Philips 20" 200W6CS Widescreen TFT LCD

I suspect the boxes have to be opened to maybe put in a UK power cord - so you don't go messing around with putting plugs on the european/US power cord supplied - and I believe OcUK sometimes add DVI cables to some monitors they sell where the manufacturer hasnt put one in.
 
ljt said:
Right, well I ordered this monitor yesterday and it arrived today. So here's my mini review of it so far (bare in mind I've only had it running about 2 hours since I've got in from work)

Packaging

The box said it was 16ms and the 05 model on the outer packaging. However, the monitor was well packaged. First thing I noticed was the weight. It feels solid and the plastics used at first felt like a metal, nice and sturdy. As mentioned it is quite weighty, but 90% of that is the mental in the base to keep the monitor secure. On the back however the sticker states it is the 00 model. So maybe they are just using older stock of boxes but putting the newer 00 model inside?

Setup

Setup couldn't really have been simpler. The DVI cable is already connected to the monitor, so I just plugged it into my graphics card. The monitors VGA connector right next to the DVI, which my X360 is now connected to. Then switched PC on, booted fine. Changed the res to 1680 x 1050 @ 60Hz. First impressions was rather shocked at how clear text was! So much clearer than my 17" Mitsubishi 740SB CRT monitor. Colours were great out of the box too. However I popped the CD that came with it in and installed the drivers. It just limited the refresh rates and resolution. I also installed the program FPAdjust that was on the CD, which guides you through a monitor calibration wizard, which was pretty painless, but it didn't change the settings much. I then went mooching on deviantart for some juicy wallpapers! So far I haven't noticed any dead/lazy pixels either which is a bonus!

Connections wise there is as mentioned DVI, VGA, a usb input to enable the usb on the front left side of the unit. Audio wise there is an audio input to use the monitors speakers (haven't tried them yet) and a headphone socket.

OSD

I then went fiddling with the OSD menu. The only settings (as with most monitors) you can mess with when your in DVI mode is contrast and brightness. I changed the brightness to 36% and contrast to 50% for now, which seemed to take the "glare" off the whites. From the OSD you can change the input on the monitor from DVI/VGA, adjust brightness/contrast. You can adjust the colour temperature from 6500k, 9300k, sRGB, Original colour and user define. You can also as mentioned earlier by Raymond lin that you can set the way the monitor scales. This allows you to run in a lower resolution without having it streched across the screen and making it look blurry. You can also set the audio for the screen up and adjust the image placement (i.e. up, down, left, right)

Gaming

PC - Right the most important section :p The only game I have played on this so far is HL2. First thing i said to myself was wow at the clarity of textures etc, nice clear, vivid colours, looked far less washed out than on my CRT. I then went round running like a headless chicken trying the response times. Going from a CRT with virtually no ghosting, I did notice slight blurring of textures when moving extremely rapidly over walls with my cursor, but I don't normally do this in game. There is slight ghosting, mainly in the dark/black areas of the games, although not enough to stop you seeing what you're doing!. In the lighter areas it wasn't really too bad. It wasn't enough to put me off the game, put it that way!

Xbox360 - Only thing I have tried on here so far was FNR3 demo, and woopey, no black borders! This was using the VGA cable, set at 1360x768 - widescreen. I'm yet to try PGR3 to see what that looks like. I'm glad I went widescreen now though! No real ghosting noticable in this game, but its not that fast paced.

Misc stuff + pictures

Right odds and sods time!

Viewing Angles - Although nowhere near as good as CRT, the viewing angles are pretty good. You can still see a nice clear image from both sides, although it at extremes the screen has a white wash over it. Horizontal and Vertical angles were also pretty good, again at extreme angles (Which i'd never view my monitor at anyway) there was a white glare over the screen but more apparant on these angles.

Here is some pics

Reference picture, head on viewing angle
angle3.jpg


Top down view
angle1.jpg


Top right view
angle2.jpg


I couldnt get a good lower viewing angle shot due to there not being enough room below the monitor to fit the camera, but its about the same as the top down view.

End of part 1 lol.....
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Hey mate,

what kind of settings are you using with your 360?

I'm finding that all of the resolutions I try in the 360 console have massive black borders if I use 'native' mode on the monitor. However, if I go 'fill with aspect' I get full screen, but lose quite a lot of sharpness.

