The LCD Buyers Guide

[Teratism]

The site has a bunch of others, I think there was a desk mount for just up and down around 40$ You can also look up an LCD monitor desk stand or wall mount on google to find what you are looking for at a cheaper price. You can also contact benq and ask if there is any way to get a stand with yours that goes lower.

[Soulburner]

Is there any information on whether this new BenQ monitor you speak of will be more expensive than the current ones, and how much?

[Teratism]

None so far on price for it, I would hazard a guess at $100 more.

[erwinz]

is this ok..

http://www4.shopping.com/xPF-IBM-T11...www.google.com

hope anyone have try to use this..

[rvd]

bump what's the best all around 17" lcd lol

[Soulburner]

SCEPTRE x22wg-Gamer Black 22" Info/Reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824112005

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/...09891831/inc/1

Another:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....3&page=1&pp=20

[Dodgy]

Benq 24" review. Note the 1:1 pixel mapping issue.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/benq_fp241w.htm

[Soulburner]

I have a Sceptre 22" on the way. I decided to go with it because it seems like the best 22" screen and it will save me quite a few bucks. I'll upgrade next year most likely with a BenQ 24" when they come down in price but this should do great until then. I couldn't get myself to spend that kind of money right now.

[Big Deel]

I went with the dell 2407fp.I had a 20% off coupon so I got it for 639.00
I love it...No complaints.Playing BF2 and CFS3 on widescreen is great.

[Coastal_Eddy]

I have a Sceptre 22" on the way. I decided to go with it because it seems like the best 22" screen and it will save me quite a few bucks. I'll upgrade next year most likely with a BenQ 24" when they come down in price but this should do great until then. I couldn't get myself to spend that kind of money right now.

I've had my 22" Sceptre monitor for six weeks now and I love it. I especially love the HDMI connection with my new PS3 and upsampling DVD player set at 1080i. The Sceptre lets you have 3 graphic inputs (VGA, DVI, HDMI) at the same time, allowing you to switch between them just by clicking the "source" button. BTW: Both its DVI and HDMI plugs are HD capable.

The stand that comes with it is flimsy, but Staples has a great Neo-Flex stand that DOES work well with this monitor - and right now it's on close-out for just $30! It's even better than the Samsung 225BW's stand IMO. (See my HardForum post #57 http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....3&page=3&pp=20 for pictures and more info.)

[Soulburner]

Awesome. Mine will be here on Monday but the stand won't so i'll have to live without it for a bit.

[Asazman]

great guide

[Soulburner]

My Sceptre 22" is here, how do I calibrate this thing for the best color and contrast?

EDIT: Downloading MagicTune from Samsung now. I'll see if this works for my monitor. If not I found some test images to use. Thing is, I don't know how to tell whats "best" because they are only test images with no instructions.

[Teratism]

The "real way" is to actually buy a color calibration tool. If you aren't so picky as to need anything you print to line up perfectly to what you see then
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/m...alibration.htm
should be handy.

[Coastal_Eddy]

My Sceptre 22" is here, how do I calibrate this thing for the best color and contrast?

Whatever graphics card you have, download the latest driver for it and run it. When I did that my NVidia card recognized the Sceptre x22wg as "plug-n-play" immediately, then automatically optimized my settings. (See dialog box photo: http://i12.tinypic.com/2u8xjsg.jpg)
I was very pleased with those settings. The only thing I changed after that was the lamp brightness. Doing so eliminated some of the backlight bleed I was seeing. What kind of card do you have?

[KoHaN69]

After almost 5 years of LCDs, I'm going back to CRT... The ghosting and no blacks got to me!!

[Soulburner]

After almost 5 years of LCDs, I'm going back to CRT... The ghosting and no blacks got to me!!

Mine makes a pretty good black, its the colors that are off but I think it can be fixed.

Looks like MagicTune detects your monitor and it won't let me use it without a Samsung screen

Whatever graphics card you have, download the latest driver for it and run it. When I did that my NVidia card recognized the Sceptre x22wg as "plug-n-play" immediately, then automatically optimized my settings. (See dialog box photo: http://i12.tinypic.com/2u8xjsg.jpg)
I was very pleased with those settings. The only thing I changed after that was the lamp brightness. Doing so eliminated some of the backlight bleed I was seeing. What kind of card do you have?

I had to download a sceptre.inf for it to recognize my monitor. I will get the latest Catalyst though.

[Soulburner]

Coming from a CRT, input lag is really bothering me. Trying to find some kind of fix.

Using RefreshForce like I normally do, I can't change the refresh rate of the monitor. It seems to be locked @ 60Hz. Any pointers?

Don't have a faster mouse to try either. Using Logitech MX1000 Cordless Laser which was always spot-on with the CRT.

[Teratism]

Using a digital cable connection most likely limited your refresh to 60hz.

Input lag can be produced by a slow computer, a bad mouse, a slow graphics card, or your monitor just accepts it at a slower rate. I don't think there is anything you can do to get rid of the input lag.

[KoHaN69]

I have a 2405fpw and i want a crt

[Soulburner]

Using a digital cable connection most likely limited your refresh to 60hz.

Input lag can be produced by a slow computer, a bad mouse, a slow graphics card.

I don't have any of those things. I read a good article on it that showed it really depends on the monitor. Some are faster, some are slower. Of note was the Samsung 244T being noticeably slower than the Dell 2405.

