Gateway FPD2485W - 24" HD LCD

The latest driver didn't help.

My local Best Buy stores only seem to have the "C" in stock, so I am going to get one soon in exchange.

When playing a DVD from my Xbox360, on Comp 2, I get these weird lines across where the letterboxing is. Sorry for the bad pic, but I tried to get close. The circled part illustrates what runs all the wat across both top and bottom.

 
TheRapture said:
No problems here...Flight Sim 2004 and FSX.....it may be your vid card and/or driver?
Click to expand...


It's not likely my video card as I have a BFG 8800GTX that ran fine with my previous Samsung 213T.

The ghosting I'm seeing on this panel is like some others have described it to be... Something of a dark or light coloured (depends on background colour) shadow that follows edges of images incl. text, and is mostly noticeable when dragging something slowly across the screen or panning around an object.

Odly enough, in fast action games like BF2142 and NFS Carbon I don't see much ghosting. But Flight Simulator 2004 and FSX are completely different stories.
- panning around the exterior of an aircraft usually shows a good 2-3mm of ghosting around the edges. The same effect shows up in trees, buildings and ground textures as well.
I'm almost positive that it's the cause of that twinkling/flashing effect.


My 14 day return period has passed on this panel so I'll either just live with it, or sell it and either get a newer revision and hope it works better, or I'll move onto another brand.
Haven't decided yet either way.

I really like the looks and feature set of the Gateway. Static 2D images look very good with only a little colour adjustment required.
Backlight bleeding hasn't been too much of an issue as 90%+ of it disappears once the panel warms up. I would however like to see slightly better black levels and a lot less ghosting. (Heck I'll just take less ghosting).
 
dcmix5 said:
The latest driver didn't help.

My local Best Buy stores only seem to have the "C" in stock, so I am going to get one soon in exchange.

When playing a DVD from my Xbox360, on Comp 2, I get these weird lines across where the letterboxing is. Sorry for the bad pic, but I tried to get close. The circled part illustrates what runs all the wat across both top and bottom.

Click to expand...

MGQ71 is the Jan code, no clue what Feb is if they even exist.

As for component inputs and inputs from other devices, try powering down the panel, then turning it back on. Its a hokey fix but it seems to work to solve a lot of these input image problems, even on different monitors.
 
aaronwt said:
The PS3 outputs 1080P60. So the resolution is 1920x1080P at 60hz. This is correct. When they have the March update we will supposedly get 1080P24 as an output option. But right now the only 1080P output option is 1080P60.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you that 1920x1080 60Hz is correct. I was just curious why they didn't call that 1080p in the menu as they did with everything else (1080i, 720p, 480p). I was pointing out a matter of consistent naming not malfunction.

This is interesting to know about the new output option. Do you happen to know if we will be able to update the firmware of our fpd2485w over USB, or will we have to send it to Gateway for upgrade?
 
Just picked up this monitor today.

At first it was nice.

Within about 4 hours of using it, I'm starting to notice some rather bad ghosting.

Is there anywhere to minimize this?

I have it connected to my 8800gtx with a rather nice belkin duallink dvi cable.

Is this is characteristic of the panel? or did I just get a bad egg?
 
Okay, just got back with another "C" and it is just as bad.

I took a vid with my digital camera, so the quality is bad, but once it uplaods on google, it will be bigger.

Until then, check this out, and look for the "flashing" effect when my character moves. What you see here is exactly how it looks to the naked eye:

View My Video
 
I have a quick question. When I use the widescreen mode with the 360, I get lines running across the monitor. Is there a fix for that? That's my only complaint about the monitor. I'm playing it in 1080p with the VGA.
 
I think these are even more tell all than my previosuly posted images.
These 4 images were taken straight from MS Flight Simulator 2004.

Each pair has one image with the in-game camera still, and the second with the camera panning around the object to show the ghosting.
(Click on each to see a larger image)



 
dcmix5 said:
Okay, just got back with another "C" and it is just as bad.

Until then, check this out, and look for the "flashing" effect when my character moves. What you see here is exactly how it looks to the naked eye:

View My Video
Click to expand...

i notice the same thing on mine, but in hl2. its not really a "flashing" issue, but it seems that the monitor changes "levels" depending on what you're looking at. granted i don't have WoW to see if its more extreme in that game, but it defintely is a little disconcerting in hl2.

thats the only game i have played since i just picked this monitor up this afternoon.
 
Those pics are noticeable ghosting. Is ghosting more evident when gaming on a PC as opposed to console gaming like on an Xbox360? I game alot on the Xbox360 and I do not see any real noticeable ghosting. I do though see banding on this Gateway 24".
 
dcmix5 said:
Okay, just got back with another "C" and it is just as bad.

