When it comes to watching movies, a gaming monitor should be considered an option. After all, for a passionate gamer, playing the latest games with the highest quality visuals and the best gaming experience is important. But a gaming monitor can be just as impressive for watching movies. But is it really worth the investment?
The main advantages of buying a gaming monitor over a traditional monitor are the refresh rate, response time, image quality and features they offer. A gaming monitor is equipped with a higher refresh rate, which allows smoother and clearer animation and video. This results in an improved viewing experience because there isn’t any visible image breakdown or lag while watching a movie with a gaming monitor. Similarly, the response time of a gaming monitor is much faster than a standard monitor, so fast-paced elements in movies appear sharp and vivid.
Another great advantage of using a gaming monitor for watching movies comes from the screen size. Generally, gaming monitors come with larger sizes that can make the viewing experience more immersive and enjoyable. Not only do you get to experience a movie in its full scope, but this also allows you to get out of your usual living room set up and into a theater-like experience in the comfort of your own home.
In addition to all of these technical benefits, gaming monitors are also equipped with special adjustable settings so you can get the most out of your movie viewing experience. World-leading monitor brands, such as ASUS and BenQ, offer a range of gaming monitors with an adjustable setting that customizes the color temperatures and gamma levels in order to improve the colors and contrast of the picture. This way, you can enjoy watching movies in their intended colors.
Finally, when buying a gaming monitor, most gamers opt for a model that is compatible with HDR standards, which offer a higher contrast ratio and improved colors with deeper blacks, brighter whites and a more realistic picture. Most newer games and BluRay movies come with HDR technology, allowing you to enjoy as much detail as possible.
HDR Technology
HDR technology is the gold standard for a vibrant and lifelike movie watching experience. To ensure compatible performance, gaming monitors are often designed to be ready for HDR when connected to an HDR content source. Having HDR enabled on your gaming monitor enhances contrast and color accuracy for a more detailed and vivid picture experience. It also allows games and movies to look closer to the intended colors, providing better immersion in both gaming and home theatre experiences.
Due to its improvements in contrast and color accuracy, an HDR gaming monitor is a great choice if you’re looking to watch movies with the highest quality visuals. The increased contrast ratio makes dark scenes look more natural while brighter scenes can be supressed in extreme luminance. This provides an incredibly lifelike viewing experience, making you feel like you are right in the middle of the movie.
In addition to its enhanced contrast and color accuracy, HDR gaming monitors also provide deeper blacks due to their improved backlight technologies. This makes dark scenes appear more realistic – turned off by the viewer, the dark scenes can be seen without turning the lights on, giving you great detail in the shadows. This is perfect for horror and suspenseful films, allowing you to soak up the details of the scene while maintaining tension.
High Refresh Rates
High refresh rate gaming monitors have been a popular choice for gamers for years and are also suitable for home cinema enthusiasts. Refresh rate is often measured in Hertz (Hz) and it refers to the number of times the monitor updates its image per second. This means that higher refresh rates will make the image appear smoother, reduce blur and create a more lifelike image. While 60Hz is the usual refresh rate for traditional monitors and can suffice for a decent viewing experience, gaming monitors usually sport refresh rates of 75Hz, 90Hz and more, resulting in an improved viewing experience.
When purchasing a gaming monitor for viewing movies, it’s important to consider the refresh rate. Depending on the type of movie you’re watching, a higher refresh rate can result in a better picture quality and smoother transitions without any tearing or stutter. For action-packed films, for example, a high refresh rate will ensure that all the movement is captured and displayed without any lagging or blurring. For horror films, high refresh rates can also keep the tension and suspense up because every detail of the scene is clearly visible.
When buying a gaming monitor specifically for watching movies, opt for a model with a refresh rate of at least 75Hz. Anything lower will result in a noticeable (although possibly unnoticeable) decrease in quality, while anything higher can simply translate into wasted money.
Adaptive Sync Technology
In order to achieve the smoothest video performance with a gaming monitor, it’s important to consider the size of the monitor and the technology it’s equipped with. Adaptive Sync technology is a feature included in many gaming monitors, designed to synchronize the display’s refresh rate with a compatible graphics card’s frame rate. This eliminates jerky animations and artifacts, resulting in a more natural and smoother experience.
This technology is also great for movie watching as it eliminates micro-stuttering and provides a stable frame rate. This means movies, especially animation films, will look smoother with improved colors, allowing you to immerse yourself in the movie and enjoy every detail. Adaptive Sync is also great for more action-filled cinema experiences, as it ensures all transitions are smooth without any jutter or lag.
Although not all gaming monitors come with Adaptive Sync technology, it’s still an important feature to look for if you are planning to use your monitor for movie watching. Not only does it provide an improved viewing experience, but it also eliminates motion-sickness so you don’t have to worry about feeling uncomfortable after watching an action-packed movie.
Contrast and Brightness
Another important factor to take into account when buying a gaming monitor for movie watching is the monitor’s contrast and brightness. Although the backlighting and contrast levels are often adjustable with high-end gaming monitors, it’s still important to consider the native contrast and brightness levels of the monitor. For movies, a good contrast ratio is definitely important – aim for something between 700:1 and 1000:1 contrast ratio.
High-end monitors are commonly equipped with VA panels and IPS panels, both of which offer great contrast with improved viewing angles. VA panels generally offer better contrast than IPS panels, providing deeper blacks and brighter whites. This can really make the colors and detail of movies stand out, giving you a more immersive viewing experience.
When it comes to brightness, a good gaming monitor should offer at least 200 cd/m2 of brightness. For the best movie watching experience, aim for a gaming monitor that offers more than 250 cd/m2 of brightness, which will make the image appear more vivid and detailed.
Input Lag
Finally, it’s important to consider the input lag of your gaming monitor. Input lag is the time it takes for the gaming monitor to process an input signal and display it on the screen – lower values indicate faster processing and reduced lag time. For movies, the best gaming monitors offer input lag of around 5ms. This ensures the image is processed quickly, so you don’t have to worry about any delay in the image appearing on the screen.
Finding a gaming monitor with low input lag can make all the difference when watching movies. This is especially true for animations, as the low input lag ensures all the details are captured quickly, resulting in a smooth and natural viewing experience.
Input lag is especially important if you plan to use your gaming monitor for video gaming as well as movie watching. Those who use their gaming monitors for both activities often take into account the input lag of their monitors when choosing the best one for their needs.
