Sony SDM-HS94P Mini Review

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Lokius

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Aug 4, 2004
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Introduction

I purchased the monitor through Amazon direct, and it was shipped directly to my college post office box. It arrived in solid packaging, and the package had no signs of physical damage or abuse. The LCD package, consisted of the LCD monitor, a DVI cable, analog cable, calibration cd, and manual. The total cost shipped to my door was $825.17 with two day air, and the final cost with the $100 rebate comes out to be $725.17, which I must admit is a little much for a 19inch LCD. The monitor is connected to an ATI X800xt in my pc using the DVI connection.

Ergonomics and Design

To start off with the bezel is a little larger than it should be, however it is built out of solid plastic and aluminum, and the construction seems to be very solid. The design for cable management is pretty functional; the inputs are hidden behind a plastic panel which can be removed as desired. This allows people who have the back of the monitor face a work environment the ability to hide some of those ugly cables and inputs. However, this feature is useless as soon as you realize there isn’t a cable management feature to bring the wires together and out of sight, they just come out of the back of the LCD and you attach them with an included plastic hook. Not the greatest cable management system I've seen, but it's effective for getting the job done.

DSCN1003.JPG


From a design perspective, I personally find this LCD to be exceptionally beautiful, and it swivels quite well, the depth of the base allows you to place your keyboard right up alongside the screen, and maximize desk space. The silver and black contrasts on the bezel shell blend very nicely with contemporary designs, which can be found somewhere in most offices.

Image Quality

At first, I thought like many of you that the .294mm dot pitch would hurt the image quality on this monitor, but I must admit that the LCD displays very rich colors, and boasts better image quality and color reproduction then any other monitor I have used. I have found that to get the best results, you will need to calibrate the monitor using the included cd to get the best results, but this can be accomplished in under 10 minutes of time.

Movie and Gaming Performance

Alright this is easily the area where this LCD performs the best in. I am a very picky person about ghosting, and I have noticed ghosting on 16ms LCD's such as the 2001fp and I must say that in long sessions of Counter Strike 1.6, Counter Strike Source, Doom 3 and Far Cry, I have yet to notice any ghosting or blurriness of any kind. The monitor plays all these games absolutely amazingly and even at resolutions besides the non native 1280x1024, the games look and run great, no physical artifacts or ghosting even down to 800x600.

From the Movie side, this monitor displays very crisp blacks, however at times the LCD made the DVD's look a little too bright and I needed to lower the brightness during movies such as Black Hawk Down and Braveheart. Personally I couldn’t tell a difference between the HS94P and my parents 50inch Plasma monitor back home, I will be watching all my movies on my PC for some time to come.

Conclusion

The Sony SDM-HS94P is a great LCD; it performs well in all areas, especially first person gaming and DVD viewing. It is rather costly, and newer technology is on the way of course. If you can hold out, I'd wait to see what the next months can bring. But if you need a great large size LCD, and can't see yourself spending $1500+ for those wonderful 23 inchers, the HS94P is a sure bet. This panel should be available through other vendors shortly, and they will be offering it with smaller bezels of course, but other than that, I fully recommend this monitor to you all. I will post some more pictures, once I steal my friend’s digital camera again, thanks for your time.
 
In all the pictures I've seen, the HS94P looks like it's titled back at about a 15-20 degree angle. Is that the case, and if so, is it adjustable? I'm used to my monitor being barely tilted back(if at all), so I'm not sure how I'd feel if it's not.

I'd love to see more pics when you get that camera. Another question, have you used any LCDs before you got this one(either your own or a friends) and how does it compare to them? I'm particularly interested in knowing how the X-Brite of the Sony matches up against LCDs without it.
 
The SDM-HS94P tilts forward and back about a pivit that is just above the circular base that the monitor rests on. To me the X-Brite coating makes the monitor look more vivid and beautiful than the anti-glare coatings other LCD's have. Sometimes its almost too bright even with the backlight turned down to about 30%. It's very good for games and text is exquisite also... Some do not like the refectivity of the X-Brite coating, but it doesn't bother me and its not noticable except on black screens or when the monitor is off...
 
