**Review your TFT! - OcUK User Reviews and Comparisons**

Viewsonic VP191B-2 – By ocukcustomer



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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – Vivid: stunning and accurate. It is better than the Hansol DTP CRT monitor I have. It is also clearer by far than the Samsung DP1100 21” CRT monitor. Very wide range, didn't detect anything amiss.

Image 2: Colour Sands – I was actually able to CYMK plate match colours in this monitor – which means in photoshop, I can choose a colour, and hold up a plate I have, and they will match. This means for me, it's 100% accurate. (I am a pro graphic artist). The colours are well produced with no bias towards any particular shade. You do need to calibrate the monitor however.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – Lovely. Blacks are superblack and colours are vibrant. It graduates across shades without any stepping or lack of smoothness. You can tell individual shades where they're supposed to be.

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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 12 ms (Manufacturer’s spec 8 ms)

Gaming Observations: - Star Wars battlefront: slower more paced FPS gaming lots of slow action: no blur or ghosting. The only time you'll get any ghosting is if you pivot 180 degrees and snap-shoot. That’s virtually impossible to aim for under a CRT anyway.

UT2004: so little (ghosting) that it's virtually none. Absolutely blown away! Only really fast rotations and snap shooting can show minor blur. But like I said, you'd need to be Thresh himself to take advantage of that. Verdict: effectively no ghosting.

HL2: Awesome – same as UT2004 – there isn't enough ghosting for you to see! This monitor doesn't ghost enough with slow or fast moves.

Age of Mythology: no ghosting. When scrolling fast, you'll notice maybe some but it's hard to notice it – you need to be a really hardcore CRT gamer to even detect it.

The age of the LCD has arrived for gaming!


Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - No ghosting or blurring at all. Superblack was seen behind the actual video, showing that the video was in actual fact, poorer quality! The monitor really rules!

Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - I am a hardcore gamer. This monitor is finally the one to tear me away from CRT. CRT is dead. I didn't believe it until I tried it.


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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - There is only a little wash-out at extreme angles: pure black otherwise.

White Screen - White, and uniform. No yellowing.

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Image Clarity:

The TFT has amazing sharpness. A single pixel looks square and can be made out. Hz on 75 seems smoother in response, clarity is unchanged.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - DVI is essential.

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - There is very little colour change. Some backlighting can be seen at extreme angles. You won't have a problem if you're higher or lower than the panel at all. Plus the panel has height adjustment too for the neckly-challenged.

Horizontal: - I can literally be just out from sideways facing 90 degrees out, and you can't see a thing on CRT or this panel... however just when it begins to be visible on CRT, it is also visible (you can make out text) on the LCD. In short it is very usable. Suitable for people crowded around it. The quality of the image degrades slightly the further you go out, but walking into the room, your loved one will be able to detect the hurried hiding of porn and chat windows.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - Zero blurring. Really. There's no Ghosting at all. Don't understand twinkling: there's none. I can see compression artefacts in the black with brightness turned way up: but this is actually visible on the CRT too on compressed media. So when calibrated correctly, there's zero artefacts. Lovely!

General Movie Playback: - The DVD’s I've tried have no problems I can find at all.

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Footnote: You need to run the monitor at the recommended 75hz, and not 65hz, to see the benefit of it in full. For some reason, 60hz mode is more jumpy and less smooth.

Samsung 913B – By fish99



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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – Colours all look fine, bright and vivid. Far better than I’ve seen on a CRT. Stunning really. Black isn't quite deep enough though.

Image 2: Colour Sands – Colours all look strong and clear.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – Looks excellent overall. Black isn’t perfect black but it’s close enough that I don’t expect most people will have problems with it. Blacks are far better (darker) on this SM913B than on my previous TFT (Digimate L1916).
On further testing, there are a few games where the blacks aren’t quite dark enough – Thief, Thief 2 and Doom 3 as well. Where there is high contrast in a scene, some very bright things and some black, the screen looks fine, but when you get a scene (like much of Thief/Thief2) where the whole scene has very little light, the off colour of the blacks becomes more noticeable.

