Looking to Replace Aging CRT Monitors

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Looking to Replace Aging CRT Monitors

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ldb24	ldb24 posted 8 Years Ago Topic Details Share Topic
Group: Forum Members Posts: 13, Visits: 47	I need to replace the aging CRT monitors in my lab and I'm looking at some of the new 120 Hz response time gaming LCD monitors. I saw some threads on this in the forums, but they were several years old and the technology has advanced some so I thought it would be worth revisiting. There are a few published papers out now comparing different monitors (e.g., Ghodrati, Morris, & Price, 2015; Wang & Nikolic, 2001), and it seems as though the new LCDs are better in terms of fast/accurate temporal processing. These studies used different software, however. I'm curious if anyone has tested Inquisit scripts with any of these new monitors or if there are any suggestions on a suitable CRT replacement that is reasonably priced ($600 or less)? For most of my research, I want images to be displayed for 100 ms, followed by a mask. I vary the onset of the mask, however, anywhere from 17 ms to 484 ms after the offset of the study images. With the newer 120 Hz monitors, it seems I could achieve that since each frame is ~8.3 ms (12 frames would bring me to 100 ms, 2 would give me the 17 ms interval). So, as long as I get a monitor with fast refresh rates am I safe in assuming the accuracy of my timings? Is there anything else I should look for? Tags LCD monitor timing accuracy
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Dave	Dave posted 8 Years Ago ANSWER Post Details Share Post
Group: Administrators Posts: 13K, Visits: 103K	> So, as long as I get a monitor with fast refresh rates am I safe in assuming the accuracy of my timings? Generally yes, but as always caveats apply. It is entirely possible for certain monitors to introduce some lag outside of anything that any software like Inquisit can control or detect. Modern LCD etc. monitors have their own hardware buffers, for example; if those buffers introduce lag, the operating system -- and by extension Inquisit -- would never learn about it. That communication is a one-way street, so to speak. See e.g. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26656392_Millisecond_precision_psychological_research_in_a_world_of_commodity_computers_New_hardware_new_problems , page 602 for some discussion of this with respect to TFT monitors. If you really want to be sure of a given monitor's timing characteristics, you would have to perform measurements using a photodiode or similar in any case. The publications you cite, particularly Wang & Nikolic, provide useful insights and guidance (I would also add https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20600318 ). The choice of software should not matter much, as most stimulus presentation packages -- be it Inquisit or, say, E-Prime -- function similarly in this regard and use the same underlying framework provided by the OS (e.g. DirectX under Windows). Hope this helps. Edited 8 Years Ago by Dave
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ldb24	ldb24 posted 8 Years Ago ANSWER Post Details Share Post
Group: Forum Members Posts: 13, Visits: 47	Okay, thank you this is helpful!
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