HP w2207h / w2408h opinion for gaming

I am interested in the HP w2207 / w2408 for gaming purposes. I love glossy screen monitors so this definately fits the bill.

But I am looking for opinions from people of all uses, but hopefully gamers as well.

Does nobody use these monitors??

I just got the 24" display, the w2408h...I think this display is better than the older 2408 *(without hdmi) since, if you read reviews, the 2408h all gets great reviews while the older one is middle of the road.

I'm really happy with it, I seriously stand in awe at the colors with HD images on this thing; it's just jawdropping.

My settings are Brightness at 34, contrast at 80, and use sRGB or 6500 for colors or custom: 255,250,251. I'm dying for someone else to share their settings on this monitor but info is hard to come by.

No problems with any backlight to mention, no dead pixels, great response time (no lag to report in casual gaming); and next to a samsung monitor (the 2ms one) the color is way better.

I have no complaints, except I don't care about the swivel and portrait. I got mine at best buy after they matched frys for 497, then did a 10% discount from the total price for about 50 bucks off. Try it, I think you'll love this monitor.

Get the larger one too, it makes a big difference on your desktop!

The 2408H sucks enless you get the samsung panel, hold the menu button while turning it on, then go into the menu click service menu and read the bottom, samsung will be ltm24..... and LPL_ is the bad one. The samsung panel is amazing

Very cool info, thanks! I just did that and was elated to see I do have the Samsung, it's a great panel as I've said. I'm really impressed with it.

Mine was made Feb. 2008

Picked one up at CC Saturday, FEB 2008 manufacture with the Samsung LTM240CT03 panel. Awesome monitor...Brightness 50, Contrast 80. Yeah, the viewing angle isn't as great as my Samsung 214T with PVA panel, but am loving the glossy screen and the vivid colors. Plus, this thing just looks cool. Stand is very well designed.

One problem though....when leaving PC on and turning monitor off, when I go to turn monitor back on, it goes to sleep...then finally comes on.

That's odd, I've tested this monitor with sleep deliberately cause I heard of odd things with the older ver. of this (non-hdmi) on a forum somewhere but mine has no problems waking. I'm using a hdmi to dvi- cable I got at frys for 20 bucks.

I think the problem with these not waking was related to inputs in some way and a set up like mine should solve your issue and give you better visuals to boot.

May I ask what brand cable you are using? Do you have Power Saver on or off...what about DDC/CI Support?

I'm using a Belkin DVI to HDMI cable, will grab another and try that.

THX

So this is actually a Samsung screen?

Why not get the equivalent Samsung panel? Which by the way would be which model?

The Samsung 24B5W & 2493HM both use the LTM240CT01/03.

The HP w2408h has a glossy screen, the Samsungs do not. The HP has 1:1 pixel mapping also.

got this monitor today and got the samsung panel LTM. Anyone else want to share their color settings?

bsather said:

May I ask what brand cable you are using? Do you have Power Saver on or off...what about DDC/CI Support?

I'm using a Belkin DVI to HDMI cable, will grab another and try that.

THX

Click to expand...

Long story...I originally got the dynex hdmi to dvi cable; 60 bucks! I knew that was high but I was at best buy..you know. Anyway, I read the H article about best buy power supplies, lol, then finally do the right thing and google the cables; and I see I can get one at frys for 20 bucks! Well, from what I understand digital is digital and the cost of the cable quality doesn't matter that much; not that I thought dynex was worth a dang anyway.

so, I'm not sure what brand I'm using but it's the cheap one at frys.

I'm keeping powersaver on for sure because otherwise the monitor won't sleep at all.


edit; BTW, I got a sony blu ray player the otherday at frys for about 175 out the door (I'm a wheeler and a dealer!); installed that puppy in my cosmos case in about 5 seconds, and watching HELL BOY;

omg.

bsather said:

The Samsung 24B5W & 2493HM both use the LTM240CT01/03.

The HP w2408h has a glossy screen, the Samsungs do not. The HP has 1:1 pixel mapping also.

Click to expand...

Is there a big difference in the way these monitors look? If they have the same panel, then do they essentially look the same? or Do other factors play into the picture quality?

