My new Dell 2405FPW - pictures & first impressions

Yeah i know what your saying but again the point of games is that resolution doesnt have to be a factor of excellent quality graphics. In realting to 720p and film i actually meant if TV is real and if games aspire to such realsim then its in improved effects shaders and what all have yee that this realisim will happen. Having a super high res only gives a sharper image but necessarily not a better looking game and my point is that its the actual looks/effects of the game that matter to most people not just the additional sharpness in the visual quality. Textures in games are not at the point worth comparing like the advantages additional detail with higher resolution such as 1080i brings to television. Throw on some AA or simular effects and 720p or simular resolution in games will be acceptable to most.

ideally my thoughts are like this.....
Take someone interested in such a display as the 2405 and say to them, okay this display gives you a massive desktop but wont play games at its full quality as your pc isnt able so you have to reduce the quality a little to play it at 1366x768 etc Also games from consoles and tv/dvd wont look just as good although not bad...

or show/explain to them

A bigger perhaps 26" HD LCD tv that will run the res in games this person is most likey to use and offer all the benifits of being a tv but tell them ok the only thing is you get all these extra features this tv has like better connections, remote control and be HD ready plus it will look better with tv & movies too with its improved circuitry and not forgetting have a 2" bigger screen for the same/simular money but hey the bummer is your desktop and general usage is a little limited to a res of possibly 1366x768.

Bearing in mind the majority of people will becoming from 1280x1024 resolution screens, what would people choose if they fully understood it like that?


My point for posting is not to bring this display down but to show to some the benifits other options may offer, true it depends on the user what suits best and for a PC monitor purposes this really is the current best but for allround usage, well i think ive shown it isnt.
 
But I bought a PC monitor (to most thats what the 2405FPW is et al.) - not something that I want to game with all the time (I actually play less than I used to) - if that was of any significance to me I would have considered the alternatives...

I dno why Im justifying this, since surely the 2405FPW falls into this bracket rather than something to play media/games primarily on (where the HDTV screen should be better) - there are still people that will use it for one major purpose only, perhaps in that case the 2405FPW and others like it are ideal...

Is it difficult to imagine normal people using it just for dbs, spreadsheets and programming and the like? Am I the only one that works on a PC for a living/education and finds such a monitor just plain useful for their day to day tasks? :confused::p

My point is that the 2405FPW is a PC monitor - it does its job as per the design brief and doesnt say its the be all and end all that some people say it is - Im sure its lacking in certain areas, but for what I use it for a 26" 720P HDTV LCD would be totally inferior - ideally I would have both right now, but the crux of the matter is that I had to choose between them and I chose this...

EDIT: BTW Im not having a go, but conversely I could use similar examples to purport that using a PC primarily for gaming is folly with next gen consoles coming out, but people still do it - perhaps not logical but can be justified...

Anyway Im off to bed as Im becoming incoherent

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Thanks for your views.....

Im glad it was a 2 way discussion with different views from two entirely differnt kinds of users and i do enjoy these technical but sometimes difficult topics. Youve been fair and totally correct that within professional or is the proper term "working" purposes the 2405 is the ideal and current best choice for Pc users.

Wasnt it a year ago almost now that the apple 23" was still in the £1300+ bracket which has been proven even has an inferior panel. The value is exceptional at current offers for the 2405 and really nothing else touches it.

In all honesty this recent set of posting has probably shown that for users that want to maximise their general video entertainment a HD TV is possibly the ideal choice, perhaps more than they realised. The same type of user perhaps would not use the 1920x1200 resolution from games and as you mention see X360 etc as their main gaming concerns or already find PC gaming on lower resolutions sufficent, which perhaps does comply more with their PC hardware abilities...

However for more "general/boring or constructive" users then something like the 2405 is the best. Its resolution adds greatly to productivity and has a sense of added pleasure from entertainment because 24" is still a lot bigger than users have been used too.

Personally im a heavy multitasker but entertainment orientated user, its clear ps3udo is not and is why both viewpoints stand with justified remarks for each account.

