Why do LCD Computer monitors expensive?

[giantsnyy]

19 inch screen Hanns-G, one of the best monitors in the market $169.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16824254017

I'm sorry but you're joking right? I work at a circuit city where we carry those things... yeah they last a long time but the screen quality is amongst the worst I have ever seen in my life.

[dragon2611]

I'm sorry but you're joking right? I work at a circuit city where we carry those things... yeah they last a long time but the screen quality is amongst the worst I have ever seen in my life.

I was going to suggest otherwise but then I noticed that's the HS191d and mines the HW191D so I can't comment on the one linked.

The hw191d though is a very good monitor for what it costs though.

[DaDude]

My post clearly states "10 more years". That is precicely, to the day, how long you have to wait. :rolleyes:

This microwave mentality of "need it now" annoys me.

The serious answer is that you must wait for suppliers to out-produce demand. The 'per piece' price of items drops in proportion to the number produced. And technology improves, giving better yield and less scrap costs to manufacturers. Add in any new advances, and the factories producing older tech will need to pretty much give their product away at cost or just close.

And all of these things, grasshopper, take time, like water wearing away at the stone.

I know. What I'm trying to say is that I already waited 10 years. Now, I have to start all over again and wait 10 more. I will only live so long. This is like the first time I've ever seen a piece of technology take so long to drop in price.

[markwolfe Veteran]

I know. What I'm trying to say is that I already waited 10 years. Now, I have to start all over again and wait 10 more. I will only live so long. This is like the first time I've ever seen a piece of technology take so long to drop in price.

Do you remember how expensive LCD displays were back then? And their resolution?

Price out the same 1024x768 (back then, high-res!) display today. It is hard to do, because there is no money at the price those would have to be to compare to the 1680x1050 displays. (btw, I got one of the Hanns-G units - very low cost for 1680x1050. A great deal, if you ask me)

Since it is difficult to price out a current 1024x768, I guess you will have to try price-matching (or estimating) what a 1680x1050 would have put you out 7-10 years ago. :omg: We are talking over $1000, for sure. Today well under $200.

I think you aren't seeing the price dropping because you are shifting the target - always looking at the upper-end units. And those will always command the higher prices.

[ralph_tran]

the only reason you saw the crt's selling for that cheap is because they are old technology and the vendors were trying to phase them out. In fact, I don't really know of any place where you can buy a crt monitor anymore...

LCD technology has come a long way, and as they currently stand, are relatively inexpensive... also consider the amount of money it costs to manufacture an lcd panel... the panel itself costs more than the mechanism in a cheap $40 dvd player.

[giantpotato]

My 8 year old DVD player that I bought for $300 at the time is not as good as current ones. It doesn't have any component or HDMI outputs and doesn't read any writable discs. Last year, I bought one for $75 and it has better picture, upconverts to 1080p, has both component and HDMI outputs, and reads discs of all formats. It's way better than the $300 one I paid for long time ago. I was expecting something like this to happen to LCDs, but it looks like it ain't going to happen.

What's the point on getting HD DVDs if Blu-ray was the one that won. All new movies will be released on Blu-ray, not HD-DVD. Even though it's cheap, it would be a complete waste of money.

The comparison to DVD is EXACTLY the same thing that has happened with LCD's. 8 years ago LCD's were easily more than $1000. For that price you would get a low resolution screen with only a VGA connection and with a horrible response time that would make gaming and watching videos almost impossible due to ghosting. You are trying to compare LCD's to a now obsolete technology(CRT's), which is the point I'm trying to make about HD DVD. It's only cheap because it's obsolete.

[WooSH]

Simple Answer

DVD players were $500 and even after they were still pretty expensive. ONLY when new technology comes out does the old one drop like crazy. I can pick up an upconverting DVD player from samung for $60 no hassle. ive even heard them go for as low as $30 on newegg. That was only AFTER Bluray and HDDVD came out.

Same thing with LCDs and CRTs. Even right before LCDS the cheapest CRT was like $170. Then when LCDS came out stores cleared out their inventory (over the span of two years) for prices like $60. Even today you can get a 19" widescreen LCD for $150. Which is cheaper than what CRTs used to cost.

How much cheaper do you want it to go? There simply isnt an incentive for the price to go down any more. Its very affordable, and its at a pricepoint where most people can get, and people that want the better models have the option of buying ones with a heavier price tag.

LCDs will simply not go down in cost unless a newer technology will come out (OLEDs, most probably)

[Ash]

Well DVD players price dropped due to the DVD player price wars which was in part fueled by the studios who no longer wanted to produce DVDs and VHS Tapes of the same titles, so they pushed to make DVD the standard (partly because producing a DVD disk is much cheaper than a VHS tape). So they stopped releasing a lot of titles on VHS forcing people to upgrade to DVD if they want to continue to play new movies. With the new demand on DVD players, and so many companies in the hardware market, they had a price was, each company lowering their prices and adding features to lure the customer base.

