Lost LCD Cherry Today, Brightness/Contrast?

Darkwave · 12 Jul 2006 at 13:11

Hi there,

I have re-written this for briefness, and because I think that the problem can be summed up in one paragraph now instead of about four...

I lost my flatscreen cherry today by buying one of the V7 L19WA Widescreen LCDs on the This Week Only page, and it seems to be a hell of a lot brighter and washed-out towards the bottom of the screen in comparison to the top. I have tried playing around with position and viewing angle to no joy, and have tried setting the brightness and contrast to comfortable levels but am getting the same thing.

I would appreciate any helpful suggestions for this n00b, as I am very reluctant to return this. If the problem is not down to me though, I have to say that so far I am pretty unimpressed.

Sincerely yours,
Úlfhednar.

Darkwave · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:26

Well, just got off the phone with OcUK and some German bloke at V7, got to send it back. Think I will get a refund and order a Hyundai or Acer 19" wides instead.

Addition: Just got my refund handled painlessly over the phone and the guy even looked through the other 19" widescreen LCDs with me, decided on the Hyundai ImageQuest X90W since it's got 16.7 million colours as opposed to 16.2 million and I do a lot of Photoshop work aside from gaming.

I was going to buy that monitor anyway, until I saw this V7 on This Week Only. Today I have learned my lesson about jumping head-first into budget products and bargains.

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:03

yeah when it comes to your screen you really shouldnt skimp on money after all everything you do will be displayed on it and its best to get the biggest and best you can afford

Darkwave · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:13

Yeah I agree, I wanted the Hyundai in the first place until I saw this piece of crap on This Week Only. Think I would suggest avoiding Video7 to anyone in the market for a 19" widescreen LCD, even if it might only be a one-off.

fish99 · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:21

Did you look through the monitor options thoroughly? Some monitor have a gamma setting in the options. I had a samsung 913B for instance that had three gamma settings in the monitors OSD, and on the default setting (of 1) it was way too bright. On setting 3 is was great though. Some monitors are too bright if you have the colour temperature set of sRGB too.

Brightness and gamma are a bit odd on TFTs. Maybe you also needed to turn the contrast up (or even down

).

That Hyundai isn't 16.7 M colours btw, it's 16.2 M (according to the specs I've just seen). The giveaway is the 500:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m2 brightness and the low vertical viewing angles. Not to mention the price. It's definitely TN+Film at that price. It's also widescreen btw.

Darkwave · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:27

I tried everything, but the way the picture is spot-on at the top half of the screen and like a car wreck at the bottom convinced the guy at OcUK and the German bloke at V7 that it's just totally knackered. They both said something probably got rested on it during manufacturing or storage or something.

Ah well, new Hyundai on the way, ordered it at about 4pm so if I cross my fingers and click my heels together and knock on every piece of wood in the room it might come tomorrow.

After some research I also think you're right about it being 16.2mil colours, but it doesn't matter since the primary function is gaming and they only do 16mil anyway, not to mention that the Hyundai is black. :cool:

Widescreen (19" 1440x900 specifically) is what I am after, so I am glad that little detail is correct.

fish99 · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:43

Cool, good luck with the new screen, Hyundai usually make very nice monitors

(Btw I misread your first post which is why I was going on about brightness and gamma)

Darkwave · 12 Jul 2006 at 17:16

Yeah the guy on the OcUK phones was very helpful, told me to go for either the Hyundai or the Viewsonic, and that the Acer was a cracking one too. I settled for the Hyundai because it's black (like everything else in here) and because it supposedly had 6.7mil colours but since it doesn't the black will do lol.

I just hope it arrives in working condition.

I'm pretty optimistic though, this is my first RMA in like nearly two hundred online purchases, so statistically speaking I should be fine... Unless it's all that good luck finally coming to an end. :eek: