Polyview V396 Review
Mikey 89 comments
This is my fourth LCD screen and my second 19 inch model. But this is the first screen I have owned with an 8ms response time, so I am rather excited to be finally using something that closely resembles the refresh rate of a CRT, but without the massive footprint on my desk or the headaches associated with staring at an electron gun 10 hours a day.
The Polyview V396 sports one of the nicer form factors to appear in recent times, which would look easily at home in front of a Macintosh as opposed to a Windows PC. It is good to finally see a shift away from the standard boring LCD form factor we have all come to know.
There were several other LCD screens within my budget with similar specs, but ultimately it was the distinguishing form factor of this monitor that sold me.
Buttons are easily accessible and control what is probably one of the better looking OSD's to been seen on a monitor. The all important AUTO button automatically adjusts the screen and sets 'Picture' mode, which is the nicest of the 3 settings and most suitable for daytime (well lit) use.
Specifications:
- Model: A190E3
- Type: S -396
- Input Interface: D-Sub and DVI
- Pixel Pitch: 0.294 mm
- Resolution: 1280 x 1024 / SXGA
- Display Color: 16.2 M
- Brightness: 320cd/m2
- Contrast Ratio: 500: 1
- Viewing Angle: Horizontal: 160, Vertical: 130
- Scan Rate: Horizontal: 30~82 KHz, Vertical: 56~76 Hz
- Display Area: 376 x301 mm
- Response Time: 8ms
- Power Source: AC Adapter 100~240VAC, 50/60Hz
- Weight: 4.7 kg (Including Stand)
- Speakers: 2.5W x 2
- Wall Mount: VESA Standard
- Dimensions: 438x445 x150 mm
- Power Consumption: 58W
- Power Saving State: 2W
- Function: Kensington Lock
- Pixel policy: 7 dead pixels before replacement
Whats in the box?
- Polyview V396 LCD monitor
- DVI monitor cable
- Standard 15pin d-sub monitor cable
- CD instruction manual (PDF format)
- Mains power cable
- Hard copy quick setup manual
- Audio cable
First impressions.
When propped up on my desk, the monitor appeared to be tilted about 15 degrees downward left. A check with a spirit level quickly confirmed my desk was at fault, not the monitor. And there was much rejoice...
Connecting to my PC was as easy as expected, although fitting the DVI cable required a little extra effort due to it having to be navigated over the rear stand hump. The D-Sub connection has a clear path.
Flexing the rear stand arm easily allows changing of the monitor angle. Unfortunately for me as my desk has a raised section for a monitor that sits at near eye level, I was unable to position the monitor at an angle I desired (parallel to my face). This is not the fault of the monitor however, but something to consider if you have to position the monitor high. The solution was to sit up in my chair for a change. I am always up for improving posture.
Windows instantly recognised the monitor as a plug'n'play device so no drivers were required to be installed. Although I did expect drivers on the supplied CD, alas there were none.
Picture quality.
This is something to behold. The predecessor to this monitor was my faithful , which despite its 20ms response, had an amazingly vibrant picture which I have not seen in a LCD since, until now.
The image quality on the Polyview V396 is significantly better. Whites are amazingly bright without any colour flaring or bleeding. A full black screen does show a little backlight inconsistency but then when do we ever have that happening? Oh wait, I am currently playing 'X3 the Reunion '. Having said that, it was not even noticeable unless I looked for it.
Colours are reproduced with amazing vibrancy. It was not until I ran a few tests in Photoshop that I noticed a single stuck pixel. Firing up Dead Pixel Buddy sadly confirmed the presence of a single dead pixel. Against white, the pixel is a faint blue but against red, it sticks out quite clearly. Six more of them and I will qualify for a replacement. And here I was thinking dead pixels were a thing of the past. I will have to live with it for now. Luckily it is only noticeable when I look for it.
Video playback is much better than what I am used to in an LCD, with blurring during fast action sequences now a thing of the past.
But my main focus for this monitor was to see how it performs in modern gaming scenarios. My old 20ms Samsung made playing games borderline acceptable. I never had any complaints finishing Half-Life 2 or F.E.A.R., but there were times where I did miss the response of a CRT.
So my first test was with Celestia, although not a game, it does show off space scenes which are prone to blurring on bad LCD screens. On my old Samsung the stars would near completely disappear anytime you moved about the universe.
To my absolute delight, it looked better than I had hoped. The 8ms response time is more than ample to clearly see the Celestia universe in its glory. So much that I upped the amount of onscreen stars without any noticeable image degradation.
Gaming tests.
Without going into too much detail, I did notice a significant improvement when gaming. I tested with six fast action games, Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R, X3-The Reunion, Battlefield 2, Far Cry, and IL2 Forgotten Battles.
The monitor rendered frames without any noticeable blurring, although frame tearing was apparent on some games (not the monitors' fault), this was easily remedied by activating v-sync in the driver settings.
2D tests.
Although technically a 3d application, has always shown considerable blurring for me in the past, so it was great to be able to see the Earth spin clearly for a change as I zoomed from location to location.
Desktop use is great albeit hardly challenging for any monitor, but web browsing and document reading in particular did show improvement when scrolling down pages, with text still easily readable while the page moves, and no ghosting.
Over impression.
Apart from the dead pixel, I could not be happier with the Polyview V396, unless it was free. For a staggeringly low price of around $AU450, 8ms response time, unique form factor, brilliant image quality and multiple inputs, the Polyview V396 is well worth considering if you are in the market for a new monitor.
Pros.
- Affordable
- Nice form factor
- 8ms response time
- Brilliant image quality
- Good gaming, movies and 2D application performance
- Nice onscreen GUI
- Easily accessible buttons
- Mains powered
- Multiple inputs (D-Sub and DVI)
- Built in speakers
- Adjustable angle
Cons.
- Dead pixel on arrival (hopefully an isolated incident)
- 7 dead pixel policy is a little high
|
Update, 18th April 2006:It appears my v396 has developed an odd fault. I have emailed the manufacturer and the store of purchase to see where I stand. When I get a response I will post it here. Also, I get a lot of email requests asking about the wallpaper shown in the photo of the monitor at the top of this review page. It is from a series called . Google is your friend :-) |
Aficionado
Thursday 29th December 2005 | 02:21 PMThat's one heck of a christmas present :-) I have seen the same monitor http://www.austin.net.au/priceguide.asp?category=MONITORS&;subcategory=19">on austins web site for as low as $422 australian. Dead pixels scare me :-( If my 17inch crt accidently dies I might be able to convince my other half to let me get something like that.
aaron
Sunday 1st January 2006 | 02:59 AMYou youngens with your toys. back in my day we had monochrome screens with 640*480 resolutions and without a screensaver you got image burn. And we liked it too :)
Mike
Sunday 1st January 2006 | 02:01 PMaaron says: back in my day we had monochrome screens with 640*480
LOL. Ah yes, the good ol' Microbee with monochrome green. I still remeber playing 'yatch' in 640x480 vector glory during my lunch break back in high school.
Ben
Sunday 1st January 2006 | 04:00 PMI had a 21" CRT. It took up too much room and was too heavy and lugging it around to a LAN was a mission. Now i got the http://www.protac.com.au/V398.htm">Polyview v398 which I think is the next model up from yours but it looks nothinkg like it. Its 19 wide screen. Didn't know about the v396. Looks sweet.
Mike
Sunday 1st January 2006 | 04:20 PMBen says: Now i got the Polyview v398
I looked at that as well but I think the downside of widescreen is you loose some pixel hight on the desktop realestate. A standard 19" is 1280x1024 but the widescreen versions are 1440x900. Thats 124px difference. I can't see the point unless you primary use is for viewing widescreen movies, in which case, thats fine.
Mike
Sunday 1st January 2006 | 04:20 PMFor development work though, give me 2 x LCD monitors any day over a single wide screen.
aaron
Tuesday 3rd January 2006 | 03:49 AMgive me 2 wide screens over 2 standard lcds any day.
Werker
Tuesday 3rd January 2006 | 01:51 PMgood review but no mention of the speakers. I dont think they would be a replacement for a decent set of desktop speakers anyway. that probably why you didnt mention them.
Jeff
Saturday 7th January 2006 | 11:52 PMGreetings from Sydney. Great review - one of the best out there for this monitor. I hope I dont get any dead pixels. The price is a little higher here but based on what I have read here I think you have sold me.
Mike
Sunday 8th January 2006 | 12:15 AMThanks Jeff. With regards to the dead pixel policy, I recieved an email from William at the manfacturer's support department:
"The dead pixel policy is 3-5-5, meaning that the monitor needs to have more than 3 bright dead pixels, more than 5 dark pixels, or more than 5 in total to be considered faulty by the manufacturer."
So looks like 5 is the maximum you need for a replacement. Lets hope you don't have any at all. Good luck with it.
Sash
Monday 9th January 2006 | 05:12 PMIm kinda new to this LCD stuff, and I'm just wondering can this one be used to play Xbox on, and DVD player on etc, what kind of connections does it have at the back?
Mike
Wednesday 11th January 2006 | 10:20 AMHi Sasha,
This monitor has both d-sub and dvi connections. A typical dvd player will have neither. But according to the official http://www.xbox.com/en-US">X-box 360 web site, the x-box 360 does have a http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360vgahdcable/default.htm">standard VGA output, so plugging it into this monitor will not be a problem. As for the original x-box, an educated guess would asume the same but check the web site to be sure.
Sash
Wednesday 11th January 2006 | 11:08 PMThanks a lot for the info Mike :). It seems like I have to buy a TV Receiver Box and connect the XBox > TV Rec. > Monitor, which is fine by me as long as I can play. Are there any flaws with LCD's though. Cause you know how with plasmas you get colour fading is there anything like that with LCD Monitors?
Mike
Thursday 12th January 2006 | 09:27 AM"Are there any flaws with LCD's though"
There is the possibility of a dead or stuck pixel. Vendors usually only replace the monitor if you have several of them. In the case of this particular monitor, the dead pixel policy is the monitor needs to have more than 3 bright dead pixels, more than 5 dark pixels, or more than 5 in total to qualify for a replacement. Unfortunately that is the risk when buying an LCD screen, but it is a small risk. Unless of course, the vendor has a zero dead pixel policy. Some resellers offer their own dead pixel policy. I bought a 17" for the office about 9 months ago and for an extra $50 they will replace the monitor for another in the event of a dead pixel within the first week. A small investment for peace of mind I think. A work colleague bought the same monitor and opted for that policy as well, and actually got a stuck pixel on arrival. They replaced it immediately and the new one was fine.
"plasmas you get colour fading is there anything like that with LCD Monitors?"
In my experience, owning 5 different LCD screens of varying brands and sizes, I can safely say none of them have faded or suffered monitor burn. My oldest, a 17" BenQ still looks as good as it did the day I got it. It was my primary monitor for nearly 2 years. FYI the other brands I have are Samsung, Viewsonic, Philips (Diamond View), BenQ, and of course Polyview.
Another thing to consider if you intend on using it for games is to get a monitor with the lowest response time as possible. Anything over 8ms and you might notice ghosting or blurring during fast action sequences. The lower, the better, but typically the more expensive.
One thing I did notice with the TV Receiver Box I got for my daughter's LCD (my old 17" BenQ) is that the colours seemed dull, so I had to play around with RGB and Contrast settings to get it an acceptable level for a 2 year old :-) Having said that, I got the TV box used and I think it is a cheap quality one, so it might not have been an issue on a better quality unit.
Hope that helps.
Sash
Thursday 12th January 2006 | 08:51 PMThanks for the help Mike, so the case of 'blurring' is it a high possibility or low? Would 8ms be acceptable, cause after all I did buy the Polyview that has 8ms, and it would really suck if I had to return it or something.
Mike
Thursday 12th January 2006 | 10:45 PMBlurring or ghosting is relative to the response time, not pot luck. I guess it might help to understand the difference between CRT and LCD.
In a regular CRT monitor, we use the term 'refresh rate' as this is the amount of times the onscreen image is drawn per second. This means a higher number is better. So if a monitor has a refresh rate of 75hz, then the onscreen image is redrawn 75 times per second. People who complain of headaches when looking at a CRT screen all day usually have a low refresh rate, typically 60hz (because low refresh rates appear as if the screen is flickering). Also, CRT screens redraw the entire screen regardless of how much or little change actually occurs onscreen.
With LCD screens, we use the term 'response time' as this is the time it takes for a single onscreen pixel to change from black to white, and then black again. So in this case, a lower number is better. That is why a 16 or 20ms LCD is prone to blurring or ghosting - it simply means the screen can not update fast enough.
Unlike CRT's, an LCD only updates the onscreen pixels that need to be changed, and this is a much more resourceful way of updating an image. And is also the reason why we are not prone to headaches when staring at them all day.
8ms is fine for anything. But when LCD's reach that elusive near 0ms, we will all be looking at screens capable of updating as fast as a CRT. Because the simple fact is nothing can update as fast as a CRT just yet. But 8ms is very close. 4ms is even closer and if my budget allowed for it I would have gotten one.
There are some, usually the hardcore gamers, who say nothing higher than 4ms will do. And there are some who say they can not even tell the difference between 4ms and 8ms.
But in reality 8ms is fine. I don't notice any ghosting or blurring on mine, as expected. And I play a lot of fast action First Person Shooters (Far Cry, Half Life 2, MOHAA etc...) and I have friends (also gamers) with 8ms screens who say they have no complaints.
On my other LCD's, 12, 16 and 20ms respectively, ghosting is certainly noticeable. I would suggest if you can go somewhere that has LCD monitors on display (a PC shop or even Harvey Norman), try some out. Get them to run a game or something else to put the monitor through its paces. If you give them the impression you are going to buy it, they won't mind. And if you like what you see, go buy it elsewhere cheaper :-)
Sash
Friday 13th January 2006 | 03:47 PMThe thing is that the Polyview has been bought, and if does not work, I'm really in trouble. Sorry it's not wether 'it works' it's rather the ghost affect. I would hate to have it, but thanks mike for the info though. Really appreciated.
:::::SASH::::::
Sash
Friday 13th January 2006 | 10:23 PMAlso wondering about the price Mike, I bought my Polyview, (exact same one as you 19") for $390, is that a reasonable price?
Mike
Friday 13th January 2006 | 10:40 PMYes very reasonable - exceptional in fact. The best I could find was $420 (AU). And that was after I had already paid $450 for mine LOL.
Sorry to jump into the middle of the post, but I have just recently bought the Ployview V398 and was wondering if anyone had found a driver for it other than the Plug and Play one from WinXP Pro. Every other LCD screen I have seen and bought in the last few years for myself and the company I work for has one. But the Ployview range doesnt...... Any help much appreciated Other than that, I am very very happy with the choice.
Mike
Tuesday 17th January 2006 | 10:58 AMHi Tom, thanks for stopping by. That was the first thing I searched for when I setup the new monitor but I could not find one on the CD, and a http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&;q=Polyview+V396+driver&btnG=Google+Search&meta=">Google search revealed nothing useful. Some monitors are designed with the intention of utilising the 'plug and play' driver. I believe this monitor to be one of them. Having said that, I have no qualms with the 'plug and play' driver on this monitor. It successfuly detects the maximum refresh and resolutions capable without any problems. Although a dedicated ICC colour profile might be beneficial to some, I can't think of anything I might gain from having one, even as a regular Photoshop user.
Mike,
Are you still as happy with your Polyview V396 as when you first purchased? I am considering buying one and when researching online came across a "polyview...run as fast as you can" comment. This may have been related to previous models.
Mike
Thursday 19th January 2006 | 06:22 PMHi Andrew. I for one am still very happy with the monitor. And am seriously considering buying another (I am used to working with 2 monitors). Past models of Polyview may have been less enticing, but the same can be said about past Viewsonic and BenQ models, but they both have some killer LCD's on the market right now.
I guess it comes down to what you are expecting. A hardcore gamer used to 4ms would certainly have some reservations about using an 8ms monitor. But I am a gamer as well and have no qualms playing on the 8ms Polyview.
I currently own 6 LCDs of varying brands, and this particular Polyview has the best image quality out of all of them; even surpassing the mighty Samsung. So good in fact the others look completely dull in comparison.
If possible, see if you find a store that has them in display and try it out. Or at the very least, try out an 8ms LCD to see if you are happy with that sort of response time.
HI Mike, Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. That was the same conclusion I came up with, about the driver, that is. I am a bit of an all-rounder when it comes to work v gaming, I do a fair bit of both and the 8ms is fine for all the games I play. One down side thou. One of the games I play alot of (Medal of Honor SpearHead) refuses to take a resolution more than 1024x768. I believe it is because of the engine it was built on can't handle widescreen monitors, because I can go higher if I put my old 21" CRT back. So, I am concidering trying to return or selling the V398 and buying the V396 or the new T38 (20" LCD) which is due out very soon.
Mike
Friday 20th January 2006 | 10:59 AMHi Tom. No problem. I play MOHAA, Spearhead and Breakthrough as well - coincidentally I was playing Spearhead yesterday and it does in fact support higher resolutions that 1024x768. I am playing 1280x1024 with all details maxed out. My video card is a Radeon 9800 Pro. I cant think of a reason why it will not go higher for you.
araid
Saturday 21st January 2006 | 02:06 AMFrightning as it was, to move away from a brand that i came to trust and was happy with Samsung 172x tft lcd screen, For wich had a dead pixal straight out of the box but it was replaced at NO charge same day. $865 it cost then. I now have got a Polyview v398 Widescreen wich only cost $499au fantastic picture grate response rate, Its a shame that we have to worry about all the cons involved in these monitors. Me Happy with mine (so far).
Mike
Saturday 21st January 2006 | 08:43 PMariad says: "Samsung 172x tft lcd screen, For wich had a dead pixel straight out of the box but it was replaced at NO charge same day"
He he. The first LCD I ever bought was also a Samsung 172x which had a dead pixel on arrival. The store swapped it the same day yet the new one also had a dead pixel. And a 3rd time you guessed it, another dead pixel. I went back to the store, and we proceeded to open all the monitor boxes and plug them in until I found one without any defects. We went through every single one - 13 in fact - all of which had at least one dead pixel. I got a refund, went around the corner to another store and got the bigger (more expensive) Samsung 193T, which never had a defect. I still use it today at the office.
Samsung have a good replacement policy that's for sure. Hopefully soon we will be at a stage where dead pixels are a thing of the past.
mongoose
Monday 23rd January 2006 | 10:58 PMin general i am very pleased however i am a new owner. i have one issue however if any one can help it would be appreciated. since installing the lcd i cannot play battlefield 2, hopefully its something i have overlooked in the settings please help.
Mike
Monday 23rd January 2006 | 11:03 PMHi mongoose. I play Battlefiled 2 without any dramas on the V396. There is nothing in an game that will restrict it from being used on a LCD monitor.
The only thing I can suggest is you check your video card driver settings, or even better upgrade to the latest version. If you already have the latest version, uninstall them and then re-install them. If that does not work, try re-installing BF2.
Good luck.
Brian
Tuesday 24th January 2006 | 11:48 AMHi Mike,
Thanks for reviewing this monitor. I was considering either getting this one or the phillips 190B6CD; my friends telling me to get the latter although none of them own one. But your review has convinced me to by a polyview which I'll get this weekend. I might even write my on review too :)
Cheers,
Brian
P.S Where did you get your wallpaper from, it look really cool?
