NEC LCD20WGX2 review *** UPDATED 25/02/06 ***

[igors]

mine seems to be getting worse as time goes on, probably because the screen is expanding with the heat of being on making the front panel squash on the backlight even more

Man, that just sucks ... bigtime. So unlucky.

RMA is a pain. I would be rather interested to see what is the NEC position about the RMA, if you don't want to choose the OCUK route.Can't confirm the screen expanding theory, but if it's getting worse in the next day or two you should RMA it for sure.

** Edit **

I think that for someone here @OCUK courier swapped the monitor for him (it was Philips I think) and guy was happy about the service. Not sure if this is applicable to all, but someone may confirm. If any retailer is offering such service, it's bloody excellent in my opinion.

 

[Cal_G]

The glossy screen does not bother me at all, I have 1 light source in my room and its in a position were it does not cause reflections, my curtains were open before and the sunlight coming in did not make a bit of difference

 

[Raymond Lin]

Man, that just sucks ... bigtime. So unlucky.

RMA is a pain. I would be rather interested to see what is the NEC position about the RMA, if you don't want to choose the OCUK route.Can't confirm the screen expanding theory, but if it's getting worse in the next day or two you should RMA it for sure.

** Edit **

I think that for someone here @OCUK courier swapped the monitor for him (it was Philips I think) and guy was happy about the service. Not sure if this is applicable to all, but someone may confirm. If any retailer is offering such service, it's bloody excellent in my opinion.

I think that instance OCUK sent him a return from another customer rather than a new monitor. The situation is slightly different, you can try OCUK and see what they say.

 

[Cal_G]

Have sent a mail off to NEC, hopefully they will get back to me. Does the monitor have to get back to OCUK within 7 days, or just reported to them within 7 days? problem being I am in work for the next 4 days

 

[Richdog]

Have sent a mail off to NEC, hopefully they will get back to me. Does the monitor have to get back to OCUK within 7 days, or just reported to them within 7 days? problem being I am in work for the next 4 days

I think you have 7 days to make your decision and tell them. I'm waiting to hear from NEC too!

 

[Raymond Lin]

I think you have 7 days to make your decision and tell them. I'm waiting to hear from NEC too!

Just to be safe, I would make sure they get it within 7 days. Not just telling them. It only means you have to inform them and sent off by the 6th day latest, 1 day difference to avoid any dispute.

With NEC, you have all the time in the world, until the warranty ends.

 

[igors]

One user reported that backlight bleed cured after 5 days Really don't know what to tell you now I'm confused as much as you (them).

No dead pixels for now ?

This is his backlight bleed 5 days ago:

Before:

After 5 days:

Now, it's all black.

He bought the monitor from OCUK also.

 

[MDPlatts]

Sorry to hear of the problems people are having - mine now doesnt seem to have any excessive backlight bleed in any one area - its more an overall glow as with most TFT's - not pronounced, but there - and not visible at all in normal use - I did look for it a bit when playing HL2 last night - but got enmeshed in things so much I forgot to pay attention I just tried now using the NaviSET application - displayed the black-screen icon in the test screen page - so the only thing on the screen was NaviSET - and there was a glow round that window - and dragging it so there was only the smallest part of it showing made the glow follow it - this is probably as a result of this advanced DVM stuf which turns off the backlight away from brightly lit things.

Looking at igors picture above, its nothing like that - i.e. no pools of light - its overall - and less bright than the bright bits shown there.

My buttons are ok - but I can see how they may wobble a bit since they are not just straight push "in" - they sometimes are more like piano pedals - especially the "nipple" (remembers thinkpad fondly)

I can also understand how pressure on the front of the panel can cause distortion - and hence maybe some backlight effects - so maybe theres a build issue causing pressure on the panel - not suggesting anyone goes in there at this stage. I'm happy enough with mine and so wont bother with reporting something I can't really notice unless I go out of my way to look for it.

 

[igors]

Sorry to hear of the problems people are having - mine now doesnt seem to have any excessive backlight bleed in any one area

Same here. My panel uniformity pictures in darkness (from the review) were taken approx 2 days after I purchased the monitor and essentially panel state was the same as soon as I power on the monitor for the first time. Firstly, I was pretty much surprised that for the LCD technology, panel uniformity was that good and "uniform" black, that I had to take the pictures for the review.

Looking at igors picture above, its nothing like that - i.e. no pools of light - its overall - and less bright than the bright bits shown there.