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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 15ms (Manufacturer’s spec 8ms)

Gaming Observations: - I’ve tried HL2, Doom 3, UT2004 etc. If you know what to look for there’s a clear difference between this TFT and a CRT. 99% of the time when you’re normally playing an FPS game and not looking for monitor faults, you won’t notice the problem, but if you really look you can see blurring on moving objects. A classic example would be if you strafe left and right (especially if you jump at the same time ) while looking at a still object, it becomes quite blurred. This is using the DVI and it happens at both 60 and 70 Hz. Most people would not see it in the first place, and if you forget it’s there you probably won’t notice it. No mouse or window trails on the desktop.

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - Not the highest res or best quality video for such a test, but for what it’s worth, the video looks very smooth, no obvious ghosting or blurring, but blacks are a little off.

Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - I am an avid gamer and I play a lot of games. I would recommend this TFT to any regular gamer, with the possible exception of someone who plays a lot of very fast paced online shooters, like CS, CS:Source, Q3A, UT2004. Maybe a CRT would be better for those folks.

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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - There’s a tiny bit of a glow at the left and right edges, but it’s hardly noticeable. Theres a slightly more noticeable glow at the top centre of the screen. Not too bad overall. Much better than my previous TFT.

White Screen - Nothing really noticeable, except perhaps the white is a little purer at the bottom centre of the screen, whereas there’s the slightest yellow tinge at the left, right and top edges.

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Image Clarity:

Cleartype is a big improvement. Everything looks sharp and clear. Compared with a CRT the image is sharper, text on a CRT was a little softer. As for 60 Hz vs 70 Hz (apparently it only does 70 Hz not 75 at 1280*1024@32 bit), 70 Hz may just look a little clearer.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? – Very little difference. In fact I was very surprised how clear the image was using the VGA. Colours were maybe a tad stronger using the DVI but that’s probably because I didn’t take time to calibrate using the VGA properly. Text looked just as sharp on VGA as on DVI.

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - The top of the screen is slightly darker than the bottom. Move your head up a few inches and the bottom of the screen starts to go a little pale. Move your head down a few inches and the top of the screen start to go dark.

Horizontal: - The display would not be suitable for serveral people sat side by side. 30 degrees to either side and the image noticeably changes colour. Whites become tinged with yellow and the image darkens. It’s a one person TFT. You can still see the screen at extreme angles (+/- 80 degrees), just it’s much darker.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - No problems at all. No ghosting, or blurring, blacks look nice and deep. Very enjoyable.

General Movie Playback: - There is a bit of colour banding visible on dark sections of DVDs, for instance, some bits in Return of the King. There's also colour banding on Futurama, which has large blocks of solid colour and gradients. There's also a bit of subtle noise which I guess is the dithering the panel does. Whether you see this depends quite a bit on how high the brightness is. It's probably not the TFT to buy if you plan to watch lots of DVDs on it then.

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Additional comments:

It's a great looking TFT in my opinion and I really like the stand. Height adjustment is very useful. Pivot is there if you want it, but the viewing angles become even more of a problem once the monitor is in portrait mode. Overall an excellent monitor with no major drawbacks and among the best 19" for this price.

It has a few minor deficiencies though, limited viewing angles, a bit of blurring on moving objects (which you will rarely notice), and black isn't quite dark enough, but that only affects a small minority of games.

I decided to edit the above review with some more considered opinions and after doing lots more testing.

Neovo F417 (R12) – By evade



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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – Colours are very well produced, I was quite surprised with the palet on the left and how well it shows each colour mixed into each other. A major improvement over my last 17” CRT but I must remember that my old CRT wasn't exactly one of the best. Overall colours are very vivid and bright.

Image 2: Colour Sands – Again, colours are vivid and well produced. A big improvement from my old CRT.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – I can definitely make out the dark areas with the grey areas. I was actually playing Doom 3 and it looks much better on my neovo than my old CRT. The black stands out much more which it should and looks very good.

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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 15 ms (Manufacturer’s spec 12 ms)

Gaming Observations: - Ghosting is not in an issue on Battlefield 2, Doom 3 or Half life 2. I think in counter strike there is some noticeable ghosting when I turn fast. Although I think I will probably get used to it as I have never used a TFT before and have only used CRTs and nothing else. It is only a small problem but I was not bothered about this as I have stopped playing Counter Strike as much. This is the only game where I can notice it really. I can also say that it seems to have got better after playing on the TFT for 2 days.

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - Never really noticed any ghosting in the video. The dark levels are displayed correctly the blacks are deep.


Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - I would consider myself to play a fair amount of games on my PC. I do game quite a bit and I used to play a lot more than now but I do not find the ghosting very serious (and it is only in Counter Strike). It does not distract me a lot from the experience. I would still pick my TFT over my CRT as everything looks much fresher and more detailed.


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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - Black across the whole screen apart from a very very small amount of purple at the edge, but it so minute it isn't even noticeable unless you are extremely close to the screen.

White Screen - It displays white across the whole panel, and is very pure.

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Image Clarity:

The image looks extremely sharp and the test is very clear. Cleartype does help but only a little bit. I think the image is better at 75Hz but there doesn't seem to be much difference. The display is unbelievably better than my old CRT.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - VGA connection only

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - It doesn't really become unusable when it until it becomes uncomfortable to use (standing right above it).

Horizontal: - Again, it only really becomes unusable when I'm sitting from an angle which I wouldn't feel comfortable using. I think you could definitely get you and 2 people at each side watching a movie. Maybe one more person but I don't think the 5th would be very happy.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - There is no noticeable blurring at all and the image is very clear. I cannot see any artifacts or twinkling on colours, the blacks are deep ad the areas are viewable. The movie looks stunning, especially compared to my previous monitor.

General Movie Playback: - Any movie looks great and is great to watch.

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Additional Comments:

Overall I am very happy I bought this monitor, it looks stunning and for £135 it's a bargain. It does everything brilliantly and much better than my old monitor. Very happy I bought this. I'd like to point out that this review was only written a day after I got the monitor, I think I have adjusted to the 'ghosting' and it doesn't bother me at all now in counter strike. Even more happier

Samsung SM-913N – By mortals



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User Pictures Of Monitor:

Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4

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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – The colours are better than my CRT. The colour reproduction is the best I've seen on any monitor.

Image 2: Colour Sands – Same as above, colours are very vivid and clear.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – The black levels are actually black.
When I first powered the monitor on, the monitor looked like it had a case of backlight leakage but once I setup the options manually it seemed to be ok, the main thing which changed the black reproduction was the gamma mode which I set to mode3.


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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 9ms (manufacturer's spec 8ms)

Gaming Observations: - After playing quake3 on the monitor on both 250fps and 125fps I saw no ghosting at all and the colour reproduction was excellent. I was seeing colours on maps I'd played for years which I had never been able to see properly.

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - I ran the UT2003 trailer and didn't notice any ghosting or blurring, the colour reproduction was as in quake3 and the first images.


Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - I play games most nights and have been online gaming on First Person Shooters since 1996 (Duke Nukem 3D on Wireplay) I would deffinately recommend this monitor to others as the response time is so low you see no ghosting and the colour reproduction is excellent.

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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - On first powering the monitor on default settings there seemed to be backlight leakage but on setting the monitor settings it seemed ok. There is now a noticeable difference in blacks.

White Screen - White seems to be pretty good. Using the monitor in normal use where viewing angles aren't effected the whites are not effected. On changing viewing angles the white does start to appear yellow.

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Image Clarity:

The image seems to be very sharp. The only thing I needed to change was gamma and brightness as stated above. On changing the refresh rate I don't notice any difference but cleartype does make a noticeable difference.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - N/A, don’t have DVI

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - If you are looking at a black screen and move your head up you can notice a slight change in brightness at the bottom of the screen.

Horizontal: - The screen is really suitable for single user and not people sat side by side. 30 degrees to either side and the image noticeably changes colour. Whites become tinged with yellow and the image darkens. You can still see the screen at extreme angles (+/- 80 degrees), just it’s much darker.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) -

General Movie Playback: - I've watched Rammstein Live Aus Berlin on the monitor and haven't noticed any ghosting, noise, etc. The picture seems to be very sharp, clear and colourfull.

With thanks to Baddass for kindly converting this into code

Xerox XA7-192i (8ms) – By ajgoodfellow



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User Pictures Of Monitor:

Pic 1 (Front) | Pic 2 (Top) | Pic3 (Side)

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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – The colours look vivid without any tendency towards any particular colour. Each colour is well defined and large areas of colour are displayed clearly without noise.

Image 2: Colour Sands – Again, these are vivid and well defined. No issues here!

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – This is portrayed particularly well. Blacks are very black – it is easy to distinguish the dark grey detailing within the black areas. Colours are uniform with no noise.


