Baddass' Ultimate TFT FAQ and Reviews! (20" and Above Models)

Mansize_tissue · 19 May 2007 at 17:24

Tigjaw said:
Thanks, yep that's it, I can't tell though whether the Dell 2007WFP is a solid glass-glossy screen, one review I read said that it is and another said that it's not and I can't tell by the pictures I've seen of it.

The Dell 2007WFP just has the standard anti-reflective coating. A lot of people complain, however, that it makes colours look washed out and dull.

Slam62 · 19 May 2007 at 17:31

Tigjaw said:
Wow thanks for all the info guys I really appreciate all the help, hope you can tolerate my questions for a little while longer before I make my choice

The NEC looks very impressive, the opticlear is very nifty, I love the glass-glossy screen on my laptop so a screen like that for my computer would be perfect. But the NEC doesn't come with HDCP and it's very expensive.

Meanwhile the Dell 2007WFP looks almost as good as the NEC, it's almost £100 less and it comes with HDCP but...it doesn't have a glass screen like the opticlear? you don't have a review of the 2007WFP on your site do you baddass?

EDIT:
About this whole HDCP thing, I know what it is, but I'm really not sure if I need it on my monitor. The reason I've specified HDCP is because a friend of mine suggested that a HDCP compliant monitor is the way to go but I'm not exactly sure why, what will I get out of it? Surely it only concerns High Definition DVD playback from a bluray or HDDVD player?

Do I need the HDCP compliant in order to use my X360 with the monitor at 720p?

EDIT2: I've done some more reading about HD support and found that HDMI is the port that allows the HD compliant connection between HDDVD/bluray/Xbox360 and the monitor, but do HDMI compliant monitors always have HDCP too?

hdmi are always hdcp, dvi can be hdcp, I believe you can connect hdmi to dvi hdcp and watch hdcp content.

Protected content will be down scaled if the hdcp bits are not all present.

Tigjaw · 19 May 2007 at 17:55

Mansize_tissue said:
The Dell 2007WFP just has the standard anti-reflective coating. A lot of people complain, however, that it makes colours look washed out and dull.

Yup I admit I'm one of those people, especially for darker colours.

Thanks for the info Slam, at the moment my monitor is connected via DVI but my monitor is Analogue (I think) so I'm actually using an adaptor to connect it to my graphics card.

I'm so stuck for choice at the moment, the NEC looks extremely nice but I'm not sure whether I'll miss the HDCP at all, obviously I'm not using it right now but I don't know when and if I will be, I simply assumed it was the future. Also, according to quite a few reviews the NEC is poor for watching videos?

The Dell 2007WFP looks like a great cheaper version of the NEC with HDCP and it's certainly poopular but the screen (thanks for clarifying Mansize) is the usual dull anti-reflective and the panel isn't as good from what I've been told.

Mansize_tissue · 19 May 2007 at 18:23

If the monitor is just going to be used for gaming, is it a big deal if the NEC doesn't do HDCP? Because that's all i'm going to be using it for, i'm guessing shouldn't really be getting hung up on it, right?

Tigjaw · 19 May 2007 at 18:36

Mansize_tissue said:
If the monitor is just going to be used for gaming, is it a big deal if the NEC doesn't do HDCP? Because that's all i'm going to be using it for, i'm guessing shouldn't really be getting hung up on it, right?

Thanks my thinking but surely HDCP will be important in the near future and besides, I'd also like the option of playing my X360 at 720p on my new monitor, can I do that without HDCP?

Baddass · 20 May 2007 at 15:27

Tigjaw said:
Wow thanks for all the info guys I really appreciate all the help, hope you can tolerate my questions for a little while longer before I make my choice

The NEC looks very impressive, the opticlear is very nifty, I love the glass-glossy screen on my laptop so a screen like that for my computer would be perfect. But the NEC doesn't come with HDCP and it's very expensive.

Meanwhile the Dell 2007WFP looks almost as good as the NEC, it's almost £100 less and it comes with HDCP but...it doesn't have a glass screen like the opticlear? you don't have a review of the 2007WFP on your site do you baddass?

