Gateway FPD2485W - 24" HD LCD

Ferris23 said:
I don't believe what he said is accurate actually...
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Looking for an argument? I'm game. :) j/k

In my experience with LCD televisions and monitors, I believe that what I said is accurate. No amount of output processing is going to improve the picture quality on an LCD when the source is being sent at non-native resolution. Only the internal scaler on the LCD matters in this case.
 
ChakkaSol said:
So what is your relationship with Gateway...do you work as a subcontractor or subsidiary of Gateway.
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We (Portrait Displays) manufactuer and provide all support for the EzTune software that Gateway includes with the monitors.

Neuritis said:
I just started noticing today that the backlight bleeding in the top right corner seems to be getting worse. After almost two weeks, when I power the monitor on, the corner stays whiter for about 15 minutes and then once the monitor is warm, it goes away completely. Is this normal for everybody? Darv, Did your test units do this too?
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Our testing is limited to EzTune functionality and doesn't include pannel hardware lighting.

However since you asked you got me currious and I thought I'd take a look. I checked out several monitors and every monitor I looked at (even brands other than Gateway) did have at least some backlight bleed but the pattern varried from panel to panel. I even noticed it on my personal Toshiba laptop. It was almost always aorund the edges. The FPD2485W had some bleed in the four corners of the screen.

Neither I nor the people I talked to could think of any way that it might worsen over time. My understanding of why it occurs (backlight placment patternt) shouldn't change and I would think it would

I would also add that I wasn't able to see any bleed under normal lighting conditions here at the office. I had to set the wallpaper to black and then turn off the lights in the building to see any bleed at which point I got a few loud yells from people trying to work. :eek:

I mostly am doing photoshop and 3ds max on my system and the four corners are the areas where the tools are located in both programs. So it won't affect my work.

Had I not read about it on line here I don't think I would have noticed it.

Darv
PDI Support

PS: QA had been doing some testing on these monitors and I went back and tried to show someone the bleeding that was mentioned here. Seems that once the montior warmed up, I could no longer see the backlight bleeding that I had seen earlier. Do you notice it after you let the monitor warm up a while?
 
aaronjb said:
Looking for an argument? I'm game. :) j/k
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But if a monitor supports 1:1 aspect ration, then isn't the resolution being sent esentially native to that setting?

I'm confused.

In other words, if he sets the screen to 1680x1050 wouldn't that look the same as a monitor whos native res is that same resolution? From what I can see it is.
 
Darv said:
We (Portrait Displays) manufactuer and provide all support for the EzTune software that Gateway includes with the monitors.



Our testing is limited to EzTune functionality and doesn't include pannel hardware lighting.

However since you asked you got me currious and I thought I'd take a look. I checked out several monitors and every monitor I looked at (even brands other than Gateway) did have at least some backlight bleed but the pattern varried from panel to panel. I even noticed it on my personal Toshiba laptop. It was almost always aorund the edges. The FPD2485W had some bleed in the four corners of the screen.

Neither I nor the people I talked to could think of any way that it might worsen over time. My understanding of why it occurs (backlight placment patternt) shouldn't change and I would think it would

I would also add that I wasn't able to see any bleed under normal lighting conditions here at the office. I had to set the wallpaper to black and then turn off the lights in the building to see any bleed at which point I got a few loud yells from people trying to work. :eek:

I mostly am doing photoshop and 3ds max on my system and the four corners are the areas where the tools are located in both programs. So it won't affect my work.

Had I not read about it on line here I don't think I would have noticed it.

Darv
PDI Support

PS: QA had been doing some testing on these monitors and I went back and tried to show someone the bleeding that was mentioned here. Seems that once the montior warmed up, I could no longer see the backlight bleeding that I had seen earlier. Do you notice it after you let the monitor warm up a while?
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A few questions:

Does EZTune function properly in Vista?

Do I have to have EZTune running in the background in order for my settings to stay or can I disable any services or uncheck the MSCONFIG startup for EZTune. I am very picky about resources which is why I ask. What NEEDS to be running in order for my calibrations in EZTune to be applied?

As for backlight bleed I am starting to believe that the Dec models fixed the four corner backlight bleed. Some models have a little here and there, but the Nov 2006 monitor I took back had it on all four corners. The Dec 2006 display I have no has none and has been running for 3 straight days.
 
Well the backlight bleeding in the corners were looking pretty bad, about an inch of whitish/grey haze from each corner. Like I said, it would go away after the monitor warmed up, but it seemed to be progressively worse each day. So finally I contacted Gateway support and they said that was definately a problem and I should replace the monitor. Since I was still within my return/exchange window they recommended that I take it back to FutureShop for an exchange. It would be much easier and faster than waiting for the replacement etc. However, FutureShop would not let me exchange and test for another 14 days. They said it was from the initial purchase date and if I wanted to test, I would need to return the original and buy another one. Problem with that was I bought mine on sale and now the sale is over and FS would not honour the old price. Can you believe that? So I simply returned it and now I have no monitor.

I'll wait for the next time it goes on sale, and hopefully, there will be a major revision to fix these problems.
 
Neuritis said:
I'll wait for the next time it goes on sale, and hopefully, there will be a major revision to fix these problems.
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Ug! Sorry to hear about that. I hate how complicated things get sometimes.

I had a system all picked out at Fry's Electronics out here in CA but they could not find the guy with the key to get the Gateway monitor. So we asked them to hold everything for us till they could get the montior and we'd go grab a bite to eat. When we returned someone had snagged the motherboard out of the basket in the holding area and sold it. Of course it was the last one. I was so frustrated we just left. Next day I went to a Fry's about 40 miles away and got the motherboard. When I returned to get the rest of the system, the hard drives were no longer on sale. ARGH! We finally worked out a deal and got a cheaper price on the memory that made up for the difference in cost but pulling teeth would have been easier. I know where you are comming from.

May I ask how much the monitor was on sale for?

Darv
 
Ferris23 said:
But if a monitor supports 1:1 aspect ration, then isn't the resolution being sent esentially native to that setting?

I'm confused.

In other words, if he sets the screen to 1680x1050 wouldn't that look the same as a monitor whos native res is that same resolution? From what I can see it is.
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Yes, that's correct. I was assuming that he did not have 1:1 mapping turned on, and that's why the text was blurry - because the panel was scaling the lower resolutions to 1920x1200. But if he has 1:1 mapping on, and the monitor is displaying the lower resolution on a portion of the display, then there shouldn't be any blurriness.
 
Darv said:
May I ask how much the monitor was on sale for?

Darv
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It was on sale for $699 CDN which was $100 off the $799 regular price. Not a huge deal, but better than nothing...and it was the cheapest that the Dell 2407 was on sale for. But after seeing the amazing picture quality of the Gateway, I don't want Dell any more. As I said before, I can wait until these "problems" are worked out and then I'll get a Gateway.
 
Drant said:
Would everyone with a backlight bleeding problem please post a picture of their Gateway? I plan to purchase it today and want a sample of other monitors to compare.

When you take the picture, Right Click Desktop -> Properties -> Screensaver -> "Blank" and please turn your room lighting off.
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Being a semi-professional photographer I can tell you that this will not give you an idea as to what we are seeing. You'd have to turn any flash off so the camera is then going to compensate for the darkness in the room and overexpose the screen area most likey exagerating the effect. You'd also have to use a tripod for the extended time the shutter was open so you had a stable picture. And keep in mind, it only shows up when you first turn on the monitor. If the monitor is on for a few minutes, it goes away.

When I went back an checked a warm monitor, I couldn't see it at all.

Darv

PDI Support.
 
Neuritis said:
It was on sale for $699 CDN which was $100 off the $799 regular price. Not a huge deal, but better than nothing...and it was the cheapest that the Dell 2407 was on sale for. But after seeing the amazing picture quality of the Gateway, I don't want Dell any more. As I said before, I can wait until these "problems" are worked out and then I'll get a Gateway.
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For what it's worth, I just did a search on Ebay and found them for $550 US. That's about $100 less than I paid. Shipping was $35. But of course it does make taking it back a little trickier. Do wish I could find a brick and mortar that would match ebay buy it now prices. ;)

Darv
 
I found a way to get this monitor for around $500 at Best Buy, I think. I'll be going later tonight to pick this baby up. Anyway, sign up for a Reward Zone card online and print out the reward zone temporary member card. Then go to this site and print out the coupon. I believe its the same coupon Ferris used? Go to BB and get them to price match 110% off Circuit City's $624.99 price. It'll add up to 22% off CC's price which totals to $487.50 before tax. Hopefully everything works out, I'll report what happens. :D
 
Ferris23 said:
A few questions:

Does EZTune function properly in Vista?

Do I have to have EZTune running in the background in order for my settings to stay or can I disable any services or uncheck the MSCONFIG startup for EZTune. I am very picky about resources which is why I ask. What NEEDS to be running in order for my calibrations in EZTune to be applied?
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Sorry Ferris,

I had overlooked this message.

Yes, EzTune 1.40 available at http://www.portrait.com/dtune/gwy/enu/upgrade.html is supports Vista 32 and 64. I have the 64bit version running on my home system. The issue states on the page regarding Nvidia graphics cards and DirectX games is limited to Windows XP and does not affect Vista. At this time, there are no known issues specific to Vista.

Basically you just need to run EzTune to load any saved profiles. Once the profile is loaded the changes will remain. You can then exit out of the program by clicking on the icon in the sytem tray and choosing Exit. Those things that affect the monitor directly will reamin until the monitor is reset. Items that affect the graphics card such as color calibration, will be reset when the system is rebooted.

You can also close down the Pivot portion of EzTune but this would require pulling up the task manager and killing the WPCtrl.exe process. Pivot doesn't take up much in the way of processes though.

There are a couple of services that will remain running unless stopped from the Services in the Control Panel.

Hope this is what you were looking for.
Darv

PDI Support.
 
jinjjaone said:
I found a way to get this monitor for around $500 at Best Buy, I think. I'll be going later tonight to pick this baby up. Anyway, sign up for a Reward Zone card online and print out the reward zone temporary member card. Then go to this site and print out the coupon. I believe its the same coupon Ferris used? Go to BB and get them to price match 110% off Circuit City's $624.99 price. It'll add up to 22% off CC's price which totals to $487.50 before tax. Hopefully everything works out, I'll report what happens. :D
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YMMV with coupon. I got some kid working who wanted to be Mr. Enforcer with the coupon but I wore him down and he gave in, but he wouldn't give me 110% PM. Thus, I paid $550 plus tax minus whatever BB Rewards gives you back.
 
So I hooked up an Xbox360 to my Gateway today but when I tried to do 1080p over Component 2 it said "frequency out of range". I know other people have gotten the same message, but I was wondering if people had narrowed it down to a manufacturing defect or just a flaw in the design?
 
Darv said:
Basically you just need to run EzTune to load any saved profiles. Once the profile is loaded the changes will remain. You can then exit out of the program by clicking on the icon in the sytem tray and choosing Exit. Those things that affect the monitor directly will reamin until the monitor is reset. Items that affect the graphics card such as color calibration, will be reset when the system is rebooted.
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Great news! Thanks, Darv!
 
jinjjaone said:
I found a way to get this monitor for around $500 at Best Buy, I think. I'll be going later tonight to pick this baby up. Anyway, sign up for a Reward Zone card online and print out the reward zone temporary member card. Then go to this site and print out the coupon. I believe its the same coupon Ferris used? Go to BB and get them to price match 110% off Circuit City's $624.99 price. It'll add up to 22% off CC's price which totals to $487.50 before tax. Hopefully everything works out, I'll report what happens. :D
Click to expand...

