About to pull the trigger on a FHD2400...

J

JetsDuck

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Feb 28, 2008
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Sorry ahead of time for another thread about this monitor, I know there are plenty already. I've read through most of them by now so I'm pretty well acquainted with the monitor by now I think.

Looking for a new comp build and need a monitor in the 24 inch range, max budget is probably about $700 or so right now. Mostly want it to watch movies, DVD's, and play some computer games like Oblivion and the like. Not a huge FPS guy, but I do want to hook up my PS2 up the monitor pretty badly. Got a ton of games that I would love to play on one.

Went to Best Buy and was amazed with the FHD2400, loved it a lot more than the HP w2408h that I saw nearby. The inputs are really great for me, the ability to hook my PS2 up is a pretty big selling point for me, too.

Just had a few questions before I went through with it, mostly about the BLB. I know I can eliminate the problem before it starts by probably setting the brightness to zero, but trying that in the store it was too dark for me. I liked it from 40-60 the most, but I don't know how much trouble that could cause me in the long run, and at $550 I don't want to obsess over it for the life of the monitor. The man at Best Buy said I could spend like $60-$70 and get a four year plan through them which sounded great, but I'm not sure how practical it is or if he was just trying to sell me on something.

So any thoughts on my situation? I guess I could go with the HP w2408h and just try a TV tuner or something, or possibly another monitor if anyone knows of one around $700 or less. Or should I just stick my neck out for the Gateway? With the warranty thing if I do?

Sorry, I'm terrible at making decisions, and as a poor college student I don't want to make a mistake on a monitor. I'm actually more confident on the rest of the hardware for my build than I am about this monitor situation, ha ha. :D
 
Well.. you can buy the Gateway LCD now, and try it out for 2 weeks. You also have the option of purchasing the 4 year plan within 2 weeks also. It is something to consider as Gateway LCDS offer only 1 year warranty. The Acer on the other hand offers 3 years. What I would do is I buy it and try it out as much as I can within the 2 weeks by playing movies, PC games, hookin up PS2 etc to it. You then will have a better idea if you are really content with it. If not, return the LCD within the 2 weeks.
 
JetsDuck said:
Sorry ahead of time for another thread about this monitor, I know there are plenty already. I've read through most of them by now so I'm pretty well acquainted with the monitor by now I think.

Looking for a new comp build and need a monitor in the 24 inch range, max budget is probably about $700 or so right now. Mostly want it to watch movies, DVD's, and play some computer games like Oblivion and the like. Not a huge FPS guy, but I do want to hook up my PS2 up the monitor pretty badly. Got a ton of games that I would love to play on one.

Went to Best Buy and was amazed with the FHD2400, loved it a lot more than the HP w2408h that I saw nearby. The inputs are really great for me, the ability to hook my PS2 up is a pretty big selling point for me, too.

Just had a few questions before I went through with it, mostly about the BLB. I know I can eliminate the problem before it starts by probably setting the brightness to zero, but trying that in the store it was too dark for me. I liked it from 40-60 the most, but I don't know how much trouble that could cause me in the long run, and at $550 I don't want to obsess over it for the life of the monitor. The man at Best Buy said I could spend like $60-$70 and get a four year plan through them which sounded great, but I'm not sure how practical it is or if he was just trying to sell me on something.

So any thoughts on my situation? I guess I could go with the HP w2408h and just try a TV tuner or something, or possibly another monitor if anyone knows of one around $700 or less. Or should I just stick my neck out for the Gateway? With the warranty thing if I do?

Sorry, I'm terrible at making decisions, and as a poor college student I don't want to make a mistake on a monitor. I'm actually more confident on the rest of the hardware for my build than I am about this monitor situation, ha ha. :D
Click to expand...

You don't necessarily have to put the brightness at 0, but 15 or below is advisable. Also, you have to remember that Best Buy is an EXTREMELY bright store. When you get one back to your house it will look much brighter than at the store and you'll be happy with a low brightness setting. Be sure to give yourself a little while to get used to the lower brightness as well.
 
gtg465x said:
You don't necessarily have to put the brightness at 0, but 15 or below is advisable. Also, you have to remember that Best Buy is an EXTREMELY bright store. When you get one back to your house it will look much brighter than at the store and you'll be happy with a low brightness setting. Be sure to give yourself a little while to get used to the lower brightness as well.
Click to expand...

Good point man, Best Buy really is bright, so maybe it will look better when I get it home if I decide to buy it. I've just read a lot of people on this board say that its pretty solid at zero, but it looked pretty depressingly dark to me.

HardwareGuru said:
Well.. you can buy the Gateway LCD now, and try it out for 2 weeks. You also have the option of purchasing the 4 year plan within 2 weeks also. It is something to consider as Gateway LCDS offer only 1 year warranty. The Acer on the other hand offers 3 years. What I would do is I buy it and try it out as much as I can within the 2 weeks by playing movies, PC games, hookin up PS2 etc to it. You then will have a better idea if you are really content with it. If not, return the LCD within the 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, HG - I think part of my anxiety is that I'm just not very good when it comes to returning things as weird as that sounds. Just don't really want to trouble anyone. I suppose even if I get past the two weeks I can still talk to Gateway about it before my year is up. I think I'll go after that 4 year plan, even though that sounds a bit excessive to me.

Thanks to both you guys, anyone else have any advice?
 
I've owned both and I prefer the HP w2408h over the FHD2400. Viewing angles, backlight consistency, contrast ratio (especially in dark areas), and colors are better on the w2408h than on the FHD2400. You should probably switch the w2408h to sRGB color mode in BestBuy. The default color mode is analagous to the cool setting on the FHD2400.