I took a vid with my digital camera, so the quality is bad, but once it uplaods on google, it will be bigger.

Until then, check this out, and look for the "flashing" effect when my character moves. What you see here is exactly how it looks to the naked eye:

View My Video
Click to expand...

That definitely is the "flicker" that I have been talking about. It seems yours is far worse than mine was, but thats subjective, as its a video.

Here is the texture I have been talking about. You may even be able to see the flicker by just clicking and holding the scroll bar down and moving it up and down...

original.jpg






jball
 
Jball said:
That definitely is the "flicker" that I have been talking about. It seems yours is far worse than mine was, but thats subjective, as its a video.

Here is the texture I have been talking about. You may even be able to see the flicker by just clicking and holding the scroll bar down and moving it up and down..


jball
Click to expand...

weird, i don't see any flickering..
 
I have no flicker either at all on that pattern either (my wife saw none either), or bad ghosting or bleeding. Some people just have funky systems or funky displays.
 
Jball said:
That definitely is the "flicker" that I have been talking about. It seems yours is far worse than mine was, but thats subjective, as its a video.

Here is the texture I have been talking about. You may even be able to see the flicker by just clicking and holding the scroll bar down and moving it up and down...

original.jpg






jball
Click to expand...

I have noticed what you're talking about on my old monitor, but not this one with the image you provided. I haven't really run any games since I got this January, mostly because I'm running on 512MB while I wait for my 2GB Ballistix kit to return from RMA. I even opened this page on a different browser, minimized the screen to fit the image and dragged it around the desktop.

It looks like the monitor/components/backlight are trying to over-compensate for movement. Maybe its the Faroudja processor causing this? I'm not sure what modes the processor are active under, but I think its disabled in desktop mode? I've also read of some monitors having problems with "overdrive", which sound like an over-compensation for fast moving images which would appear to fit this problem. I don't run WoW either so I can't run the same test. When I get my 2GB back I'll see if I can re-create the effect I noticed in Dark Messiah on this January panel.

For those posting about ghosting....seriously I'm pretty sure every LCD still has some ghosting, even the fast 2ms grey-to-grey or a newer TNs. Varies from panel to panel it looks like and obviously its going to bother some more than others. I can definitely say that ghosting is less obvious on this January panel compared to the December one I returned using that PRAD.de test to compare. The tracers are very light and close to the moving images (box and letters). That test is designed to show ghosting using high contrast images and solid colors, so most real-world applications won't exhibit as much ghosting.
 
Seriously, it sounds like you got a good panel in that Jan, but I really don't think the date has anything to do with the issues people have. I find it hard to believe that any company would revise a production run on a monitor in a 3 month span. The nature of LCD technology is that no 2 will be the same, some will be plagued with issues others will be fine. Calling Gatway will be the biggest waste of time unless you are just trying to get a replacement. That post above is a joke, and just a waste of your long distance bill.

I have no flicker and minimal ghosting and smearing on my December. I really think it depends on the panel you get. I have not experienced flickering in a single game (Company of Heroes, Half Life 2, UT 2004, PS3 and XBOX 360, the posted pattern)

My only complaint is the slight black smearing on some objects but again, this is inherent to LCD's and to be honest, it seems to compensate for ghosting, of which I have none. For example, on a ghosting monitor a mouse pointer will leave a white trail of mouse pointers, ever so slight on a fast panel, instead of a white trail on this display it is dark. But so minor that I literally have to move the mouse slow and stare for it. I use a Dell 2407 at work and it has more ghosting but does not have the dark smearing, pick your issue.

What is funny is those who give up on this display and buy a more expensive panel (BenQ mainly) only to deal with a handful of different issues, mainly funcntionality problems. While still not totally getting rid of ghosting, backlight bleed etc..

LCD technology is not perfect, but the + far outweight the - on this display IMO.
 
I went from bad to worse with this exchange. I have a 4-inch round white hotspot in the upper right corner of this new panel. I also have what looks like an internal brace or bracket showing through the panel up there.

When I launch IE, I can see something like this running through part of the top address bar, below the hotspot:

---|---|---|---|---

I really regret selling my 21" now, because that panel was perfect. Had I known the quality of these 24" models before I bought mine, I wouldn't have done it.

Tonight, I am going to return this for a refund, and fire up my old 17" CRT for now until I get the time/energy/courage to keep doing this crap.
 