Not sure which camera he used and if there is maybe some distortion in the picture itself, but generally doesn't look nice. Shockingly, panel "cured" itself after 5 days.

My buttons are ok - but I can see how they may wobble a bit since they are not just straight push "in" - they sometimes are more like piano pedals - especially the "nipple" (remembers thinkpad fondly)

Somehow, I like them in a strange way

I can also understand how pressure on the front of the panel can cause distortion - and hence maybe some backlight effects - so maybe theres a build issue causing pressure on the panel

Quite possibly is the faulty batch of those monitors ... but I would not like to confirm anything firmly for now. Honestly, it's utterly impossible that retailer verify each batch in "advance". It's just pure luck of the draw and it seems that everything is possible, including the magical panel healing.

 

[BigChin1]

Here is an image of my screen:

Settings: Brightness 32%, Contrast 50%, Adv DV Mode On, DV Mode Standard, Native RGB.

Not bad in my opinion, some minor bleed top left and less so top right. Previously I could see the bleed more obviously in all four corners. I think it is related to the casing as Cal_G suggested. If I push (gently) the top left corner of the bezel the bleed gets noticeably worse, however if I push (gently) a quarter of the way down the left of the bezel the bleed completely disappears. So it must be related to the contact the bezel is making with the panel and the casing. I think in my case as the monitor warms up from cold and the plastic expands the bleed gets better (hence the 'self-healing effect'), but for a different screen the reaction could easily be the opposite.

In general I still think the build quality is very good, just not quite perfect. From now on I'll be careful how I handle the monitor if I ever need to move it, by lifting it from underneath or by the stand, not by holding the sides of the screen. Overall I am still very happy with my purchase.

 

[igors]

Here is an image of my screen:

Yes. This one is very good and almost exemplary

Settings: Brightness 32%, Contrast 50%, Adv DV Mode On, DV Mode Standard, Native RGB.

Last couple of days I'm keeping the Advanced DVM always ON. Essentially, it gives me the better contrast, more balanced/natural/deep colours and less glare Will see how it's going, but so far is pretty good. It's definitely killer feature of this monitor.

I think it is related to the casing as Cal_G suggested. If I push (gently) the top left corner of the bezel the bleed gets noticeably worse, however if I push (gently) a quarter of the way down the left of the bezel the bleed completely disappears. So it must be related to the contact the bezel is making with the panel and the casing. I think in my case as the monitor warms up from cold and the plastic expands the bleed gets better (hence the 'self-healing effect'), but for a different screen the reaction could easily be the opposite.

Quite possibly.

From now on I'll be careful how I handle the monitor if I ever need to move it, by lifting it from underneath or by the stand, not by holding the sides of the screen.

Maybe we have to warn the present & future users of this monitor that they *must not* hard-press the front screen bezel either when they are carrying the monitor or just for fun. When you carry the monitor around, grip (pressure) should be on the stand or the sides of the monitor but *never* on the front bezel. They could quite possibly damage the screen in a way of the backlight bleed or other screen anomaly, if they don't follow this instruction. Of course, I think that this is probably not mentioned in the manual but it's better to be on the safe side. I remember some leaflet which was attached to the monitor screen first time when I opened the monitor box, but honestly can't remember what was written there.

Overall I am still very happy with my purchase.

Glad to hear that

 

[Furic]

will my 2 6800gts in sli be enuff to power it for quake4 ?

i currently play in 1024 by 768 will it go this low ???

 

[sablabra]

will my 2 6800gts in sli be enuff to power it for quake4 ?

i currently play in 1024 by 768 will it go this low ???

It should be sufficient to play at 1680x1050 . I can't see how it's gonna struggle with that...

BTW: Most of that tiny backlight bleeds I got yesterday seem to have diseapered over night . And the monitor was off all night. Maybe it just needs a few hours warm up time before it's back again? not noticeable anyhow, but I thought I could mention it

 

[MDPlatts]

Maybe we have to warn the present & future users of this monitor that they *must not* hard-press the front screen bezel either when they are carrying the monitor or just for fun. When you carry the monitor around, grip (pressure) should be on the stand or the sides of the monitor but *never* on the front bezel. They could quite possibly damage the screen in a way of the backlight bleed or other screen anomaly, if they don't follow this instruction. Of course, I think that this is probably not mentioned in the manual but it's better to be on the safe side. I remember some leaflet which was attached to the monitor screen first time when I opened the monitor box, but honestly can't remember what was written there.

