Planar PX2611W 26"

amikoenig said:
I don't know why posters here keep claiming that they can return the display if they don't like it... From all I know, and I checked quite a few in-line stores' return policy -- NONE of them will take back a monitor, unless it is faulty and needs to be replaced....
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If you order through Dell computer it can be returned within 21 days.
Costco within 90 days and even though you do an online order you can take it back to a store which is nice.

Im not sure that the issues mentioned on this computer would affect me. I do not use any type of external games or DVD players. Computer is just used for gaming, internet etc.

I have my nice Sony XBR960 HD for movies.
 
UrielDagda said:
Toasty did you return it and get rid of it or return it for replacement? I am still curious to know if what you got is the average Planar 26" or if you just happened to get a dud.
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I sent it back for a refund on Monday. If buy.com doesn't reject it, that'll be the end of it. I should have returned the NEC when I had the chance, but I was given the impression they would look into the problems. Of course, in the end, none of the problems were really acknowledged, and I was told nothing could be done about them.

The Planar has several problems that are unacceptable to me: backlight bleeding, faint horizontal lines, and banding at 1080p and 1080i. Those problems shouldn't be there. I also don't like how I can't set the black bars to black and how it reports 1080i as a native resolution, which causes problems on Macs. Those two problems and the banding are caused by badly-designed firmware. The hardware itself doesn't have those problems.
 
Hmm.. Maybe I should get a 2707 after all.. Although, I think pretty much the only problem I would have is backlight bleed.. since I don't have PS3 or Xbox 360 or any other things to hook up other than a PC. :D
 
UrielDagda said:
Hmm.. Maybe I should get a 2707 after all.. Although, I think pretty much the only problem I would have is backlight bleed.. since I don't have PS3 or Xbox 360 or any other things to hook up other than a PC. :D
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Im thinking the same thing.

Anyway its too late mine has already shipped. Should get it the beginning of next week.
 
UrielDagda said:
Hmm.. Maybe I should get a 2707 after all.. Although, I think pretty much the only problem I would have is backlight bleed.. since I don't have PS3 or Xbox 360 or any other things to hook up other than a PC. :D
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That's exactly what I decided. It should be here in about 10 days... ;)
 
solaris54 said:
Im thinking the same thing.

Anyway its too late mine has already shipped. Should get it the beginning of next week.
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What I wish I had was pictures of the 2707 and the Planar that would show me what the viewing angles looked like at the extremes.. I just need it to be good enough to see it from the far end of my couch to watch movies once in a while... although from what I can gather the viewing angles should not be as much as an issue the further back one gets from the monitor.. I could be wrong though.
 
UrielDagda said:
What I wish I had was pictures of the 2707 and the Planar that would show me what the viewing angles looked like at the extremes.. I just need it to be good enough to see it from the far end of my couch to watch movies once in a while... although from what I can gather the viewing angles should not be as much as an issue the further back one gets from the monitor.. I could be wrong though.
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Horizontal angles look very good on the Planar. High vertical angles show backlight bleeding. Good luck with the display!
 
Well when I get the Planar I will let you know how it looks to me. All I care about is the picture quality. If I dont see things then they wont bother me. I always do the dead pixel test and color banding test.

If it doesnt look right then it gets sent back.
 
Given the comments the above folks have made about going with the Dell because of banding and whatnot, Do you think that should hold me back if i dont plan on using the lcd for anything but high end computer gaming (not movies, not consoles).

Thanks
 
DeadByDawn said:
Given the comments the above folks have made about going with the Dell because of banding and whatnot, Do you think that should hold me back if i dont plan on using the lcd for anything but high end computer gaming (not movies, not consoles).

Thanks
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I don't think it should hold you back. Great monitor IMO. Not perfect but is there such a monitor?
 
The rival LCD, NEC2960 is a better monitor, from what I can figure out, but for 60% more... Question is, is it worth it for you to spend the extra money for an LCD which is not as perfect as you'd expect it to be (see Toasty's review)...

I decided for me -- it's not, and am very happy with the Planar.
 