And increasing the refresh rate can help bring it down to a manageable level. I don't want to use the VGA input though.

[Teratism]

Most people say the samsung 244t is slower others say it is fine and it is just their computers being slow. The VGA input gives you I think up to an 85hz refresh rate but the digital will limit you to 60hz. LCDs aren't really made for serious refreshing.

[Soulburner]

Alright I think I have this thing figured out so i'll post an initial review.

SCEPTRE x22wg-Gamer Black 22" 5ms Black to Black DVI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor

Full specs and user reviews can be found here.

Out of the box I found I had to connect both the DVI and VGA to the monitor or the system wouldn't boot. Strange. I tried just the DVI at first and I got nothing (case fans at max, did not come down to normal speed which tells me the BIOS hadn't loaded and it was hanging).

Once I got into Windows, the first thing that came to mind was, wow this is big. Coming from a 19" Sony Trinitron CRT at 1152x864 to this at 1680x1050 is a night and day difference. There is so much space here I don't know what to do with it all.



Default settings needed tweaking. Color, black levels, lamp, all needed adjustment to get a good picture. I chose the "Medium" color setting. There were High, Medium and Low. I assumed Medium was 6500K and it gave the best color though it doesn't display the choices in degrees kelvin. You can also select "User" and adjust R/G/B manually but I could not get them spot on. Maybe a pro could.

Buttons to access the menus are at the back of the monitor. Look at the Newegg link for pics. It is very awkward at first and takes a while to get use to it. You will find yourself hitting the wrong buttons at times. The good thing is, once you are set up you shouldn't have to mess around with the menu again, and it makes for a nice looking monitor keeping the buttons off the front.

I found these images off of various forums in my search for calibration tips, and I think others will find them useful as well:

1 http://www.atoyu.com/image/master_test.jpg
2 http://www.atoyu.com/image/testimage.jpg
3 http://www.fotomag.net/index_pics/Mo...on%20chart.jpg

Loading up Doom 3 for the first game test was a thrill. After editing the .cfg file to fix the resolution to 1680x1050 and the aspect ratio (thanks to the WSGF) I was able to play this game well on my X800XL. I had expected a major framerate drop but it handles it ok. It isn't as silky smooth as it was before on the CRT but the card is being pushed a little harder now with the higher resolution so thats to be expected. I would have to guess that its running between 25-50fps depending on the action. Here are a few pics for your enjoyment:



Backlight bleeding is slightly noticeable in the pictures, which exaggerate it a bit. A lot of people will gripe about this. I will stress the fact that you won't see it while you are using the monitor unless you get up there and look for it. If adjusted properly it should not really come into play. 90% of scenes in gaming and windows use will not show it at all.

There is no ghosting to be seen, though this is the only game I have tried. I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and really put it to the test yet but this seems to be a really fast screen. All colors and contrast are very good, and the game looks great. Blacks are also very good, for an LCD.




These aren't the best screens, as you can imagine its extremely hard to take pics of the action and play at the same time, with only 2 hands. It looks much better in person and the black parts of the scenes are actually much darker. There is not much difference coming from my CRT in that respect.





Desktop use is wonderful. There is absolutely no "screen door effect". The native resolution does a good job of keeping everything sharp and text is extremely crisp with the DVI. I do not use ClearType.

One thing to note, this is a TN panel so viewing angles are slightly picky. The monitor will give the best picture angled slightly downward. Still even at the optimal angle the top of the screen will be slightly darker than the bottom. Most noticeable in Windows, less in games. The stand included with this monitor can only be angled backwards slightly, and straight up. Right now it is rigged with a book to get the best viewing angle (as seen in the pictures above). I am going to pick up a NeoFlex stand tomorrow to replace it.

Can't comment on the speakers. Never hooked them up.

Another issue is the dreaded input lag. Here are my experiences with this:

-Most noticeable in Windows. Mouse will be slightly behind your hand movements.
-In gaming it barely comes into play. You can tell it is there but it is not a huge factor. It didn't stop me from kicking some alien butt.
-If you turn off VSync it almost goes away completely. Mouse aiming becomes notably snappier in FPS games, but you will get some tearing in the image. Decide which one you would rather have. Personally I cannot stand tearing so Vsync stays on. I imagine if you were competition gaming you would want it off for speed's sake, but it really bugs my eyes after only a minute or so of use.

The monitor is only 11.5lbs. Sure beats lugging that 40lb CRT across the room.

Have not watched any video or DVD yet but I expect it to look good.

Overall for the money I would highly recommend this monitor to a gamer looking to get into the Widescreen scene. Bang for the buck is very high. I did a lot of research and it seems this is the best 22" for the money. I really needed a replacement for my dying 19" Sony CRT. Another plus is it also has an HDMI input and reports are PS3 gaming on this thing is awesome at 1080.

I will likely step up next year to a 24". I had my eye on the BenQ but I couldn't justify the price. They should be a lot cheaper after this one holds me over for a bit.

That's all for now

[KoHaN69]

nice review

I might try it out
Costco has it

[Teratism]

Beautiful first picture, looks to be a very nice 22", sucks a bit on needing to tilt and the tearing you get without vsynch (to be expected with lcd's and video cards that can give frames beyond lcd refresh rate), plus the input lag. All in all not very many bads and nothing too over the norm with them.