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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 14 ms (Manufacturer’s spec 8 ms)

Gaming Observations: - I’ve played a selection of games with this panel and there is no ghosting whatsoever. I’ve looked for it and I cannot see it! Edges remain crisp when moving – there is no smearing either. I cannot see any trails or noise. Compared to my old ViewSonic VG910b which ghosted heavily this is a huge and noticeable improvement. Even though the response time from the pixel response program came out as 14ms I wouldn’t let this put you off. The panel used is one of the P-MVA panels which have a very low response time across the entire colour spectrum – some TN panels can reach 20ms+ on some transitions, whilst remaining <10 on the white/black transitions. This monitor is superb!

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - The video displays no ghosting or blurring at all. The dark areas are displayed correctly with a lot of intricate detail and the blacks are very black

Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - I used to be more of an avid gamer before I bought the ViewSonic VG910b and the ghosting on the ViewSonic put me off a bit. Having used this monitor though I’d probably be playing a lot more games! I’d strongly recommend this TFT for avid game players – the quality of the display is superb and there is no ghosting or blurring at all

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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - The black looks very deep. There is a tiny amount of backlight bleeding around the edges – less than 1mm at the very most and I’m being very picky here. This is by far the best I’ve seen.

White Screen - The image is completely uniform across the entire panel. There is no variation at all at any point – it is the same, completely pure white across the entire panel. Very good.

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Image Clarity:

The monitor won’t go into 75Hz at this res – don’t know if it’s a Windows issue or a monitor/driver issue. The text is very sharp and clear at 60Hz. I keep Cleartype switched off as I don’t like it – it blurs the edges of screen fonts.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - It doesn’t actually! DVI vs VGA made a big difference on my old ViewSonic panel but the VGA clarity is very good. After calibration and using the Auto config on the panel you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference!

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - The vertical viewing angles are superb. The image only becomes unusable at the extremes – when looking down from the top.

Horizontal: - These are also very good – just as good as the vertical viewing angles.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - This looks very good. There is a little noise but it looks more like this is due to the fact that it is a compressed trailer. Blacks are very black and the colours are vibrant. There is no noticeable blurring.

General Movie Playback: - There is a little noise on larger areas of darker colours, but you have to look for it. Movies look very good on this monitor.

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Additional Comments:

I’m very impressed with this monitor. It has a glass screen and a heavy metal stand – it’s very stable. The screen is reflective, but less so than the Sony X-Black monitors. It doesn’t bother me – you cannot see yourself in the screen. The monitor only has one input and a captive DVI cable. It’s then shipped with a DVI to Analogue converter so that it can be plugged into an analogue source. It was sent to me with a European power plug, not a UK one. It takes a standard cloverleaf cable like you find on laptop power supplies so it was easy to get a replacement – this is worth noting though. I’d highly recommend this monitor.

Xerox XA7-192i (8ms) – By MeddlE



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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – Bright and vibrant colour reproduction, colours almost jump out of the screen.

Image 2: Colour Sands – Neons really pop, blue and purple are lush.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – Impressively deep black while retaining definition of grey shades.


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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 13 ms (Manufacturer’s spec 8 ms)

Gaming Observations: - This screen will hardly be used for gaming as it’s setup on my girlfriends PC. She mainly studies for her degree while sneaking the odd game of Industry Giant II in.

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - Couldn’t see any ghosting or blurring, in fact it looked better on this screen than on my Iiyama Pro 502 CRT.


Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - I am an avid player of CS:Source but haven’t had a chance to try this out. I’ll withhold judgement for now.


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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - Small (very small) amount of leakage at the top and bottom of the screen, certainly nothing to get upset about.

White Screen - Uniform white all the way.

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Image Clarity:

Image is very sharp, although currently being let down by the FX5200 card that is driving the screen. Unfortunately it is a Dell and it is using a Dell digital connector to VGA converter plugged into the Xerox DVI to VGA converter. Not ideal, I feel this screen has a lot more to offer if connected to a decent graphics card with true DVI.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - Unable to test at the moment.

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - You basically have to stand up for the screen to start getting darker, just moving your head makes no difference.

Horizontal: - From sitting about 2.5 feet away from the screen you need to move a foot to either side to notice any difference in image quality.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - No noticeable artefacts/blurring/twinkling. Blacks are deep and green tinge never looked better!!