Chances of getting that are slim to none, though not impossible of course depending on the manager.

Reason being is you cant use a coupon with a price match, because in essence it lowers the price beyond the CC price. That and the CC price is an online only special. However you may get lucky, good luck! (I called both my Best Buys and was told that would not be possible)

Can't complain though considering I used an expired 12% off coupon along with 10.00 in rewar coupons.
 
fullcollapse said:
So I hooked up an Xbox360 to my Gateway today but when I tried to do 1080p over Component 2 it said "frequency out of range". I know other people have gotten the same message, but I was wondering if people had narrowed it down to a manufacturing defect or just a flaw in the design?
Click to expand...

Don't know.. I was getting the same problem with a PS3 and 1080p over Component.. 1080i works fine. Gateway's website advertises 1080p over component... I don't have any other devices to test it with right now.
 
There's a November model sitting on a desk near me, and now whenever it starts up there is MASSIVE bright white backlight bleed in all four corners. A week ago there was only a tiny bit of backlight bleed in the upper right hand corner.

The monitor has two days left on the return period, and will be going back tomorrow.

I am seriously thinking of cancelling the large order I made for these (75 of them) if this is something that will happen to all of them in the future.

For some reason Gateway made it impossible to dim the backlight, so it is running full blast 24/7. The front of the screen is actually HOT to the touch, which I have never felt in an LCD before in my life.
 
steelie69 said:
There's a November model sitting on a desk near me, and now whenever it starts up there is MASSIVE bright white backlight bleed in all four corners. A week ago there was only a tiny bit of backlight bleed in the upper right hand corner.

The monitor has two days left on the return period, and will be going back tomorrow.

I am seriously thinking of cancelling the large order I made for these (75 of them) if this is something that will happen to all of them in the future.

For some reason Gateway made it impossible to dim the backlight, so it is running full blast 24/7. The front of the screen is actually HOT to the touch, which I have never felt in an LCD before in my life.
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Yep, that one of the things that made me return mine. Check out BENQ that I've got instead.

IMG_0275_resize.jpg
 
aaronjb said:
Yes, that's correct. I was assuming that he did not have 1:1 mapping turned on, and that's why the text was blurry - because the panel was scaling the lower resolutions to 1920x1200. But if he has 1:1 mapping on, and the monitor is displaying the lower resolution on a portion of the display, then there shouldn't be any blurriness.
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I took a look all around, and I am just not seeing any indication of anything regarding 1:1 pixel mapping, anywhere.

So it looks like you are saying --- that only when the pixels of the lower resolution fits one on one with the same exact pixel size as the native, and higher resolution, will everything be displayed just fine. But that would mean that only 1680 of the 1920 horizontal pixels would be used, and only 1050 of the 1200 vertical pixels would be used,

This would mean that the screen icons and such do not get bigger, they stay the same and just less of the screen is used.


Also, it would in essence, be a "letterbox" style format on all sides. This is not the case with CRT monitors, but I know, LCD’s are different.

I don’t think I like this difference.


I don’t know. Am I right in describing this?
 
Heh, I must be very lucky. I have a nov and my blacklight bleeding is the same as ID64's...


I have some questions for FPD24 owners:

1. How does xbox 360 look through VGA and can this monitor allow 1080p through vga? Any games you try in 1080p? (don't have a 360 to test this)

2. I hooked up my ps3 through DVI and ran 1080p, it was flat out amazing. What's the best way to get audio going? I could buy new speakers that will have opitical in or is there a better way?
 
360 in 1080p is amazing. I am using the component cable audio portion for sound on my PS3 into my existing sound system. Of course optical would work as well. I agree, 1080p on PS3 also looks pristine on this set.

