LCD or backlit LED or IPS Monitors, Which to choose?

I'm not sure how to answer this, because looking at your post, you've got a lot of half accurate information. LED and CCFL and backlighting types. CCFL is still used in higher end displays, because it's easier to calibrate/profile. I'll tell you that I don't have any personal experience with displays underneath the $700ish range. There's an okay NEC at $450, but they are inconsistent. They've always been inconsistent to a degree. They put a lot of features at a pretty low price point, and if you get a good one it's quite nice.

How far off is your macbook display compared to your photos printed or your video? The low end display market is kind of difficult because the margins are terrible for the manufacturers.

Acronym hell is hellish, but thekev saved me half my answer.

LCD refers to any display panel that uses Liquid Crystal. Thus LCD = Liquid Crystal Display. That's the top category.

But LCD panels (as we talk about them here) can be made with different technologies: TN and IPS are two sub-categories.

Thus a TN display is an LCD display, and an IPS display is an LCD display as well.

There are LCD TN displays with LED backlighting, and LCD TN displays with CCFL backlighting.

There are LCD IPS displays with LED backlighting, and LCD IPS displays with CCFL backlighting.

Probably what you want to do is first decide between TN and IPS, and then second about the backlighting. Sometimes you have to dig pretty deeply into the manufacturer's specs to see whether it's TN or IPS (and you'll probably find PVA panels as well).

Don't go only by panel size, either. Be sure to check the resolution, because you'll surely find some attractively-priced large displays that have coarse resolution, and this might not work for you.

IPS is the way to go if you are doing an image editing, which you are. It has better viewing angles, so the colours stay more consistent as you move your head around.

TN has the advantages of being cheaper and has faster response times, so good for gaming.

LED backlighting uses less energy, so it cheaper to run and produces less heat. It is also lighter to carry around. It used to be more expensive to buy because it was new technology, but it is trending towards being cheaper as it is easier to manufacture now it is being produced in volume.

CCFL backlighting has a tendency to be more consistent across the screen, and as mentioned, is a bit easier to calibrate.

Also don't discount PVA type panels. Some of them are quite good and they're excellent for photo work. They're a bit slower in response time than an IPS panel, but nothing extreme enough to be noticeable in most situations.

I'm with thekev regarding panel backlighting. CCFL is generally the best for maintaining calibration and you'll find that the majority of high-end panels built for color accuracy continue to use CCFL.

Dukey said:

Not too far off, some are okay and the ones that are off are not too crazy. I guess I was looking for another monitor to work from, nothing high end at the moment, and wanted to see if people worked with and liked LCD with LED backlight or not as well as IPS monitors.

Did some more research and came up this forum that basically discusses a similar issue.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/digital-discussion-q/265852-lcd-vs-led-monitors.html

Click to expand...

I thought I had responded to this for some reason. Anyway I can't find the white papers around right now, and they're quite old. A typical issue with LED was color stability. Overall you're likely to see more consistent results from a ccfl backlit IPS display assuming you get a good one. LCD displays have come a long way in terms of controllable color, so there are some okay options without spending a lot.

You're actually getting some really good/accurate responses in this thread. Moonjumper is correct in that it was an expensive new feature initially. Now it shows up in $100-200 displays on newegg. If it was still a significant cost factor, this just wouldn't happen.

Anyway for now I'd personally avoid anything using LED to provide the primary picture in favor of the more mature technology type.