Any reason to not get 20WMGX2?

L

Lomic

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
Messages
185
I'd like input if people think any other monitor would suffice, as the price on this sucker is a little intimidating.

There are 4 reasons I'm looking at the 20WMGX2 over other solutions:

-I consider any backlight bleed to be unacceptable, and don't want to have to RMA 3 times to get a good screen. I use my computer for 90% watching movies and playing games in a fairly dark room and BL bleed would drive me insane.

-Again, since my room is light controlled I would like a glossy screen for the obvious reasons.

-While I hate DRM, I'd like to have HDCP for Vista, to avoid having to buy a new monitor in a year to watch HD content, or some other killer app that requires HDCP.

-Fastest response time and highest contrast ratio of any specs I've seen in one monitor.

I'm pretty much only considering 20" monitors to avoid having the further video card demands of 24" monitors native resolution. Basically, talk me out of spending the $700 if you think another monitor will do a sufficient job, incl. if one of my reasons is invalid.

Thanks folks.
 
You should know that there have been some people who have gotten them with some backlight issues (bleed through in certain spots, non-uniformity), so make sure you're buying from somewhere that will let you return it without too much hassle (I've heard that NEC won't replace it for this issue themselves). With nearly every LCD you have the potential to have backlight problems, I haven't heard of a certain brand or model that has been absolutely flawless in this aspect (although with a decent company you can return it if its not up to your standards).

Also, I've heard that this monitor isn't terribly great for movie watching. I'm not saying it would be bad, and the deep blacks it offers should be very nice, but its supposed to not be at its best for movies. I don't know if its not more than what any monitor in this size/resolution would do, or if its worse than others, so its kinda hard to tell. It should be absolutely killer for gaming though, and I would guess that since you'll be in a dark room, that the glossy screen won't bother you much.

HDCP shouldn't be a huge issue, as quite a few good quality monitors offer it now, so most of them worth considering should feature it.

For me personally? I don't think I could go with the NEC. Its a very nice screen, but the cost is just too much for me (and it lacks height adjustment, which is something I really like, as well as turning it 90 degrees). I've had good experiences with Dell and I like their monitors, so I would look at a 2007WFP. If nothing else you could give it a try and return it for a refund if its not good enough for you. For the price of the NEC you could almost pick up two of them, or a 2405/2407. With the 24" ones, remember you could run 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 1:1 scaling on it and you wouldn't really lose much screen size, or you could scale it to a lower 16:10 resolution (they're supposed to be pretty good at scaling non-native content) and have it stretched. It might not hurt to at least give it a try.
 
I like the NEC also.
But the price and design is a turn off. I'm not a fan of the rounded ugly bezel.
I do like the glossy and the high performance. I've been doing research and I've found 2 other models I am considering.

The Asus PW201which is my next choice for about $565 with tax. Nice glossy screen almost as good performance, pivot, PIP, all kinds of ergo adjustments.

The Acer AL2032W A which is also glossy but I don't believe it has PIP and I know it doesn't swivel or adjust except for the tilt. The price is right on this one for about $450 online.

I'm prolly gonna go with the ASUS when I see it in person this week.
 
Blah. I went to Best Buy today to get an idea of the size of these 20.1" widescreens, even though I assumed they wouldn't have the 20WMGX2 there, and indeed they didn't. They did however have other NEC displays which apparently have the same bezel, and I have to agree it's a deal breaker. For the price it should be a nice flat bezel. Also read some reviews confirming the movie playback problems on the NEC.

I was looking strongly at the Acer, but I've read it's 16:9, while native WS game resolutions are 16:10, and therefore without scaling would cause a black border while gaming.

So I guess I'm back to Dell. Guess I'll wait for some coupons to appear for the 2007FPW and give it a whirl.
 
I've owned three of these. The first had a dead pixel, the second had a dead pixel and broken speakers (I wouldn't use them but I was not happy that they were broken), and the third had 1000's of stuck pixels and ran insanely hot compared to the first two. All three of them had quite a bit of backlight bleeding in a dark environment. However, the reason I think most people don't notice it is that when advanced dv is turned on the screen lowers its brightness automatically on darker screens making the bleeding very hard to see. It's really only a huge problem if you keep the brightness way too high. I thought it was too bright at anything over 25%. Also, I thought that the glossy screen was really annoying. I refuse to try a fourth one primarily because of the glossy screen, and the monitor is annoying to trach down and buy.
 
darkswordsman17 said:
For the price of the NEC you could almost pick up two of them, or a 2405/2407. With the 24" ones, remember you could run 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 1:1 scaling on it and you wouldn't really lose much screen size, or you could scale it to a lower 16:10 resolution (they're supposed to be pretty good at scaling non-native content) and have it stretched. It might not hurt to at least give it a try.
Click to expand...
2407 as of reversion A02 still cannot scale 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 at 1:1 through dvi, both resolutions are stretch to fill. with no available options. 2405 as of rev A04 that I own, only has trouble displaying 1920x1080 at 1:1, it is stretch to fill.
 
I went through three of the NEC monitors before finally giving up. All 3 displayed backlight bleeding in the bottom right corner. For such an expensive monitor, I expected it to be perfect. So instead, i went with the Dell 2007widescreen. Although it's not perfect (primarily the banding issue, which hopefully my new one with the updated firmware should be arriving shortly ), I'm much happier having some extra cash to update my rig to SLI.