General Movie Playback: - It’s not used for movies and there isn’t a DVD drive in the machine to try with.

Meddie i need a little more information on this comment

"Small (very small) amount of leakage at the top and bottom of the screen, certainly nothing to get upset about."

How much of a leakage in cmetres? My current tft show leakage about 7cms down from the top which means if i am playing a game the top part of the screen has a darker tone to it than the rest of the screen, noticable if you move the mouse to look up and down.

I'm not Meddie, but I've got the exact same monitor

The backlight leakage in mine is very small - 1mm or less. 7cm is way too much - it sounds like you might have a problem with the screen

edited

5mm at the most, didn't actually put a ruler to it though.

ajgoodfellow said:

I'm not Meddie, but I've got the exact same monitor

The backlight leakage in mine is very small - 1mm or less. 7cm is way too much - it sounds like you might have a problem with the screen

Click to expand...

When say 7 cm that is when it is noticable for me when i actively look for it while playing games and using the mouse look, if i keep the screen static i can't actually notice it and esp while browsing i can't see it. Maybe i am being over sensitive to it but to me it is noticable when playing games and i look for it, got me the brightness should the same across the whole screen and not change except for the very edges.

That's displaying a black screen with the monitor on and full brightness whilest looking for it in a darkened room

ajgoodfellow said:

That's displaying a black screen with the monitor on and full brightness whilest looking for it in a darkened room

Click to expand...

I see it while sitting in a well lit room playing a game of battlefield 2 with contrast and brightness set to normal levels, it is very obvious that the top part of the screen is darker when i move the mouse vertically.

It definitely sounds like a problem then - I looked for it as described above and it was only a few mm

Viewsonic VX924 – By SeanyK



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User Pictures Of Monitor:

Pic 1

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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – Sharp crisp colours are displayed. A clean picture. Brighter and sharper than my CRT.

Image 2: Colour Sands – Not as crisp as colour palette picture, however still clear and a clean image.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot - Blacks and greys show well, some areas in the distance are harder to see.


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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 9 ms (Manufacturer’s spec 3 ms)

Gaming Observations: - Battlefield 2 runs correctly, colours and landscapes are showing perfect, brightness displays everything perfect.

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - Dark levels are displayed fine, slight(if any) ghosting only noticeable if you really look hard.


Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - Much better to use than my previous CRT.


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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen – (leakage) None at all.

White Screen – (variation) Again, none at all.

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Image Clarity:

The image is crisp, set @ 75hz the screen displays perfect, and I did not notice any difference in 60hz mode.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - Not tried, however, I believe from other reviews, DVI is recommended with this monitor for the best picture.

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - The brightness fades from the bottom when you look from higher than a straight on view at the screen, the image becomes unusable only if looking down from quite a big height.

Horizontal: - I would say, only 2 people side to side would be able to enjoy watching a movie without spoiling the view.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - No blurring, crisp image right the way through.

General Movie Playback: - The movies I use seem to display fine, I do not use the monitor to watch many films, instead for Internet & gaming use only. The TFT overall was a worthwhile upgrade from my previous CRT.

Samsung 913N – By Lemonzest



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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – The images in the colour palette picture are nice and vivid, although the reds and orange seem a little brighter than the others.

Image 2: Colour Sands – Again nice and vivid colours, with the pink at the top being the brightest of all and the oranges/red's the same as before being brighter than the blues

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – No faulting the doom3 picture (only the jpeg distortion), the blacks and greys being nice and clear without crushing any detail


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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 11 ms (Manufacturer’s spec 8 in ms)

Gaming Observations: - The games i mostly play are as follows, in no patricular order: Serious Sam FE/SE, Quake III, Quake II, and two doom based games: SkullTag and Zdaemon. Really vivid clear colours in all games, especially serious Sam and quake III.

0% ghosting that I can detect and I am really picky when it comes to these kind of things. No smearing on textures/bitmaps, in fact it brings out detail's/colours I have not seen in these games before. My old CRT was a Samtron 76E which had, at some point, developed a fault causing it to ghost badly and also used to give me really bad headaches. No headaches at all since upgrading. My eyes did hurt a lot when first getting the LCD but after a few days I got used to the extra sharpness

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - After running the video I could not detect any faults except those that exist in the original video (blocking etc), the colours and blacks looked a little faded.


Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - I would consider myself an avid gamer playing at least 2 hours a day, old school death-match just owns, especially Doom as its lightning fast game play with 50 frag matches being over in minutes! I would recommend this monitor to anyone wanting a cheap gaming monitor, I would consider getting another myself but that’s just greedy

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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - On a black screen and in the dark, the black does look a little washed out, I can notice four small white points in each of the corners but only small (no bigger than 5mm) and a little bleed on the left hand side of the monitor, unnoticeable in normal use.

White Screen - On the white screen there is no problems at all, the screen is uniform across the whole panel, a nice pure white.

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Image Clarity:

The image is VERY sharp, the text is very readable with no blurring on the edges at all. I use cleartype and cleartype settings wizard at a setting of 1 (bar fully left). I can see no difference in sharpness at either 60hz or 75hz. I run the panel at 1280x1024x32 @75Hz for all of the games. This is a great monitor after calibration, the auto settings MagicBright, the only one that is close to my current calibration is the Internet Setting. I have my settings as the following

Brightness 50%
Contrast 85%
Gamma Mode 3
Colour Tone Normal

And I loaded the supplied AutoPatten.exe and pressed the AUTO button

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - I could not test this as this monitor is only VGA, but even though it is an excellent connection I don’t think it would be possible to get any better.

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - The vertical viewing angle is the worst of the two, but not saying that it is bad, took me a about 10 mins sorting out the tilt angle of the base and now I rarely see any problems, only some times going brighter/darker when looking at the upper/lower parts of the screen, I don’t notice this in games

Horizontal: - No problems at all with the horizontal viewing angles, the picture is clear from almost any angle. Only turning a little yellow at extreme angles.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - No bluring in the bike chase scene, and no “twinkling” that i can see in solid portitions of colour. Rest of the video is fine.

General Movie Playback: - DVD's play back fine, only extra noise noticed because of the new found clarity, but that is present in the DVD.

Viewsonic VP930 – By djohn



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User pictures:






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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – All colours are vivid without being oversaturated, very vibrant and realistic. Just happened to have a container of the wood glue that is shown in the image, I placed that on my desktop and the balance of colour between the two is extremely close.

Image 2: Colour Sands – All colours well produced, nice and vivid with excellent clarity, very natural feel to the scene.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – Yes, very good reproduction of all colours and shades, everything sharp and easy to distinguish the shades of grey. Good deep blacks and I noticed something that has not yet been mentioned in others comments. When I look at the scene uploaded by other people, they all look the same when viewed on my monitor, but on the actual scene I tested, I can just make out down both sides of the first door what look like small round dimples or rivets, faint, but definitely there.

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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 8ms (60Hz) and 13ms (75Hz) (Manufacturer’s spec 8 ms)

Gaming Observations: - Not yet into games in a serious way, so difficult one to answer truthfully, but did borrow Lara Croft Tomb Raider and enjoyed playing the game I did not notice any lag or ghosting which is quite surprising because my graphic card is only a budget Radeon 9600 129Mb. I am very impressed with the quality of this panel’s display.

4 years since I owned a CRT, so difficult to remember, but from watching my friends Mitsubishi Diamond plus 93sb I could not tell the difference in the game. My friend could but he is an avid gamer and photo chopper, he was very impressed and for the first time is considering a TFT for his Photoshop work.

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - No ghosting or blurring that I can detect. I don’t know if the colour is spot on, but its very close to what is on friends CRT screen. Blacks are deep and even with the ability to see into the shadows, and grey areas are well separated.


Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - No, but I intend to change that now, didn’t realize how much fun I was missing. I would recommend this monitor to gamers of my level. Taking into account the budget card I have, my friend who is an avid gamer thinks that with a decent card, it would make an excellent monitor for gaming.


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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - I first tried the black screen example then a screensaver set to black. To me they are as black as you are going to achieve with a TFT display. Very deep and even, but not complete black. Looking direct on the monitor is the same level of black all over, moving to the side or looking from the top or bottom of the screen, I can just make out a little lighter shade in the lower right corner, but its so slight that it really isn’t worth mentioning. Moving my angle of view well over to the left or right of the screen, almost looking side-ways on, the whole screen is then the same slightly lighter shade as the bottom right corner, again though, it is very even all over the panel.

