Mini Review - ViewSonic VX2025

drunkenmunky

drunkenmunky

drunkenmunky

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9 Apr 2006
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232
I've had this monitor set up for almost 2 hours now and for those of you who are thinking about buying it I thought I'd share with you my first impressions.

Bear in mind, I know very little about monitors and can't really tell much difference between any other TFT or LCD screen - I'm no expert.

This is the first monitor I have ever bought. My previous monitor was a 17" ProView EM-175 which are (or used to be) given away with Dell PC's. They sell for £55 from a popular electrical superstore (if you're interested to know).

Having upgraded to a 20.1" ViewSonic VX2025 Widescreen monitor I have to say I am delighted with my purchase but also slightly disappointed aswell.

The VX2025 is a beauty to look at, colours are very rich and vibrant, text is crisp and clear. Photos look amazing, much more detailed than on my old monitor - as you would expect from a £340 monitor.

I am running this though a DVI cable by the way. I haven't tested VGA.

In my gaming tests I played Tomb Raider Legends and Crashday. Playing them in widescreen is brilliant! Much more enjoyable experience. Graphics look much better than before and the detail is excellent. Colours seemed good too.
However, I did notice some blurring (or ghosting?) in Tomb Raider. I also notice it on the desktop when moving the mouse from left to right or up and down.
This was noticable on my old monitor and seems (to me) about the same on this monitor, maybe a bit less but not much.

In my video test I started with The Matrix on DVD.
I compared these tests to how they looked on my old monitor.
The quality of this DVD isn't that great, the video itself is grainy which is very noticable on the VX2025. This is a retail DVD by the way. Infact, of all the videos I played there was a lot of graininess (noise) on screen.
Colours seemed ok but no more better than they looked on my old monitor.

The next DVD I tested was Saw 2. Again, there was a lot of noise on screen. This could be the way the video is, just like the Matrix. Still, not happy.

Next I played an avi file of Prison Break. Still grainy.
This was beginning to annoy me.
I tested various other video files, including The Simpsons, which, like most of the others, were quite pixelated (blocky), which wasn't noticable on my old £55 monitor. I'm really not happy :(

Maybe it's just me, maybe I haven't got things set up properly (any help would be appreciated - thanks ;))

My final test was a High Definition video trailer of X Men 3. Here, picture quality was superb and colours were spot on. There was slightly less grain but still noticable. And unfortunately there was a lot of ghosting aswell. This could be due to the monitor not being HD.

Browsing the internet is much more enjoyable as I no longer need to scoll left and right to view pages.

I have no dead pixels (that I could see using Dead Pixel Tester).
There is some backlight in the corners which I'm not happy about. I don't know how severe it is, but it is noticable. I will try and take some pics if I can get hold of a camera.

Overall I have mixed feeling about the VX2025. I couldn't be more happier with the picture quality on images and gaming, but the video playback let it down for me. I was expecting a great deal more for the money I paid. It's a great monitor, ten times better than my old one but I'm just not happy enough to have spent this much money on it, for what it is.
I wish I had gone for a 19" monitor for £100 less. I probably would have been just as happy and would have probably given the same review here.

But like I said, I know very little about monitors so I don't really know what I'm looking for in terms of quality. All I know is that it looks nice. But I'm not happy with video playback, it just doesn't look right. Maybe I need to make some adjustments to get it right, then I can write up a better review.

I would still recommend the VX2025 to anybody looking for a quality monitor. But I'm not blown away by it. If, like me, your new to monitors and it's your first time buying a widescreen monitor then I would recommend something a bit less expensive, at least to start with.


UPDATE:

Last night I installed the ViewSonic drivers from the included CD. Today I turned my monitor on and played the same avi file of Prison Break which I played during my review.
Now, amazingly, there is hardly any noise or graininess on the screen!
Could this be because of the installed drivers/software? Maybe my monitor just needed "warming up". Who know and who cares? I'm happy again :D
 
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also make sure you're set at 60Hz refresh rate as well. Noise might well be noticable more on the larger screen, most videos aren't encoded at the resolution that high. From a metre or so away it shouldn't be an issue really.
 
don't be. He's used to watching his videos at a lower res so this higher res is making his avi's look blocky. It's the same with my 24 episodes. There isn't a fault there.