I've been agonizing over picking out a new 24" but I'm afraid to make a move since it's a lot of money involved (for me).

I was lucky enough to have the new samsung 2ms 22" screen right across from this HP monitor....I was really on the fence about getting a smaller, much cheaper monitor and especially with every sales person telling me how great samsung is (I agree, I ended up with a samsung panel, heh; but not the direct route). Well, just looking at the Samsung vs. this monitor, it was like night and day.

the colors on the HP are amazing! Add just a touch of nvidia's digital vibrance (DV)--I know it's less realistic but still looks amazing--and it's really just amazing new desktop experience. I've always used DV but now I don't even really need it on, the colors are already so rich.

I like the HP because unlike the samsungs out there or the BenQ, this thing has a killer stand (I move my monitor up and down all the time, just minor adjustments), USB (handy!) and everything else I need. Even though I could buy a monitor stand after the fact, it's nice the HP has everything you need to begin with.

BTW, I based my color & brightness settings off an old anandtech article on the original w2408 (see my post above) where they calibrated that monitor. This one is no doubt very different but it gives you something to go by. Generally I'm happy with sRGB setting and brightness at 34 contrast at 80; if you want more white just bump the brightness to 40 but that's PLENTY.

Oh, I just finished watching HELLBOY last night on bluray...HIGHLY recommended, it's like a new film. I was like, "I really love this movie!" though it does drag on a bit toward the end. Great disk though if you're looking for a good blu ray. 300, on the other hand, had alot of noise and I was very disappointed with it. I'd say just stick with pixar (Open season here I come) to really amaze your friends and show off the monitor.

I've found I have to turn off contrast enhancement in the nvidia control panel or the blacks can pixellate too much in dark areas of the film with movement. You can see more of the picture with it on, but the scenes with lots of blacks have problems with it. I don't know if this would be a problem with a different monitor or not but I'm sure it has to do with the black levels overall. Just leave dynamic contrast enhancement off and you'll never see what I'm talking about in dark scenes.

Cheers.

oozish said:

300, on the other hand, had alot of noise and I was very disappointed with it. I'd say just stick with pixar (Open season here I come) to really amaze your friends and show off the monitor.

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The reason 300 had alot of noise is due to their grainy effect they've added in the movie. Makes the Blu-ray movie so unattracted.

I just got the w2408h last night from CC. Samsung panel, VERY happy with it. Viewing angles are very good for TN and almost no BB. TF2 ran without any ghosting and the 24" size seems like a whole new world (up from my 19" crt ). I would also like to hear others color settings if anyone has any insight. Overall highly recommended.

-dave

So the HP 2408h is a TN panel? Are all HP widescreen panels TN?

I was checking them out yesterday at J&R MusicWorld and really liked the colors-definitely stood out over the other monitors they had on display.

I am considering a number of configurations involving the 20, 22 and the 24. But should I bother with a TN panel if I plan to use them predominantly for movies and photoshop?

If your a serious photoshopper, then S-PVA and IPS technology will better suit your needs, no doubt about it.

Like everything else it all comes down to price. TN panels like the HP w2408h are supposed to be great for gaming with their high response time and lower price point.

Another thing to consider if you plan on viewing movies, is the angle of your chair/couch/bed will have to be near center of the screen with a TN panel. As I said before, I'm pretty happy with the viewing angles on the w2408h, but Im sitting in a lazy boy eyes top level with the thing.

Best thing you can do is stop by a CC or bestbuy and see the panels first hand to get a good idea of your wants/needs.

Good review: http://www.trustedreviews.com/displays/review/2008/01/24/HP-w2408h-Vivid-Color-24in-Monitor/p1

cheers,
-dave

I noticed that the color is very dark at the top of the screen compared to the bottom of the screen; I've read this about several models but didn't notice it till I started dragging widgets about. Also, I do have more backlight bleeding than I'm happy with so I plan on returning this for another one today hopefully get one with 0 backlight bleed or close.

EDIT: OH SNAP! (sorry, my 6 year old daughters new words are getting the best of me).

