NEC LCD20WGX2 review *** UPDATED 25/02/06 ***
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Raymond Lin said:
OK ... think I got it !
- Full is stretching the image completely, so that whole screen is covered.
- Aspect is trying to simulate the monitor wide-screen aspect rate 16:10 on the selected resolution. It's stretched little bit, but there are still black bars left/right but not at the top (as far as I can see).
- Off is disabling any picture scaling processing. Resolution is natural as it should be. It's sharp and unaltered in any way. And, yes, there are tiny black bars on top/bottom and larger ones on left/right.
Hope this helps.
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Raymond Lin said:
Yup. I was planning to purchase the LCD wide-screen monitor many "moons" ago. However, I was waiting for the new panels to be available. It was completely blind and impulsive purchase. Didn't have a clue about the monitor as there was no single review available around ... just specs on the paper. Luckily, my expectations were exceeded by huge margin. Phew
Richdog said:
Hi RichDog,
I have 3 years warranty, including backlight. Not sure about the dead pixel policy. However, if they are including the backlight in the warranty I see no reason why dead pixel is not included (as it's more annoying thing than then backlight anyway). If you would like, I may verify the dead pixel warranty for you.
I have 0 backlight and 0 dead pixels. Hopefully, it will stay that way when they are available widely.
Richdog said:
Richdog, if you were carried away with the review that much, it must be the damn good one
Seriously, I started the whole thread with the intention to write the mini review (if I may say opinion) about the monitor. Now, when I look back at the first page of this thread, "mini review" evolved so much. It must be that I was certainly carried away with the monitor too, in a good sense as I was really impressed with it.I'm not the secret NEC agent, infiltrated to lobotomy consumers purchasing judgment
neither I have ever explicitly stated that people should go out, splash their money and purchase the monitor NOW. Yes, I'm maybe not the "pro" reviewer, but what I tried to do here is to compile the review which is done by and for, you the user. For me, the monitor is vital part of the PC and I was always picky when choosing one. It's something you constantly look at and it must deliver strong performances. This is maybe another reason why I spent so much time reviewing this monitor. I witnessed other LCD monitors performances - from my office, friends ones and ones displayed it the high street shops. This one really fulfilled all my expectations and requirements on the list. I don't have the tools nor means to test the monitor on the pro levels (and doubt that other end users will do it anyway). As this monitor is so new, there are still no "official" reviews around. However, as I mentioned in the review, I would be rather happy (during my free time) to test the monitor differently, if required by this forum community.
At the end of the day, we all know that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder
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Baddass said:
Hi Baddass,
Checking your news page now. Spotted something about the NEC:
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- 700:1 contrast ratio capable of going up to 1600:1 with Advanced DVM technology, automatic brightness adaptation of the content in real time (according to Nec)
"
Automatic brightness adaptation feature is definitely confirming my theory from the review that "in Advanced DVM mode monitor is somewhat automatically adjusting the contrast levels according to the screen content". Didn't know that I have this feature until now
Anyhow, from my experience contrast levels are really fantastic.
"
- 470 cd/m² brightness. It is much too elevated. Let's hope that Nec's standard adjustment will be lower and that it is a maximum value and not the one that is chosen when the monitor is switched on.
"
As I mentioned in the review, brightness is really crazy but controllable (especially when using Advanced DVM). Definitely, this is the maximum value, as you hoped.
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- wider viewing angles than VA and TN panels
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That's definitely the case.
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- Nec also told us about the release of a new international sRGB standard of calibration and constant reproduction of colors.
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That's true. sRGB is avaliable in native profile mode.
Richdog said:lol of course it was a damn good review, and I don't think you're an NEC agent *looks around suspiciously*.
This monitor is a damn good one by all accounts and I will wait till next month when the Dells are released before making a decision that isn't so rushed.
You got my point right, gringo
Major_hangover said:
Yeah ... tell me about it. All my friends are like that. I'm still trying to educate them
I spent many years in trading the computer parts, had close contacts with graphic design companies, now I'm in IT ... so maybe I have the "universal eye". Who knows
Major_hangover said:
No worries my friend, I'm not offended in any way
People should use this review as the guideline what they may expect from this monitor. I'm sure the Baddass is the nice guy and he may surely compliment the global picture with his own review.
I’ve seen so many biased and misleading reviews nowadays, that it's simply disgusting. Lately, I find my self frequently switching to user reviews and discussions in the forums when trying to finalise the purchase.
Hi,
It may happen that this monitor is HDCP ready (if anyone cares about the HDCP nowadays). Firingsquad website posted the list of all known HDCP enabled monitors and it seems that they are listing the "NEC MultiSync 20WMGX2" monitor as HDCP ready (as identified by them). Now, this is the US model (there is additional "M" in between) and not sure if NEC UK/Europe is following the same legacy. Maybe we need clarification from the NEC UK.
It may happen that this monitor is HDCP ready (if anyone cares about the HDCP nowadays). Firingsquad website posted the list of all known HDCP enabled monitors and it seems that they are listing the "NEC MultiSync 20WMGX2" monitor as HDCP ready (as identified by them). Now, this is the US model (there is additional "M" in between) and not sure if NEC UK/Europe is following the same legacy. Maybe we need clarification from the NEC UK.
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Raymond Lin said:
Confirmed ? I sent the e-mail to NEC UK today, but still no reply. I had the same feeling. Probably they think that UK will be HDTV + HDCP enabled in 2012, just in time for Olympics
Why always such discrimination when considering the Europe market, never understood.So far so good guys. Monitor is running 24x7 for almost 7 days. I didn't turn it off at all. Even when the computer was idle and non attended, intensive screen saver was in place so that monitor was always busy. For now, still no single trace of either backlight or colour bleeding, dead pixels or any other deformation. It's still exactly the same as in the "lights off" pictures in my review. Picture improved slightly, but not for huge margin.
