NEC 23" IPS EA231WMi

ZombiePanic said:
You may want to verify that Eco mode and/or auto brightness are off if you're finding the brightness to be too high at 0%. I don't find the brightness to be excessive at all, even at around 20% in a dark room. Calibrated, I got 0.2cd/m^2, so it basically looks like it's off when displaying a black screen.
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Eco and auto brightness are definitely off. I have brightness at 0%, contrast at 50% and sRGB selected. To me a black screen in a dark room doesn't look black at all. If I watch a dark black and white film it becomes very apparent that the black bars on the sides of the screen are not black. I have no way of knowing what my black level is though, because I don't have any calibration equipment. What settings did you have to alter to achieve 0.2cd/m^2?

Snowdog said:
In the dark I find that too bright and black doesn't look black.

IMO LCDs aren't really made for use in the dark, they work better with ambient lighting.
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I avoided getting an LCD monitor for years because I was worried about poor viewing angles and low black levels. The viewing angles are fine wlith this monitor but I'm not sure I can get used to the blacks. I have to view and work on my own films in darkness because they are experimental 16mm films that were specifically designed to be viewed that way. During lighter scenes in the films it looks absolutely amazing though. I'd only need the blacks to be slightly darker to find it just about acceptable. Maybe that could be fixed with calibration.
 
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sippm said:
My only other thought is that upon taking further pictures of this, the screen definately has a reflective quality to it that can make the colors to not appear uniform. I'm not sure why or how that works, but the net net is that when looking for horizontal uniformity, I think you have to take any pic seen with a grain of salt since you don't know the angles and other factors involved.
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Reflective? As in glossy-ish kinda?
 
.2 cd/m^2 is not that great, and no way will look like a screen that is off.
 
Can someone comment on the ergonomics of this monitor?
IE how is the stand and adjustability. Does the pivot portrait mode look good? Does it have VESA mounts for putting on a monitor arm?
 
morris said:
Eco and auto brightness are definitely off. I have brightness at 0%, contrast at 50% and sRGB selected. To me a black screen in a dark room doesn't look black at all. If I watch a dark black and white film it becomes very apparent that the black bars on the sides of the screen are not black. I have no way of knowing what my black level is though, because I don't have any calibration equipment. What settings did you have to alter to achieve 0.2cd/m^2?
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Yeah, I'm guessing that even with all the lights off in my apartment, ambient light from outside must still be overpowering the monitor, since it looks almost totally black to me. In fact, it looks the same as my Trinitron, sitting side by side (maybe I'm going blind...). I'll have to run calibration again, as somehow my settings have reverted to defaults today.

If you need darker blacks, I hear some of the PVA monitors, like the Samsung F2380 are better.
 
ZombiePanic said:
If you need darker blacks, I hear some of the PVA monitors, like the Samsung F2380 are better.
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Thanks, I'll look into the F2380 and other PVAs. I should have done a bit more research before buying, but something told me this was the one. I definitely think it's an excellent monitor, I'm just not sure it's going to suit my purposes very well.
 
vjcsmoke said:
Viewsonic has a 23" IPS but it lacks displayport and I don't know if their quality control is as good as NEC. I'm going to wait for reviews before I pick up one of these. Still wondering if the 1920x1080p is worth giving up the 120 pixels or if I should spend more for a U2410. But U2410 is said to have grainy screen and wide gamut issues?
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I've had both the U2410 and now the NEC 23" and I can categorically say that the Dell definitely does have gamut issues despite the favourable sRBG reviews and also the screen is about 3-4 times more grainy than the NECs which is hardly noticeable. Having said that I *did* prefer the size and aspect of the Dell but now I've used the NEC for about a week I have to say i'm getting used to the super-width, finding it very useful and overall getting used to what is a fantastic monitor. I'd go with the NEC.
 
vjcsmoke said:
I don't see any problem with the first pic.
But in the second pic, is the screen slightly blue on the left side?
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Yes. The left side of the screen is more blue and the right side more red. If you look at the photoshop windows on the first pic, the boxes to the left are a bluer grey and the the ones on the right are a warmer grey. The photos were taken quickly so maybe it doesnt stand out as much as it does from eye.
 
Ok quick question. Where are you people buying these monitors at? Is there a place where I can buy them that I can get no fuss exchange for dead pixels? What place has the best return policy for monitors?
 
Well, mine arrived today, and I have to say I'm blown away. I'm probably not the most discerning LCD buyer, what with upgrading from a 17" TN, but colour uniformity, backlight bleed, pixel density and build quality are simply impeccable to my eyes. If you're umming and ahhing, just get it. Best £300 I ever spent!
 
ly-chee said:
Yes. The left side of the screen is more blue and the right side more red. If you look at the photoshop windows on the first pic, the boxes to the left are a bluer grey and the the ones on the right are a warmer grey. The photos were taken quickly so maybe it doesnt stand out as much as it does from eye.
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I was going to post those pics I took myself, but was having technical probs with my camera. Now I don't need to. These photo's exhibit EXACTLY the same issue that I was describing. Oh lord. Please don't tell me they are ALL like this. Maybe i'll think twice about sending mine back for now and wait for batch 2 for a swap out.
 