No I really am excited, I exchanged my Feb. 2008 built w2408h for a new one after explaining to the 'tech' who worked at best buy what backlight bleeding was and this panel (built MARCH 2008) has ZERO perceptible backlight bleeding. I'm so glad I started googling backlight bleeding last night...I knew I had some but doing that got me looking and I really did have bleed around all 4 sides; not nearly as much as the 19" I was coming from, but still quite noticeable. I'll say this new monitor was worth the risk to take back and I'm 100% satisfied with the monitor; edit: except that the top of the screen is a little darker than the bottom. Drag a widget or something top to bottom and you'll see. Still, even this is improved with the March 08 build enough I can't tell the diff. unless I"m really looking; and you can't tell at all in games/movies etc.

Now, regarding the software, that's a joke. I'm running sp1 vista and I can't even get My Display software to start up anymore. Originally it would start up but any calibration options were greyed out. Now, it doesn't work at all and won't even start. Apparently it only works with HP machines??? The whole disc is a waste and I think it's funny the monitor is vista ready but the software clearly isn't.

Still looking for someone to post their color settings if you have calibration software.

tHanks,

I have the w2207 and its a decent monitor the defaults for each setting are pretty gd game mode is very gd the response times are brilliant also

I just bought the w2408h yesterday at Best Buy. It was manufactured in Feb 2008 and has the Samsung LTM (SAM_LTM240CT03) panel according to the service menu. It came with an HDMI cable, VGA cable, USB cable, and power cable.

I am using it with the VGA cable for now until I build my new machine (which will hopefully has a video card with an HDMI output so I don't have to buy a DVI-to-HDMI adapter), but it still looks fantastic connected via VGA. The monitor comes with a disc containing auto adjustment software and a calibration pattern that you can use to auto-adjust the picture to optimize it for a VGA connection, since the "My Display" windows display tuning software doesn't seem to work unless you have it connected via the HDMI connection.

I played WoW last night at 1920x1200 and it looks like a new game compared to my old Hitachi 19-inch shadowmask CRT. The colors are gorgeous, and there is no detectable ghosting or input lag. I was definitely getting the "looking through a window" visual sensation.

There is some backlight bleed, but it is only noticeable on a completely black screen, such as when you are booting up.

The viewing angles are fine for me, however there is the standard TN brightness differential when if you are looking at the screen from a low angle, the top of the screen is dimmer than the bottom, but if you are looking at it straight on or from slightly above, then the brightness differential is much less noticeable. It is definitely not a big enough issue to get upset about given the amazing picture quality.

I tried viewing an anamorphic widescreen DVD (Revenge of the Sith) in both WinDVD 5 and Windows Media Player 11. WinDVD 5 is really old (2003) and I think there is a bug with the full screen mode on widescreen monitors, because it was reallly awful in full screen mode -- obviously a software bug and not the monitor. In a small window it looked fantastic though. In WMP, the DVD looked great in full screen mode, but in Windows XP, WMP does not fully support widescreen monitors, so it shows the film in a letter-boxed 16:9 aspect ratio inside a "full" 4:3 box, which means that you get black bars on all 4 sides of the movie. I don't think this would be an issue if you are using Vista Ultimate or Home Premium, since those include better DVD codecs that are not included in XP or Vista Home Basic. I'll be upgrading to Vista Ultimate in the next couple months, so I'll find out if that fixes the widescreen DVD issue. Maybe someone who is using this monitor with Vista Ultimate or Home Premium can comment on this?

The monitor has an ambient light sensor which automatically dims the display if you are in a dark room, and increases brightness when you are in a brightly lit room. It seems to work really well, and kept the display at the proper brightness for the amount of light in the room, but I assume you can turn that feature off if you would rather adjust brightness manually. Another note is that when you use the "Movie" mode, it activates the dynamic contrast ratio which senses how bright the scene in the movie is to improve contrast when there's a dark scene. This mode does not work well unless you are actually able to fill the screen with the movie picture, since I think it interprets the brightness of the whole image on the monitor rather than just the portion showing the movie. So for example, because of the black letterboxing issue when watching Revenge of the Sith in WMP under Windows XP, "Movie" mode dimmed the screen far too much in the space battle scenes at the beginning. So I changed the monitor back to "Text" mode which does not use dynamic contrast, and the movie looked fantastic. Again, I think in Vista (or with newer DVD playback software under XP) which has proper software support for widescreen DVD playback, "Movie" mode would perform as intended. However, I am too cheap to purchase newer DVD software since I will be upgrading to Vista soon anyway, and I generally don't watch DVDs on my PC anyway.