I tried last night "PixPerAn" application ... or LCD monitor torture tool as far as I'm concerned What this application is doing to the monitor, it' just nuts.
Baddass, is this tool safe for LCD monitors if run for prolonged period of time ? I don't want to burn my pretty crystals ?
Also, in "streaky pictures" test, there are loads of configuration options. Do you have any preference, or should I just leave it at the default ?
I tried last night "PixPerAn" application ... or LCD monitor torture tool as far as I'm concerned What this application is doing to the monitor, it' just nuts.
Baddass, is this tool safe for LCD monitors if run for prolonged period of time ? I don't want to burn my pretty crystals
?Also, in "streaky pictures" test, there are loads of configuration options. Do you have any preference, or should I just leave it at the default ?
HDCP is not supported, as suggested by Raymond Lin (thank you). Just received response from Melanie (NEC UK). It seems that HDCP is not supported on their desktop range. What seems to me is that they are trying to separate then men from the boys, in other words LCD TV from the LCD desktop monitor. Obviously, sales policy between US and Europe is different.
One thing that is puzzling me, and which is quite strange, is why on the earth monitor has to support this. Monitor is displaying device and not cryptic device. If we can have one simple "in-line" device, connected between the monitor and GPU card who will take care of the decoding process, it would be much more convinient
Anyhow, I will not go into HDCP now
One thing that is puzzling me, and which is quite strange, is why on the earth monitor has to support this. Monitor is displaying device and not cryptic device. If we can have one simple "in-line" device, connected between the monitor and GPU card who will take care of the decoding process, it would be much more convinient
Anyhow, I will not go into HDCP now radpilot said:
Same old story. It's just discrepancy in the market targeting. In US, HDTV is real and running already, HDCP is probably just around the corner ... so in some sense they wanted to include such video features as immediately available "extras". UK model is exactly the same, just without video features and much better looking (in my book). Also, Europe is preparing the new tax for the 20" LCD monitors and above. Not sure if such model diversion is related with this one or not. We just have speculations floating around.
At the end of the day, it's just personal preference. Do you care about the HDTV/HDCP features on your monitor LCD or not ?
Essentially, it's confirming major points from my review:
- Rich, natural, vibrant colours representation and deep blacks
- Crazy brightness (by luminosity spec), but controllable
- Excellent contrast (also thankfully to the TFT film)
- Exceptional gaming performance
- Excellent viewing angles
- Advanced DVM is doing the job
- Great design
- 0 backlight & colour bleed (not mentioned, I think)
IPS is definitely back and it's back with the vengeance !
Now, not sure why he was disappointed with the video playback. I tried several titles and it was great (colour representation especially). Yes, you may notice the slight pixel pitch and glossy screen is problematic when there is intensive ambient light. But who is watching the films from such close distance and in very light room anyway ?!. I prefer my movies in the dark room and from the distance
Also, yes, glossy screen is maybe problematic when you are using the bright ambient light ... but again it's the matter of personal taste as I don't find it very distractive. As this is the subjective matter, maybe this doesn't deserve the global minus. At the end, it's improving the smoothness of the screen and colour & contrast balance.
Minus point was also pricing ... not sure about that. Here @OCUK you can buy this monitor for £411. It's not so huge price difference from the other 20" monitors listed here.
Welcome back NEC! It was about time. They were among the best monitor manufactures in the past. Oh yes, 5 stars from me.
Last night, I started to work on another review update btw. I wanted to use the PixPerAn "streaky pictures" test and capture it with my camera at a fastest shutter speed, in order to identify the afterglow and ghosting effects. Guy from BeHardware done it already and it's definitely comparable with my pictures ... but one thing he didn't do: comparable screen pictures (from the dark games) with Advanced DVM On/Off. Stay tuned
- Rich, natural, vibrant colours representation and deep blacks
- Crazy brightness (by luminosity spec), but controllable
- Excellent contrast (also thankfully to the TFT film)
- Exceptional gaming performance
- Excellent viewing angles
- Advanced DVM is doing the job
- Great design
- 0 backlight & colour bleed (not mentioned, I think)
IPS is definitely back and it's back with the vengeance !
Now, not sure why he was disappointed with the video playback. I tried several titles and it was great (colour representation especially). Yes, you may notice the slight pixel pitch and glossy screen is problematic when there is intensive ambient light. But who is watching the films from such close distance and in very light room anyway ?!. I prefer my movies in the dark room and from the distance
Also, yes, glossy screen is maybe problematic when you are using the bright ambient light ... but again it's the matter of personal taste as I don't find it very distractive. As this is the subjective matter, maybe this doesn't deserve the global minus. At the end, it's improving the smoothness of the screen and colour & contrast balance.
Minus point was also pricing ... not sure about that. Here @OCUK you can buy this monitor for £411. It's not so huge price difference from the other 20" monitors listed here.
Welcome back NEC!
It was about time. They were among the best monitor manufactures in the past. Oh yes, 5 stars from me.Last night, I started to work on another review update btw. I wanted to use the PixPerAn "streaky pictures" test and capture it with my camera at a fastest shutter speed, in order to identify the afterglow and ghosting effects. Guy from BeHardware done it already and it's definitely comparable with my pictures
... but one thing he didn't do: comparable screen pictures (from the dark games) with Advanced DVM On/Off. Stay tuned
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DrFaust said:
Hi,
I have the same picture, which I took last night (for the purpose of review update). No stripes here ... so maybe it's camera effect or who knows what. Think that yesterday someone else was asking me also about the "screendoor effect". I simply didn't now what to say as I'm not sure what it is and if I didn't noticed this "effect" by now, it probably doesn't exist anyway