Mike
Tuesday 24th January 2006 | 03:28 PMHi Brian. Glad you aprove :-) I am sure you will like the monitor. I am playing through Half-Life 2 again with the new insane high res texture pack. Looks awsome on this screen.
I can't remember where I got the wallaper from, but I remember it was a few years ago. I have a few in that series and if you https://rustylime.com/contact.php">send me an email I will gladly send them to you.
brendan
Wednesday 25th January 2006 | 01:54 AMHey mike,
I have been looking at purchasing one of these for nearly a month and am still waiting for Austin computers to get some new stock in (after reading your review i've been calling daily as im really excited about getting a shiny new lcd, your review convinced me!), I've just been wondering do you recommend still using your old speakers over the inbuilt ones, or are the inbuilt ones up to scratch?
Thanks for the review.................. brendan
ps. Would I also be able to email you for that wallpaper, I would love it on my new v396 when it arives :)
Mike
Wednesday 25th January 2006 | 10:07 AMHi Bendan. I certainly recommend using your original speakers unless you got them from a $2.00 shop. Typically LCD speakers are not much good for anything more than 'tada.wav', and this monitor is no exception. Having said that, if you only intend on using it for office tasks then they will be fine. But if you play games, watch movies etc..., I think I will stick with my Logitech 2.1 system.
I am emailing you the wallpaper as I write this. Enjoy!
Sash
Thursday 26th January 2006 | 06:53 PMMike I seem to have a little problem. The LCD was initially bought to be used as a TV/LCD for a comp (To kill two bird with one stone), now when I played XBox, I can notice the blurring, or the ghost affect as some call it, I'm just wondering, is it possible that the TV BOX itself is not good enough, (cause I noticed that the box cannot support resolution 1280 x 1024, which is needed for a 19"), I am really unhappy, and also watching DVD's (using the DVD player) it still has to go through the BOX. Any thoughs r Ideas Mike?
Mike
Thursday 26th January 2006 | 07:34 PMHi Sash. Not sure what that could be, but you may be right in assuming it is the tv box. When the V396 is connected to a PC the picture is fine for both gaming and movies, as I and other have testified in these posts. I have an older LCD monitor in my daughter's room (16ms response time) and we have a tv box on that so she can watch DVD's. Even on that, ghosting is barely noticeable. That tv box does support the higher resolutions (up to 1280 x 1024), but we run it on 800 x 600 anyway.
Although I am not an expert on tv boxes, I would guess some are more capable than others. But my understanding is, that because a tv box essentially interperates a signal and converts it to a usable format for a monitor, you technically should suffer some image degradation. But I may be wrong. If you know anyone else with a different tv box, perhaps try it on that and see if there is an improvement for you. Alteratively, Google for some methods of improving image quality on a tv box/lcd combination.
Sash
Thursday 26th January 2006 | 08:00 PMThe worst thing tho is that the quality is mint lke XBox is really sharp, but as soon as I start to move around, you can like 'really' notice the blurring. Also I wanted to ask you about LCD TV's, would I be getting the blurring with them as well do you think, I saw one aaaa response time was 12ms, you reckon because they are a 'TV' that it would be different.I guess I could try to get another TV BOX, I'm hoping that thats what it is, cause the Polyview is a mad monitor really really something.Also ervy much appreciated for your help, I'm really stressed I'm just not used tot hings not working as they should, cause I pay good money not to have these problems.
Mike
Thursday 26th January 2006 | 09:44 PMI could not give any advice on LCD Tv's as I am not an expert. Howveer I plan on getting one soon and you can bet I will do some hardcore research before I spend. One thing I do know is they are far superior to Plasma. And LCD TV Response times work in the same fasion as a LCD monitor: lower = better = more expensive.
Sash
Friday 27th January 2006 | 08:25 PMHey Mike,
I recently got some info about the LCD blurring(ghost effect), the guy tells me that if in dark, you will be able to notice it, whilst in light you wont really be able to notice it, I'm getting another TV BOX that supports a higher resolution, so hopefully that helps, why is it that LCD blur so, shouldn't they be better than TV's, oh and the guy said that plasma's are superior to LCD's cause they have good resolution and something else.
Mike
Friday 27th January 2006 | 08:59 PMHi Sash. Hope the TV box works out for you. LCD's blur because they are not as fast to update onscreen information as a CRT (typical television screen). But it will not be long before they are. Only this time 2 years ago an 8ms LCD was unheard of, and now we can get 4ms screens. LCD technoogy is improving all the time, and I am holding out a little longer before I get an LCD TV for that reason.
Plasma is a different technology, one that is far inferior to LCD. I have found the only people who think Plasma is better are those who either own one or are trying to sell one :-)
LCD TV's support high resolutions as well, but the image quality is far superior to Plasma. It is also the reason why Plasma is being phased out my all the major manufacturers. Plasma does have one thing going for it - it is a lot cheaper than LCD. But eeven LCD prices are plummeting recently. I have a client who resells LCD Tv's, and I was blown away when I saw the 112cm 1280 x 768 8ms screen. I have never seen anything like it. My friend has a plasma with the same resoltion, but the picture quality does not even come close.
Sash
Tuesday 31st January 2006 | 02:29 PMI dunno, hmmm, well I'm selling the LCD anyways, should've done more research on it before buying. The blur effect is pissing me off hardcore, and even though its hardly noticeable, it's still noticeable. Maybe I'm going to buy a LCD when they come up with like a response time of 2ms :P, but until then yeahh. Pretty dissapointed.
Mike let me know when you buy the LCD/TV, maybe I might buy one as well when you do.
,
thanks for the help:)
Tom
Wednesday 8th February 2006 | 03:48 PMgot one of these on the weekend, lasted a day. doesnt even turn on now
it also had 1 dead pixel.
besides from that it was good whilst it lasted.
Morikaane
Wednesday 8th February 2006 | 04:45 PMI have been thinking about getting one of these monitors (v396). Computer User on a budget essentially. I'm getting particularly tired of my CRT monitor that I've had for the past few years and desire the superior image quality. My father has an LCD TV, a Samsung Model (widescreen), and I find that the darn thing is far too bright and irritating to use. I trust this doesn't happen with an LCD Monitor? (have never purchased one hee).