Incorrect refresh rate usually repsonsible for a crappy picture too.
 
Don't worry. Mine arrived yesterday, and it's ace.

I think the noise he's referring to isn't actually a display problem. It's a screen filter, to break up the harsh light. It doesn't tint the screen at all, just a sort of very fine noise to the screen.

To see it, you've got to look for it. Most noticable on a large area of light, plain colour, such as this grey text box. I can't see it on the blue right next to it.

I can't see any ghosting or blurriness when watching freeview (got a DTV USB dongle). However, I can understand what drunkenmunky is talking about, but only when I pause playback. I was watching an episode of House that I recorded before getting the monitor, which I knew was great quality. It looks fine when you're playing normally, but if you pause it and look closely, you can notice a bit of pixellisation (that even a word? :p)

Photos look awesome, as do games and hi-definition videos, it does a particularly good job with 1080p, having to scale it down and all. Still looks great, as does 720p.

Drunkenmunky, what graphics card are you using? Are you running at full 1680x1050? 60Hz?
 
Raymond Lin said:
Sorry to hear that, just to check a few things, have you set the resolution to 1680x1050 in windows? and make sure you don't sit up close to the monitor when you watch movies, a few feet back is best.
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Baddass said:
also make sure you're set at 60Hz refresh rate as well. Noise might well be noticable more on the larger screen, most videos aren't encoded at the resolution that high. From a metre or so away it shouldn't be an issue really.
Click to expand...

Resolution is 1680x1050. I can only select 60hz as the refresh rate. I sit about 3 1/2 feet away from viewing distance.


karansar said:
Just wondering drunkenmunkey, what grafs card are you using?
Click to expand...

I have a Sapphire GTO2 Radeon X800 overclocked to almost an X850 speed.
 
FosterK said:
Don't worry. Mine arrived yesterday, and it's ace.

I think the noise he's referring to isn't actually a display problem. It's a screen filter, to break up the harsh light. It doesn't tint the screen at all, just a sort of very fine noise to the screen.

To see it, you've got to look for it. Most noticable on a large area of light, plain colour, such as this grey text box. I can't see it on the blue right next to it.

I can't see any ghosting or blurriness when watching freeview (got a DTV USB dongle). However, I can understand what drunkenmunky is talking about, but only when I pause playback. I was watching an episode of House that I recorded before getting the monitor, which I knew was great quality. It looks fine when you're playing normally, but if you pause it and look closely, you can notice a bit of pixellisation (that even a word? :p)

Photos look awesome, as do games and hi-definition videos, it does a particularly good job with 1080p, having to scale it down and all. Still looks great, as does 720p.

Drunkenmunky, what graphics card are you using? Are you running at full 1680x1050? 60Hz?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes :) I'm using a Sapphire Radeon x800 GTO2.
Everything about this monitor is amazing, it does look superb, graphics, photos and high defination video all look fantastic. I'm only let down by the noise on lower quality videos and the DVDs I have tested and the occassional blurring.
Maybe it will improve over time and I won't notice it so much. I'm starting to like it even more now I've used it for nearly a day. Maybe I'm just too fussy :D
 
drunkenmunky said:
UPDATE:

Last night I installed the ViewSonic drivers from the included CD. Today I turned my monitor on and played the same avi file of Prison Break which I played during my review.
Now, amazingly, there is hardly any noise or graininess on the screen!
Could this be because of the installed drivers/software? Maybe my monitor just needed "warming up". Who know and who cares? I'm happy again :D
Click to expand...

excellent to hear :)
 
Put a black image on the screen, make sure it covers the whole screen. If there's light patches (usually in the corners), you've got Backlight bleed.

I've got a bit on mine. Not terrible, but noticeable in dark bits (such as in FEAR)
 
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