I originally planed to buy the new samung 2253BW but after comparing it with HP 2207h at circuitcity, I like HP better. text looks betters. Icons in vista have a pop 3-D look. photos looks the same for both monitors.

I ended up buying HP 2207H yesterday at bestbuy (price matech Office Max for $299).
I had to called 4 bestbuy stores to get the samsung Pannel STM001.

bsather said:

Picked one up at CC Saturday, FEB 2008 manufacture with the Samsung LTM240CT03 panel. Awesome monitor...Brightness 50, Contrast 80. Yeah, the viewing angle isn't as great as my Samsung 214T with PVA panel, but am loving the glossy screen and the vivid colors. Plus, this thing just looks cool. Stand is very well designed.

Click to expand...

The backlight bleed was horrific on mine. I was getting tired of looking at it, and for the money I felt it should not have been that bad. I ordered another and it is way better, same FEB 08 manufacture, so I guess I got a bum one the first time.

ya same here.. backlight bleed on all corners of my monitors is really noticeable on black background... it's really annoying.. the first day i got this monitor, BB wasnt there.. but after a week of using the monitor, BB started to appear.. probably just gonna return the monitor back..

After using my w2408h for a couple of weeks now, I can tell you that the brightness is set too high at the default setting (90). Even if you use the ambient light sensor, it still selects a too-bright setting in even a moderately lit room. So what I do now is I use the ambient light sensor only after dusk, and with the only light in the room behind the monitor off to the right side of the room, so the light is not hitting the ambient light sensor directly. It seems to select a comfortable brightness of about 30 under those conditions.

During the day, I turn off the ambient light sensor and have the brightness set to 50, which is much easier on the eyes.

If you use the monitor for a few hours at the default brightness of 90, you will burn the retinas out of your eye sockets. I did that the second day I had the monitor, and I had a hazy bloom effect to my vision for a few hours afterwards.

I bought a new HP 2408h external monitor to my HP 8510p laptop, connected to each other through HDMI-HDMI connection. Everything works, but all the
sounds are going through the monitor's speaker and when I plug my Sens HD 595 Headphone to my laptop or to my monitors jack output, there is no sound.

Can you help me here?

Thanks in advance.

Bests,
anpe008

Does this monitor do 1:1 pixel mapping?

I ordered the w2207h after reading about it for like 2 hours, i'll post how it is when I get it tomorrow.

hows the W2408H work with ps3 and 360? can you calibrate it for a console, or can you only do it through your computer? is there ay perceptable lag or ghosting? thanks.

This review suggests the following calibration settings for the w2408h:

Brightness: 14%
Contrast: 80%
Red: 255
Green: 255
Blue: 232

Im glad I found these settings. I've tried fiddling with the settings and various software calibrators for an hour or so, but I just couldnt get it spot on. With these settings everything looks so much better.

Hello all, I've buyed one of these 24", but I'm a little disappointed. I was before on a w2207, it was great. This one colors are too much brilliant, and I can't calibrate it...the monitor I had before was with an lg panel too like this one is, but was a way better...this one is with the lpl panel and sucks too much for my taste...

Plus I've noticed that when you low the brightness to 30-40, a sound comes from the monitor, I've read this from many reviews and ppl, so I find strange that someone can suggest to put it at 14% to calibrate it isn't too low anyway to be good?

is there any way of knowing for sure which panel you get by like manufacture date?

rhyflare said:

is there any way of knowing for sure which panel you get by like manufacture date?

Click to expand...

I'd like to know too.

And by now, are you sure to get a Samsung when you buy one? Or is it still luck of the draw whether or not you get a Samsung or LPL?

OK, so let's say someone has made up their mind to pick up the HP 24" but you would like the Samsung panel.

How does one make sure they are getting the right one?

Are you stuck having to take it home and then checking to see?

The one thing that annoys me about all of this is having to play Russian Roulette with one manufacturer making the same model and using 50 different panels.

I don't want to be stuck with something I don't want.