Also, this monitor won't display 1280 x 720 on the 360 at all! Is this normal?
 
lo chap

I set the resolution to 1360 x 768 (the highest res option there is basically)

I play all games apart from PGR3 on the option "Fill with aspect", you will loose a slight bit of sharpness as its scaling 1360 res up to 1650 to fill the monitor, but its nothing that bad that it puts me off.

I run PGR3 in native mode, which will put black borders all the way around as its only showing the pixels its set at, hence no scaling and no loss of sharpness. It is a kind of trade off between larger picture with less sharp picture, or smaller picture but a lot crisper. However PD0, Condemened, King Kong dont look too bad at all scaled to fit to be honest. I havent tried the 1280x720 option yet but I will check and see
 
ljt said:
lo chap

I set the resolution to 1360 x 768 (the highest res option there is basically)

I play all games apart from PGR3 on the option "Fill with aspect", you will loose a slight bit of sharpness as its scaling 1360 res up to 1650 to fill the monitor, but its nothing that bad that it puts me off.

I run PGR3 in native mode, which will put black borders all the way around as its only showing the pixels its set at, hence no scaling and no loss of sharpness. It is a kind of trade off between larger picture with less sharp picture, or smaller picture but a lot crisper. However PD0, Condemened, King Kong dont look too bad at all scaled to fit to be honest. I havent tried the 1280x720 option yet but I will check and see
Click to expand...

I guess I'll just have tolive with it then!

Yeah, give 1280 x 720 a try and see what you get.

Cheers mate.
 
Kasperoff said:
A side from that, its pretty damn good. I'm not blown away though. I have a trusty Llyama 17" CRT before this and that was fine in terms of picture quality. I just wanted something in widescreen, and a little bigger.

For the money, I have to say its a cracking bargain.
Click to expand...

have to agree totally. I wasnt blown away by it at all. The colours were good, and the build quality excellent. Felt well put together and sturdy. And i would have kept it, had it not been obviously a faulty return sent out by mistake.

Ive instead changed my RMA for a refund and ordered the NEC. i had a £400 budget anyway so it seemed obvious to give the NEC a go. I just hope that wows me more than philips did, otherwise ill have spent an extra £80 needlessly
 
Just thought i would add my 2p's worth after taking delivery around two weeks ago.

I have been using a 19" CRT for the past 2 years or so. There was nothing wrong with my old CRT but i have been kicked out my office after out baby was born. So moving my desk i needed a good space saving solution.
The Philips fitted the bill perfectly and it seemed like good value for money. I was in two mind weather to go for the Belinea or the Philips. After some reviews and looking at the two i went for the Philips. A choice i do not regret.

First thoughts were...wow. It looked great. The picture quality was fantastic compared to my old CRT. It is so crisp and bright. I have to even turn the brightness down quite a bit from the factory settings.
After getting the monitor and setting it up i scanned the whole monitor inch by inch looking for the dead pixels. I couldn't find one :)
Next was backlight bleed. It is there, but only very very slightly. Nothing at all to worry about. It doesn't bother me one little bit. It is only noticable when the room is dark and the screen is black. Which it rarely is.

My main worry was ghosting during gaming. I mainly play Enemy Territory which can be fast paced game with lots going on at any one point. This was the big test.....It passed with flying colours. It seems great. No issues with ghosting at all. Nothing noticable anyway. This is the 00 model. It was bought from OCUK. It should be the 8ms panel.

All in all i think i made a good choice. Can't fault it really.
 
MDPlatts said:
I suspect the boxes have to be opened to maybe put in a UK power cord - so you don't go messing around with putting plugs on the european/US power cord supplied - and I believe OcUK sometimes add DVI cables to some monitors they sell where the manufacturer hasnt put one in.
Click to expand...

Just got mine today and the box has been opened and taped back up. It does look like a power cable was stuck in there cos all the other cables were wrapped and that wasn't.

Apart from that, monitor looks excellent. Loads better than my old 17" tft. Just about to load some games up and see how they are. Just hope the wife doesn't notice the change for a couple of days :)
 
The only niggle I have with mine is the stand.

There seems to be quite a lot of play in it, before it will tilt backwards and forwards.

For example, if I grab the top of the screen and push backwards, it will move 2 or 3 cm's before the actual hinge at the bottom moves.

