Best Buy LCD monitor deals

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MrGlobe

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I know a lot of the people on this forum are past buying budget computer parts, but I just wanted peoples opinions on the BB memorial day LCD deals. I just picked up a 19" WS Westinghouse for $137 out the door, and I couldn't be happier. They also have a 20.1" Westy (non-WS) for $160 and a 22" Acer WS for $190. This is the second Westinghouse LCD I've owned, and i have to say that I've been happy with both. No dead pixels, no ghosting in games, pretty straight forward.

Globe
 
I just picked up 1 from BB, heres my thoughts so far. Out of the box, ghosting bigtime in all games. Is there something I need to do to get it not to ghost? Its hooked up DVI.
 
I just did some more research online, nothing...I picked up 2 of these , one for me , one for a friend. He says his is ghosting bad as well. It's back to BB for both of these...
 
Which one did you get? The 19"? The 20.1"? The 22"? My 19" has no ghosting what so ever. I thought the response time was 5ms for all of them, which would mean there should be no ghosting.
 
That was my thinking as well. I got the 22" w/ 5ms response time. Ghosted big time, my buddy who got one as well also took his back. I was really surprised considering all the good comments I've heard on it.
 
Got my 19" Widescreen Westy for $148. Damn California recycling tax.

Anyway, no ghosting in any of the games I've played so far on this monitor. But it is hooked up through VGA, not DVI.
 
TheToE! said:
That was my thinking as well. I got the 22" w/ 5ms response time. Ghosted big time, my buddy who got one as well also took his back. I was really surprised considering all the good comments I've heard on it.
Click to expand...

If you mean the acer 22" widescreen AL2223W then your mistaken. It has NO ghost, especially bc the 5ms response time. I picked up 3 today. I only have enough desk room for 2 though

boxes.JPG
 
^^^ LOL, I love the spongebob light cover!


BTW, I was considering buying this monitor (the acer) and was wondering if anyone had any more comments, I have heard it has a blurry screen, and bad ghosting, and no ghosting, and I am very confused...please advise. :confused:
 
Well just look for yourself. Best Buy does have a 30 day return period and no restocking fee like online stores have. Virtually no risk.
 
Just picked one up today (Acer 22")
Hooked it up real quick via DVI before I had to leave all day.
No stuck/dead pixels
Decent black light bleed on full black screen - not noticeable otherwise during normal use
Played some 1080P HD material that looked awesome.
Didnt really have time for anything else, but all I have to say is that this monitor is a huge bang for the buck @ $200!
 
tegtyme said:
Just picked one up today (Acer 22")
Hooked it up real quick via DVI before I had to leave all day.
No stuck/dead pixels
Decent black light bleed on full black screen - not noticeable otherwise during normal use
Played some 1080P HD material that looked awesome.
Didnt really have time for anything else, but all I have to say is that this monitor is a huge bang for the buck @ $200!
Click to expand...

What he said, and with the 800:1 ratio, it got a beatiful picture (the one thing my CRTs never could offer). Also, the blurriness you've read about was mostly due to video card settings. As far as ghosting goes .... it must be a ghost bc i can flick my scroll wheel up and down like mad and see no trailing.

Everytime I look at these I'm glad I jumped on the amazing price. Best offer I've gotten in a WHILE, and time to retire the CRTs anyways.
 
I'm going to pick up the 22" Acer today if they aren't out of them. $189 is a great deal for a TN panel of this size.
 
it was only a sunday sale for the 22" acer... the 19" westinghouse is still $130 though


or you could by mine for $130 shipped :)



and i am up at 3am bc i just got the acer 22" and have been playing BF2 w/ no ghosting at all with my 8800gts in my shuttle s25np

have fun guys I am going to bed
 
Not to sure if i am liking the monitor or not. Having got a chance to game with it yet since i am waiting on my 8800.
I am a heavy gamer so i hope all is well with this monitor

Is the colors just really vivid ,or did i just got used to my crt 19" monitor i was on?

Seems blurry, or my eyes not adjusting well with the screen? Or is that how lcd's are?

Should i wait and try my 8800gts when it comes tomorrow and tweak it around some before making any decisions?
I have not seen any trailing yet, or ghosting but i am just on my backup card vanilla x800

I just cant stand the blurry factor
 
P§I;1031118783 said:
Not to sure if i am liking the monitor or not. Having got a chance to game with it yet since i am waiting on my 8800.
I am a heavy gamer so i hope all is well with this monitor

Is the colors just really vivid ,or did i just got used to my crt 19" monitor i was on?

Seems blurry, or my eyes not adjusting well with the screen? Or is that how lcd's are?

Should i wait and try my 8800gts when it comes tomorrow and tweak it around some before making any decisions?
I have not seen any trailing yet, or ghosting but i am just on my backup card vanilla x800

I just cant stand the blurry factor
Click to expand...