I just picked this monitor up a couple of hours ago and as soon as I fired it up I played alittle BattleField Vietnam and was very pleased. I was expecting performace alittle less than my Sony 21" CRT but that was not the case. The color is so rich and very crisp. I am mostly a gamer so I needed something that would not ghost and so far so good. I only have a Ti 4600, hopefully soon a 6800 but I am impressed.

The reason I went to LCD is I needed to free up a bedroom to make room for another baby on the way. I had a huge desk so the 21" CRT was not a problem at all. I had never even looked at an LCD since I was pleased with the performance I had. So after buying a small desk that closes up and barley squeezing that monster of a monitor into it I was about a foot away from the screen. I felt as though my eyes were on fire and soon they would explode, and not to mention when I left a cold drink beside it on the desk I found it boiling over. After having second degree burns to my face I decided I needed a smaller monitor and since having 19" viewable nothing less would do.

I looked into the Dell 2001FP but felt I needed alittle faster since my primary function was gaming. I read this review and went to Best Buy and saw a demo and knew this was going to be good. I am thankful for Lokius mini review and thankful for my new LCD.
 
I do have a question though....

On the setup utility it says if there are any vertical bars to touch the menu button and use the down arrow to scroll to screen and press OK and adjust the pitch. when I hit the menu button and scroll down there is no "screen" menu option. I have gamma and sharpeness and a few others but no screen option...am I missing something?
 
I recently purchased this monitor and LOVE it. I got it from best buy for 849 with 150 mail in rebate. I still paid 914 out the door but i should be getting 150 back so it was a damn good deal.

kreidel - Do you have the monitor connected via DVI? If so this is why some menu options are not available to you. Im not clear as to why, but this seems to be the issue.

There is one thing I absolutely despise about this monitor, the BASE. This thing wobbles more than a drunken sailor . If i could just find a way to mount the thing to the wall or something Id be alot happier. All in all though if that is the monitors only bad feature I would have to say its pretty near unbeatable.
 
Quick question,

What does the CD it comes with provide? I never bothered to use it.. and calibrated the monitor myself to my own liking. Anything worth looking at?

- D.
 
G Shady, that expalins it perfectly ;) I am using the DVI input... Thanks

Awesome monitor!!!!!
 
GShady... the base of the monitor isn't exactly built like a tank, but I don't notice any wobble (movement) unless I'm really pushing on the monitor... perhaps there is a screw or something you could tighten?

Kriedel... hooking up to DVI does initially grey out some menu options... however hit the leftmost button on the monitor (the one with the picture of a lightbulb)... switch to USER defined settings and voila... all the menu options are accessible again:) If you switch back to on of the predefined profiles notice that your menu options are greyed out again.
 
Kick A22 Jack_r. Thanks for the tip there, i was not aware of that! Time to start screwin around with this monitor some more. As for the base shaking around.. The only reason Inotice it is because I got a new glass desk that is shaky all by itself. Top that off with clamping down my Logitech Momo steering wheel when playing need for speed and you get one wild ride. I just bought this desk but I think it needs to go back to where it came from, either that or I need to attach it to wall somehow to sturdy it up. Aside from the wheel though, for the most part its fine.

Thanks again for the tip on the adjustment.
 
The HS94P sounds great. Thanks for the review, but do you know if it can be mounted on a wall?
 
very nice review :D

could you guys who got it post some more photos ?

also could someone check the back of the screen (or the manual) and
tell us if it's TCO'03 certified ?

thanks
 
kreidel said:
I looked into the Dell 2001FP but felt I needed alittle faster since my primary function was gaming. I read this review and went to Best Buy and saw a demo and knew this was going to be good. I am thankful for Lokius mini review and thankful for my new LCD.
Click to expand...



Hmm I would think that the DELL would actually ghost less than the Sony. Did you actually compare the DELL and the Sony or are you just betting on the numbers?
 
Lokius what do you use to clean the screen, I recently got the black bezel version of this monitor and am almost frightened to clean it as its so shiny. There is quite a bit of dust on my screen after a few weeks what do you find the best way to clean it?
 
