ViewSonic FuHzion VX2265WM - Get one!

omg it's out for delivery, my local ups branch says the truck should have been here already. I can't wait any longer...
 
Ok been using it for a few hours and I am very impressed with the smoothness. Almost as good as my old FW900 CRT with all the benefits of LCD.

I have one major beef though. The brightness control on the monitor only works in 60hz mode, when I set it to 100, 110, or 120 it resets to maximum brightness and the buttons do nothing. It's very annoying because it is way too bright for me and with the backlight maxed out like that the bleed on the edges is noticeable. I didn't spend $300+ to be constantly blinded by my monitor. I know I can control brightness and contrast in software but that is not a real solution as the backlight is still maxed out for no reason and black isn't nearly as dark as it could be if the hardware brightness control worked at 120hz like it does at 60hz. Even setting brightness and contrast to 0 in the Nvidia CP the black levels stay identical and the bleed is just as bad.

Anyone else have this issue? I am about to call Viewsonic and see what the hell is going on here.
 
the main reason they made 120hz lcd monitor is for nvidia3d tech, wich require glasses, thats why the brightness is very high, but it sucks that you cant adjust it.
 
yea I just got off the phone with Viewsonic tech support and the guy basically told me the same thing. Initially he said the maxed out brightness is needed for the "response time" and 120hz refresh and the "3D resolution" (obviously thinking that I'm a noob and that he could confuse me and make me think he is right by using certain phrases) but after a couple minutes of verifying my hardware and knowledge (he tried to say how I don't have a fully capable video card), talking about CRTs and LCDs, me mentioning the Samsung 120hz model with fully functional brightness, the upcoming 120hz Asus model, my 30-day refund period, and how the competitive fps community is buzzing about this monitor but word will spread quickly how the brightness is fucked, he finally admitted to already getting a couple of calls on this issue and that it was probably intentionally locked at maximum at 120hz because they expected most people to use that refresh rate only with glasses and also since many uninformed people equate brightness with quality. I said I didn't know if using the glasses reduces effective brightness because of the shutters and I had no intention of finding out, I didn't buy it for 3d and I couldn't care less. I asked if firmware will be made available to unlock it for those of us who are not retarded and he said very apologetically that he doesn't know since the product is brand new but he opened a case for me and said he will contact an engineer asap to see if something can be done so I don't have to return the monitor.

I'm not holding my breath, glad I bought it from a company with full refund policy, but I definitely got the feeling that the more we bitch about this the chances of it actually getting fixed will increase so call Viewsonic and tell them.
 
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You can yawn about it but I'm excited about the ASUS. Maybe they'll get it right and not have cheap FAIL stands and broken brightness settings.
 
No, I was impressed that they are actually making one, and like you said, maybe they will get it right.
 
well after speaking with Viewsonic one more time and trying to do something myself with ddc/ci software, this monitor is going back. I refuse to pay $350 to be blinded by my monitor and I am not very happy with the backlight bleed and brightness uniformity either. I wish someone had specifically said before I bought it that the brightness buttons were intentionally disabled at 120hz.
 
i wish, all I have read so far is 2ms response time, q3 release, and there is a quick video with a ref from Asus showing the screen.
 
So software brightness adjustment wasn't enough? Was the backlight bleeding that bad or?
 
software brightness adjustment doesn't control the backlight at all, afaik all it does is manipulate the colors to make the image look darker but it doesn't do much honestly. yes it does make it look somewhat darker but you can easily tell that the backlight is still maxed out and the bleed on the edges is terrible and so are are the back levels and brightness uniformity.
 
silverbull1tt said:
funny the brightness controls work fine on my unit at 120hz
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are you fucking serious? viewsonic told me it was intentionally locked at maximum!! you better be for real, this whole thing has been one huge headache don't get my hopes up like that, the sarcastic tone is really not necessary or helpful.

can you give me more details? video card, os, date and place of purchase, etc... I want to have the information I need to call them and tell them to send me a fully functional unit.
 
I had the viewsonic for a few days. I couldn't adjust the brightness at 120hz either. I was only able to run it in 120hz for a few hours, it burnt up (literally smoked) but I think I got a beatup used model. Other than that the picture looked clear, I just wish they had it in 24".
 
Hi, I just got my vx2265wm yesterday also, and have put in some hours on it.

Being a hardcore CRT gamer for the last 10+ years, this thing had a lot to prove.

I must say that while it does have some backlight bleed, it's nothing that's too bad, I don't mind it. I also have the issue of not being able to change brightness while in 120hz. Doesn't make sense to me why, and I notified VS yesterday about it. They're escalating the issue, but I'm assuming they'll give me the same response as others that it was "designed that way."