I have been looking around and actually find the Polyview v396 quite well priced. I am particularly cautious of it though. Especially with the post today stating that the unit they bought stopped working after a day! I've heard rumours that 1 in every 4 of these units suffer some sort of fault the moment you use it. The seller I'm looking at states there is a 3 year on-site warranty (perhaps that person has similiar). I could get another brand but they have 12ms response rates and lack DVI. There's also a decent ViewSonic brand monitor that has both RGB and DVI but is twice the price. I am curious, the DVI has superior quality over the RGB correct? I don't know but assume there is as new things tend to be better than the old.
Essentially I want to get a decent LCD screen that won't cost me a huge amount of money but be reliable at the same time. Kind of hard when shopping with a budget isn't it?
Hence my caution. I'll be debating whether or not to purchase it for weeks I bet. Hah.
Kind Regards
Mike
Wednesday 8th February 2006 | 07:07 PMMorikaane says: "My father has an LCD TV, a Samsung Model (widescreen), and I find that the darn thing is far too bright and irritating to use. I trust this doesn't happen with an LCD Monitor? "
LCD monitors typically have a 'turbo' button, which makes everything very vibrant. Some people like it and others don't. In any event, there are several presets you can use, or you can adjustt the brightness and contrast anyway.
Morikaane says: "DVI has superior quality over the RGB correct?"
That is correct. DVI (Digital) is better than RGB (analogue)
Morikaane says: "the unit they bought stopped working after a day!"
That is quite rare - in fact I have not heard of that happening on an LCD.
Morikaane says: "Kind of hard when shopping with a budget isn't it?"
Yes it can be can't it? LOL. Good luck with your decision.
Kim Law
Thursday 16th February 2006 | 03:20 PMI had this monitor for roughly 6 months now and I am still very delighted with my purchase. The colours reproduction is perfect and most importantly, yet to find a single dead/stuck pixel! I use this LCD mainly for gaming and tell you what, seeing is believing, so head down to your local computer store and grab a bargain!
Mike
Thursday 16th February 2006 | 11:02 PMKim Law says: "seeing is believing"
I would have to agree there. I am currently playing through Half-Life 2 again, but this time with the http://halflife2.filefront.com/file/HalfLife_2_Fakefactory_Cinematic_Mod_Non_Override;52458">FakeFatory Cinematic Mod. Insanely high resolution textures never looked so great :-)
Greg
Friday 17th February 2006 | 08:52 AMGot a V396 a few days ago and for an extra $40 got a zero dead pixel warranty.
The screen is great, no pixel problems, good colour. Games (Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, FEAR etc) are really good - way better that the old 17" CRT.
I'm very pleased with it so far. Only issue with it is I don't really like the stand but that's no big deal.
epic
Tuesday 28th February 2006 | 08:37 PMhey all,
I actually bought the S17E model,
i dont know what the difference is apart from the fact that mine is 17inch.
Max screen size, response time, etc are all the same.
but when i bought it, I notice about 2 weeks later that it had a dead pixel.
I assume it was there when i bought it. But i hadn't notice until i moved the screen much closer to where i was sitting.
Anyways, i took it back to the shop, and they gave me a new one 'dead pixel free'.
In A1 Condition.
So i guess the 'how many dead pixels' policy thing depends on where you buy it from.
I suggest you mention that you read this site, and want to know if they will replace it with a fault free one, if it is found to have any dead pixels when you get home. As i would count that as a fault. (before you buy from there).
As for paying $50 to get a brand new screen replaced because of a dead pixel fault.
I would not do that. As the item is new, and should be guarantee'd free of defects at time of purchase. And if its not, you should not have to pay another $50 for one that is.
Ok, i've had my say. lol
l8r all.
bernie
Thursday 2nd March 2006 | 11:05 AMThanks for the review Michael, I actaully read this and other blogs before I bought my own v396. *** The site layout is most impressive ***
It's too early to give it a review, considering we're still in the "honeymoon" period.
I can't pick any faults with it, it looks fantastic on the desk and the display is awesome.
Also, I used to have some desk speakers connected to a switch (which went to the hi-fi for better sound) but they took up too much room. The inbuilt speakers save a lot of room. But I wouldn't use them to play loud music or watch movies off them. Just for some background noise.
Cheers,
Drop in and visit my site: http://www.whiteys-heroes.com/
paul
Wednesday 8th March 2006 | 03:44 PMHi, thanks for the review.. ive been shopping around and was impressed with the v396... now i feel confident to put out the cash :)
Tim
Wednesday 8th March 2006 | 04:56 PMHi Mike,
I'm a graphic designer for both web and print. I have not considered a LCD until now as I am quite nervous about the colour reproduction vs CRT (trinitron). Is there anything to be concerned about?
Mike
Wednesday 8th March 2006 | 08:58 PMHi Tim,
Web design is http://www.creative9000.com.au">my bread and butter (and print design occasionally) and having used LCD's for the past 2 years with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash and Dreamweaver on a daily basis I can safely say the only thing different is how much easier it is on your eyes. I used to use a Sony Trinitron but I am afraid it simply does not compare to a decent quality LCD. Everything on screen is razor sharp.
I have heard some designers complain of the LCD's being so vibrant that when they view their creations on a CRT they do not look as good. I have seen this myself, with this very site in fact when saw it on a CRT my first thought was "wow that looks dull". Later realising that designing with the LCD picture quality set to 'turbo' mode, although looks fabulous, is not the best thing to do when managing colours in a graphics application.
The key is to just set you LCD monitor to a colour setting that suits you, and get a monitor with a good contrast ratio. The V396 has a contrast ratio of 500:1, and I do not notice any banding with gradients. I have seen an LCD with a contrast ratio of 400:1 and I did notice banding. The contrast ratio refers to the amount of shades the monitor can generate between black and white.
Bottom line: I have been doing the web design thing for about 8 years now, and since switching to LCD it has not affected my work in any way, other than saving my eyes as already mentioned.
Tim
Thursday 9th March 2006 | 02:25 PMCheers Mike - good to hear from a fellow designer.
Most companies do not even make CRT's anymore, so one can assume that in the near future everyone will be on LCD's - best to do digital design on the most commonly used screen!
As for print - for logo work and anything you can use a Pantone swatch book for, it doesn't really matter what it looks like on screen. But for magazine design say, where everything is process, it would be more advantageous to have a screen that represented colours accurately. Im not still not sure if LCDs are the way to go in this case. However, having said that Apple only make LCDs and they are certainly designed with designers in mind.
Perhaps I should just buy one and find out. Thanks again for the info.