I hope we havnt bored to death other people and im sure baddass, possibly others have stayed clear of this incase it became a flamming session which wasnt our intent at all but hope its maybe of use to some as like me personally originally i seen the 2405 as the perfect display for all my consoles, PC usage and Tv viewing, which i now know it wouldnt fullfill.

Hopefully some of our chatting here is perhaps usefull...
 
Personally I think with a bit of ffdshow freeview looks pretty damn good on this screen, especially scaled up to 1920x1200 and then cropped at the top (ffdshow etc). DVDs even better, and even divx can look great with a few filters. This boils down to the fact that 1280x720 is useless as a desktop resolution (imo), even my 19" CRT was 1280x1024. I couldn't justify spending big money on a PC monitor and losing resolution rather than gaining it! At the end of the day, unless your purely running a HTPC type config I can't see a reason for not loving 19x12!

For games, WOW at 1900x1200 looks the dogs, much better than at 1280x720, try a big raid with everyones health/mana bars on screen, the UI space is great! Same can be said of doom3 and HL2 etc, they all look awesome. Of course you have to pay out big money to run it like that but you dont buy a 700quid monitor and run it off an FX5600 do you :D
 
I'd say that it scales so very well that the 720p line of reasoning you [Mr Latte] raise is surmountable provided there is some level of AA (4xAA crisps things up to the point of absolutely no complaints in most games IMHO), which console/PC gaming should provide. A few passes of AA doesn't kill the framerate quite as much as 1280x800->1920x1200. Going down as low as DVD resolutions you want to be sat back a bit, but still a very watchable experience. The sitting back is more to avoid image-trailing than blockiness I might add though.

Being at uni (and doing a proper degree), theres no doubting this screen is worthwhile for work alone...its inspiring like hunching over a laptop will never be. I wouldn't say it was large to the extent you can multitask like dualscreening allows, but it opens up your document and combined with a second screen you can easily work from a large spreadsheet without having to scroll around to see the column headers and paste into a wordprocessing app with complete 'big picture' control.

From the standpoint of someone who recognises the limitations of TFT technology, and embraces more than just gaming/movies I'm very happy...people looking for a perfect all-rounder will always be disappointed, if there was one faultless model we'd all have it. The screen is flexible bearing in mind it does all (excepting upcoming HDMI messiness), and does nothing particularly badly...but personally I like to use the computer whilst watching TV [not PiP], and believe not everything should be integrated.
Anyone with an LCDTV should already have a good monitor if they want to work/internet browse/etc seriously, and as such LCDTV vs. monitor becomes less of an issue. A monitor is a precise thing you sit close to, a TV is a large thing you sit back from; providing for both uses requires compromise.
 
Both excellent returns gents...

Regarding scaling the issue is more to the amount thats required compared to the smaller amount on a LCDTV be it a 1366 or 1280 panel based model. Im not saying apps like FFWD show etc cant help achieve a good picture on a 2405 but still any decent LCDTV will be better for TV/Video content including console gaming. Of course some brands of TV also include picture enchancing technology with regards their internal scalers and these should be more adequete than those within the 2405.

I think the point made regarding saying anyone with a LCDTV should also have a decent monitor could be correct in many cases but this recent discussion and my part is to establish the benifits and disadvantages of each mainly for people that wont have such a choice but indeed need to decide one screen or the other.

Im not so sure the 2405 is HDCP compliant, the PDF doesent seem to cover that but my guess is this would not bother many if it wasnt as few would use this screen as a main display for TV/Movies from SkyHD or Blueray etc Its wise to assume anyone getting that technology could afford to buy a proper LCDTV to match.

Thanks keep the input coming as i intend to take the comments made to be used within a guide...
 
