Benq FP241W (Now available from OcUK!!!!!)

alterion · 19 Oct 2006 at 21:19

the bfi one will cost more for a feature no-one should ever need unless they think their 1337. So benq can gain an extra £100 on a firmware change tbh.. no reason not to buy the dell now with the prices as they are.

Humate · 19 Oct 2006 at 21:26

alterion said:
the bfi one will cost more for a feature no-one should ever need unless they think their 1337. So benq can gain an extra £100 on a firmware change tbh.. no reason not to buy the dell now with the prices as they are.

you are even more cynical than me

richardg3 · 19 Oct 2006 at 22:34

Humate said:
you are even more cynical than me

But he's right! There's no longer a reason not to buy the Dell. The main thing people have been waiting for with the BenQ was HDMI ... and that it turns out is of little use as it stretches 1080 lines to 1200 ... and 1200 to some silly number > 1200. I'm not too concerned about playing 1080 HDCP content in the short term, and lets face it, by the time we have HD DVD/Blue ray drives, there will probably be a hack for it anyway.

No competitor talk please!

jimmyjimmyo · 19 Oct 2006 at 22:38

I'm buying this more for 1080p over componant/vga than for the HDMI thats just a nice bonus tbh.if the dell did 1080p on those inputs I would get one and save a few quid.

Anyone know what the 1080p situation is on the Dell 2407?

richardg3 · 19 Oct 2006 at 22:57

I don't think components take more than 720p/1080i, its only the DVI-D and HDMI that can do 1080p. The Dell apparently does not support HDCP via the DVI at 1080p ... whereas the BenQ does - it also does it by HDMI - if you don't mind 1080 being stretched to 1200, lots of skinny people!

jimmyjimmyo · 19 Oct 2006 at 23:21

Surely any output device (dvd player/ 360) that has ratio control will adjust for this anyway?

Looking through the US thread this does not seem so bad tbh.

I can understand people wanting 1.1 pixel mapping for pc output but on the majority of consoles (360 and above excluded) it would be a waste of time as they were all standard def in this country and even those capable of outputting at 720p and above (us xbox) only had a handful of games that did that res.

My 32" lcd does 1.1 pixel mapping and it is fantastic if the res. is set too 1360x768 but on a old console via vga @ 630x480 that is all you get ie. a 640x480 screen in the middle with huge borders all around

My order is in and I cannot see myself changing it I would love the dell screen to save the cash but I just could not live with the crippled componant input tbh.

queamin · 20 Oct 2006 at 00:14

component can do 1080p as some lcd tv's do it now

Baddass · 20 Oct 2006 at 08:13

richardg3 said:
I don't think components take more than 720p/1080i, its only the DVI-D and HDMI that can do 1080p. The Dell apparently does not support HDCP via the DVI at 1080p ... whereas the BenQ does - it also does it by HDMI - if you don't mind 1080 being stretched to 1200, lots of skinny people!

just to clear it up slightly, HDCP protection IS supported over the digital DVI interface on the Dell. However, the controller chip cannot handle 1080i or 1080p source resolutions over DVI. It can handle 720p fine though. Component can do 720p and 1080i on the Dell, but doesnt have HDCP because component will not feature this protection anyway

Combat squirrel · 21 Oct 2006 at 00:06

Ya know, reading trusted reviews, review of this monitor, he says he hooked it up to a sky+ HD box and it looked awesome, I assume it stretched the image, but it still managed to look great ? whats that about then ?, if it still looks good while using hdtv signals I may well still get it, I had this image in my head that stretching the image slightly would cause massive jaggies to appear on the lines in picture/films/360games/etc (like if you have a video or picture on a pc and distort the image), does this not happen I assume then ? :confused:

jaydelux · 21 Oct 2006 at 11:12

manoz said:
Price went up by about £25 hmmm......

well maybe its a good thing that they take the money out of your bank wen you preorder then!!

am happy :-D

richardg3 · 21 Oct 2006 at 13:49

Combat squirrel said:
Ya know, reading trusted reviews, review of this monitor, he says he hooked it up to a sky+ HD box and it looked awesome, I assume it stretched the image, but it still managed to look great ? whats that about then ?, if it still looks good while using hdtv signals I may well still get it, I had this image in my head that stretching the image slightly would cause massive jaggies to appear on the lines in picture/films/360games/etc (like if you have a video or picture on a pc and distort the image), does this not happen I assume then ?

Just read page 38 of the official FP241W thread on Hardforum:

I purchased this LCD and it arrived 2 days ago.
I purchased it because of the extra inputs so I could run an upscaling DVD player via component and my Dish in the HDMI port in addition to my PC. Afterall it is marketed as a Multimedia 1080p monitor.

It does indeed strech my TV's 16:9 signal to 16:10 due to the lack of 1:1 pixel mapping. People's heads on TV are all squished and wonky looking. It's driving me nuts to watch and there is no way to fix it.

What on earth if the point of these extra inputs if you can't display a proper 16:9 signal. How can they claim 1080p? 1080p signals are 16:9 are they not?. So frustraiting. I'm thinking about returning this monitor since the HD inputs were the main seller for me.

In addition to this the de-interlacing is very poor. Unless you feed it a progressive signal (720p or 1080p) it will produce a weird blotchy blurry image. So 1080i is out of the question.

