HP 24" W2408H (refurbished) $200 shipped

Archaea said:
6 bit has worse viewing angles and less faithful color reproduction, it only has something like 256,000 colors, but uses dithering to supposedly make it look like much more. 8 bit has 16.7 million colors possible. Some people notice it much more than others.

six bit is fine for gaming - but once you go 8 bit it's hard to go back to 6 bit.

8 bit is better for photo or video manipulation because colors are more true to life.


Here's an excert from an online article that explains in detail...

Now color depth was previous referred to by the total number of colors that the screen can render, but when referring to LCD panels the number of levels that each color can render is used instead. This can make things difficult to understand, but to demonstrate, we will look at the mathematics of it. For example, 24-bit or true color is comprised of three colors each with 8-bits of color. Mathematically, this is represented as:

2^8 x 2^8 x 2^8 = 256 x 256 x 256 = 16,777,216
High-speed LCD monitors typically reduce the number of bits for each color to 6 instead of the standard 8. This 6-bit color will generate far fewer colors than 8-bit as we see when we do the math:

2^6 x 2^6 x 2^6 = 64 x 64 x 64 = 262,144
This is far fewer than the true color display such that it would be noticeable to the human eye. To get around this problem, the manufacturers employ a technique referred to as dithering. This is an effect where nearby pixels use slightly varying shades or color that trick the human eye into perceiving the desired color even though it isn't truly that color. A color newspaper photo is a good way to see this effect in practice. (In print the effect is called half-tones.) By using this technique, the manufacturers claim to achieve a color depth close to that of the true color displays.

http://compreviews.about.com/od/multimedia/a/LCDColor.htm
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Also I will point out from that article that the dithering brings the display technically up to 16.2million colors:
If the manufacturer lists the color as 16.7 million colors, it should be assumed that the display is 8-bit per-color. If the colors are listed as being 16.2 million or 16 million, consumers should assume that it uses a 6-bit per-color depth.
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This is no longer the case, many 6bit TN's in the past 6months have been seen advertisign 16.7million.

And this:
Does it Really Matter?

This is very subjective to the actual user and what the computer is used for. The amount of color really matters to those that do professional work on graphics. For these people, the amount of color that is displayed on the screen is very important. The average consumer is not going to really need this level of color representation by their monitor. As a result, it probably doesn't matter. People using their displays for video games or watching video will likely not care about the number of colors rendered by the LCD but by the speed at which it can be displayed. As a result, it is best to determine your needs and base your purchase on those criteria.
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I suppose they forgot to mention it's also good for epeen wagging on message boards.
 
Acer's are typically six bit....BUT 170/170 viewing angle often means 8 bit while 160/160 viewing angles is six bit.

sooo...the simple test you can preform to determine if you have a six bit or 8 bit is

If viewing the monitor from the below the normal viewing position does the screen go dark or almost black out? When viewing the monitor from above does the screen look like it inverts colors, or blacks go purple ect?
If it does you have a 6 bit TN panel.

If it doesn't and it just looks a bit more faint when off axis, but there are no obvious color changes then you have an 8 bit.



Having had both types I definately can tell the difference at casual and first glance on any monitor I've seen and be accurate. The 8 bit are worth more than bragging rights --- to my eyes they really look better. That being said. These HP rebranded monitors are worth $200 bucks so if you are on the fence...just buy one...You'll be happy.
 
ivandurago said:
I currently have an Acer 22" ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009138)
It is listed as 16.7 million colors, but is it truly an 8 bit? If it is a 6 bit I can deal with the colors, as I find this monitor pretty alright, and cannot afford mid range 24" atm.
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I think it was mentioned above that many 6 bit panels use dithering to "achieve" other colors. But I suppose it's like Samsung listing a 500,000 to 1 contrast ratio when advertising a TV. They cheat like crazy when they measure and then exaggerate even more.
 
Drakan290 said:
Just ordered one...
Fingers crossed! Been wanting one for almost 6 months now!
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Saw a "real" HP branded one in store a couple of days ago. Fairly impressive color and viewing angle for a TN, but it can't touch the P-MVA in my Soyo. Frustrating considering I'd really like HDCP support / HDMI in...
 
silent-circuit said:
Saw a "real" HP branded one in store a couple of days ago. Fairly impressive color and viewing angle for a TN, but it can't touch the P-MVA in my Soyo. Frustrating considering I'd really like HDCP support / HDMI in...
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Yeah, I was just at Costco and was messing around with it for about an hour. People got mad and told me to leave, which made up my mind. I wanted the monitor, so I bought it.
Had to do the hands on test first, though. :p
 
Received mine today. Zero stuck/dead pixels. Total hours was at 4 and backlight hours at 2. It's the Samsung panel. I'm pretty sure it's TN.

It's severely lacking for me while watching HD video but not unbearable. It's still a really nice screen. I absolutely would prefer a H-IPS version but how close to $200 could we get with that necessity?

It was good price and I'm feeling victorious with the purchase.

http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/6747/hpw2408hzy1.jpg

The quality is much better than that, I'm just a terrible photographer.
 
I ordered one last night when they came back for $215. Hopefully its all good, I'm tired of my 20.1" Viewsonic. Need something a bit bigger for my 360 and pc gaming needs!
 
In my opinion this deal is amazing! i own the w2207 (22" version), and its amazing the 24" is the only one better than mine.
 