I just looked and mine has the slightest shift to blue like the posts described above, but it is nowhere nearly as bad as the pics I saw (esp the second one). Mine is very subtle and I didn't notice til I started looking for it based on comments in this post. Looks like maybe it is an issue that can vary in severity? In all honesty I will probably forget about it in a day or two and never notice again since its so subtle.
 
sippm said:
I just looked and mine has the slightest shift to blue like the posts described above, but it is nowhere nearly as bad as the pics I saw (esp the second one). Mine is very subtle and I didn't notice til I started looking for it based on comments in this post. Looks like maybe it is an issue that can vary in severity? In all honesty I will probably forget about it in a day or two and never notice again since its so subtle.
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Dang posts are putting the seeds of thought into my head. Yes, I too am looking for any color shift now, and if I stare at the screen long enough, I swear I can see something. Sort of reminds me of doing a photo editing task for hours and trying to get accurate colors. The mind and eyes play tricks. I look at a photo for a white screen, and I don't see anything. Cameras can't lie or compensate without a real thinking brain. I'm turning into a panel hypochondriac. Suggestive thought is killing me.:D Not dismissing any other problems from posters here, but I need to quit reading these mind influencing posts, or soon I'll be sending my panel back for exchange.:)

Larry
 
I'm trying to decide weather to get the NEC or the Dell U2410. I'm sure this comes up alot now. The price difference is about $140 for me. Which one?
 
Yep. I think the power of suggestive thought should be taken into consideration. I simply don't notice it unless I really look for it, so you never know to what level I'm just looking for something that's not there. I believe the other posters, though, but I highly doubt its a full on issue with all panels. My only other thought is that LCD technology is far from perfect and it never will be.

Like I said, I'll probably forget within a day and never notice again (barring reading this thread hah). Plus, I rarely look at all-white screens.

I'm am super dooper satisfied with this panel though and I have traded in / exchanged about 4 different models and 7 different units total in the past 18 months in search of the holy grail. Until OLED, for my 1080p needs, this is "the one" and I'm glad the search is over until we make the OLED leap. I for one will be more than happy to pay good money and will be more than willing to pay the premium of early adoption in 2-3 years to be rid of LCD and all its flaws. When LCDs finally became viable and I got sick of my 100 pound CRT, I paid $1200 for my first NEC, which lasted many years. When OLED comes, I anticipate doing the same. Until then, barring malfunction, this is the monitor I'll be using.
 
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Armatoste said:
Reflective? As in glossy-ish kinda?
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No, I would not even say semi-matte. I think the coating is just more prone to reflect the light around it compared to the Dell I was putting it up against. I would speculate this goes hand in hand with the graininess of the Dell, which tends to better disperse and/or absorb reflected light. But with that comes the graininess, which I don't like.

This is a matte monitor to be sure.
 
Pretty typical of LG panels lately. My 2209WA has it as well, albeit a little less than that photo. There is hope, and some will not display very much of this shift, but I think it's a crapshoot, and will continue to be for some time.

sippm said:
I just looked and mine has the slightest shift to blue like the posts described above, but it is nowhere nearly as bad as the pics I saw (esp the second one). Mine is very subtle and I didn't notice til I started looking for it based on comments in this post. Looks like maybe it is an issue that can vary in severity? In all honesty I will probably forget about it in a day or two and never notice again since its so subtle.
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alsheron said:
I was going to post those pics I took myself, but was having technical probs with my camera. Now I don't need to. These photo's exhibit EXACTLY the same issue that I was describing. Oh lord. Please don't tell me they are ALL like this. Maybe i'll think twice about sending mine back for now and wait for batch 2 for a swap out.
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Gee,

On the B & H Photo website it shows that the NEC EA231WMi is now "In Stock", so my several weeks old pre-order will undoubtedly ship soon. Yippee!

Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone

PS: After posting this, I did call B & H and they assured me that the order will ship within 24 hours.
 
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sRGB or native? I've been swapping between these two and it appears that native has a slightly greener tint than sRGB. Which setting do others use?

Larry
 
larryinlc said:
sRGB or native? I've been swapping between these two and it appears that native has a slightly greener tint than sRGB. Which setting do others use?
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I recalibrated with an Eye-One 2 and found that native and sRGB were both too green. I now have it set to Red - 72.9% Green - 64.1% Blue - 68.8%.

Brightness 36, Contrast 100

This results in Luminance 119.5 cd/m2, and minimum 0.1.

Of course, YMMV.
 
vjcsmoke said:
Ok quick question. Where are you people buying these monitors at? Is there a place where I can buy them that I can get no fuss exchange for dead pixels? What place has the best return policy for monitors?
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wagsrules said:
Where is everyone buying this monitor?
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Google "buy Nec EA231WMi + your city/country" is generally helpful. Other parts of your question can be googled for answer as well. Also, because you didn't provide a location, so people cannot really answer your question.
I understand people don't want to flip through 100+ pages, but this thread is only 16 pages long, and where people bought them was discussed in the first few pages.
 