I want to do some light gaming, DVD watching and spend hours writing or surfing the internet. I just need to be sure whatever I get I can also see properly sitting on the couch, which will be from an angle about 6-8 inches lower, and 3 feet back and off to the right when compared to the at-the-computer position.
 
ToastyX said:
I sent it back for a refund on Monday. If buy.com doesn't reject it, that'll be the end of it. I should have returned the NEC when I had the chance, but I was given the impression they would look into the problems. Of course, in the end, none of the problems were really acknowledged, and I was told nothing could be done about them.
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Given the high expectations and testing you have done with LCD monitors are there any that you have been totally stisfied with? Is the CRT still king?
 
Planar monitors must be favorable for Dell because they have over 30 different Planar monitors on their website. Even greyscale medical monitors. I would imagine they have to be very reliable.
 
I just wish Toasty had just gotten his replaced.. I really wanted to find out of a thorough test of a new one would yield different results for the contrast ratio.
 
UrielDagda said:
I just wish Toasty had just gotten his replaced.. I really wanted to find out of a thorough test of a new one would yield different results for the contrast ratio.
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Well I can do some simple tests once I get it. Backlight bleed, banding and dead pixels, but that is about it. Im still waiting for my calibrator to arrive.
 
Just finished a whole series of calibrations with Eye-One Display2. I now have a whole collections of .icc profiles which I can jump from one to another in my (Macintosh) System Prefs>Display>Color while a high-resolution photograph is opened in Photoshop...

The difference is stunning.... While going thru the calibration process I had only the (natural gray) desktop in the background, so the changes were not too impressive... But now comparing the same photograph (a food shot which was later printed in a brochure I designed and produced) -- I can see the differences between the default .icc profile the display came with, and the different profiles I created, based on using the Gamma calibration --- and now the different calibration tests I did with my Eye-One...

I'm very happy.
 
amikoenig said:
Just finished a whole series of calibrations with Eye-One Display2. I now have a whole collections of .icc profiles which I can jump from one to another in my (Macintosh) System Prefs>Display>Color while a high-resolution photograph is opened in Photoshop...

The difference is stunning.... While going thru the calibration process I had only the (natural gray) desktop in the background, so the changes were not too impressive... But now comparing the same photograph (a food shot which was later printed in a brochure I designed and produced) -- I can see the differences between the default .icc profile the display came with, and the different profiles I created, based on using the Gamma calibration --- and now the different calibration tests I did with my Eye-One...

I'm very happy.
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So bottom line the monitor has a good picture..........better than most?
What I am getting at is unless you go and do tests you are not going to notice the flaws which in that case who cares. As long as it looks good to you.

When I get mine I will be comparing it with the BenQ 241W and the Dell 2407HC so it should be interesting.
 
amikoenig said:
Just finished a whole series of calibrations with Eye-One Display2. I now have a whole collections of .icc profiles which I can jump from one to another in my (Macintosh) System Prefs>Display>Color while a high-resolution photograph is opened in Photoshop...

The difference is stunning.... While going thru the calibration process I had only the (natural gray) desktop in the background, so the changes were not too impressive... But now comparing the same photograph (a food shot which was later printed in a brochure I designed and produced) -- I can see the differences between the default .icc profile the display came with, and the different profiles I created, based on using the Gamma calibration --- and now the different calibration tests I did with my Eye-One...

I'm very happy.
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Wow, I wish I could afford a $200 calibrator.. only one I found I could probably afford is like $50 and most people say it sucks. Wonder if it would at least be better than calibration by eye.
 
No, i have no other LCD monitors sitting around here to compare... That's Toasty's job...

But yes, I can compare it to my 3 year old ViewSonic CRT. Only now I can realise what a POS was my CRT... Usually it's the other way around, CRTs are accepted as better than LCD...

It's not only impression of "nice" or "vivid colors" -- I am now comparing my food photographs that a professional photographer shot for me -- with the printed piece, and the colors are quite accurate....

But I wouldn't say anybody getting an LCD MUST buy a calibration system... It depends on what usage the LCD is bought for... And many adjutments can be done thru the monitor itself (lowering the brighness, for instance).
 