EDIT:
About this whole HDCP thing, I know what it is, but I'm really not sure if I need it on my monitor. The reason I've specified HDCP is because a friend of mine suggested that a HDCP compliant monitor is the way to go but I'm not exactly sure why, what will I get out of it? Surely it only concerns High Definition DVD playback from a bluray or HDDVD player?

Do I need the HDCP compliant in order to use my X360 with the monitor at 720p?

EDIT2: I've done some more reading about HD support and found that HDMI is the port that allows the HD compliant connection between HDDVD/bluray/Xbox360 and the monitor, but do HDMI compliant monitors always have HDCP too?

as well as the guide you've already seen about the 2007WFP, my review is here. HDCP is just an encryption mechanism which is going to be used on modern HD content, like BluRay, HD-DVD, stuff like that. you need all elements to have this HDCP support in order to play the content. In fact here a look at the bit here about HDCP along with a couple of useful links there

Tigjaw · 20 May 2007 at 18:16

Thanks for all the help guys, I've ordered the Dell 2007WFP as you probably expected.

I would have adored the NEC but the lack of HDCP really disjointed its chances of taking my money!
The Dell 2007WFP has had mixed reviews but assuming the banding has been fixed with the later revisions I think it should be fine. There's some average opinions of this monitor, some great, I'm hoping for the latter to be true!

Mansize_tissue · 20 May 2007 at 21:03

Baddass said:
as well as the guide you've already seen about the 2007WFP, my review is here. HDCP is just an encryption mechanism which is going to be used on modern HD content, like BluRay, HD-DVD, stuff like that. you need all elements to have this HDCP support in order to play the content. In fact here a look at the bit here about HDCP along with a couple of useful links there

So, purely for gaming purposes, does it matter that the NEC doesn't support HDCP?

Tigjaw · 20 May 2007 at 21:11

Mansize_tissue said:
So, purely for gaming purposes, does it matter that the NEC doesn't support HDCP?

as far as I know, it doesn't matter right now, but in the future who knows. HD-DVD games maybe? That's when you'll need HDCP.

Unless you're planning on watching HD content from HD-DVDs or BlueRay for example then you don't need the HDCP at the moment.

For me, although I wanted a gaming monitor and I'm not planning on getting a HDDVD or BluRay player for a long while yet, the option of HDCP was important for the future. I loved the look of the NEC, especially the opticlear and the nice contrast/brightness ratios, not to mention the panel, but to be that expensive without a HDCP port, it was too much.

Baddass · 20 May 2007 at 22:12

Mansize_tissue said:
So, purely for gaming purposes, does it matter that the NEC doesn't support HDCP?

i doubt it for any PC games, maybe at some point and perhaps at some point for external gaming machines. right now, it's more to do with HD DVD type media

Mansize_tissue · 20 May 2007 at 23:05

Okay, thank you both. I guess i shouldn't really worry about it, then. Unless i can get the HP w2207 before the end of this month, i'll get the NEC.

Tigjaw · 22 May 2007 at 12:44

Got my Dell2007WFP today, it's a very nice monitor and the default settings are almost perfect when you first start up, nevertheless I still had a play with them.

It's not quite as big as I expected but then again I have to get used to the different dimensions after coming from a non-WS 17" TFT.

I'm having a bit of trouble with the optimal resolution (1680*1050), I can't read the text on the screen it's so small! So I've had to reduce it slightly to 1600*900, not sure if there's a way around this. I'm not talking about when in the internet browser because I know how to increase the font size in that but on the desktop for example text is really tiny.

I believe I have noticed a bit of banding at bright settings but at the default setting it's not very noticeable. That's assuming that what I think banding is, is really banding.

One last question, with a bigger monitor and a higher resolution does the graphics card have to work harder? (I'm not just talking about in games)

Yup so it's very nice so far, a few gripes but other than that I can't complain. Thanks for helping me choose my monitor guys.

Ooo, and no dead pixels as far as I can see

Mansize_tissue · 22 May 2007 at 16:37

Tigjaw said:
I'm having a bit of trouble with the optimal resolution (1680*1050), I can't read the text on the screen it's so small! So I've had to reduce it slightly to 1600*900, not sure if there's a way around this. I'm not talking about when in the internet browser because I know how to increase the font size in that but on the desktop for example text is really tiny.