Tim
Wednesday 22nd March 2006 | 02:12 PMHi Mike,
Just to let you know I bought a Samsung 940b last week - unfortunately I'm not overly impressed. Images look great, gradients are good (700:1), but text rendering and some more simple graphics look terrible (edges of text and graphics - basically aliasing). I took it back to the store to make sure it wasn't the monitor - the sales rep showed me a Mitsubishi Diamond something or other, which looked a 100 times worse! So I don't think it's the monitor, just the fact it's an LCD (not sure if they get better if one pays more?). The problem is most noticeable on small type - say Arial 12pt (black on white) - on a CRT the font is easily readable and the edges smooth - on the LCD, it's much harder to read and the edges jagged and blurry. Do you have this issue with the Polyview? These things are really hard to definitively say yes or no without seeing it for yourself and doing a regulated comparison. (I did turn on ClearType, which helped with all Windows based stuff, but not for Photoshop etc. Not sure what to do now just put up with it?
Tim
Mike
Thursday 23rd March 2006 | 12:04 AMHi Tim,
That is the first time I have heard of an LCD having such bad text rendering quality. Was the screen set to it's native resolution? If not, that is probably the reason. Unfortunately, LCD monitors do not generate a sharp image when they set at anything except native resolution.
I have used so many different brands of LCD, and to date own 6 different brands now. Every single one of them has razor sharp image and text rendering. No CRT on the market can come close to matching it. Not even the mighty Sony Trinitron (which I used to own).
As a person who uses Photoshop and codes web sites for a living (putting me in front of a screen for at least 8 hours a day), having a good quality image is very important to me.
I run Windows XP pro. Clear type on XP, incidentally, is a bit of a joke in my humble opinion, and the text is made to look quite blurry. The anti-aliasing on text is pretty average. Notice this close up of of black text using Clear Type shown below - all the colour artifacts generated when all it needed was shades of grey.
https://rustylime.com/content_images/bad_text.gif">
I hate to admit it but clear type on the Mac is much better.
Tim
Thursday 23rd March 2006 | 09:38 AMHi Mike,
Yes, I'm running at native resolution ;-(. I noticed the colour aliasing on some type in emails, and tried all settings to get rid of it - ClearType it seems is to blame - very shabby (however the alterative is hard edged type that is difficult to read, or rather strains your eyes to read).
I'm also running XP Pro.
Samsung say that their monitor is running to spec and so can't be blamed, fair enough, but when asked if their monitors were good enough for graphics professionals - they couldn't answer. Interestingly enough Apple give a clear indication on their website that their LCD sceens are good enough for graphics pro's and that they are also compariable and better than CRT's. I think I'll have to go and check out a few monitors (including the very expensive Apple displays) and see if any are better than the Samsung.
If I can't find a decent LCD, I'm going back to CRT - Dang, don't really want the bulk of a 21" Trinitron on my desk again! Thanks for the input.
Tim
Thursday 23rd March 2006 | 10:08 AMMike, if you can, go to http://www.samsung.com/au/products/monitors/index.asp and let me know if the type "Products" looks crusty to you. The Samsung logo also looks jagged, in fact most of the image type looks jagged and blurry on my monitor (in Firefox).
Mike
Thursday 23rd March 2006 | 02:55 PMHi Tim,
You are correct - the 'products' text look sblurry. However this is not the monitors fault. The reason it looks blurry is because it is not type that a browser can render - it is actually an image. Check it out by itself http://www.samsung.com/au/products/images/tit_product.gif" target="_blank">here. Therefore it will look exactly the same on any browser or monitor.
That is simply how the web designer created the image. But actual renderable text on the page is perfect. Here is a sample magnified 3 times. Razor sharp.
https://rustylime.com/content_images/rendered_text.gif">
Again with the Samsung logo, this has nothing to do with the monitor. But having said that, anyone new to using an LCD will notice soemthing I noticed the first time I started using one. Becasue CRT's do not have an diaplay as sharp as an LCD, jpg artefacts will be more notiecable.
I first experienced this 'phenomena' when I visited some web sites I had designed and instatly noticed obvious jpg artefacting on all the images. I had designed those particular sites when using a CRT, which has a 'filtering effect' making lower image quality less or not noticable at all. I see this on a lot of web sites now and I know it is not the fault of the deisgner.
Tim
Thursday 23rd March 2006 | 03:46 PMI see what you're saying and I had assuemd the same, but I deceided to do a test anyway. I made up a jpeg with various elements that are tricky to display - small type, gradients etc and went to view it on an Apple Cinema Display - the ACD showed none of the issues, all the type, graphics etc looked much better, very close to CRT quality - funny thing is the Apple's specs are worse than the Samsung's - so much for specs.
For a hard edged graphics as displayed in your image above - yes these LCD's render well, however hard edged text usually doesn't look too good, that's why anti-aliasing was invented, to make the text easier to read by fooling the eye for low resolutions like screens. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing). This is my issue with the Samsung940b, it does a poor job of anti-aliasing. This is a common complaint with LCD's it seems and I thought that that was just the way it was, until I saw the Apple. Unfortunately I don't have any more time to research as I must return the Samsung, perhaps teh PolyView does a better job? I didn't see one. I'm going to fork out the extra for the Apple - it's a bugger being fussy! Thanks for all the input Mike, it's made my decision making easier.
BTW - That 30" Apple display is just ridiculously beautiful, but at $4K, I definatley can't afford it, not yet anyway :-)
Mike
Thursday 23rd March 2006 | 10:55 PMHi Tim.
I guess it comes down to preference then. I know I much prefer non-antialiased text. When you stare at code all day it is much easier to read. But then, Clear Type on the PC is a bit of a joke as I already mentioned (I work on a PC), as you probably noticed as well. Whereas on the Mac it looks stunning.
Which leads me to this caution for you: As clear type on the PC is actually a software based function, it is preseumable the Mac uses software to generate the clear type as well. In fact, its a pretty safe bet. I have never heard of a monitor with onboard hardware type rendering. So getting a Mac monitor and putting it on a PC will not improve clear type in any way.
If you know someone with a Mac monitor, test this theory out by plugging it into your PC and see how the type looks. And vice versa - plug your PC monitor into the Mac and see how it looks.
If you do this, I would love to know the results.