You probably have to tweak some settings correctly like the nvidia peeps.
Since you are getting your 88GTS today you should easily be able to get your monitor to be crisp and clean....here are the tweaks you may have to do "If you are running a 8800gts/gtx, it won't display 1680x1050 properly. You'll need to go into Nvidia Control Panel, Advanced View, Manage Custom Timings. Create a new one with 1680x1050 for resolution and change the timing standard to DMT (I've found CVT also works, haven't tested the others). Voila, no more blurriness with the video card at 1680x1050 and the monitor thinking it's 1600x1200."
 
I just picked up mine today for $203 out the door. And it was the very last one they had, so I feel pretty lucky. :D

I got mine set up and running with my 8800GTS without issues. Is the blurry issue a problem under XP? I only ask because I don't seem to have this problem and I'm using Vista. Plus, I don't see a way to "manage custom timings" because it's not there under the Display settings. I'm using the 158.42 beta drivers.

This monitor is very bright out of the box. I had to drop the contrast down to 2 and brightness down to 20 for it to be tolerable (still tinkering with it to get it right). I set the color temp to Warm for now. Overall color is very good. Brightness isn't quite even across the monitor but it still looks good. Black levels are good but not great. I have some very slight backlight bleeding near the top and right side of the screen and it's a non-issue. There's one dead pixel but for the price I paid I'll live with it. Viewing angles aren't that bad for a TN panel but could be better.

Games look great on this monitor and with no ghosting! Played a little bit of Oblivion and Stalker and they are much more immersive on this monitor over my 19" Viewsonic.

I haven't tested any DVDs yet but I've played some videos and they look good.

It's a keeper and definitely a steal for $200 if you can still find one.
 
tegtyme said:
You probably have to tweak some settings correctly like the nvidia peeps.
Since you are getting your 88GTS today you should easily be able to get your monitor to be crisp and clean....here are the tweaks you may have to do "If you are running a 8800gts/gtx, it won't display 1680x1050 properly. You'll need to go into Nvidia Control Panel, Advanced View, Manage Custom Timings. Create a new one with 1680x1050 for resolution and change the timing standard to DMT (I've found CVT also works, haven't tested the others). Voila, no more blurriness with the video card at 1680x1050 and the monitor thinking it's 1600x1200."
Click to expand...

Yeah i guess i will wait until i get the 8800gts before i make my final decision

I'm guessing my backup card might be having a hard time, dunno but reading text is annoying
 
P§I;1031119516 said:
I'm guessing my backup card might be having a hard time, dunno but reading text is annoying
Click to expand...
Is it just text that's blurry? If so, have you tried enabling/disabling ClearType fonts? On my LCD the text becomes horribly blurry if I have it enabled.
 
i got the 22" acer i dont really see any ghosting at all. maybe its just me, So far default settings seem ok will tinker more tonight. Played americas army at 1680x1050 its awesome.
 
P§I;1031119563 said:
Where is that option at?
Click to expand...
Well, I'm not sure what OS you're using, but I can tell you where it is in XP:

Right click on the desktop -> properties -> appearance tab -> Effects button; there's a check box that says "Use the following method to smooth the edges of screen fonts." You can uncheck the box to disable font smoothing completely, or, if it's checked, there's a drop down box that lets you select the smoothing technique (either "standard" or "ClearType").

I'm pretty sure these options are available in Vista too, if you're using that, but you'll have to search for them or have someone else help you find them, as I don't have Vista.
 
MadJuggla9 said:
If you mean the acer 22" widescreen AL2223W then your mistaken. It has NO ghost, especially bc the 5ms response time. I picked up 3 today. I only have enough desk room for 2 though
Click to expand...


I am not mistaken , it was the AL2223W, and it DID ghost. My buddy bought one as well and it did the same thing. We ended up taking both back to BB. Not sure if all you guys who are saying "theres no ghosting" remember using a CRT for gaming. CRT = no ghosting. Maybe I'm asking too much of an LCD, but I just could not play on the AL2223W. The ghosting killed the experience for me.
 
bootstrap said:
Well, I'm not sure what OS you're using, but I can tell you where it is in XP:

Right click on the desktop -> properties -> appearance tab -> Effects button; there's a check box that says "Use the following method to smooth the edges of screen fonts." You can uncheck the box to disable font smoothing completely, or, if it's checked, there's a drop down box that lets you select the smoothing technique (either "standard" or "ClearType").

I'm pretty sure these options are available in Vista too, if you're using that, but you'll have to search for them or have someone else help you find them, as I don't have Vista.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info, it has helped some. I am sure most of its due to the ati 800, we will see when my 8800 arrives
 
I just picked up one of these a few hours ago. The closest BB still had tons. After he picked his jaw up off the floor from the price, the employee told me I was the first one all day to ask about them and then ran off to tell his co-worker about the deal. :D

Haven't hooked it up yet, but man am I looking forward to doing so.
 