I just bought this monitor last Friday even after reading all 70+ pages :p . After reading a lot of reviews about the BenQ I felt I rather have this monitor. Price, and both have issues that are common with LCDs so I rather get the one that can be returned easily (BM). I got the MGL6C model from BB. I haven't had a lot of time to completely run this monitor through the gauntlet, but there are some things I have/haven't noticed.

When ever I have two web pages open and drag one across the other I see very bad trailing. I also see this when I drag a video window like powerdvd while it is playing a movie. Though those seem to be the only two situations when the trailing is noticably visible.

I have noticed some bleeding at the four corners, but only when I turn the lights off and have a blank/black screen up. I will give it time to see if this gets better, even if it doesn't I have to be looking specifically for it to notice the bleeding at all.

I have played DVDs via the PC and have not noticed anything wrong with the playback on this monitor. It looks pretty sweet to be honest.

I haven't noticed any banding/smearing/dead pixels/buzzing or flicker. I really haven't payed close enough attention to the games I have played as to whether there is ghosting and I have yet to hook my 360 to this monitor. I'll be doing that soon.

So far the only issue I have with this monitor is the very noticeable trailing from web pages. I am not sure if that is going to cause me to take this monitor back, annoying as it is though. So far, I am happy with it, but from what I read a lot of issues seem to crop up after two weeks of use ie the buzzing noise, bleeding and others.
 
dcmix5 said:
I went from bad to worse with this exchange. I have a 4-inch round white hotspot in the upper right corner of this new panel. I also have what looks like an internal brace or bracket showing through the panel up there.

When I launch IE, I can see something like this running through part of the top address bar, below the hotspot:

---|---|---|---|---

I really regret selling my 21" now, because that panel was perfect. Had I known the quality of these 24" models before I bought mine, I wouldn't have done it.

Tonight, I am going to return this for a refund, and fire up my old 17" CRT for now until I get the time/energy/courage to keep doing this crap.
Click to expand...


I would try another one personally, but it does get annoying. Seriously though, your odds are better hand picking a display at a local store then ordering one online where you have to deal with a lengthy RMA process if you get a turd. You will eventually get a great display if you keep at it. Have them hook it up on site.
 
So far everything with my Dec06 model looks good.. but the brightness of this monitor is just ridiculous! I really do not know if I will be able to sit in front of the screen for long periods of time because of how bright the back lights are. Changing the brightness/contrast on the monitor settings only change the picture quality and not the actually back light of the monitor.

Anyone else have this issue? I'm going back to another BestBuy too see if it's just my monitor, although I know some people have said this is a really really bright monitor already.
 
That also highlights another problem I have. The monitor will fry your eyes (or at least mine) when the brightness and contrast are cranked. This makes the flashing less of an issue because there is less of a light/dark transition, but I would never be able to use the monitor like that for extended periods.

I am going to get a refund, wait for later revisions and watch this thread.
 
Wow you guys are really hard to please. I love the brightness of this display, I found that lowering brightness, contrast and adjusting colors does tend to tone it down a bit.

I honestly think some of you need to look elsewhere if you have that many complaints about the Gateway 24. After using this display though everything I use at work now just looks dull.
 
Ferris23 said:
Wow you guys are really hard to please. I love the brightness of this display, I found that lowering brightness, contrast and adjusting colors does tend to tone it down a bit.

I honestly think some of you need to look elsewhere if you have that many complaints about the Gateway 24. After using this display though everything I use at work now just looks dull.
Click to expand...

Hard to please?

Want to trade monitors then?
 
Ferris23 said:
Seriously, it sounds like you got a good panel in that Jan, but I really don't think the date has anything to do with the issues people have. I find it hard to believe that any company would revise a production run on a monitor in a 3 month span. The nature of LCD technology is that no 2 will be the same, some will be plagued with issues others will be fine. Calling Gatway will be the biggest waste of time unless you are just trying to get a replacement. That post above is a joke, and just a waste of your long distance bill.
Click to expand...
Ya I'm totally satisfied now with my purchase although I've yet to run any games with it. Based on the generic tests and DVD movies though its better than my December. As for panels changing drastically from month to month or even batch to batch within a month, I have to disagree. There's so many components that drive LCDs beyond the panel itself and the designs and specifications are constantly being tweaked. There's also the issue of quality components and supply. The quality of the panel is going to have a large part of how the panel performs but the electronic components driving the picture also have a huge effect. Look at the Dell for instance. Numerous reports have stated Dell sacrificed IQ/Color reproduction for ghosting/input lag with the other components they used in the panel. Also look at the various inputs and resulting display quality on the Gateway compared to other panels. Another example would be the buzzing power supply in early November panels, a huge problem with this panel but is all but gone now.