There is a previous post in this thread where someone was in J&R Music World, which is the same store in NYC that I go to. I was there on Sunday writing down information on the different panels that I was considering.

The salespeople are beyond useless. One of them asked me if I needed help, so I asked if a particular model was a TN. It took him 10 minutes to chase down the manager because he didn't know. He didn't know what back light bleeding was, nor the difference between TN and other types of panels.

I have no idea what the J&R return policy is, but I would not want to buy one from them if they won't accept the reason for the return that it is the wrong panel.

So, how does one get the right panel without the drama?

vondozier said:

I'd like to know too.

And by now, are you sure to get a Samsung when you buy one? Or is it still luck of the draw whether or not you get a Samsung or LPL?

Click to expand...

Still like to see if anyone knows.

As for gaming

I tried my 360 and PS3 through it, HDMI, at 1080p. The screen would constantly have small flickers/white glitches (not the entire screen) in random parts of the screen every 6 or so seconds. Really, really annoying and I have no clue if there's a way to remedy it, I haven't found anyone else with this problem. Might take it back.

I have the HP W2207H. It's a great monitor if you can get one with minimal backlight bleeding. The first one was very bad. The second one fortunately was alot better. PC gaming looks good even when running games at lower resolutions. They supply an HDMI cable, not an HDMI - DVI cable. So, if you plan to connect your video card to this monitor, you will need a DVI to VGA adapter. Unless that is.. your video card has an HDMI out already.

I just bought a 2408h widescreen today--

This particular screen has massive backlight bleed, but it's something I only noticed after reading the reviews about this monitor. Now that I'm aware of backlight bleed, I definitely see it on this screen.

I lowered the brightness via my graphics card (ATI Radeon 4670) and it has GREATLY improved the backlight bleed. The screen isn't as bright, but it was too bright in the first place and was hurting my eyes!

For those of you guys that have a bad backlight bleed problem, try lowering your brightness settings, either on the monitor itself or with your graphics card. This has imrpoved my problem 80%. The bleed is now totally minimal.

Also- at most times, these sorts of issues are more or less nit-picking. We've all bought something that we wish was a bit more perfect (like a vehicle), but perfection doesn't exist. It's whether or not you're happy with your purchase. Are the flaws bad enough for you to be dis-satisfied or are they minimal and something you can ignore and live with? If you're not too picky, then minor flaws will always be ok. As far as I can see, 99% of LCD monitors will have backlight bleed to some degree. Unless you got $1200 to buy the best one on the planet.

Another thing-- before buying this monitor, ask yourself why you're buying it- are you going to primarliy use it to watch movies? To play games? If so, it might not be your best bet, because a lot of games and movies will inevitably be showing dark screens at times, and this is when the backlight bleed shows up the worst. Unless you lower the brightness, like I said.

I bought this strictly for photoshop use, and have to say, when running photoshop, I do not see backlight bleed WHATSOEVER. This is mainly because photoshop's screen is a lighter shade at all times, and there's no lighting problems around the edges of the screen.

So if you're doing just graphics editing, this screen is freaking awesome- the colours are so darn bright and vivid-- they look very accurate to me.

Overall, I really love this screen and the size is just mind-boggling- when set to its maximum resolution, you're gonna be hard-pressed to find another monitor in this price range with the sharpness, clarity and vivd color display that this monitor offers.

I paid $479 (yeah I could have probably got it for less if I looked around, yada-yada-yada, you know, the usual) but I have no regrets.

I would seriously recommend it if you have this budget-- if you're going for a big widescreen LCD monitor, then DO NOT cheap out on one, because you'll regret it. You might get one for $299 but you're wasting your money because the quality will stink. The price of a screen is usually a good indicator of what you're getting.

I got one of these refurbed for $200 at buy.com and I'm looking around for color calibration settings. Not sure if I want to replace my 8bit Soyo Panel with this 6 bit HP 2408h yet - but I do like some of the features - like 1:1 hardware scaling, and HDMI, and HDCP which works well with my PS3 and Xbox 360 in 1080P!

When you guys download the HP MY Display software - what model does it say your w2408h is?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3551927

It shows mine as a w2408 --- BUT - I have the HDMI input rather than the DVI input...which seems like I should have the w2408h???