PS: I know the 30" display looks stunning. And that is actually not a bad price considering the resolution they support. If I could afford it I would get one as well :-)
Tim
Friday 24th March 2006 | 09:51 PMHey Mike, writting to you on the 20" Apple Cinema Display - I really think that there was something wrong (or just a poor screen) with that Samsung. If for example I viewed the info panel in Photoshop all that text was fuzzy - on this display it's clean and crisp. Your PolyView probably displays like the Apple and I may have paid $900 bucks to find thay out - however I am very happy with the Apple - it's a wide screeen and has a higher resolution than other monitors it's size - 1600x1050, it plugs 2x USB and 2x firewire staight in the back, seems to be much better with colour (not over saturated) and looks sexy as hell :-) (my only concern is that there appears to be too much backlight coiming across the screen)
I want to give big kudo's to MSY - they gave me a full refund om the Sansumg (as the packaging and componenets were still in perfect condition) I wouldn't hestiate buying from them again.
Mike
Friday 24th March 2006 | 10:16 PMHi Tim,
Glad it all worked out. Although it is strange the Samsung was bad for you. They are actually one of the better LCD manufacturers. I have a Samsung 193T and it is just as sharp as ever.
Nice width on your screen, but 1050 high it pretty average. That is the only thing I don't like about widecsreens for development work - especially when using Photoshop.
Tim
Saturday 25th March 2006 | 01:14 AMYou're right - quite average for 20" wide screen - but 1680x1050 is bigger than 1280x1024 :-)
Mike
Thank you for excellent review - recieved mine today & am very happy.
At first was concerned with lack of height/tilt adjustment options but whats to adjust when default position is spot on!
And the resulting base footprint is so small that you can position the screen flush to the back of your keyboard if you wish. Yes thanks.
Text/colours are sharp & crisp whilst being easy on the eye.
It really is a fine example of great design.
Mike
Sunday 26th March 2006 | 12:33 AMNo problem Wayne. Glad to have helped.
Damien
Tuesday 28th March 2006 | 06:57 PMGreat review Mike
I too found this review searching for a driver. I can't get the refresh above 60. Admittedly I don't suffer overly from this injustice I simply like to think I should get a higher refresh from my brand newbie than a '1995 digital'.
for the others _ Re: Speakers.Speakers are quiet but good quality.
I play my ipod through the audio cable supplied, for a change of pace, whilst it charges on usb... no drag on cpu.
Love the v396 has great definition. Too great infact that poor quality pics + vids look worse rather than better. ALWAYS download the larger available pic file.
Brilliant for paint and photo editing progs.
great buy.
good bye.
Mike
Thursday 30th March 2006 | 10:01 PMTim says: "You're right - quite average for 20" wide screen - but 1680x1050 is bigger than 1280x1024 :-)"
Not when you are using 2 screens running 1280x1024 :-) Seriously considering a 3rd.
james
Thursday 13th April 2006 | 09:21 PMhi there
Just wondering is there anyway to position the 'face' of the screen so that it sits exactly perpendicular to the desk surface? For example could you stand the rear leg on something so that it does so?
Mike
Friday 14th April 2006 | 02:09 PMHi James. You can nearly get it to 90 dgrees of your desk surface, although you risk it tipping forward if you knocked the desk. Having said that, I currently have the arm angled at about 80 - 85 degrees and it is quite stable. I would not be comfortable setting it any higher.
Tina
Monday 1st May 2006 | 07:37 PMHi Mike,
I had been looking for sometime to make the switch from CRT to LCD, and was really struggling to make a choice, I still prefer CRT, however my partner purchased a Polyview V396 for me around a month or so ago. After reading some information on the V396 and coming across your positive reveiw, I felt that it was a good choice.
Unfortunately, my monitor developed some image burn (monitor burn or ghosting), I could see an impression of the top of my Firefox browser on my desktop.
The place it was purchased from was great, they've given me a replacement which I'm yet to setup, however my partner said they were extremely surprised and had not come across this. I figured as much as I could not find any information on it happening to another user.
I'll be interested to read more on your odd fault.
Cheers
Mike
Monday 1st May 2006 | 08:28 PMHi Tina,
Welcome to RL. Strange you should mention that. My v396 recently developed what appears to be a burn-in issue as well. I am yet to take it back for a replacement but I intend to this week. I too have never seen or heard of this happening in an LCD before. The thing is, it is not actually a burnt in image, as the effected are does not have anything on the desktop that could have caused it. https://rustylime.com/content_images/monitor_fault.jpg" target="_blank">Have a look for yourself. I will let everyone know how keen they are to replace it.
Tina
Tuesday 2nd May 2006 | 12:32 AMThanks Mike,
Well isn't that a strange coincidence! I should've take an image as well to demonstrate mine - it was on left hand top corner. The burn seem to run along almost the entirety of the top of the screen (however my desktop icons on the right are in the way) and I couldn't see or rather it didn't appear that the burn made it all the way to the right. I find it quite odd, I too hadn't heard or seen this before happening on an LCD, and I'd only been using mine for around a month.
I've set the new one up - fingers crossed it doesn't become an issue for the V396. I use mine roughly 8 - 14hrs per day, but perhaps commited the cardinal sin, no standby or screensaver. However, that's an extremely short amount of time to develop burn in.
My partner has a Phillips 170s that he's had for over a year and he leaves it on all the time, there doesn't seem to be any occurence of burn in.
(Just did a quick search on screensavers being necessary for LCD and it appears that burn in or image persistance can eventually occur on LCDs.)
Mike
Tuesday 2nd May 2006 | 08:49 AMMy problem also runs along the top starting from the left and makes it about 75% along towards the right. Very odd. I have had mine since Christmas and I do use a screen saver and the power saving feature. I will ask Protac today if they know what causes it.
Update: I called Protac today, and the policy is they will pick it up from my home, and send it to Sydney for analysis and service. The whole process takes several weeks. From a customer service perspective, this is plain stupid, and does not help me in any way. I, like a lot of other people, need a monitor to work. Going even a single day without it I will loose income - let alone several weeks.
Once again, a service designed to help the company, not the client.
They did offer an alternative solution. They get a buffer of monitors occasionally, and when they next get a lot in, they will call me and that will speed the process up to only a few days. A few days is still not much good.
I will try my luck at the place of purchase, because they have replaced a faulty monitor form me in the past.
John J
Friday 5th May 2006 | 10:05 PMMike,
Just purchased a V398, I have a Xpert Vision 6600GT graphics card. I am using 1280 x 768 resolution but I am getting slight blurring on letters and figures. Any ideas?regards
John
Mike
Friday 5th May 2006 | 10:46 PMHi John,
The V398 has a native resolution of 1440 x 900. Anything less than native resolution on an LCD will not give the sharpest picture possible. That model also has an 8ms response time, so ghosting should not be an issue.
If the quality is really bad, perhaps it has a fault? I have not actually seen that model in action so I can't vouch for its quality. Although judging by it's specs alone it should be fine.