I believe I have noticed a bit of banding at bright settings but at the default setting it's not very noticeable. That's assuming that what I think banding is, is really banding.

One last question, with a bigger monitor and a higher resolution does the graphics card have to work harder? (I'm not just talking about in games)

Are you running XP? I don't know if this is the same with Vista, if that's what you're using, but can't you just right click anywhere on the desktop, select "Properties" and go to the "Appearance" tab. Then you can change "Font size" to "Large fonts". Alternatively, if you move onto the Settings tab and click on "Advanced" you have the option to increase the DPI; this should increase the font size, although i'm not certain. Anything's better than running it at a non-native resolution!

When can we expect to see pictures of this beauty?

Tigjaw · 22 May 2007 at 16:47

Mansize_tissue said:
Are you running XP? I don't know if this is the same with Vista, if that's what you're using, but can't you just right click anywhere on the desktop, select "Properties" and go to the "Appearance" tab. Then you can change "Font size" to "Large fonts". Alternatively, if you move onto the Settings tab and click on "Advanced" you have the option to increase the DPI; this should increase the font size, although i'm not certain. Anything's better than running it at a non-native resolution!

When can we expect to see pictures of this beauty?

Yup that's in XP...I found the 'font size' option but there's only Normal, Large or Extra Large options. Normal is too small, Extra Large is humungous and Large seems to be the best compromise but it makes bold fonts a bit too bold, suppose it will have to be good enough.

Thanks for the tip about the dpi, I've seen that but I've never fiddled with it, I'll take another look and see if I can mix up some good font sizes!

I'll see what I can do about some pics, I'll have to give my desk a tidy though

It looks very nice on it's silver stand on my glass desk. The legs on my desk are a very similar silver finish and the stand itself is great, so solid and the bottom sticks to surfaces like glue, it wont even budge, you have to pick it up to move it which is a good thing in my opinion.

I've just loaded up a game and straight away noticed the huge difference, the contrast is so much higher than my old monitor and not to mention the top of the screen isn't hidden in darkness! I could never see the top of my screen especially if the scene in the movie/game was dark, it was so terrible but now it's as clear as day.

Anyway, I'll probably be back with some pics soon as per your request. Just need to charge my camera and get some nice snaps.

Mansize_tissue · 22 May 2007 at 20:39

Tigjaw said:
Anyway, I'll probably be back with some pics soon as per your request. Just need to charge my camera and get some nice snaps.

That'd be great! Some in-game ones would be nice, too.

Do you have any regrets about not getting one with a glossy screen?

Tigjaw · 24 May 2007 at 13:07

Mansize_tissue said:
That'd be great! Some in-game ones would be nice, too.
Do you have any regrets about not getting one with a glossy screen?

Sorry it's taking so long to put the pics up, i can't find my adapter to plug the SD card into!

Now that I've seen this screen I can't say I wish I had a different monitor with a glossy screen but I do think a glossy screen would be a little bonus.

I was really favouring the NEC because of the glossy screen but now that I've ordered the Dell I've decided that the glossy screen shouldn't be a priority in choosing a monitor, it should just be a added extra.

But in the end it's all about preference.

However, if you don't care about HDCP/HDMI capabilities then go for the NEC unless you'd rather not spend £340.

Mansize_tissue · 24 May 2007 at 13:22

Tigjaw, i'm thinking about getting the HP w2207 now because it's bigger. I really don't know if the inferior panel technology, poor vertical viewing angles and not-the-best response time will be noticable in games, though. If, obviously, the NEC can produce a sharper picture due to the smaller pixel pitch, and since it doesn't have any problems with viewing angles, it might be worth spending the extra on a better, albeit a little smaller, monitor. It all depends if the flaws of the TN-film panel the HP w2207 uses will make themselves known in games, or whether i can live without the extra size and get the better-quality NEC.

This is too difficult. :confused:

Tigjaw · 24 May 2007 at 13:58

Mansize_tissue said:
Tigjaw, i'm thinking about getting the HP w2207 now because it's bigger. I really don't know if the inferior panel technology, poor vertical viewing angles and not-the-best response time will be noticable in games, though. If, obviously, the NEC can produce a sharper picture due to the smaller pixel pitch, and since it doesn't have any problems with viewing angles, it might be worth spending the extra on a better, albeit a little smaller, monitor. It all depends if the flaws of the TN-film panel the HP w2207 uses will make themselves known in games, or whether i can live without the extra size and get the better-quality NEC.