Just another update on my 22" Acer. Played some standard def widescreen DVDs and they play and look beautiful. A lot of detail can be seen along with very smooth playback.

You can adjust the RGB values separately if you need to fine tune the color for better grayscale accuracy. Warm looks pretty close to 6500k.

I had to lower the brightness setting down to 15. The contrast has been increased to 6. Gamma needed to be adjusted using the NV control panel to 57%.
 
I used to be an excellent CS player back when I used a CRT. Like around '99-2003
then I got a dell 2001fp and honestly it felt laggy and when I looked around quickly it would artifact or something, not sure how to describe it. I just tried CS again on the 22" acer and everything is just like it was on my CRT as I remember it. I would recommend it to serious-ish gamers.

There is no detectable ghosting, are you using a DVI cable? I can generally guess my ping time in CS within 10ms just by feel alone.
 
Well i am still unsure, text is annoying to read. I have done the above mention in the thread. Games are awesome, so are movies, but reading text is just getting annoying. Not sure what to do?
 
P§I;1031130322 said:
Well i am still unsure, text is annoying to read. I have done the above mention in the thread. Games are awesome, so are movies, but reading text is just getting annoying. Not sure what to do?
Click to expand...

Did you install cleartype and run the wizard?
 
FlipperBizkut said:
Did you install cleartype and run the wizard?
Click to expand...

No someone mentioned to disable it?

Also tweaking in the NV control panel

1. NVIDIA Control Panel > Display > Manage custom timings.
2. Click both "Treat as HDTV" and "Allow modes not exposed by the display"
3. Click [Create...]
4. Under Custom display mode values: Horizontal desktop pixels: 1680 Vertical desktop lines: 1050 GDI Refresh rate: 60 Bits per pixel: 32 (don't have "Interlaced" checked)
5. Click [Advanced >>] (by the way this is where I didn't go when NVIDIA emailed me)
6. Under "Back-end parameters": Timing standard: DMT Desired refresh rate: 60 (the rest of the fields are grayed out)
7. Under "Front-end paramers" Scaling type: Display (none)
8. Click [Test]
9. Click [OK]

it will not save the settings :
DMT desired
bits per pixel
or Front-end paramers

they all revert back to default settings
 
This seems like a good deal. I'll have to check out the monitor tomorrow.
 
FlipperBizkut said:
Well, try downloading it. I have been running it since I have been using LCDs. I wouldn't have it any other way. It very well may solve your problem.
Click to expand...
I've found that ClearType seems to be really hit or miss with various panels. It looks great on my laptop, but makes text look horrible and blurry on my desktop LCD. I never had to install it manually, as far as I know it's always been available in my install of XP. Not sure if it was added in a service pack or was installed as part of IE 7 or something else.
 
Has anybody hooked this up to an Xbox 360 with the vga cable? I've been looking to pick up a widescreen monitor for 360 gaming. I currently have a 2001fp that I've been using when my wife is watching TV. Any color issues with the 360? I know the 360 has been fixed, but are you able to adjust RGB on the monitor with vga? Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
 
Any opinions about the Acer 24" for $480?? I bought a Samsung 226bw b/c it was an open box item for about $330.... I was originally looking at the Acer 24" though. The sale on that particular LCD ends on 6/2 :(

Acer 24"
 
I watched the Acer x241w at best buy. It has great viewing angles. If you look at the screen from below, you will see much less color distortion, like dark purple, than what you'll see from a TN panel. That makes me so attempting to get one. However, there's no usb port on it and the screen can not be rotated 90 degrees to vertical.
 
I have a problem reading text without ClearType turned on. But I sit around 3 feet away from the screen. The text on this monitor looks pretty sharp with it enabled. If you sit closer, text does start to become more blurry.

After some more calibration, I discovered the gamma on this monitor is a bit high from the default setting and you need to lower it. The contrast is also too high and I needed to lower it further using the NVIDIA control panel. I was having an issue with shadow detail and lowering the contrast fixed it. It appears Acer designed this monitor for a very bright office enviroment because it is just way too bright out of the box for the average home user. You really need to crank the brightness and contrast settings down on this puppy and then do more adjusting with your video card settings--assuming you use it in low to mid-level lighting conditions.

All in all it's a good monitor if you can still get it for $189. Best Buy's web site still has it listed for the sale price.
 
K i tied installing them manualy and have been playing with the settings some.

Maybe I am just not used to the crisp vivid colors of a LCD screen?

Maybe i just got used to my crt screen that i have used for years.:confused:
 
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