With a product early in the life cycle the mfg is going to constantly change the supplier of all of these other electrical components based on price/performance/supply and possibly make changes to the firmware/internal settings as well. I can guarantee you that not every component down to the caps/transistors used in a November panel are the same as the ones you'd find in a January panel. The biggest problem is that the end-user won't know what changes are made and are typically at the mercy of whatever batch/run they end up getting. We at least have some control over which panel we get by being able to purchase at a B&M and sharing experiences here.

What is funny is those who give up on this display and buy a more expensive panel (BenQ mainly) only to deal with a handful of different issues, mainly funcntionality problems. While still not totally getting rid of ghosting, backlight bleed etc..

LCD technology is not perfect, but the + far outweight the - on this display IMO.
Click to expand...
Totally agree here. I did a lot of research on the BenQ after I decided to return the Dell 2407 and based on your results along with a few others, felt that the Gateway would satisfy my expectations of a 24" at a significantly lower price point. Picking up an HD Box for this panel today from Comcast so I'll be able to comment a bit more on 1:1 and different inputs.
 
My monitor would most likely be just as bright as yours, so no that would be a waste of time. Also mine doesn't flicker and has no bleed. I understand some issues being valid but if brightness is an issue for you with this display, then swapping for another won't help.
 
Ferris23 said:
My monitor would most likely be just as bright as yours, so no that would be a waste of time. Also mine doesn't flicker and has no bleed. I understand some issues being valid but if brightness is an issue for you with this display, then swapping for another won't help.
Click to expand...

I was talking about cranked settings to minimize the flashing, not the overall brightness of the panel.

So, if you have no flicker, or bleed, let's trade up.
 
So when you crank your brightness your flicker goes away?

I'm good on the trade by the way, but I get it already. I however did go through 3 panels until I landed this one (my 4th) My 3 had minor backlight bleed which was the only issue I ever had with this display, my 4th had none. It's not like I didn't put some effort into getting a unit sans issues.
 
The flicker doesn't go away totally, but because the screen is very washed out there is less transition, and it improves. No human being would want to look at this display like that though.
 
Hopefully this may help some of you. I went from a Samsung 710T to the Gateway Dec Model this weekend and while I have had some issues - I think I've overcome it. I am also running a X800XL and AMD 3000+ to give some perspective.

To the people having Ghosting:
- Though slight, there is a chance it is your video card not being able to keep up with the new resolution. Try lowering your resolution and forcing 1:1 mapping and see if you have the ghosting. Try to verify what your refresh rate is as well (try it at 65 if it isn't alread).

To the flickering:
- I have not seen it but will try and load up for some more.

To tearing:
- I was experiencing some tearing when trying to view certain scenes in DVD's. I tried for kicks lowering my refresh to 60 from 75 and it cleared it up. My guess is that the video card couldn't push the resolution plus the higher refresh.


One thing I haven't figured out -- every so often the monitor seems to get what I would call is confused. Twice when loading up Company of Heroes the display gets compressed vertically to only about an inch high. Recycle of the power on the monitor fixes it immediately. Strange -- has anyone else seen this?
 
deeplove said:
I have a quick question. When I use the widescreen mode with the 360, I get lines running across the monitor. Is there a fix for that? That's my only complaint about the monitor. I'm playing it in 1080p with the VGA.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to interupt the conversation and also on the bump, but can you guys point me to the right direction as far as my small issue with the monitor? I'm not going to turn in the monitor since this is my only complaint about it. Everything else looks just fine. Just the little lines running across the screen when set to 1080p on widescreen mode.
 
If you are getting lines then you are most likely running your 360 @ 1080P in widescreen, you need to set the display to 1:1 in the onscreen menu and those lines should go away.

If you are getting lines and your display is set to 1:1 then there is an issue with the display, or 360 cable.
 
I'm already plaing it on 1:1 and I like it. But say for instance, I like to lay down at times when I play the 360 so I tend to go back about 2' or so. When I do that, I was wondering how I could use the widescreen to see better. But I tend to notice the lines. Is there another setting on the resolutions I can use that seems pretty good and that doesn't give off the lines?
 
No, unless an update to 360 fixes that, 1080p needs to be played 1:1. (which you really should use since it keeps the picture uniform and not stretched)
 
10-4

Yeah. I'll keep it at 1:1. I love playing on it I just wondered.

Thanks for the fast response.

