lcd monitor viewing angle

[Ophelius]

I bought a Suzo Happ 19" Vision Pro monitor for my arcade which I mount Vertically. I noticed that if looked from one side the colors are fine, but if looking at the other side, the colors get inverted. It's not like it's a substantial angle too, anyone simply watching me play over my shoulder on one side would see the colors in reverse. I know it's because lcd monitors do that, and that one side is actually the bottom or top of the monitor, but is there a way to configure the monitor to not distort the colors like that? Or is there another kind of lcd monitor that when mounted vertically would show fine for spectators on either side? Thanks

[MonMotha]

The cause is the way the LCD panel itself is made.  Short of re-orienting the monitor, there's no way to alter that behavior.  The "bottom" is indeed typically chosen as the "bad" angle to view from, on the assumption that normally the monitor will be oriented such that it's impossible to really view it from a very steep angle below (something else, like a table, would be in the way).  Rotating it 90 degrees, however, puts the "bottom" off to one side, and you get the problem you describe.

What you've described is pretty typical of S-PVA panels commonly used on mid-high end, larger format monitors.  An S-IPS/H-IPS panel shouldn't do that, and they are made in 19" (generally 5:4, not 4:3).  Unfortunately, nobody publishes the actual specs of their monitors; often several different panels are used during the lifespan of the same model "monitor", so you get to play the panel lottery.  You may be able to find an old PC monitor with an S-IPS panel that would work better for this application.  They'll still get a little dimmer when viewed from "below", but they won't exhibit color shift even at pretty extreme angles.

Note that a lot of cheap consumer PC LCD monitors are REALLY bad in this regard.  On many of them, even in their natural orientation, just looking 5 degrees off to either side results in noticeable color shift.  This is typical of the cheap (but fast, giving a good figure for that "response time" figure people put way too much stock in) TN type panel.

[Ophelius]

Thank you. How about this one, the RetroArcade.us 19" lcd:
http://www.hollandcomputers.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=6003&idcategory=2547#details
It claims it can be viewed from any angle. Do you or know anybody who have experience with this one? This problem is too annoying to ignore. I'd rather ship back my Suzo-Happ to get one that can be viewed from all angles. I would accept a bit of dimming, but inverting colors is no good.

[Mental]

What is considered an acceptable viewing angle? Most monitors specify 160 degrees. A select few 170, and very rare ones go to 178. I would imagine 170 is good?

[Ophelius]

What is considered an acceptable viewing angle? Most monitors specify 160 degrees. A select few 170, and very rare ones go to 178. I would imagine 170 is good?

I know, the arcade monitor I bought and returned had a bad viewing angle at the bottom, even though it stated something like 170. So when rotated 90 degrees, the bad angle was now on the side where even the slightest shift to the side would invert all the colors. I'll be buying an IPS monitor soon.