I guess not ever having an LCD prior to now, I don't think it's really overly bright. I went ahead and turned the brightness down a little in CCC for both desktop and 3d modes, and it works just fine in left 4 dead.

Here's the really important part of my post:
1) If you do not force 120hz in applications, many of them will revert to 60hz. I found Left 4 Dead doing this yesterday, so I set it in the ATI CCC to always force 120, and I set it as a launch option. To the guy that says that his brightness controls work in 120hz, were you in a game? Make sure you're doing it at the DESKTOP so that you can be sure. We don't have a viewmeter on our monitors, so it can be difficult to tell if you're really in 120 unless you take possibilities out of the equation (i.e. games that could change it)

2) In a way, I kinda like that it does that. It's a way for me to confirm when I launch a game that it's running in 120. If I can adjust it, I know the game has reverted refresh rate, if it doesn't work, then I'm good to go.


Outside of this, I ran the Flatpanelsdk test on a crt and this for lag time, and I got about 12 tries of 0ms, and 3 tries of around 15ms. Not sure if that's a limitation of how I tested possibly? Can anyone clarify what this instruction means from their site? "If the input response is different on the two monitors, the number on each screen will be different" I think that just means that if you see different numbers, one is lagging.


However, this LCD feels EXACTLY like a CRT. I am so giddy I can't put it into words. If you're a serious gamer, then this no-frills monitor is perfect for you. I guarantee you'll never go back to a 60hz panel.
 
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Thanks for the review Kmartburrito (nice name lolz). I've been mulling over getting this thing...still not sure about it due to the brightness thing. But I am convinced after reading posts like yours on many different sites that 120Hz is the ONLY way to go with an LCD and gaming.

I guess its kind of a niche thing, but finding reviews on these monitors is kind of hard. There aren't a lot out there. I would think sites would have been all over these things for gaming and there'd be a bit more hype.

I still can't find any info on the ASUS 120Hz monitor, I'm hoping they'll be some display settings on that one...
 
rostabosta said:
Thanks for the review Kmartburrito (nice name lolz). I've been mulling over getting this thing...still not sure about it due to the brightness thing. But I am convinced after reading posts like yours on many different sites that 120Hz is the ONLY way to go with an LCD and gaming.

I guess its kind of a niche thing, but finding reviews on these monitors is kind of hard. There aren't a lot out there. I would think sites would have been all over these things for gaming and there'd be a bit more hype.

I still can't find any info on the ASUS 120Hz monitor, I'm hoping they'll be some display settings on that one...
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No problem at all! Like you, I want more people to be aware of the advantages and drawbacks of these monitors, as there isn't a whole lot out there.

It's funny, a friend of mine (who is a casual gamer) gave me a hard time about my purchase, stating that it was a gimmicky way to spend $165 more than I was going to, and that he didn't think it was worth the extra cost.

I can't believe more people aren't talking about this technology. Unlike the fake 120hz technology in HDTV's, this LCD technology is TRULY revolutionary. Of course not in the "monitor" sense as CRT's have been doing it for ages, but really, come on, I can't believe it. You have to see this in action to believe how awesome it really is. I just think most people haven't "caught on" yet. I bet more than anything most people just think it's the same as the fake 120hz in HDTV's and don't think it's anything new. You'll see this technology take off all throughout this year if I could make a prediction.

I didn't buy this monitor to have tons of On Screen Display adjustments, nor did I get it to have a kick ass stand that rotates and elevates. I got it for the gaming performance. And THAT is there in massive amounts.

I think of it as putting a Ferrari engine into a Honda Civic frame. :)

If you're a serious gamer, and you love FPS games or anything that's fast paced, you NEED to get at least this monitor or the Samsung. You'll be glad you did. Just turn down the brightness and adjust the color etc in your Nvidia or ATI control panel and be done with it. The gaming is amazing. I'm glad I held out on getting rid of my 19" CRT for so long.
 
QFT!

I'm sharing exactly same thoughts as you. I wish there were more hype about 120Hz LCD monitors so we could get newer and better ones because it does affect gaming that much I'd call it a "revolutionary" thing in LCD development. I think the main prob is that the manufacturers developed this monitor only for 3D stereo graphics gaming so they thought it would have relatively small interest group. Seems like the manufacturers just aren't aware of how many people are finding high refresh rates to be a crucial part in gaming. They could make tons of $$$ putting out a decent "how it takes gaming to the next level yaddayadda" and release some more decent 22" and 24" LCD monitors with 120Hz support. If they did it correctly, 120Hz could even shake the LCD monitor market up so much 120Hz becomes the standard in a couple of years and the smart manufacturer could make tons of cash from it.