And my backlight is also flawess like the pic that ID64 posted. (as is 1:1 aspect ratio out of the box ;) )
 
gabbs said:
I took a look all around, and I am just not seeing any indication of anything regarding 1:1 pixel mapping, anywhere.
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Menu > Video Adjust > Video Scaling

gabbs said:
So it looks like you are saying --- that only when the pixels of the lower resolution fits one on one with the same exact pixel size as the native, and higher resolution, will everything be displayed just fine. But that would mean that only 1680 of the 1920 horizontal pixels would be used, and only 1050 of the 1200 vertical pixels would be used,
This would mean that the screen icons and such do not get bigger, they stay the same and just less of the screen is used.
Also, it would in essence, be a "letterbox" style format on all sides. This is not the case with CRT monitors, but I know, LCD’s are different.
I don’t think I like this difference.
I don’t know. Am I right in describing this?
Click to expand...

You are correct. I agree, it's not ideal. But for displaying lower resolution content, 1:1 mapping is sometimes preferable over scaling.

However, if you're having trouble reading text, I would suggest keeping the display at 1920x1200 and increasing the DPI to 120.
 
If I can get this monitor at bbuy with a circuit city coupon match and 12% off coupon from bbuy, for $550 it seems like a great deal.

So are most of the problems fixed with the Dec or later manufacturered date and 1.4 eztune? Plus are the blue and green stickered boxes are the Dec models and that the yellow and orange are Nov?

Also this monitor is compared to benqs 24. Is hdmi port really worth the extra cost?
 
Considering I got an HDMI switch for 24 bucks I'm going to say.....nope.

Yellow and Blue stickers are December. Green and Orange I believe are November.
 
So you mean an hdmi switch like this:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10110&cs_id=1011001&p_id=2786&seq=1&format=2

Right now I have no plans to run an xbox or ps3 on a monitor cause of the different aspect ratios (personally hate black bars). I really want PIP and 1:1 with 1080p/i working together so I can watch a game/tv while surfing da net. Also want a great gaming rig.

Oh an thanks for teh yellow/blue cause I know a green sticker is available when I last checked.
 
Yeah that is the switch that I use. Also I stand corrected, someone in this thread got a Green sticker that was Dec 2006
 
R users haven better luck with the gw's with the blue stickie or the one with the yellow stickie or does it matter?
 
Got my 2485w at Best Buy for 550+ tax like a couple other people in this thread and everything seems to be fine. There's some small backlight in the right hand corner but nothing that's a very small annoyance I could live with. However there's a bigger problem that I can't seem to solve. I have my PS3 running on the HDMI->DVI and I can get 1:1 pixel mapping to work during the XMB menu but when I run games like Madden 07, Blast Factor, and Motorstorm it won't keep the 1:1 ratio (black borders on the top and bottom). Anyone else experiencing this? Other than that its running beautifully.

Edit: BTW its a week 50 manufactured monitor.

Edit2: Argh nevermind I should do some more experimenting... but oddly I have to switch between inputs to get 1080p 1:1 working. XMB menu will be in 1080p 1:1 but when I select a game it'll turn to 720p and I have to select a different input then go back to DVI for it to be in 1080p 1:1. Odd...

Edit3: Eh guess I'm just not too impressed with 720p on this monitor. Does it not have 1:1 when running 720p?
 
jinjjaone said:
I found a way to get this monitor for around $500 at Best Buy, I think. I'll be going later tonight to pick this baby up. Anyway, sign up for a Reward Zone card online and print out the reward zone temporary member card. Then go to this site and print out the coupon. I believe its the same coupon Ferris used? Go to BB and get them to price match 110% off Circuit City's $624.99 price. It'll add up to 22% off CC's price which totals to $487.50 before tax. Hopefully everything works out, I'll report what happens. :D
Click to expand...

The coupon doesn't mention anything about Monitors being included. Perhaps it was a different coupon?

Darv
 
Darv said:
The coupon doesn't mention anything about Monitors being included. Perhaps it was a different coupon?