Well.. I just know after somebody calibrated my FW900 for me that it definitely helps. It seems to really help the darks from being too dark and the white from being overbearing.. Settings I usually continually fiddle with. So I figured it would be even more important for a wide gamut LCD. I'll probably just get the Spyder 2 Express and hope it doesn't suck too badly. :p
 
Ami, what did I say, when calibrated this monitor pumps out all the accuracy and punch you could ever want. Out of the box it's absolutely going to be perfect for regular users.

Sharpness was also a massive, unexpected boon to me. It's like putting glasses on for the first time, and for the work I do it's been a godsend. My CRTs feel like junk in comparison to this - and for colour, brightness and contrast too. Perceived blacks in regular use are just great as well.

Y'all need to stop losing yourselves in the hunt for faults and weaknesses. This is a great LCD monitor, and well worth your hard earned money.
 
according to toasty, calibration increases color banding as it... from what I gather, reduces the in between shades/colours?
 
~El~Jefe~ said:
according to toasty, calibration increases color banding as it... from what I gather, reduces the in between shades/colours?
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I think it would depend on just how much out of whack the picture was to begin with. I guess the better solution would be to try to calibrate by eye using the controls on the monitor the best you can, then calibrate it.

It would be nice to have a monitor you can calibrate internally, but of course that means spending $1500 on the monitor then another few hundred on the calibrator.. Too rich for my blood!

Now I am willing to bet that as long as it's reasonably set to the eye on the monitor, there shouldn't be any banding in 1920x1200 mode.
 
I just talked to... well a few hours ago,
Planar

I think I am the only one who calls these people up. I get into their heads. I make them trip up. Why? because 1000 dollars cashola is a sick wad to blow if you are getting hadda. (i duno how to english spell Yiddish words, it means shit though but with more style).

I was talking to a gent about the whole Backlight Bleeding thing. I asked the question 5-6 times in different ways to see if I could get him to crack. It turns out that Toasty's monitor was a bad apple. That seems to be about it. He said, and this is the clincher, that if I saw the non uniform lightly splotching of backlight that I SHOULD return it and he and Planar would be very happy to exchange it.

ALSO!!!

He said that if there are 1-2 pixels dead, they do not have an official return policy in that case, but if you take a photo and send it in, they can replace it anyway. He said that there have been exchanges for that case before but it is a rare call. He says they give a decent check of all the monitors that go out.

Sounds good to me.

I realized something.... something about connections and 1:1... toasty made me see things straight. he is like a Maharishi for elite lcds..... check out my blog/post thing I am going to put one up now after I enter this info.
 
Well from what I have seen, every monitor out there has a chance of having a backlight problem.. That's why I wanted to see if anybody else had such a thing, but it seems to be the odd happenstance.. he seems to have as much luck with electronics as I do. :p

I guess that's why I have a huge fear of LCDs.. They seem to have more than their fair share of problems, and I also have a history of buying the most defective pieces of electronics.. I think this PC I built in 2004 has been the least faulty thing I have ever purchased-- and one of the fans in the case died soon after I got it. :D
 
~El~Jefe~ said:
I just talked to... well a few hours ago,
Planar

I think I am the only one who calls these people up. I get into their heads. I make them trip up. Why? because 1000 dollars cashola is a sick wad to blow if you are getting hadda. (i duno how to english spell Yiddish words, it means shit though but with more style).

I was talking to a gent about the whole Backlight Bleeding thing. I asked the question 5-6 times in different ways to see if I could get him to crack. It turns out that Toasty's monitor was a bad apple. That seems to be about it. He said, and this is the clincher, that if I saw the non uniform lightly splotching of backlight that I SHOULD return it and he and Planar would be very happy to exchange it.

ALSO!!!