John J
Saturday 6th May 2006 | 11:12 AMMike,
Thanks.....Changed the resoultion to 1440 x 900 using Display in the Control panel ( using the NVIDIA setting did not allow this resolution) everything is fine now.
Still, will take a bit of time getting use to the widescreen, but great for documents and spreadsheets, my son rates it for games also.
John
Mike
Saturday 6th May 2006 | 11:28 AMGlad it worked out. If your son is into his gaming on widescreen, bear in mind not all games have widescreen support. Check out http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/">widescreengaming for more info.
Tina
Friday 9th June 2006 | 01:17 AMHi Mike :)
Have your managed to get a replacement for your monitor? My monitor has been fine so far (am using a screensaver & power saving feature now), at the moment some other commitments have resulted in much less use of my computer/monitor over the last few weeks.
I've been interested to hear any other information you might've uncovered about the odd burn in issue.
Regards
Mike
Friday 9th June 2006 | 08:25 AMHi Tina. I actually still have not had the chance to get it replaced as I have been extremely busy moving house and taking care of business. As I use dual monitors now, I might not be so relcutant to take the polyview in for service.
Mike
Monday 12th June 2006 | 07:35 PMI got a replacement today. At first they messed me around even after I called first and specifically said I can not be without a monitor. They said I would be waiting up to 2 days for them to even look into the fault, so I was pleasantly surprised when they called me back that afternoon with a replacement monitor ready to be picked up. Kudos to Protac for that.
On the down side, my new monitor has a dead (or stuck) pixel as well. Seems I am the only one I know who has this monitor with a dead pixel. I am running http://udpix.free.fr/">Undead Pixel 1.0 now but I am not hopeful as I suspect it is actually dead - not stuck.
One thing that strikes me as surprising even today is the warranty offered by almost all monitor manufacturers. In this author's humble opinion, the length of the warranty should take a back seat to the turn around time of the warranty itself. That is to say, I challenge anyone to find a business (or individual) that can be without a monitor for more than a day, let alone the 30 days they typically estimate for a repair or replacement. No monitor means no workstation, which means downtime and potential (or certain) loss of business and income. Unless you are fortunate to have a spare.
You are better off paying extra if you can be guaranteed an immediate replacement.
I know of a company who simply purchased a new monitor when one of theirs faulted instead of waiting the 10 working days (as it was in this particular case) as they simply could not afford to wait.
And I am certain this happens all the time, which means most return policies are out of date with current business requirements.
Something to think about.
Tina
Sunday 16th July 2006 | 12:55 PMHi Mike,
I'm glad you were able to get a replacement, without too much trouble :)
Unfortunately for me, I've just discovered that my replacement monitor has also developed burn in. Same area top left hand corner and same program (Firefox).
I'm extremely disappointed. I'll have to wait until I finish some work before I return this monitor, but now I'm at a loss for choice of LCD. The shame is that I've been very happy with the monitor if not for the burn in issue.
I will be curious to see how the place of purchase will respond to the second return!
Mike
Sunday 16th July 2006 | 02:26 PMHi Tina.
Good luck with the return. While I am certain they will replace it the issue then becomes how long you have to wait for a replacement. Make them work in your favour - not the other way around. It's what good customer service is all about. Doing what is most convenient for the customer - not what is most convenient for the company.
Graham
Tuesday 22nd August 2006 | 06:54 PMHi there,
I bought a V396 in February of this year. When set up I found a stuck pixel, that didn't respond to various suggestions I came across on the web. That monitor was replaced free of charge and the new V396 hasn't had a pixel problem since.
However, about a month ago I also noticed "burn-in" across the top of the screen. I have tried a lot of things suggested on the internet (White screen, plasma screen saver, having the monitor power down after only being idle for a couple of minutes, etc), all without improvement. I haven't contacted the seller yet as I've been hoping it would improve. It is the only problem on an otherwise great monitor.
Regards,
Graham (New Zealand).
Lee
Wednesday 31st January 2007 | 10:00 PMI have had this monitor for almost a year. Zero dead pixels. No problems at all. I too expected it to come with drivers, but the standard windows PNP drivers work well so I guess there can be no complaint there. I have since bought a 19in widescreen LCD TV which takes a whole bunch of inputs, and I must admit I sometimes use it as my computer monitor (especially for games, where the widescreen looks great), but for a 4:3 monitor this has served me well. In combination with a 16:9 monitor (with a dual dvi graphics card) you have the perfect home multimedia setup.
lee
Wednesday 31st January 2007 | 10:02 PMMike, regarding the "burn in", this happens to me - but it is not the same as dead pixels and you are lucky because it DOES go away. The burn in is a result of the monitor being left on without the screen changing for a long period of time... for instance the burn in for me would always occur at the top of the left hand side, where the title bar is... but if you turn the monitor off for a day the burn in will be completely gone! (I know, its annoying to turn the monitor off for even a couple of hours when you wanna use it - but at least its a relief to know the burn in is not permanent)
Hi Lee. Yes burn in sucks and lucky I have not seen it in a long time. What happened to this monitor though was not burn-in, which the supplier even agreed when I showed it to them.
Coincidentally, we have just noticed the same issue closer to the centre of the screen now. A darkish area that is visible when viewing slightly off centre. We are out of our warranty period now though, but I will email support all the same.
John
Monday 10th December 2007 | 07:09 PMThis is a great monitor except for one problem which I have encountered since upgrading my graphics card.
I used to own a Powercolor ati x800 graphics card which worked fine with this monitor, as this card was getting fairly old i upgraded to a HIS IceQ Turbo Radeon HD 2600 XT, not for some reason this monitor doesn't like this graphics card during boot-up, once it gets into windows it works fine.
The strange part is if I dual screen my LCD and CRT monitors the CRT works fine during boot-up but this LCD monitor stays in standby until it gets into Windows.
Does anyone know what could be causing this problem? and if there is a way to update the firmware for the monitor?
Graham
Saturday 16th February 2008 | 04:16 PMI've heard from a guy who worked for a store selling these. He said the majority of returns of this monitor was for the "burn-in" problem.
Mine is still there (getting worse across more areas of the screen, but with bigger, better screens arriving all the time, I'll just wait until I feel the need for an upgrade.
I still like the screen in all other regards.
microbee
Monday 7th July 2008 | 10:12 PM...in response to this comment by Mike. Hi Mike,
If you'd like to reminisc about the days of the microbee, I run a discussion forum dedicated to these machines, with "Yatch Race" plus many more.
David.
Comments for this topic are no longer being taken. End of line.