LaCie 324

Its feature set alone suggests that this LaCie screen is intended for professionals: a PVA panel is joined by a Picture-in-Picture mode, HD resolution and an extensive color range.

All of this is backed up by a DCDi image correction chip by Faroudja.

The fact that it looks the part too doesn't stop those of use who aren't professional graphic designers or photographers drool over it.

It performed brilliantly in every one of our tests, with an excellent response time, great colors and sharp video in both Standard and High Definition.

PVA Panels

LaCie has put a lot of time and effort into pushing PVA panels, and it wasn't the only manufacturer to do so.

Until only two or three years ago, imaging professionals would swear by IPS screens.

Persuading designers to change their allegiances has not been easy, but largely worthwhile because of the much better contrast ratios and good response times.

The price to pay for these good results is the loss of good viewing angles.

Colors & Contrast

Using the default configuration, the deltaE score (the average discrepancy between the colors requested by the computer and those actually shown) is unacceptably high at 4.7.

Any graphics professional, though, will be used to calibrating their screen.

One of LaCie's justifications in moving from IPS to PVA was the improved blacks that the new technology offers, and our readings confirmed that this was a good idea. 

We calculated a contrast ratio of 1200:1 based on a black measure at 0.17 cd/m². 

If you allow the automatic hardware calibration to match the brightness to that of an average CRT (around 100 cd/m²), the contrast falls to 820:1 with black at 0.12 cd/m²--still very much above average.

The screen has a very even image, with an average gap between the lightest and darkest areas of just 10%.

On average, each pixel only differed from the screen's average brightness by 2.5%, a result that's very hard to beat.

Response time is also excellent.  Although it's sold as being a 6 ms monitor, it's actually closer to some 2 ms screens we've seen.

Finally, to reduce the effects of noise created by PVA technology, LaCie has fitted a Faroudja chip: its results are impressive, as you can see from its test image, but we still have a few reservations.