He said that if there are 1-2 pixels dead, they do not have an official return policy in that case, but if you take a photo and send it in, they can replace it anyway. He said that there have been exchanges for that case before but it is a rare call. He says they give a decent check of all the monitors that go out.
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Yes that is exactly what they said to me.. Well I didn't talk with them about the backlight bleeding issue but otherwise yes that is consistent with what they told me. That's a good thing that they are consistent. Also they admitted to me that they didn't have a PX2611W there to look at & play with. Honesty is good in my book. They also said the pixel fixing hacks don't work and to just send it in to them.

My display doesn't 'seem' to have the bleeding on the edges. Not sure about the blotching.

I concur with you on ToastyX. We all owe you man, THANK YOU. We all helped in our own way.
 
~El~Jefe~ said:
I just talked to... well a few hours ago,
Planar

I think I am the only one who calls these people up. I get into their heads. I make them trip up. Why? because 1000 dollars cashola is a sick wad to blow if you are getting hadda. (i duno how to english spell Yiddish words, it means shit though but with more style).

I was talking to a gent about the whole Backlight Bleeding thing. I asked the question 5-6 times in different ways to see if I could get him to crack. It turns out that Toasty's monitor was a bad apple. That seems to be about it. He said, and this is the clincher, that if I saw the non uniform lightly splotching of backlight that I SHOULD return it and he and Planar would be very happy to exchange it.

ALSO!!!

He said that if there are 1-2 pixels dead, they do not have an official return policy in that case, but if you take a photo and send it in, they can replace it anyway. He said that there have been exchanges for that case before but it is a rare call. He says they give a decent check of all the monitors that go out.

Sounds good to me.

I realized something.... something about connections and 1:1... toasty made me see things straight. he is like a Maharishi for elite lcds..... check out my blog/post thing I am going to put one up now after I enter this info.
Click to expand...


Link to your blog/post?
 
well. my post/blog/rant is up on here. it isnt very exciting, it is very depressing though as I think the answer is: no lcd is programmed properly, not even in the slightest.
 
Can someone take 30 second to explain to one ignorant sole (who's not into gaming at all) WHAT IS ACTUALLY BACKLIGHT BLEEDING -- and even more -- HOW TO TEST IT?

.......I think I have a clue, but wanted to read it from the "experts" here.........

And, ~El~Jefe~, have you received your PX2611W yet? Any feedback (from the one who thought it to be some B-rated junk)?
 
turn off all the lights at night with the monitor showing a blank black screen (basically the Blank screensaver)... if you have bad backlight bleed you will know it.
 
It's instock now at newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824016084&Tpk=planar+26

I am seriously lusting for this display. My main concern is FPS games, specifically quake2, which is very fast paced, what with bunny hopping and the grapple. Plus my ping is already high at 80ms (only one ctf server left these days, on the other side of the country). I can't stand to play at 60Hz on my 21" crt and opt to play at 1024x768@100Hz. While this LCD is an excellent performer with almost 0 input lag, the refresh rate is still a concern. Technically, just from moving from 100Hz to 60Hz (CRT to LCD) will add 6.7ms of lag.

I used a 23" apple cinema display (the old ones with white bezel) a few years ago. Is this panel any better in terms of total image delay? (response + input lag + refresh slowdown)?
Besides size how else is the Planar different?
 
godvirus said:
It's instock now at newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824016084&Tpk=planar+26

I am seriously lusting for this display. My main concern is FPS games, specifically quake2, which is very fast paced, what with bunny hopping and the grapple. Plus my ping is already high at 80ms (only one ctf server left these days, on the other side of the country). I can't stand to play at 60Hz on my 21" crt and opt to play at 1024x768@100Hz. While this LCD is an excellent performer with almost 0 input lag, the refresh rate is still a concern. Technically, just from moving from 100Hz to 60Hz (CRT to LCD) will add 6.7ms of lag.

I used a 23" apple cinema display (the old ones with white bezel) a few years ago. Is this panel any better in terms of total image delay? (response + input lag + refresh slowdown)?
Besides size how else is the Planar different?
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#

The Apples are superiour when it comes to input lag, however they are using end of life IPS panels in all three models. A completly new cinema range is due out before the end of the year.
 
ToastyX said:
We're talking about using it with external devices like a PlayStation 3 or a cable box. 1080p and 1080i support with proper scaling is important in those cases.