Apart from the backlight issue the NEC had a great picture. Unless your a graphic artist, or use the monitor for professional photography, I just don't think that the difference in picture quality is worth paying 800 bucks when a good quality monitor can be had for half the price.

Oh yeah, and the NEC bezel and stand was pretty ugly compared to most other monitors.
 
The backlight problem went away for me after 2 weeks use. Right now I'm looking left and right on this site -- I can assure you it's perfect black. It's a little disconcerning @ first but it's gone now.

Also, came with no dead pixels. has a 3 year warranty. Best of all, it doesn't have a bluish tint to everything like every other LCD out there.

Has 1:1 pixel display. Can do 1080i, 1080p, 720p, etc.

TV looks fine as well as other inputs.

The only thing I would have changed would be to get the black one instead :-P
The silver one's base stand is actually beige :-(
 
I've had this monitor for about 2 months now and mine was PERFECT out the box. I didn't and still don't have any of the problems stated in this tread. I've gone thru about 8 lcd in the past and this one by far has the best picture quality I've even seen. Movies, games, text, picture all look outstanding. I wouldn't give up on this monitor. Just fine a place with a good return policy (like Frys) and buy it from them.
 
I'm waiting for the price to drop before considering it.

Re: Best Buy canada
Will they let you test the lcd for backlight bleeding and dead pixels, at the store, before buying it?

Could the backlight bleeding be fixed using the black electrical tape method as on the 2005FPW?
 
Technology is evolving so fast with LCDs, that in a year this NEC will be considered outdated and sluggish.

I love the quality of this monitor, sampled it at Fry's. BUt it just isn't worth the extra cash. The 1600:1 isn't it's default native mode. 6ms response time doesn't make a notieable difference in comparison to an 8ms lcd. What human can really notice that?

Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful LCD with awesome performance. But for 300 dollars less, you can easily find other LCD's with similar performance and image quality.
 
deb0 said:
Technology is evolving so fast with LCDs, that in a year this NEC will be considered outdated and sluggish.

I love the quality of this monitor, sampled it at Fry's. BUt it just isn't worth the extra cash. The 1600:1 isn't it's default native mode. 6ms response time doesn't make a notieable difference in comparison to an 8ms lcd. What human can really notice that?
Click to expand...

What PC Technology isn't outdated in a year? Pretty much whatever you buy now will be outdated in a year. That's how this industry works, so using that as a reason to not buy something usually isn't the best argument. We all know how the technology industry works when it comes to obsolesence (if that's a word...).

Keep in mind this is the latest AS-IPS panel from LG.Phillips, meaning that up until now, reaching 6ms response time on a panel that has such high brightness, high contrast ratio, and excellent color reproduction wasn't something easily attainable. Most consumer level LCDs with 8ms and lower response times were TN panels, some of which end up being 6-bit color. Most IPS panels are 8ms and above, so to achieve such a low response time and have all of the other great things about it is a great achievement.

The only reason to not get this guy is if you don't want to spend the money. I've had zero issues with mine. Backlight bleeding, like someone posted above, went away once the monitor had been "broken in." And I can't complain about movies either honestly. They look great. You just can't sit 3 feet in front of the thing while you're watching them or pixel pitch is somewhat noticable.

my 2 cents
 
Mine is arriving today.. Im extremely excited. Ill post my thoughts here when I check it out for a bit :))
 
yeah, price

for the $650 you could spend on that 20" monitor you could spend $50-$100 more and get a 24" monitor... with the average price of a 20" monitor being around $250-$400 $650 is insane
 
but $650 is better than $799, which is what i paid back in march & this monitor has no rival.
 
Again, the speaker bar, tv tuner, and remote add to the cost. I'd say that without those things, I'd peg this monitor around $500. You could always try to find the Euro one that doesn't have those options.
 
gersson said:
The backlight problem went away for me after 2 weeks use. Right now I'm looking left and right on this site -- I can assure you it's perfect black. It's a little disconcerning @ first but it's gone now.

Also, came with no dead pixels. has a 3 year warranty. Best of all, it doesn't have a bluish tint to everything like every other LCD out there.

Has 1:1 pixel display. Can do 1080i, 1080p, 720p, etc.

TV looks fine as well as other inputs.

The only thing I would have changed would be to get the black one instead :-P
The silver one's base stand is actually beige :-(
Click to expand...

The 1080i & 1080p is scaled not native. The screen is only 1680 x 1050. Not 1920 x 1080.
 
Is it 1050p or 1050i when compressed.. if you are using a 1080p source it would be almost like 1080 quility right?
 
Umm not really you are losing 240 pixels by 1050 lines.
and you lose 30 horizontal lines.
But in reality you prolly wouldn't notice much of a difference.
I know I don't between my 2405 and my Asus PW201.
But the Asus is glossy and looks better because of it.
 
he NEC 20GX2 is an interesting alternative. It's by far the most responsive monitor in the group, and the "gloss" rendering is a natural with games that are rich in color. But that's all. It's a pure gamer's monitor, and that's how it should be judged.

Heheh.. Im glad about this.. cause that truely is the reason I bought it :)


Mine arrived perfectly by the way.. no bleeding whatsoever, no dead pixels, nothing. I couldn't be happier.

The only problem I has is that I am so afraid to talk while at my computer, or cough, or sneeze... I dont want any particles getting on the beautiful beautiful screen. It really does look like there is absolutely no protection whatsoever, its like you are staring right into the liquid crystal :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top