Darv
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I think this was the same coupon others were using -- it's technically not valid for computer monitors, but some people were able to convince the BB managers that they were using the monitor as a TV and so it should be valid. I suppose it really depends on how strict your local BB is, but it doesn't hurt to try, right?
 
Exactly. I got turned down by one local Best Buy but was allowed to use it at the other. I just stressed the fact that the Monitor also has TV/HDTV capabilites and that was I all needed to do to use an expired 12% off coupon.

I love a deal. Now if I could just convince my wife that over 500 beans on a PC monitor is a deal.

:D
 
bootstrap said:
I think this was the same coupon others were using -- it's technically not valid for computer monitors, but some people were able to convince the BB managers that they were using the monitor as a TV and so it should be valid. I suppose it really depends on how strict your local BB is, but it doesn't hurt to try, right?
Click to expand...

I was able to use the standard BB 12% off Rewards Coupon. The sales person needed to have a manager help him to key it in and he did. $679.00 - $81.48 = $597.52 plus tax.

I have a Nov build. I am happy but I do get a light bleed plum in the upper right corner.

Best

JMD
 
aaronjb said:
Menu > Video Adjust > Video Scaling



You are correct. I agree, it's not ideal. But for displaying lower resolution content, 1:1 mapping is sometimes preferable over scaling.

However, if you're having trouble reading text, I would suggest keeping the display at 1920x1200 and increasing the DPI to 120.
Click to expand...


Ahh, there it is. Thank you.

I see what you mean. Now what this does, *assuming you want the best quality screen display* is render the lower resolutions unusable. I don't like that.

Its not so much the small text, actually the text is not all that small, I think its more of seeing all the empty white real-estate on the screen when I go to Google, for example, or Outlook Express. Its just a different view, I guess I will just get used to it. If I scale down the window, that would seem to defeat the whole idea of getting a large widescreen monitor.

These large LCD monitors have their good points and their bad points.

As far as the 1;1 setting - should I just leave it there as my default? If I am always in the native resolution, it should not matter. Should it?
 
Oh, and I should add:

Day 4 - no buzzing, no backlight bleeding.
Other than that resolution thing, I am happy with this monitor ... I think.

I have a question: If I get the NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT card, which has a VGA and DVI output, can I hook up my Gateway to the DVI and also run my old CRT monitor off the VGA at the same time?

Or do they both have to be DVI? In that case I might get the NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT KO, which has two DVI hookups, but a VGA converter.
 
gabbs said:
Ahh, there it is. Thank you.

I see what you mean. Now what this does, *assuming you want the best quality screen display* is render the lower resolutions unusable. I don't like that.

Its not so much the small text, actually the text is not all that small, I think its more of seeing all the empty white real-estate on the screen when I go to Google, for example, or Outlook Express. Its just a different view, I guess I will just get used to it. If I scale down the window, that would seem to defeat the whole idea of getting a large widescreen monitor.

These large LCD monitors have their good points and their bad points.

As far as the 1;1 setting - should I just leave it there as my default? If I am always in the native resolution, it should not matter. Should it?
Click to expand...

I use 1:1 all the time with my PC. If you're using game consoles or other inputs, I could see the need to switch, but since I don't do any console gaming on this display I keep it set to 1:1.

Yeah, using a widescreen is a new exercise. I found myself disliking all the white space at first, but then I learned to use it properly: I have a few windows open at once now, and tile them vertically. So I'll have e-mail on one half of the screen, and a Web browser open on the other half. Once I got used to the widescreen, I'm more productive.
 
gabbs said:
Oh, and I should add:

Day 4 - no buzzing, no backlight bleeding.
Other than that resolution thing, I am happy with this monitor ... I think.

I have a question: If I get the NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT card, which has a VGA and DVI output, can I hook up my Gateway to the DVI and also run my old CRT monitor off the VGA at the same time?

Or do they both have to be DVI? In that case I might get the NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT KO, which has two DVI hookups, but a VGA converter.
Click to expand...
You should be able to use DVI and VGA at the same time -- I do this at work without a problem.
 
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