Here is an example of a smooth gradient: http://www.toastyx.net/gradient.png
Here is an example of banding: http://www.toastyx.net/banding.png

There is no banding at the native resolution if the DV mode is set to TEXT, so it should not affect computer usage.
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But it is noticalbe with those sources in games huh, I suppose for me that probably won't matter since I'm not a consoler but it could matter for standalone HD sources.

So what happens if you use a *computer as a source with the output at 1920x1080p? I would think the same thing would happen but who knows. You probably don't have an HD drive in your comp though. Maybe someone could do us a favor and run that resolution from their computer? Basically I'm wondering if this would work well for viewing 1080p sources routed through a computer.
 
Madman0 said:
But it is noticalbe with those sources in games huh, I suppose for me that probably won't matter since I'm not a consoler but it could matter for standalone HD sources.

So what happens if you use a *computer as a source with the output at 1920x1080p? I would think the same thing would happen but who knows. You probably don't have an HD drive in your comp though. Maybe someone could do us a favor and run that resolution from their computer? Basically I'm wondering if this would work well for viewing 1080p sources routed through a computer.
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If you play 1080p movies with a drive in the PC.. won't matter, it doesn't switch resolutions, it just uses and overlay. Anything that uses an overlay shouldn't be affected since the resolution stays the same.
 
UrielDagda said:
If you play 1080p movies with a drive in the PC.. won't matter, it doesn't switch resolutions, it just uses and overlay. Anything that uses an overlay shouldn't be affected since the resolution stays the same.
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Yes, for movies it would be better to go through your computer so it will use software to show black bars above the 1080p movie in 1920x1200, which is better than the stupid blue bars the monitor will put there for a direct input.

I am mildly concerned about 1080p banding for consoles, though... Although I don't have a console I might get one if I had a glorious monitor to play it on...
 
amikoenig said:
Can someone take 30 second to explain to one ignorant sole (who's not into gaming at all) WHAT IS ACTUALLY BACKLIGHT BLEEDING -- and even more -- HOW TO TEST IT?

.......I think I have a clue, but wanted to read it from the "experts" here.........

And, ~El~Jefe~, have you received your PX2611W yet? Any feedback (from the one who thought it to be some B-rated junk)?
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I did not get it yet. I am still perusing the LG 246 forum and considering that for $$$ savings. 26 inches though ... debating still... planar will be a a better picture, It could be worth the 300 dollar difference.... lota cash though. 26 inches makes for an actual television size. I sat next to a 32 inch tv/lcd today and felt that it was retardedly huge. not good for competitive gaming, too little was in the field of view close up, and to put it far away you would lose the abilty to control fine movements such as lining up the crosshairs.

Best buy ='s planar in terms of warranty.

I am won over by planar's tech people now and the 0 lag ;)
 
I don't get it. In the review it says you can change the blue background to a different color:
index.php
. If this isn't true, I would definitely be annoyed by the blue background. Can someone please confirm that you can change it to black?
 
tim987 said:
I don't get it. In the review it says you can change the blue background to a different color:
index.php
. If this isn't true, I would definitely be annoyed by the blue background. Can someone please confirm that you can change it to black?
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What's not to get? Yes you can change the border color in the menus. I have the monitor myself and assure you that you CAN change the color, even to black. Those screen pics in the review are 1400x1050, which looks fine in 'aspect' mode (the 2nd screen pic of bf2142). This is very clearly stated in the review and here in the forum. Can it be said any clearer for you to comprehend this?
 
LittleMeEgo said:
What's not to get? Yes you can change the border color in the menus. I have the monitor myself and assure you that you CAN change the color, even to black. Those screen pics in the review are 1400x1050, which looks fine in 'aspect' mode (the 2nd screen pic of bf2142). This is very clearly stated in the review and here in the forum. Can it be said any clearer for you to comprehend this?
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Clearly, you're being sarcastic. Post some pics, or I'll be FORCED to call you a liar (clearly I'm being playful, but post some pics for futher confirmation anyway).
 
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