Usually it works this way, something becomes reviewed by some credible reviewers and people in the gaming communities start talking about it and later on the word is also spread to the "normal" customers. However in this case there's too little talk and facts and demostrations about the 120Hz to make the hype go off. The TV 120Hz technology certainly doesn't make the case better either.

I'm still holding on to my 19" trinitron CRT I'm running at 1280x960@100Hz, there's no 60Hz LCD that would satisfy my gaming needs no matter what the cost is as long as it's 60Hz. The 2 LCDs out with 120Hz support are quite bad ones though, with the ViewSonic you're not able to adjust brightness hardware wise and has a quite a lot backlight bleed and with Samsung you get some 10~12ms avg input lag (~25 max) and badly calibrated color profile (blue domination). So I think I'm gonna wait a little longer, I'm not a image quality freak but they're still costly and for that price I'm not so sure I want to buy one that has these above mentioned issues on top of it. I really hope the ASUS one is better, otherwise I'll have to wait a while until sometimes 2010 perhaps. :s
 
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These first gen 120hz LCD monitors are a nice step in the right direction; however, they lack key features to me...

For one, they only run 120hz at the native resolution. Why only 1680x1050 and not 720p or 4:3/5:4 ones? The lower resolutions need not push as many pixels, so I don't understand this limitation. I'm sure it has to do with whatever the dual link DVI is doing or other problems with LCD technology - still bothers me though and enough to break the deal. I like playing Crysis and newer games with vsync locked - no one is going to play Crysis on very high with 120fps vsync locked - so having to set the LCD manually to 60hz just for this is another big issue to me. I guess it's too much to ask for the 120hz LCDs to act like CRT monitors in their refresh rates haha.

Glad people are enjoying theirs...I liked mine for left4dead for the little while I had it.
 
Gotta be something to do with the scaler maybe it can't keep up with 120hz input.
 
try gpu scaling, btw crysis always had problems using refresh rates higher than 60 on my crt, it drove me crazy. When I get home I'll see if I can get 120hz to work at lower resolutions, but I don't feel like reinstalling crysis.

I'm calling Tiger Direct Tuesday to return the monitor, yes it is really impressive, I plan on mounting my monitors to new desk so the stand doesn't bother me, and coming from a FW900 I would not go back if the brightness worked correctly but I didn't pay $350 to be blinded.

Hopefully the newer vx2268 version will fix this crap.
 
Oh didn't even know about VX2268wm. :D Cool, was wondering what's up with the shortage in Europe for VX2265wm. Thx for the headsup.

Hmm, maybe I should send an email to ask what exactly is improved with VX2268wm and if brightness adjustment is taken care of.
 
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shiznit said:
try gpu scaling, btw crysis always had problems using refresh rates higher than 60 on my crt, it drove me crazy. When I get home I'll see if I can get 120hz to work at lower resolutions, but I don't feel like reinstalling crysis.

I'm calling Tiger Direct Tuesday to return the monitor, yes it is really impressive, I plan on mounting my monitors to new desk so the stand doesn't bother me, and coming from a FW900 I would not go back if the brightness worked correctly but I didn't pay $350 to be blinded.

Hopefully the newer vx2268 version will fix this crap.
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I'm surprised, Crysis actually looked pretty good for the 20 minutes or so that I played it. I think it even played a little better when I turned on vsync, even though it may be the placebo effect. In either case, the mouse movements were spot on.

You have to remember that turning on vsync means it will lock to the screen rate no matter what it is, so in our case, it's 120, so either I'm not understanding correctly (which is entirely possible) or that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think I remember reading somewhere that divisors of that should look pretty good, so framerates of 120,60,40,30,etc.
 
shiznit said:
are you fucking serious? viewsonic told me it was intentionally locked at maximum!! you better be for real, this whole thing has been one huge headache don't get my hopes up like that, the sarcastic tone is really not necessary or helpful.

can you give me more details? video card, os, date and place of purchase, etc... I want to have the information I need to call them and tell them to send me a fully functional unit.
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Yes i'm being serious, I have the monitor set to 120Hz and pressing the brightness buttons brightens or dims the picture for me. 8800GT/Windows 7/Windows Vista purchased from ProVantage, 2/24/2009
 
kmartburrito said:
I'm surprised, Crysis actually looked pretty good for the 20 minutes or so that I played it. I think it even played a little better when I turned on vsync, even though it may be the placebo effect. In either case, the mouse movements were spot on.