Of course, having both would be ideal. But my main point is that given a single solution which needs to be used for work, movies, games, surfing, etc, I think that the higher resolution would win out for me everytime. When I had my 9800pro I played WOW at 1280x720 stretched with 4x AA and it looked good. I was well impressed. Until I got my X800XT and ran it at 1900x1200 with 2x AA (and more FPS). Then 720p went out the window for me. The extra resolution is just great - screeny (excuse the naff compression on that, it looks loads better ingame)

If I had the money to buy a 32" 720p LCD for games/movies AND the 2405 I'd probably ditch the 720p LCD in favour of a projector. However, as a HTPC choice for a living room, the 720p LCD would probably win. No screen is best at everything, else as said above we'd all have it :) But given most usage scenarios, I rekon the only time I'd go with a 'low' res LCD would be for a living room/lounge HTPC, unless of course I had room (permission!) to put a projecter down there :D

Bottom line is, everybody here seems very happy with their setups, and thats all that really matters :)
 
Yeah, it blurs. If you're a hardcore quake/unreal type player then I'd steer clear, I know all TFTs blur/ghost to some extent, many a lot worse than this one, but at 24" it is pretty noticable, especially coming from a CRT (as I did). It all depends what you're used to - going from a 16ms 17/19" TFT to the 2405 I bet you'd hardly notice anything, it may even be an improvement. But coming from a CRT theres definately an issue with motion blur. I don't think I'd ever be able to get back into superfast FPS games on this monitor - I used to play quake 2 ctf on CRT but can't imagine it with the blurring, would be yucky.

For the likes of WOW and HL2 though I just got used to it and now it's great, notice textures in WOW I thought were just black before now have loads of detail in them :) All depends how sensitive you are to it, I bought mine amid reams of posts from people saying the screen doesn't ghost or blur in the slightest, but to ME it is VERY noticable. For example, someone running across the screen infront of you in WoW - you can see the name tag above their head blurring, and if they sprint/ride past it's barely readable. It all depends on whether you can get used to it. If you can then the 2405 is one hell of a monitor and I'd recommend it!
 
Ste said:
you can see the name tag above their head blurring, and if they sprint/ride past it's barely readable. It all depends on whether you can get used to it. If you can then the 2405 is one hell of a monitor and I'd recommend it!
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Hmm Ste that's a very good way of testing a monitor for blurring/ghosting.

I would like to see someone with a Viewsonic VP191B try the same test, as the forthcoming 20.1" widescreen panels use the same screen and i'm very interested in buying one. :)
 
Baddass said:
before anyone says it as well, yes......i know, i need a new keyboard / mouse ;)
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Keyboard yeah, but that mouse is quality. I've had the same one for 3 years now and I love it to bits, have not seen one since that would be a worthy replacement.

Am just hoping you can still buy them when mine finally throws in the towel.
 
Thanks for bringing this to my attention guys, i will be playing games at 1280*1024 and if this monitor can't achieve that then it is going off my shopping list, back to looking for a good 19 inch panel that isn't a samsung! :D
 
Big Chris said:
Keyboard yeah, but that mouse is quality. I've had the same one for 3 years now and I love it to bits, have not seen one since that would be a worthy replacement.

Am just hoping you can still buy them when mine finally throws in the towel.
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With a screen this big you need at least a 1600dpi mouse IMO, if you don't want the cursor to move more than 1 pixel for each dot it can read anyway. With the Windows mouse sensitivity set centrally thats no interpolation/extrapolation for the mouse sensor and at 1600dpi that feels right.

Personal mind, but not unfounded.
 
okcpu said:
Thanks for bringing this to my attention guys, i will be playing games at 1280*1024 and if this monitor can't achieve that then it is going off my shopping list, back to looking for a good 19 inch panel that isn't a samsung! :D
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Not sure of you exact concern. But it can do this res without streching etc.
The monitor has 1:1 pixel match. It will not fill the screen but it is a widescreen monitor and 1280*1024 is not widescreen so if you were worried about this you need to do some more research and only look at TFTs with 1280*1024 native!

If you are worried about fast paced FPS blurring then fair enough.
 
Notice this is on special offer - my credit card is calling to me "buy it, buy it" :)

Quick question - curently got a 6600GT in the rig I'd have used it on. Will I get the most out of it with that card, even running up to 1920 x 1200, or will it struggle? Mainly for playing the likes of CS, and doing photo editing. Full spec in my sig. Cheers.
 
If you run that 6600GT at 1920*1200 with the latest games with anything approaching eye-candy you may be the first person in history to make a video card weep. :D

For CS though it should be fine. :)
 
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