As a PC monitor it is nice tho. Poor viewing angles if you aren't dead center but so much screen and so bright. hmmm what to do

Sold ... or ... not sold as the case may be for me! If you we're only using PC through DVI and 360 through VGA it would be worth getting. HDMI and component HD sources seem to be a waste of time though...

Having looked at all those rather nice screen shots of the Westinghouse 37" I'm doubting whether I even want a 24" screen now. I'll probably hang on for the next round of 30"er's or see if No competitor talk please! get any Westy's in - they do have some Westinghouse TV's listed, including the 42" 1080p jobbie, just have no stock currently. Fingers crossed someone smart realises the potential market in europe for them and gets some stock in!

jimmyjimmyo · 21 Oct 2006 at 18:53

richardg3 said:
Just read page 38 of the official FP241W thread on Hardforum:

Sold ... or ... not sold as the case may be for me! If you we're only using PC through DVI and 360 through VGA it would be worth getting. HDMI and component HD sources seem to be a waste of time though...

Having looked at all those rather nice screen shots of the Westinghouse 37" I'm doubting whether I even want a 24" screen now. I'll probably hang on for the next round of 30"er's or see if No competitor talk please! get any Westy's in - they do have some Westinghouse TV's listed, including the 42" 1080p jobbie, just have no stock currently. Fingers crossed someone smart realises the potential market in europe for them and gets some stock in!

A few pages before that they have shots of the 360 in 1080i via component m8 and they are lush with no squishing to be seen.

Tbh if the guy in the quote was right the heads would be streached and not squished surely?

Anyway all will be known in the next week or so once OCUK ship them out to all of us who have ordered them.

Kreeeee · 21 Oct 2006 at 20:20

jimmyjimmyo · 21 Oct 2006 at 20:29

Kreeeee said:
I thought it didn't have 1:1 mapping so how is that the case?

Have a look Kreeeee, the fight night shots look fine to me and the marvel ultimate alliance shots look spot on as well.

I think a lot of people are just picking the smallest issues with the screen much like they did with the banding on the 2407 I think it is one of those things that are only an issue if you look for it.

If we wanted perfection we would stay with crt or spend a lot more on pro screens like the Eizo 24" this screen offers the best bang for buck I can get without tripling my budget or going to 37" or larger.

Even the nicest lcd screens on the market will all have some negatives

Kreeeee · 21 Oct 2006 at 21:04

Humate · 21 Oct 2006 at 21:29

Kreeeee said:
That's it! Surely it's not too much to ask for the simplist one of those to actually work!

I agree. If i were sat at the design stage, all of these points would be on a list (1:1, 1080p, hdmi connector, no banding etc). If anyone during production would dare even suggest that all of them were not going to be fullfilled to the highest standard i would bite off there leg with my teeth and kick them in the face with their own foot.

Humate · 21 Oct 2006 at 21:31

jimmyjimmyo said:
Anyway all will be known in the next week or so once OCUK ship them out to all of us who have ordered them.

heh, i will believe that when i see it !

jimmyjimmyo · 21 Oct 2006 at 23:16

Kreeeee said:
In PGR not having 16:9 makes the game look absolutely ridiculous IMO. It's also very offputting in Kameo as well so please spare me the "It's acceptable to me so it must be fine for you" routine. all I want in a 24" monitor is:

1- 1:1 aspect ratio scaling
2- VGA, DVI, Component inputs

That's it! Surely it's not too much to ask for the simplist one of those to actually work!

Wow mate you need to relax I was saying that in the shots posted the fighters do not look messed up at what point did I say "It's acceptable to me so it must be fine for you" or imply that.

I spend a lot of money on my home entertainment kit and avoided a 24" lcd or any lcd for pc or console use for as long as I could (due to the fact that they have always been plagued with lag for retro consoles or the inability to sync down to 15khz via rgb)

Most of my Hi-def gaming was done on a projector at 1080i @ 16x9 before I purchased a dell 32" lcd ( I got it more out of curiosity and the price @£250 was unreal) it's a 16x10 screen and I have played both Kameo (finished) and PGR3 (not for that long tbh) on the screen and thought they were fine.

I'm just saying that the shots dont look that bad tbh not that YOU should accept that, at the end of the day as the old saying goes you pays your money and takes your choice.

I will be quite happy to mail you some shots of the screen (once it arrives) running anything you want from this list 360 @1080i, dvd @1080i through HDMI , gamecube @480p via VGA or component ,PS2 @525p, original xbox @1080i via vga or component, 1080p streamed media and any retro console you would like via a xrgb upscaler I'm not looking for an arguement I just want to help.

jimmyjimmyo · 21 Oct 2006 at 23:17

Humate said:
heh, i will believe that when i see it !

Hi do you not feel they will arrive on time? ( I know they have been delayed before but I though with them being out in the US the launch would go on time ish

)

Baddass · 21 Oct 2006 at 23:56

Kreeeee said:
In PGR not having 16:9 makes the game look absolutely ridiculous IMO. It's also very offputting in Kameo as well so please spare me the "It's acceptable to me so it must be fine for you" routine. all I want in a 24" monitor is:

1- 1:1 aspect ratio scaling
2- VGA, DVI, Component inputs

That's it! Surely it's not too much to ask for the simplist one of those to actually work!

Dell 2407WFP will do all that for you