So it's kind of different than the LCD market.

[DaDude]

Well DVD players price dropped due to the DVD player price wars which was in part fueled by the studios who no longer wanted to produce DVDs and VHS Tapes of the same titles, so they pushed to make DVD the standard (partly because producing a DVD disk is much cheaper than a VHS tape). So they stopped releasing a lot of titles on VHS forcing people to upgrade to DVD if they want to continue to play new movies. With the new demand on DVD players, and so many companies in the hardware market, they had a price was, each company lowering their prices and adding features to lure the customer base.

So it's kind of different than the LCD market.

Interesting. I wonder if the same thing will happen to LCD HDTVs one day. Maybe cable companies might not want to use two different versions of cable, ie SD and HD broadcasts.

[dragon2611]

Interesting. I wonder if the same thing will happen to LCD HDTVs one day. Maybe cable companies might not want to use two different versions of cable, ie SD and HD broadcasts.

32" lcd TV's seem to be getting quite cheap thesedays.

Infact in someplaces it's cheaper to buy a 32" than say a 22" :huh:

Older LCD's do indeed suck, i've got an old (and cheapo) lcd tv and the responce time is something like 25ms and the colour reproduction is rubbish as well.

[Ci7]

long story short CRT is obsolete nobody went it anymore ! so they got dumped

[A10]

Sky high prices? Two years ago I bought a Gateway 21'' widescreen lcd at Circuit City for 700 dollars that's sky high, but it was new technology. These days you can pick up a 24'' Gateway LCD for about 500 dollars now that's cheap if you ask me. You're setting your sights a bit too low I'm afraid CRT monitors are a dead technology along the lines of HD DVD, and the cassette tape that's why there so inexpensive.

[DaDude]

You must like cheap products in small sizes, I prefer to buy things that will work and have displays big enough that I can read the text or easily view a digital camera image without scrolling. Enjoy the dead pixels, large dot pitch, and poor color dithering of your $50 LCD you got there buddy.

I know I already responded to you before, but I just can't say how much your response cracks me up. It actually makes my question sound stupid, which I just realized now. Yeah, I guess maybe they were selling $50 CRT monitors because they were becoming obsolete. Anyway, I'll be finally getting a new LCD monitor in a couple of weeks with my new computer. But the LCD didn't cost me $50. The computer is actually $510 without monitor. But with the monitor, it costs $650, which is $140 more. That's still way better than paying $220+ for one when buying it individually.

[utdarkviper]

Price = Supply + Demand. It's really that simple lol.

[Narlzac85]

There are several reasons why lcd technology is not going to be as cheap as dvd players have become.

First, consider why DVD players were so expensive

When dvd video first appeared, the amount of processing power needed to decode them was considerably high. The newer laser used to read the discs was expensive to produce. The market was very small and each player sold also had to pay royalties to the DVD forum.

Why did DVD players become cheap?

A set standard which meant that the processing power required to decode would remain constant. Therefore, the hardware required to decode got much smaller and cheaper to produce (even with all of the nice extra upscaling and digital outputs). Laser diodes produced by the hundreds of millions became a very small portion of the cost. I believe the royalty fee has also been reduced or eliminated completely as well.

Now for the comparison to LCDs: Why are LCDs so expensive (as you say)?

The biggest cost of the LCD monitor is likely to be the panel itself. Because of the way that LCD panels are made, the cost to produce has not fallen as sharply as integrated circuits (LCD panels don't get smaller as time goes on for instance). Defects in manufacturing are costly as well (1 pixel out of 10 million and you get a 30" panel with a dead pixel).

Why are LCDs not dirt cheap now?

Non-standard design: People want LCD displays to get bigger, brighter, better image/color, higher pixel density, better contrast and viewing angles. And then the panel technology itself has several variations, the newer ones being better and also more expensive to produce.

So you should assume that new LCDs won't be getting much cheaper than they already are. Not at least until they are obsoleted by a superior/more affordable technology (OLED, SED or something else entirely...ocular implants???), or the panels reach a point at which they just can't get any better in any way (unlikely), at which point, the only thing left to research would be how to lower the cost without affecting quality. My vote is for newer technology coming first. So when most people start switching to OLEDs or something else, the cost of the remaining LCD panels will probably reach $50 (for a 15 inch), but most people won't care, since they'll be wanting to buy the better picture anyway.

[bobbytomorow]

LCD's are dirt cheap imo. 10 years ago a decent 22" CRT would have run you at least a $1000us now you can buy a 22" LCD that takes up a fraction of the space and consumes less power and is one fourth the price. I mean how cheap do you expect them to get? I can't really see them getting any cheaper, or much cheaper until they are on the way out.

[+shift. MVC]

You also have to consider the panels used inside those LCD screens. A monitor using TN panels would be significantly cheaper than a S-PVA or S-IPS panel.