White Screen - White screen is white all over, no patching that I can see at all, very bright and lights the room up!

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Image Clarity:

Yes clear-type does help. I have downloaded from Microsoft the Clear-type tuner and this allows 6 different settings, well worthwhile using this to tune to your preference. Text is very sharp yet smooth at all sizes, very easy and comfortable to read, as easy on the eye as reading from a good quality book or magazine.

Using 60 Hertz on the DVI-D connection for above comments. Tried at 75 Hertz on the analogue connection, but although I felt it to be slightly inferior, it really was hard to tell by the time I had swapped back and forth a couple of times. Using the supplied drivers and “PerfectSuite” software to calibrate and setup the monitor. I was pleasantly surprised to find that when pivoting the monitor, the image automatically turns as you turn the panel itself, no other buttons to click on.

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - It becomes unusable (From a comfortable point of view) if you stand up and look directly down the face of the display, but even then one can make out the text, same applies if you get as close to the floor as possible and look up at a direct angle. Obviously, the more acute the viewing angle, the lighter the display is, but at all times one can see and read what is on the screen, both in the daytime or a well lit room at night.

Horizontal: - If you look from an horizontal position at a complete right angle with the display. It really is a very good wide angle viewing experience. 3 people can sit side by side and see the exact same image, change that to 5 and the 2 outside people will see a slight lightening, but still enjoyable view, it’s as good as any TFT TV’s I have seen in the stores. From a vertical point of view, one can stand or sit on a very low stool about the same height as a coffee table without any loss of detail, or alteration of the colour/contrast. Standing and moving away from the monitor can be done in comfort, you have to move to quite an acute angle for the display to become unusable.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - None whatsoever that I can see, but please remember to take into account that I’m not a gamer or avid DVD watcher on my monitor. Each of the test I’ve done so far, plus a couple of DVD movies have been very pleasant to watch and I could not fault them. Although I’m not that technical, I certainly am particular and like things to be spot on if possible, this monitor has not given me a single cause to regret spending my money on it.

General Movie Playback: - Not used a lot for movies, but yes, occasionally and I have yet to fault it. Again please take into account that while I’m not looking for faults with a trained eye, I would most certainly know if something was not as it should be. Is it better than a CRT? I think it is far superior, but then it’s a long time since I owned one (CRT) and only spend a little time looking at another persons CRT. I would not go back to a CRT model now though even though I have only had this monitor for 8 days, I did own a 17” TFT for 2 years prior to buying this one.

[Edit] 2 black screens in photos above. Top one was taken during the boot up sequence, bottom one is photo of black screensaver. Image looks darker in real life and some of the lightness to the right of the screen is due to a desklamp throwing some reflection on screen.

Samsung SM-913N – By divine_madness



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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – The colours are overall balanced, showing no huge tendency to any one colour. The colour chart colours are quite accurate also.

Image 2: Colour Sands – In this Image there is a small lack of contrast on the red sands, producing a slightly flat colour. Other than that, A very good display from the screen.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – The blacks are deep enough to be distinguished from the grey areas. No areas are hard to see, all the detail is quite visible.

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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 10 ms (Manufacturer’s spec 8 ms)

Gaming Observations: - CoD2 – No ghosting noticeable, often fast paced, very good. Enemy Territory – Similar style to CoD2, again no noticeable ghosting. Battlefield 2 – No ghosting here either, even during fast sections. F.E.A.R – Small amounts of ghosting from a bright light against a dark wall. Barely noticeable. Eve Online – No ghosting here, no even with the trails against the space backdrop. Half Life 2 – No ghosting, no other issues. Counter Strike: Source – Very similar to HL2, no ghosting visible.

Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - Gaming is one of my primary three uses for the screen, and in this area it excels, producing clear bright images, no ghosting or blurring at all. I would definitely recommend this screen to other gamers.

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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - The black is adequately deep and very uniform in its brightness. There is a miniscule amount of leakage from the top edge, only noticeable if you look for it, not yet affected me in day to day use.

White Screen - Much the same as black, a good even brightness, with no dark or light patches.

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Image Clarity:

Image is very clear, although it took me a while to adjust to the drop from 1600x1200 on my CRT. Cleartype Improves text clarity massively, without it, it can be noticeably aliased. No real noticeable difference between 60Hz and 75Hz, although at a push I would say 60Hz edges it.