Glad to hear that

Or maybe that if you have predominantly brighter areas of bleed - maybe suggest that a little case/surround massaging may improve things - a bit like massaging dead pixels with cotton buds - but now more related to getting the pressure from the facia more even.

 

[Oswold]

First time poster.

I have had my screen since Saturday and it's a thing of beauty. The widescreen format is amazing and really adds a great deal to browsing the web and games like WOW which have widescreen settings.

The colours and sharpness compared to a CRT are jaw dropping and it's a pleasure to play through HL2 again and note the crisper graphics and even games like FEAR which i play in lower resolutions scale well.

Now the bad points and why i'm in the process of getting an RMA from NEC for the screen. Yep it's our old favourite backlight bleed. I play FEAR which has a lot of dark area's and shadows during the day it's excellent not a hint of bleed but when i played in the eveing under low light conditions it became apparent that there was quite a lot of bleed from all four corners. This took the form of a light grey haze which radiated out from the corners and formed a black cross in the middle of the screen. I could have lived with it like that as highly coloured games like WOW are not affected that much by this but this monitor is something that will have to last for 4-5 years and has taken a significant amount of my disposable income to buy. So i want it to be as good as possible and i think for the price it could be better.

I spoke to the NEC support people and gave them a detailed description of the problem and they are going to send me out another monitor when they have stock (hopefully by Friday).

I love this monitor which is why i have not sent it back to Overclockers under the 7 day returns procedure but as a general rant i think manufacturers really need to look at their manufacturing methods to eliminated backlight bleed completly from LCD monitors and for there quality people to actually test for backlight bleed under lowlight conditions.

 

[igors]

Or maybe that if you have predominantly brighter areas of bleed - maybe suggest that a little case/surround massaging may improve things - a bit like massaging dead pixels with cotton buds - but now more related to getting the pressure from the facia more even.

Yes, possibly this may do the trick. I'm quite sure that it's fixable, as problem is definitely not related to CCFL positioning or panel masking ... probably just the casing itself. Anyhow people should not grab their screwdrivers and hammers from the tool kits and start investigation. Your suggestion is on the safe side.

On the previous page, I have also included the "after" panel picture from the monitor who cured itself after 5 days. Quite surprising.

 

[igors]

First time poster

Welcome to the forum! You comments here are really appriciated.

This took the form of a light grey haze which radiated out from the corners and formed a black cross in the middle of the screen.

Hmmm ... it's interesting that it's "radiating" and forming the backlight haze. Are you sure that you are not looking at the colour banding ? Is there any possibility that we see some pics ?

I spoke to the NEC support people and gave them a detailed description of the problem and they are going to send me out another monitor when they have stock (hopefully by Friday).

That's good. Last week one user reported that they still didn't have this monitor on their system, as it was quite new

as a general rant i think manufacturers really need to look at their manufacturing methods to eliminated backlight bleed completly from LCD monitors and for there quality people to actually test for backlight bleed under lowlight conditions.

Can't agree with you more !

 

[Richdog]

Have spokent to NEC UK to arrange a swap and been told that they will send me a new one, and also pre-test it for backlight bleed. Dead pixels they couldnt guarantee a complete lack of as they have a tolerance of 2 dead pixels per unit but from what i've een hearing dead pixels are not common on these screens.

One word of warning: do not use the monitor for more than 20 hours prior to contacting NEC for a swap as then they will not issue you with a new one!

 

[igors]

Have spokent to NEC UK to arrange a swap and been told that they will send me a new one, and also pre-test it for backlight bleed. Dead pixels they couldnt guarantee a complete lack of as they have a tolerance of 2 dead pixels per unit but from what i've een hearing dead pixels are not common on these screens.

Richard, that's great. You will get there, hopefully, and fingers crossed for you.

One word of warning: do not use the monitor for more than 20 hours prior to contacting NEC for a swap as then they will not issue you with a new one!

How they can verify how long monitor was running ?!

Also, when you compare your backlight bleed with the pictures from the previous page of this thread, how does it look like ?

 

[Richdog]

My bleed wasn't too bad, it was the lower left corner of the monitor, and with Advanced DV on it wasn't that noticeabe. With it off, however, my eye was constantly drawn to it (fussy I told you).

As for how they know its been 20 hours, well they dont, but I never knew about this rule so if they had asked me how long id had it operating and I'd have said 4 days then id have been screwed. Just making sure no-one goes unwarned.