Is it just me, or do these monitor suffer from backlight bleeding? I got one yesterday, and soon after using it discovered that when viewing dark colors, the top edge of the monitor (about 1cm off the bezel) is bleeding some of the backlight. I exhanged it this morning, and the SAME thing is happening.

Did I just get unlucky, or is this an inherent problem with these monitors? To check this, try to set the background to black, and check the edge for backlight bleeding.
 
Yeah mine bleeds on all four sides but its not so bad once you get used to it. you only notice it on black backgrounds anyway
 
I don't think I want to get "used" to this. I don't really want to pay $600 for a monitor with defects that I need to get used to. I guess if you don't really do anything with dark colors it's not noticeable. Playing Doom 3 or watching movies proved to be rather annoying for me because my eyes would keep drifting towards the bleeding edges. You know how when you notice something wrong, you can't take your eyes off it?

I think it's going back to the store tomorrow :\

Oh well...
 
I have this monitor as well and i can't say it's worth the money.

Besides the fact that it blurs in games i'll point out the biggest problem.

IMG_2433.jpg


This is a major issue and is very noticeable when the screen is darker... like these forums.

Other problems are:
-xbrite coating has a texture to it. you have to look for it but it's there. noticeable when viewing darker images like movies.
-xbrite coating is reflective and while it's not a major problem i find it does create some eye strain
-colors don't look as true as they should be. bright reds look a bit off.


On the up side the back light is more even on this monitor than most lcds and the colors, while not accurate, are very rich. If sony fixed the back light leak problem and improved the screen coating i would give this monitor a thumbs up but as it is now i suggest you try before you buy or buy it at a store with a return policy.
 
I registered to this forum just so I can reply.

I bought this monitor (SDM-HS94P) two days ago. When you have a black background present, you can clearly see an a dark "X" on the screen. That means there is backlight bleeding from both sides (left and right) and from the bottom.

I notice the top part is darker than the bottom. While surfing these forums you can clearly notice it. It's annoying. I am very surprised nobody mentioned this before. I wouldn't have bought it if it had a serious problem as this.

A lot of people in this forum said that is shows real blacks. But the sides!! All of the sides have this 'backlight bleeding' problem. So they look whitish to greyish.

I am now contemplating returning this monitor to get something else. This is just sad. A real waste of time.

I have more 'backlight bleeding from the left side than the right'.

I paid $1150 CAD for this monitor (tax included) and I got a $100 mail-in-rebate. So a I would have paid a net of $1050 CAD. All this and I get a backlight problem that is extremely annoying. That's $875 US!

I don't really understand why this wasn't pointed out previously by anyone. :confused:
 
dmikon said:
Is it just me, or do these monitor suffer from backlight bleeding? I got one yesterday, and soon after using it discovered that when viewing dark colors, the top edge of the monitor (about 1cm off the bezel) is bleeding some of the backlight. I exhanged it this morning, and the SAME thing is happening.

Did I just get unlucky, or is this an inherent problem with these monitors? To check this, try to set the background to black, and check the edge for backlight bleeding.
Click to expand...

same here with my HX73 silver...
 
I don't notice the bleeding at all browsing these same forums. Make sure your brightness isn't above 45 to 50. Once it gets above 50 the backlight becomes much more noticeable.
 
I don't notice it when browsing either. Try to set your entire screen to a black background though.
 
I opened paint shop pro, created a picture that was all black. I went to full screen mode so everything was black. I then tried all kinds of different settings... nothing works except going on full brightness, which removes the backlight bleeding effect but leaves the monitor very very very very very bright.

I have no idea what to do. Guys, what are your settings? Maybe it won't matter at all, because I tried a lot of stuff... nothing works. I'm not stupid... this thing is annoying. The left side bleeds more than the right.

I took an image of my monitor. Where can I upload it to so you can see it.


Thanks
 
set the brightness profile to : USER

go to the menu then choose : Color sRGB and set brightness to 40

those are the best to choose for normal use ,browsing etc .

if you want to see photos or play games or see movies use the preset MIDDLE
brightness profile BUT with 6500K color .

;)
 
I did try your above settings. That didn't help. :( Is my unit defective? Does it have more than the usual backlight bleeding?