Jonsey said:
I've had good luck with buy.com. For those interested, the HP w2408h is a TN panel. Can't expect much more for the price though. The bezel and stand looks nice.
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It's one of the better TN panels on the market though if you look at reviews. It's colors are suppose to be good for a TN. I was considering buying one during the big HP cashback promotion but that didn't work out so well since Live/HP couldn't handle the server load.
 
WeeManFoo said:
I'm thinking about buying two of the 22" monitors. What is their dead pixel?
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I think it's something terrible like 8 or 10..
But people have been having good luck, and you can probably return it to HP if you take off the 'famous maker' stickers.
 
I love how EVERY monitor thread turns into a SIPS/TN/Etc war.. I have the 22 inch version of this and I am completely satisfied.
 
I hope the 24" goes back on sale in the next month as I would really like to pick one up after reading the reviews on this thread, and am sorta kicking myself for not taking advantage of it at the time. :mad:
I am still slightly concerned about running a 24" and a 22" together off the same ATI HD4870 1gb, as I have read reviews regarding Catalyst drivers and 2 diff rez monitors causing issues.
 
the only issue i have with different monitors is when i run games at a non-native resolution (main monitor), windows will shift placement on the secondary

edit: hmm that might be a problem on same res monitors too ... oh well, no problems with catalyst is what im trying to say
 
That happens on same res monitors as well. Why are you running games at non-native resolution anyway?
 
I just bought one of these, seems to get good reviews across the board. Only thing is, I put my old 22" LCD on Ebay for seven days, and somebody already bought it the
first hour! Now I have to mail it out BEFORE the 24" get's here!
 
GJSNeptune said:
Buy.com has no customer service. They have customers, but no service.
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I have had great luck with buy.com's customer service in the distant past. I actually ended up with 2 Nvidia video cards at one point and was told to keep the 2nd.
 
Ryland said:
I have had great luck with buy.com's customer service in the distant past. I actually ended up with 2 Nvidia video cards at one point and was told to keep the 2nd.
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Nice! Buy.com always gets a bad rap, nice to see they did something for ya!
 
I've never had anything but good exp. from buy.com

I've ordered from them for over 10 years.


Stating the obvious:
I think once a company gets as big as buy.com it's bound to have broken a few eggs. Those people with bad exp. always scream the loudest. So that's who we hear. Buy.com is probably the biggest besides amazon of all the e-tailers. So you'll hear more complaints about them no matter what ---- only because they service more customers.
 
I've never had any problem with buy.com, except for the fact they keep making me spend money I don't have. :p Seems like the people they have pissed off their fair share of customers though.
 
I just bought multiple items from them, they ship relatively fast on SMALL items......
this monitor, not so much.
 
^ relax,

You do realize you just bought a $440 dollar monitor (newegg price) for $215 or so shipped right?

Who cares about having to wait for a week! I'm using one right now. It's very nice.
 
Ryland said:
I have had great luck with buy.com's customer service in the distant past. I actually ended up with 2 Nvidia video cards at one point and was told to keep the 2nd.
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I'm not sure how you define distant past, but in the late 90's, they were fantastic. These days, they're not so great.

I ordered the Logitech Z5500 set from them a bit over a year ago. They didn't ship it for weeks. They claimed they'd shipped it, but it never arrived at UPS, so they hadn't really shipped it. Nevertheless, they took another week or 2 before they could determine if they'd shipped it or not. They never actually put a trace on the package with UPS, so it's safe to assume that they knew it hadn't been shipped.

A few months ago I bought something from them (don't recall what now), and this time, it sat in the sent to warehouse/ready to ship for days. Feeling a bad buy.com flashback, I called to cancel. They said it was OOS (the site said otherwise) and they told me I couldn't cancel for a week or some such nonsense.

A day passes, I call again, same story. I told them if it hadn't shipped by the end of the day (their work day), I'd order elsewhere and refuse shipment if they shipped.

Shockingly, an hour later they had product in stock and shipped it.

If the deal is super hot, rebates are not involved (or at least don't expire anytime soon) and time is not an issue, then buy.com is worth a shot, but if you can get a similar deal at Amazon or newegg, it's probably worth going elsewhere.

FWIW, I ordered a brother label maker last week for 7 or 8 bucks (great deal) and it arrived the next day.

Buy.com is like UPS. Most of the time, things work out, but when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong.
 
taylorwilsdon said:
Why would you want HDMI on a monitor without speakers (or one with speakers for that matter, because why would you use built in speakers)?

Some people...
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HDMI video switching works great if you have a cheap switch from mono price and some consoles or a tv tuner near your computer. Can always run the audio to an amp. (True you can do this with a HDMI->DVI adapter as well, but being able to avoid adapters is a slight benefit)
 
taylorwilsdon said:
Why would you want HDMI on a monitor without speakers (or one with speakers for that matter, because why would you use built in speakers)?

Some people...
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The new gen w2408h, unlike the old refurbished ones in the posting, does have built in speakers. I can verify this as I have the new gen. We all know HDMI is better than DVI.
Sometimes it is more convenient to just use built in speakers, and save the high powered ones for gaming / movie use.
 
DWade said:
We all know HDMI is better than DVI.
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Heh.. sort of.

With my Westinghouse, I have to modify my drivers in order to get rid of the grainy effect caused by Nvidia's poor driver support.

Edit:

@nilepez, lmao.. nice analogy. Totally agree with you.
 
Got mine oH YEAH.
Samsung panel, 0 dead pixels, HUGE MONITOR I might add.
Amazing. If this deal comes back, everyone and their mom should jump on it.
 
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