Buying advice for LCD monitor

[LeonE]

I currently have a 15" CRT monitor which is now too small since I got into photo editing and gaming.
I was thinking of going for a 19" LCD but am now wondering if it'll be too big, as I read that a 19" LCD gives the same viewing area as a 22" CRT. Is this true, and if so why is this? I thought screen measurement was diagonal, therefore meaning that 22" is 22" whether the monitor is CRT or LCD.

(Probably missing something obvious)

 

[RealBlackStuff]

CRT measures the ouline of the whole tube. When covered with the CRT-casing or bezel, the visible part of the tube is a lot smaller than the tube itself.
Hence indications on e.g. a 19" CRT (vis. 18").
An LCD mentions strictly whatever is visible, so 19" is really 19"
And both are always the diagonal measurements.

 

[LeonE]

Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense now

 

[raybay]

The market is changing so rapidly now Christmas is over. We just bought two 21 inch monitors by LG and Samsung, with three year warranties for $300... I see that all large monitor prices are dropping. Everything will be available in 30 inch monitors soon... not that they have the manufacturing technology down pat.
No need to go smaller based on price or performance... Just watch the view for when you are not looking straight on, and be sure you can adust enough up and down when needed.

 

[Kitch]

Another good item to check out on an lcd is the response time (in ms), the lower the response time the better picture you will have, this is an important factor for users who do a lot of quick movements, such as gaming.

I think 19" LCDs are the way to go now, they're cheap (thoguht i saw one for around $160 somewhere), and unless youre sitting across the room, 19" is plenty of room to see everything.

P.S.-Widescreen is always a plus