DAMN!!!


Here is a picture:

SDMHS94P_Backlight_Bleeding.jpg
 
with this number of people having the same problem....we could say that this is normal for this model....

and one more thing.....no matter what specifications say, sony lcds are MUCH,MUCH brighter than any other lcd.....maybe this series - which is not professional, has that goal at first place.....maybe because of high brightness (for games, etc) we have those "strong" backlights......

for example, with LG display, you can never have this problem.....because LG screens are much darker than sony........well, i'm just guessing.....
 
yes ,this is normal ,your screen is not defective.

but it's like this only if the screen is completely black , when the screen is
showing something those disapear ,you can't see them anymore ,this is
not a problem.
 
But you see, I see this effect when surfing this message board. The gray boxes where this message appears in has a lighter right side... like a gradient feel to it.
 
but it's like this only if the screen is completely black , when the screen is
showing something those disapear ,you can't see them anymore ,this is
not a problem.

No they don't. You can see them when surfing the net, playing games or watching movies. The only time the light leaks aren't noticeable is when your viewing something with a white or very light colored background.
 
mentorxxx said:
yes ,this is normal ,your screen is not defective....,this is not a problem.
Click to expand...

Looking at that screenshot convinces me that it's a fairly significant issue. If it were my monitor, I would certainly consider it a problem.
 
nervx you are completely right. People have to know about this problem. I bought this LCD monitor because tons of people recommended it on this board and many others. No one mentioned this problem before yesterday.
 
I returned mine this morning. Really unhappy about it, because aside from this problem it's a really nice monitor. The colors were very bright, the sharpness was great (couldn't tell a difference between it and a monitor with a better pitch), and it had an excellent response time.

However, I think the monitor had some rather bad drawbacks. From my experience (after going through two of them), here they are:

1. Backlight bleed mentioned by me and several others. If you never work in a dark background, you won't even know it's there (unless it's really bad like some pictures in this thread show). The two monitors I've dealt with had bleed at the top portion only. While some might think this is not a big deal and is normal, I would have to disagree. While playing Doom 3, as an example, I could see a whitish glow being emitted from the top portion of the screen. While watching movies in a widescreen ratio, the black at the top was seen fading off closer to the top edge. I think this is not acceptable for a $700 monitor. If I would have purchased this for $300, it would be perfect, because ultra cheap products usually cannot match in quality with higher priced ones.

2. Blacks. I am not sure if everyone claiming the blacks are good on this monitor have been looking at the same monitor as me. I thought the black reproduction was rather poor. You can very easily tell, just by looking at the screen, that the blacks you see are nothing but a darker shade of gray. I have a 17" Samsung LCD with a worse contrast ratio, and it has a better, darker black. In my opinion, this is rather poor for a monitor such as this one. I've seen a lot of 19" models for $200-300 cheaper with far better reproduction of blacks. I tried many different settings, no backlight, low brightness, high contrast, different color patterns, pretty much almost anything you could do. Even when the monitor was too dark for comfortable usage, you could still easily tell that the blacks were nothing but gray.

3. Reflection. This is not a problem whatsoever if you are viewing lighter colors. However, if you have a dark background (once again, Doom 3, movies, etc) you will see some reflection. This, however, is a very minor and forgiveable issue compared to the first one, which, I think, is not acceptable.

Just wanted to share my opinion and experience with this monitor.
 
I probably won't at this time, I'll just stick with my 17" Samsung LCD. I would want to get the Samsung 193P, but the price is a little out of my reach.
 
Mine doesn't bleed near that much from the picture you showed. You either have a defective one or you have your brightness or backlight really high. Mine starts to show it's bleeding more once I get in the upper 40's to lower 50's on the brightness setting. Try lower to mid 40's, and if it's still that bad return it for another or get your money back, whichever.
 
I feel bad for you guys. My brother picked up this monitor to go along with his badass system I built for him, I haven't seen any of what you speak of, nor has he complained about any visual side effects, he's very happy with it and I'm sorry you're not.
 
only monitors made to be "gaming and multimedia" ones have brightness of 400 cd/m2.... professional from X series have 300.......
 
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