This is too difficult.

Honestly if you're only thinking about the new HP because of the extra size I'd go for the NEC.
As you know, 20" and 22" monitors work at the same resolution which means that sure, while the 22" are bigger the 20" inches are sharper.

The only other size I'd go for above 20" is a 24" that can do 1080p resolution such as the Dell 2407WFP.

If you're still unsure wait a while for some unbiased reviews for the HP2207 but just know that the picture quality of 20" monitors is higher than on 22" monitors.

Here's some pics taken while playing LOTR Online, sorry for the size, I tried to resize them but it messed up the quality.
(click to enlarge)
Image Taken of Opening FMV Sequence:

EDIT: Sorry, only one pic, managed to find the SD card extension but most of the pictures are terrible, the flash on the camera has just put big white blobs everywhere. I'll try to figure out how to take the flash off and take some more. You want any in particular?

I did try to take some from wide angles including vertical but the digital flash also threw that out the window, it keeps targeting the top right hand corner of the screen to flash at so the rest of the picture is in complete darkness.

Just trust me when I say that the viewing angles couldn't be better, seriously now, bats could watch this in their sleep...if they slept above my monitor, and if they weren't sleeping, you get the idea.

It's a good camera honestly

Mansize_tissue · 24 May 2007 at 15:59

Tigjaw said:
Honestly if you're only thinking about the new HP because of the extra size I'd go for the NEC.
As you know, 20" and 22" monitors work at the same resolution which means that sure, while the 22" are bigger the 20" inches are sharper.

If i get the NEC, though, i might regret not getting a larger monitor. Looks like i'll be heading back to see the w2207 again, and then look at the 20" monitors to see if they'll be big enough. If so, i'll get the NEC. Do you wish your Dell was bigger?

Nice photograph, by the way. It looks really vibrant, i can only imagine what that'd look like on a glossy screen if it looks like that on one with an AR coating. Do you have any other games you could post pictures of; BF2142 for example?

Tigjaw · 24 May 2007 at 21:09

Mansize_tissue said:
If i get the NEC, though, i might regret not getting a larger monitor. Looks like i'll be heading back to see the w2207 again, and then look at the 20" monitors to see if they'll be big enough. If so, i'll get the NEC. Do you wish your Dell was bigger?

Nice photograph, by the way. It looks really vibrant, i can only imagine what that'd look like on a glossy screen if it looks like that on one with an AR coating. Do you have any other games you could post pictures of; BF2142 for example?

It is a very vibrant image, the contrast ratio is amazing, I can really tell the difference over my old TNFilm panel Monitor, which by the way, is the same panel the HP w2207 uses

I honestly believe if you're going to go for a new monitor you need either S-IPS, SA-IPS or MVA (or variants of MVA) panels because the difference in colour/contrast is a big tell.

I suppose I wouldn't mind if my Dell 2007WFP was bigger, and it's a very big but...I don't wish it was 22", I'd always go for 20" over 22" just for the image sharpness.
If you're gonna go for a bigger monitor (than 20") in my opinion you should look for a monitor that can do 1920 x 1200 resolution (at least 24") such as the Dell 2407WFP.

It's all preference though, but just remember if you go for a 22" it will only be able to do the same resolution as a 20" and in turn the pixels will be bigger and therefore reducing the quality of the image. Not to mention that most 22" monitors use TN-Film panels (the least sophisticated panel type).

It's up to you in the end, some people don't care about the slight quality loss in a 22" monitor, some do.

See if you can find the HP2207 in a store somewhere, there's nothing better for deciding on a monitor than seeing it in action.

Btw, sorry I don't have BF2142, I'll try to get a good in-motion shot somewhere, it may be easier now it's a bit darker because I wont have the bright window behind my monitor.

**Baddass' Ultimate TFT FAQ and Reviews! (20" and Above Models)**

Baddass' Ultimate TFT FAQ and Reviews! (20" and Above Models)