Hi,

thanks to all the users who posted their impressions so far.

Some questions though:

In the NEC EA231WMi user manual available for download, there don't seem to be listed any supported 16:9 resolutions other than 1920 x 1080.

Is there anyone who has tested other 16:9 resolutions?

What about 1280 x 720 @ 59.94Hz and 1280 x 720 @ 60.00Hz for example? Is 720p supported?

And is there anyone who can report if 720p HDMI output from PS3 works flawlessly if connected to the DVI input of the NEC EA231WMi?

Anoter question:

In the user manual there is listed the following option available in the OSD:
LED BRIGHTNESS: You can adjust the Blue LED brightness.
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What are the available settings for this option? And can you turn off the LED completely?

Thank you very much in advance.
 
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1st Batch has pretty much sold out.

2nd Batch due out November 5th to 15th.

Not many IPS to choose from and after searching thru IPS monitors for a good pricepoint, the NEC EA231WMI fits the bill. Samsung F2380 had potential but fell short and is now being heavily discounted. Large unsold inventory for F2380. For the NEC EA231WMI inventories are tight. Supply is meeting demand.

Decided on this model myself barring unforseen circumstances. But I am in no rush to buy.
 
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The resolutions are as follows:

ot24vd.png


All resolutions are supported over both DVI and DisplayPort. 1280x720 and 1360x768 aren't listed but I'm sure they're supported.
 
Tom_9586556 said:
Hi,

What are the available settings for this option? And can you turn off the LED completely?

Thank you very much in advance.
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On the 2490, you can can have any brightness from completely off to full on and you can change color. Mine is blue and lowest brightness before off. :)
 
If anyone who has one could verify 1280x720, and check to see if it supports > 60hz refresh (such as 72hz), that would be great.
 
I just got mine today, and aside from disabling eco mode, and adjusting brightness & contrast a bit, I haven't really had time to tweak it very much. That being said, I love this thing; its an immense upgrade from an old samsung 763MB CRT. Colors are accurate, very, very little ips glow when viewed way off-axis and the gamma seems to be around 2.2 [visual test only, from lagom.nl]. Mine has no discernable backlight bleed, but I have yet to bust out a camera and photoshop to test. in response to the above poster, I just checked 1280x720, only 59/60 hz options are present under win7 7600 x64, it shows as a Generic PnP monitor, I didn't uncheck 'hide modes that this mon...' and force it into 72hz though. If I can find our camera, I'll see if I can set it up to do some more in-depth testing, but for now, I think I'll go watch transformers 2.

edit: no stuck/hot/dead pixels, and the height adjustable stand kicks ass.
 
Ok, so my replacement arrived today from NEC. Unfortunately it has exactly the same issue I described as the first one. I have to say I'm a little disappointed because as far as I would guess this is all to do with LG.Philips panels or something else inherent in this monitor. I'd be interested to see pictures of someones screen who thinks they don't have this problem as it's probably that they simply haven't noticed it or can't see it. For the price, I'm keeping it I think. It's not something that's a showstopper, just hugely annoying that it seems acceptable to these companies that these monitors have these uniformity issues.
 
Yeah, it's kind of comical. The uniformity issues seem to affect every LG IPS panel out there, from the panels used in the 2209WA to the EA231 to the U2410.
 
2nd batch of NEC's will be in end of October, Early November. Only a few left on the market right now for the 1st batch.

I am hoping 2nd batch will be the ones to get. Will see what prices come in at.
 
Well,

My B & H Photo pre-order has finally shipped, with an arrival due on Wednesday. Yippee!

I notice that Dell, which charges sales tax to virtually everywhere in North America, has a high price of $409 for the EA231WMi. So, I'll mention that B & H still has a price of $369, and with shipping to the Rocky Mountain area is still less than Dell, even with its with free shipping. And B & H doesn't act as an unpaid tax/extortion collector for hostile and lazy State politicians and bureaucrats outside of its own local/hostile political fiction/zone.

Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone
 
Cheaper exists than B+H which had 1 unit left on the website and no unit on display in the store. Depends on what zipcode and location though. If I did a local pickup, B+H due to sales tax would be $30+ higher in price plus transportation cost.

While I like the NEC a lot and it is my top contender now, I doubt I'll buy right away. This CRT is still functioning fine.
 
Gee,

For someone not currently in the market for this display, Adam, you've sure posted a lot in this thread, much of which is quite meaningless.

I mean, to post that "cheaper exists than B & H" conveys nothing specific. And, of course, if you pay "sales tax", it will cost more, needlessly. And, of course, "location" is a factor.

So, if you're going to post something related to the thread, why not tell people something meaningful or something that they don't know already?

Or, why not do something really daring, and actually buy an EA231WMi?

Then you would have some real firsthand feedback on this unit that many of us are interested in.

Anyway, mine will reportedly arrive Wednesday, and I plan to hook it up to my 2009 Mac Mini (which has Displayport and a DVI port) in a Mirror Mode with my current Dell 2005 FPW (IPS) to see how they compare. Then I'm giving the Dell display away to a friend, unless the NEC is a real dud.

Peace to you,
C. Livingstone
 
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