The TFT compares favorably to my CRT, and going back to the CRT after using the TFT for a while was not pleasant.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - This Screen only has VGA

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - The quality degrades roughly exponentially as you move further up or down. However the image is very good still whether I am sat level in front of it, or stood in the same place.

Horizontal: - Horizontal viewing is quite similar to the vertical, although perhaps a bit more leeway before it is unusable. My flat mates will attest to the fact movies are most certainly watchable with several people sat side by side.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - Most noticeable is the fact the blacks aren’t as deep as they could be, although I feel this may be the movie itself, as it was noticeably different to my desktop black which was much darker. There was no blurring in the chase scene nor any twinkling (except the green matrix code bits ) Overall it looked very impressive on the screen, both at 100% zoom and full screen.

General Movie Playback: - Movie playback is good, although when playing DVD movies full screen the fact they are a relatively low resolution impacts negatively, however this was as much of a problem on my CRT. The rest of the qualities dictated by the screen are top notch, with good contrast, strong colours and deep blacks.

Samsung 970P

Samsung 970P – By Steve_h



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Colour Reproduction:

The following tests have been conducted after the monitor has been calibrated to the reviewer’s satisfaction.

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture – The image look sharp and crisp with no colour standing out more than another.The detail in the wood is fantastic. I cannot compare much against my 3 year old Hansol 19” crt as this wasn’t a top spec monitor when I bought it but I can notice how much crisper images are.

Image 2: Colour Sands – Again I have no complaints with the colours in this picture, they are vivid and fresh looking.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot – The blacks are really black in the doom pic, although I don’t see a gradual blending on some of it from gray to black and it is slightly difficult to see into the darkest Areas, maybe some more brightness/contrast would help but this then tends to make web browsing too bright. The software does have pre set options to change settings for games/web/movies etc. I know there is a big issue on how “black” a TFT really is but it doesn’t look too bad to me.

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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = 14 ms (Manufacturer’s spec 6ms G2G)

Gaming Observations: - I don’t play a lot of games and wouldn’t say I am an avid gamer. I do however like my games to look good and HL2 looked great when I gave it a trial run. I think a few more hours on some fps games will decide but from the time I did spend playing I couldn’t see an issues. This is a 6ms monitor so it should perform well.

Q.Would you consider yourself an avid gamer and would you recommend this monitor to a gamer? - Once I had over come the initial set up issues with the software disk not auto running and the inevitable fiddling with settings etc, I can now say I am very happy with this TFT. As mentioned I would say this is a fine TFT for a gamer but some may disagree, I think it all depends on what you came from and how good your eye is on these issues. It is a huge improvement on my old CRT and yes I know that space and looks count for nothing but this really is a lovely looking monitor. I am happy I made the switch now and not earlier as I think it is only know that (TFT) monitors can complete with high spec CRT’s for gaming.


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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - I can honestly say that with the black image set to full screen it looked as if the monitor was switched off.
No light patches or leakage.

White Screen - If I was to be very picky then there was a very slight grading of white as the bottom of the image, the rest was uniform.

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Image Clarity:

I am using clear type and it does make a difference. I cannot see a difference between 60hz and 75hz. Again compared to my CRT things look sharper. The stand is great with a smooth movement a solid feel to it. The height adjustment is very good and the white base doesn’t look out of place as much as some would imagine.

I do find that having to pull up the software to make a slight adjustment a pain especially when it is a full screen program. Once I have settled on a good setting then this won’t be an issue. It does however mean that you do not have a row of buttons stuck to the bottom of the screen so the panel has a nice clean look to it. Oh and the blue on/off button is cool!

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - I have not used VGA

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - Image quality/brightness doesn’t change when moving your head from up and down and when looking from extreme angles the only difference is that the colour just looks washed out. I can read text at almost 90 degrees to the screen.

Horizontal: - This again is the same; I would say 3 people sat side by side could watch a DVD comfortably. And as for text this again can be read at extreme angles.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - The movie had a grainy look to it in some areas, but that could have been due to the 640x346 resolution and the need to double the screen image to watch it satisfactory. The blacks were good and only once did I see any noise lines. I could not see any visible blurring in the bike chase section.

General Movie Playback: - I did not buy this TFT with the intensions of watching movies, but I did see a HD trailer on the Microsoft home page and it looked stunning.