Is this the case with everyone else?
 
Kasperoff said:
The only niggle I have with mine is the stand.

There seems to be quite a lot of play in it, before it will tilt backwards and forwards.

For example, if I grab the top of the screen and push backwards, it will move 2 or 3 cm's before the actual hinge at the bottom moves.

Is this the case with everyone else?
Click to expand...
Mine does that too.

Not something I think is a problem. I would put down the the nature of design, not a fault. The monitor is not 100% rigid but springy when you push the top of the monitor it does flex by about 1-2cm before hinge moves.
 
2 quick questions on the monitor before I buy it next week.

1. Does it come with a VGA and a DVI cable ?

2. To run it at 1680x1050 I don't see that option listed under my current res. settings in windows, is it because I need to install the monitor driver or do I need to update my graphic card drivers (x800 XT)

Thanks all :)
 
Dark_Angel said:
2 quick questions on the monitor before I buy it next week.

1. Does it come with a VGA and a DVI cable ?

2. To run it at 1680x1050 I don't see that option listed under my current res. settings in windows, is it because I need to install the monitor driver or do I need to update my graphic card drivers (x800 XT)

Thanks all :)
Click to expand...
1. Yes
2. I had the same question. When the Philips was connected up (DVI), Windows and the nVidia card sorted it all out and I didn't have do a thing about the resolution.

You may be surprised (shocked) by the brightness. I've been tinkering around for about a week with Adobe Gamma, Monitor Calibration Wizard (see http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp )
the monitor controls and nVidia hardware controls. I now think I've just about got it right. The important thing for me is that printed photos should match Adobe Photoshop versions, so I can rely on my photo tweaking.

The settings finished up with the nVidia card set to 82% brightness, 100% contrast, and the monitor to 4.5 brightness and 5.9 contrast. These settings may seem unusually low but the result is remarkably faithful to prints on Canon Glossy Photo paper in a six-cartridge printer. It may be necessary to recalibrate the monitor if I change the paper type.
Then when I'd adjusted the colour balance with Adobe Gamma, I saved the result with Monitor Calibration Wizard to load at startup: for some reason the Adobe Gamma profile which can be saved isn't loaded atuomatically by Windows XP.

I've tried calibrating with Monitor Calibration Wizard, but its results are too dark compared with Adobe.
 
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Hey...

Vince mate you are a star, since I am going to be using the monitor for my 360 and my PC... I was going to plug in the VGA cable to my 360 VGA lead and the DVI to my PC.

I too use photoshop, and will give your settings on the monitor a try, and mess around with the ATI control panel at the same time... see if I can get something that I am happy with :)
 
I've had another go with Monitor Calibration Wizard. Its Brightness control at the last step is very sensitive.
But if you start Photoshop with a good picture (this page contains a good calibration image: http://photos.wanadoo.co.uk/static.html?name=colour ) and a print of it beside you, illuminated with a halogen lamp if possible, and are patient with repeated 'views' of the 15 second test you should get good results.
 
Hey,

Thanks for the info mate, I will most certainly give it a little fiddle :)

BTW, I noticed this monitor is on special offer at the moment. What time is it on thursdays its updated the special offer list? I was planning too order about 1PM on thursday ya see :)
 
vince said:
I think this is a new offer. It's a fiver less than I paid on the last offer (bah!).
You should be OK for a couple of days.
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Well, this settles it! The NEC might well be the best 20" available, but at almost £100 difference my wallet has chosen the Philips :p Fingers crossed mine will be problem free!
 
I've had my philips over a week now and I'm well impressed. I watch sky+ on it aswell as do a lot of gaming and its almost perfect except for some backlight bleeding in the upper left corner which I only notice when the screen is black.

Overall I give it a 9/10.
 
just ordered it :D .

its my first TFT i will be using on my home computer. have been using at 19" Sony CRT trinitron screen for a long time now. i expect it to perform miles better than my crt on the desktop, image quality etc. I am worried a little bit about the gaming performance considering my eyes are soo used to staring at a crt (probably why i'm going blind :P) for such a long time.

i mainly play World Of Warcraft which i'm not too worried about but i also play many FPS games.

oh well, already ordered so theres not much i can do about that now. time to sit back and enjoy :)
 
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