:D
 
jeepfun said:
To the people having Ghosting:
- Though slight, there is a chance it is your video card not being able to keep up with the new resolution. Try lowering your resolution and forcing 1:1 mapping and see if you have the ghosting. Try to verify what your refresh rate is as well (try it at 65 if it isn't alread).
Click to expand...

I've tried the 1:1 with lower resolution and it makes no difference.

Control pannel only allows 60hz at 1920x1200.

Can I override this to 65hz or higher without damaging the panel? And would it actually make a difference to attempt it if possible?

This ghosting is a bit to much for my tastes, but I dunno....
 
wasteomind said:
I've tried the 1:1 with lower resolution and it makes no difference.

Control pannel only allows 60hz at 1920x1200.

Can I override this to 65hz or higher without damaging the panel? And would it actually make a difference to attempt it if possible?

This ghosting is a bit to much for my tastes, but I dunno....
Click to expand...

Ouch - sorry for any potential confusion -- I did mean to say 60hz instead of 65...
 
Drant said:
Here's a detailed program to test your monitor's lag:
http://www.prad.de/download/pixperan_english.zip
Click to expand...

I tried out the program with my PC and got this report:

Graphics mode: 1920x1200 @ 32 bpp
Frame rate: 59.9 Hz
Gamma factor: 0.8833

Flag test: b->w: 84.0%, w->b: 87.3%, b->g: 89.4%, w->g: 87.1%
Chase test: 22(36.7ms), 21(35.0ms), 15(25.0ms)
Readability: Tempo 6
Game: Score: 22 Points, hit rate: 8%
streaky graphic: -

System info - (HP Pavilion m7690n) Running Windows XP Media Edition.
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6400 @ 2.13GHz
System Memory : 2048 MB
HD DVD drive is: Toshiba DVD/HD SD-H802A.
Video Connection Type : Digital (with HDCP)
Video Card is: NVIDIA’s GeForce 7600 GT (256MB GDDR3)
Graphics Card Driver : 6.14.10.9371
Display: Gateway FPD2485W TFT LCD.
I run my desktop at 1920 by 1200, with 32bit color for my screen resolution.

Just for the record, this program does not save the new settings for all the sliders you just calibrated during the various tests correct? Are these numbers telling me how I should adjust my monitor's settings for optimum picture quality, or was it simply a speed test?
I did like the program. Thanks for the link. ;)

For what it is worth, I too think that allot of the display issues reported are being caused by the massive amount of pixels your video hardware is responsible to move, to keep this 24" display happy. I know in the PC world they want a dedicated 250MB minimum on your graphics card, just for smooth video on a PC HD setup. I think they are correct or you WILL have poor quality video and speed issues. I only have a Playstation II myself. I dont know how much dedicated video ram the latest and greatest game machines have built in. I remember buying new video cards for my PC with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 16 MEG's of dedicated video memory not that long ago. I still am amaised that it is starting to become the norm for new computers to have 250MB graphic cards standard.

I would like to see every post that is reporting a video quality issue, to list at a minimum the machine running the monitor, and the connection method. This would help us to determine if we have a pattern of poor performance in certain combonations.

Soon I would like to see more monitor calabration info exchange for thoes of us who are into that, but think we probably have differet 'best' setting depending on the individual charestics of each videos source. In other words, the Playstation guys I would expect to have a tad different 'best' settings for the monitor than the PC guys?

FYI - 1 bit of trivia. I baught my Dec model at Best Buy for $727.59 'out the door' price including 7% tax. I had the 12% value points coupon sitting at home that I forgot to use. I went back the next day with my recept in hand along with the coupon. I presented them to the Service Desk along with my sad story about forgetting to use it on the previous day when I baught my display. They counted me back out of the register $95.34 refund for the Value Points discount coupon. Total price after the cash back was $632.25. That is from a Best Buy in Ohio.
 
Ferris23 said:
I have no flicker either at all on that pattern either (my wife saw none either), or bad ghosting or bleeding. Some people just have funky systems or funky displays.
Click to expand...

Ferris,

I reread my post and realized it didnt make sense. (Sorry bout that) Can you save this image to desktop, open it in a viewer in a small window and move it around your desktop. at a good steady speed, not real fast.

Anything strange happening? If not, congratulations..

Also, Im curious, you may have posted already, but what card are you running on, and are you using 1:1?

Lastly, Have you ever viewed a DLP display for a long period of time? Are you sensitive to DLP rainbows or get headaches when viewing a DLP image? I ask, because I am sensitive to the DLP rainbow effect, not everyone is. I was wondering if this issue somehow relates to one another.

Thanx,

jball
 
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