so forth to better accommodate your screen res. but, of course it is easiest and more complete to find a res and screen size that complement each other for a more seamless effect. hth take care - omni BTW: i didn't price other 26in screens, so you might find a better priceerformance candidate out there. or you might buy a second 32in to match what you have. i don't remember seeing which model you bought though, so can't really say (i.e. ~2.5k for two 26in or one 32in).
So i l just ordered a dell 24 in wide screen, which has a higher resolution than a regular 17 or 19 in lcd. so will it be more difficult to see whats on the dell 24 in, vs 1 dell 19 in lcd? (are things going to look smaller?)