You cannot hook up your PS2 to the monitor, though. You would have to get a component to VGA converter. Using one of these, though, you would only be able to see games at 480p.
 
reductant said:
I've owned both and I prefer the HP w2408h over the FHD2400. Viewing angles, backlight consistency, contrast ratio (especially in dark areas), and colors are better on the w2408h than on the FHD2400. You should probably switch the w2408h to sRGB color mode in BestBuy. The default color mode is analagous to the cool setting on the FHD2400.

You cannot hook up your PS2 to the monitor, though. You would have to get a component to VGA converter. Using one of these, though, you would only be able to see games at 480p.
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Reductant - I have read a lot of your posts on the actual FHD2400 thread and its had a pretty big impact on my hesitancy with this monitor. You seem to know your stuff and I really appreciate the input. I will try messing with the sRGB mode on the w2408h in Best Buy the next time I'm there (most of the guys who work there probably know me by name now :(). It would be great to have a monitor where I wouldn't feel like I'm walking on eggshells whenever I really want it to light up the room.

The PS2 connection is holding me up a little bit though - I was planning on getting a TV tuner anyway, and maybe doing that can help me get a great looking reproduction without the converter? I've just held back on that idea a bit since I've heard a lot about lag problems and the picture quality not being that great.
 
JetsDuck said:
Reductant - I have read a lot of your posts on the actual FHD2400 thread and its had a pretty big impact on my hesitancy with this monitor. You seem to know your stuff and I really appreciate the input. I will try messing with the sRGB mode on the w2408h in Best Buy the next time I'm there (most of the guys who work there probably know me by name now :(). It would be great to have a monitor where I wouldn't feel like I'm walking on eggshells whenever I really want it to light up the room.

The PS2 connection is holding me up a little bit though - I was planning on getting a TV tuner anyway, and maybe doing that can help me get a great looking reproduction without the converter? I've just held back on that idea a bit since I've heard a lot about lag problems and the picture quality not being that great.
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Yeah, you can buy an external tuner with composite or component inputs. I used one of those at one time. I used one made by Viewsonic that outputted via VGA and it seemed okay, picture-quality wise. I never measured lag, though.
 
Keep in mind that the HP and Gateway use the exact same panel, so there couldn't be much difference in how they look. The main difference is the inputs.
 
gtg465x said:
Keep in mind that the HP and Gateway use the exact same panel, so there couldn't be much difference in how they look. The main difference is the inputs.
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Man, that would make my decision so much easier! I'd easily pay an extra $50 for the inputs of the Gateway. But it looks like the brightness restrictions and BLB problem are mostly seen in the that monitor, though.
 
gtg465x said:
Keep in mind that the HP and Gateway use the exact same panel, so there couldn't be much difference in how they look. The main difference is the inputs.
Click to expand...

There are two different panels being used in the HP. I have an LG LM240WU3, not a Samsung. And there is a difference, no question about it. My monitor revision is GTG001.
 
Since the biggest draw for the Gateway to me is the inputs for my PS2, and I might want to get a TV tuner anyway (to record Jets games :p), would the best solution be to get the HP and something like this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815310002

It doesn't seem to have as much lag as the other TV tuners for playing console games, and I've heard there are some software programs I can download to cut out the lag. Being forced to turn my PC on to play console games isn't really a huge turnoff for me either.
 
I can't figure out why people keep saying the Gateway is the only one with backlight bleed.

I don't know what kind of w2408h you guys got, but the w2408h's on display at my local Best Buy and Fry's BOTH have WORSE backlight bleed than the FHD2400's on display. That's half the reason I got th Gateway in the first place.

So what's the deal here? Either people don't know what they're talking about, or I've only seen one of the two panels that go in the w2408h and it has vastly worse backlight bleed than the other panel in w2408h's.
 
gtg465x said:
I can't figure out why people keep saying the Gateway is the only one with backlight bleed.

I don't know what kind of w2408h you guys got, but the w2408h's on display at my local Best Buy and Fry's BOTH have WORSE backlight bleed than the FHD2400's on display. That's half the reason I got th Gateway in the first place.

So what's the deal here? Either people don't know what they're talking about, or I've only seen one of the two panels that go in the w2408h and it has vastly worse backlight bleed than the other panel in w2408h's.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone's ruling out BLB on the HP, it just seems like a much bigger issue with the Gateway. At least from what I've read, but I don't actually have either monitor like you guys do. To be honest at Best Buy I didn't see much BLB on either of them though; the biggest difference was just that the Gateway looked a lot better IMO. But I think I might be able to live with the HP rather than keep the brightness down on the Gateway. But now this panel stuff with the HP is making me rethink things a little bit, as well as the functionality of a TV tuner in console reproduction.

I wish this decision was easier. :)
 
What about the new 2408WFP? It looks pretty good, but its S-PVA panel. I am not about that Gateway though.
 
I don't want to get into a whole argument here because I know what I'm talking about. I purchased the FHD2400 the week it came out so it is very likely I had a Samsung panel. Here's what my FHD2400 looked like about a month after getting it.
IMG_3261.jpg


Believe it or not, the bleeding got even worse than that.

Here's my HP w2408h with an LG panel.
IMG_3263.jpg


And about the comparison of the panels. My Gateway suffered from bad viewing angles not only vertically but also horizontally. In dark areas of my games, I would need to move my head off center left or right and many details would become apparent that weren't head on. Moving my head off center horizontally on my HP makes little difference.
 
reductant - any preference with the panels on the w2408h? I thought the LG was worse than the Samsung.
 
JetsDuck said:
reductant - any preference with the panels on the w2408h? I thought the LG was worse than the Samsung.
Click to expand...

I prefer this LG panel over the Samsung one used in the Gateway (assuming that's what I had). I feel a lot of people here laud Samsung unecessarily. The majority of their LCD products are not that great.
 
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