You have to remember that turning on vsync means it will lock to the screen rate no matter what it is, so in our case, it's 120, so either I'm not understanding correctly (which is entirely possible) or that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think I remember reading somewhere that divisors of that should look pretty good, so framerates of 120,60,40,30,etc.
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yea I know all about vsync, what does that have to do with what I said?

silverbull1tt said:
Yes i'm being serious, I have the monitor set to 120Hz and pressing the brightness buttons brightens or dims the picture for me. 8800GT/Windows 7/Windows Vista purchased from ProVantage, 2/24/2009
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now I'm really angry, how can they make some work fine and others not and then tell people on the phone that it's all by design.
 
shiznit said:
yea I know all about vsync, what does that have to do with what I said?


now I'm really angry, how can they make some work fine and others not and then tell people on the phone that it's all by design.
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Sorry man, meant to quote BM00 instead about this part of his post concerning vsync:

"I like playing Crysis and newer games with vsync locked - no one is going to play Crysis on very high with 120fps vsync locked - so having to set the LCD manually to 60hz just for this is another big issue to me."
 
silverbull1tt said:
Yes i'm being serious, I have the monitor set to 120Hz and pressing the brightness buttons brightens or dims the picture for me. 8800GT/Windows 7/Windows Vista purchased from ProVantage, 2/24/2009
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Are you sure about this? I'm sure you can adjust the brightness but are you sure you're in 120Hz mode? I read somewhere else that sometimes it drops out of 120Hz mode per program despite him setting it up in 120Hz mode. The poster noted that's how he could tell he wasn't in 120Hz mode, because the brightness settings worked. He would then force it back into the proper mode.
 
rei1574 said:
How does this compare to the 2209WA?
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The 2209WA is an IPS panel, so it should be of better quality than the TN panel in the vx2265wm, and I read a review where someone stated that it was close to 0ms input lag (Digital Versus says ~9MS average,) but bottom line it's still a 60hz panel, so comparing it to this model is an apples to oranges comparison.

Think of it this way, with this monitor you'll be playing games @ 120hz goodness for years, throughout graphics card updates and onward. It's a worthwhile investment if you're a huge gamer.
 
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you might have better luck if you rez the samsung thread

I have been looking around myself, and I'm amazed by how many of these 'enthusiast' sites just blow off the 120hz feature as a 3d gimmick, besides not bothering to measure input lag. Reminds me why I disregard reviews completely and ask people on the forums.
 
Hey there,

I wanted to provide an update after talking to Viewsonic and escalating the backlight issue.


Just to recap for those unaware, when the unit is in 120hz mode, the brightness buttons no longer function.

Owners of this panel must beware that unless you force the refresh rate to 120hz in your Nvidia or ATI control panel, 3d games can override the desktop refresh rate.

In a case like this, you might think that your panel is working properly, but the panel is at 60hz without you being aware.

So, if you force your panel to 120hz, your brightness buttons shouldn't function. This is what has been previously reported. After escalating this issue, here is the first step that ViewSonic is having me try:

Memory Recall : unplug the unit, hold down the power button for 30 seconds. release the power button, plug the panel back in, set to 120hz and see if that resolves the issue.

I plan on trying this tonight.

The rep said that if that didn't work, ViewSonic has a firmware update that they have to do in-house. He gave me a case # and instructed me to call if the Memory Recall didn't work, and he'll set up an RMA to get my panel in so that they can do the firmware update.


While I have the brightness turned down in the ATI control panel, I don't like how I have to have it open to apply the settings, and that 3d games can override it. I'd like to have the hardware control, so hopefully this will work. I'll update as I know more.

-Nathan
 
I'm glad to hear at least they're trying to address the problem and not just ignore it. Just hope VX2268wm won't have this prob which would be stupid as if they wouldn't learn the mistake from VX2265wm sounds highly unlikely...
 
I just ordered one of these yesterday. I'll let you know how it goes with the brightness thing.
 
kmartburrito, do you have the name of the rep you spoke with? I almost sent it back to Tiger Direct today but I was running late from work, I want to call Viewsonic first and see if they offer me the same option.

update, just got off the phone with Viewsonic and was told something different. the guy said that while there are 2 firmwares available, the newer one is actually the one that forces the brightness at 100% because the the original wasn't bright enough for the people using glasses. I told him about your conversation and after being put on hold he came back and said that his manager told him that nothing can be done and there is no way to make the brightness work. His knowledge of the topic was extremely limited and I wonder if the manager just told him to say that not giving a shit about my problem. If the memory recall doesn't work and you have to call back please write down the name of the person you speak with to get your monitor sent in for firmware change and get his managers name if possible. I am getting to the end of the line with Viewsonic, if 120hz wasn't such a big deal to me I would have told them to go fuck themselves a while ago, returned it, and never bought one of their products again.
 
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