Viewsonic VX2025wm arrived! First impressions and pics

sparks said:
I guess what is really keeping me from buying is it can't re-scale images
if it did this would be at my house tonight

the gateway does Zoom,Wide,and 1:1
but it has toooo many down sides..

is there a 20 or 21" that has all the good points and none of the bad?
sparks


I suspect it will be the Dell 2007. It should have th re-scaling ability the Viewsonic lacks. Hopefully it won't backlight-bleed the way the 2005 did.
 
Well, brown stopped their camel in front of my house and delivered my VX2025wm from Datavision today. The box looks like the camel stepped on it a few times, but the monitor looks like it survived ok. I did have a bit of a heart stopping moment when I unwrapped the monitor and I saw a wavy screen with a divot in the plastic. I then saw that this was caused by the clear plastic sheet over the screen (whew!). The screen itself looks immaculate, but I will find out for sure later tonight when I plug it in and start to test it.

The first part of my review will be on the process I went through at Datavision. This is because I feel that the process is important in considering not only what to purchase, but who to purchase it from.

I checked for the lowest price and Datavision was the one at that time. $449.00 + $29.00 for shipping, and with a $100.00 rebate direct from Viewsonic. I checked out Datavisions ratings, and while not great there were some success stories too. As I was using a credit card to get it, I decided to take the risk and give Datavision a chance. I noted that the item was in stock, and even took a screen capture to show that. I placed the order on March 9th (right after midnight EST), and I got a confirmation almost immediately. It showed that the item was in stock and that I would get an email after it had shipped, with details. Great! Or so I thought.

When I had not received an email by Tuesday the 14th, I called to check on the order. The salesperson was not outright rude, but they were very abrupt and clipped in their responses. I was polite as I know that sales people usually have to endure some nasty abuse at times, and I had no reason to be nasty. Especially when he told me that the order had been shipped on Monday. Great! I asked for the tracking number, and I was told to check the order status on their web site. Ok.

So I go to the web site, and there is no info. The status was 'N', and there was no indication that it had been shipped. So I figured that it had not been updated yet. I waited until late Wednesday, but no change. So I called Datavision that evening and I was told to call back when sales was open. They could take an order, but they could not give any order info. Ok.

So I called back Thursday morning, and the person who helped me was very pleasant. That was nice compared to the first call. I asked about the order, and I was told that they were out of stock, and would be unable to ship until the next shipment came in. Not ok. But I remained VERY polite. I told them that I had been told that it had been shipped, and the salesperson politely said they could not believe that. I told them that it was a fact, and I have no reason to state otherwise. I even told them of the screen capture of the order and that it was advertised as in stock. Oh well, nothing will change the current facts. So I told them that I was in no particular hurry, as long as the order was processed and shipped in time for me to take advantage of the rebate. They assured me of that, so I kept the order.

Later, I emailed Datavision (1 of three in total, with no responses) and told them of my disappointment with the events. I stayed VERY polite, and told them that although I would keep my order, that offer was only good until the 24th as I was concerned that the monitor would not get here in time to send out the rebate. One side note, the order was placed the 9th, the rebate ad at Datavision said that the order had to be placed by the 18th to get the rebate. But the rebate says that it is good for purchases from March 5th through April 4th. And the invoice says that the order was placed on the 21st. I better get that rebate of I will contact our state's attorney general consumer protection division about it. Here in Oregon, they do not like out of state companies screwing over their constituents. I had a problem with Canon a few years ago, and their office stepped in and read Canon the riot act. The problem was quickly resolved, properly.

Well, the email went out with no response, but I got an email on the 20th stating that the order would ship in the next 24 to 48 hours. Great! So now the monitor is here, and I will review it soon. Was this experience worth it? Well, if the monitor works fine and I get the rebate, yes. Would I place an order with Datavision again? Probably not. I can not say absolutely not (yet), and I may never say it. But I can tell you that I would conduct the whole order over the phone, not the internet. If they can not keep their site up to date, it is little more than an advertisement for a price.

I will be back with the monitor review soon! It sure looks nice, and I hope it works as good as it looks!
 
man i'm steaming, i missed that 100 dollar rebate. i'll have to wait for the next one =(
 
As far as the scaling goes, here is what i am talking about with the nvidia control panel setting it to fixed aspect ratio...I"m not sure if it is scaling accurately, since even in 1024x768, it did not have any horizontal black bars, and it seems to me like it should have..but there are bars on the sides...

Oblivion @1680x1050


Oblivion @1280x1024


and at 1024x768
 
HoodooGuru said:
Are you guys connected via DVI or VGA? I cannot access that manual settings menu with the Digital Vibrance & Image shapening selections. The PDF manual states this is unavailable when running DVI (vs. VGA).

I'm DVI connected.

The settings I referred to and to which you quoted is found on my Nvidia control panel and is accessed by right-clicking on my desktop (among other ways); then choosing 'Color Correction'.
 
For those who are using ATI Cats (I'm basing this on my experience with the Mobility versions), there seems to be this option called "Use Center Timings" that seems to be it.

However, I do not have the monitor to test it out.

Some curious questions: If there's no internal scaling in the monitor, then how does it display those screens with really low resolutions (and there is no driver support), ie BIOS, DOS enviroment etc...?
 
It scales the DOS & boot screens (just plugged mine in!). One question if I may. I am running the latest Omega drivers on my ATI 9800 XT 256 and I have a 21" Sony CPD-G500 CRT. I can switch which display is primary, and extend the desktop either way too. I have all of the Advanced Display Settings (all of the ATI tabbed stuff) on the Sony, but only five basic tabs under Advanced on the LCD. Is this right?

I look in the Omega stuff, and it recognizes the Sony, but not the LCD. But it works fine other than that. Should I boot up with only the LCD on it first? Or should I reinstall the Omega drivers? Or is this the way it is.

Thanks for any and all help! :)
 
@Nephandus:
Thanks for your pictures! Convinced me to buy that monitor...before that I'll order my 7800GS AGP What spec you're on?
 
I"m on a 6800GT pci-x 2gb of ram...I can run oblivion at 1680x1050 with most of the settings turned up, some at medium..there's certain areas that it chugs pretty hard though..it's a really nice monitor, you'll enjoy it
 
Nephandus said:
I"m on a 6800GT pci-x 2gb of ram...I can run oblivion at 1680x1050 with most of the settings turned up, some at medium..there's certain areas that it chugs pretty hard though..it's a really nice monitor, you'll enjoy it
Same experience for me on an ATI AIW X800XT. Not getting any sleep (bad) because of Oblivion (good). This monitor makes it even better...
 
Thanks Nephandus & HoodooGuru. Just ordered 7800GS AGP to replace my old 9800pro 128M, hope it will make big difference playing with mine old P4 2.8C..
Thanks for all the amazing pictures! :)
 
Nephandus are the black bars something you had to do
or did the monitor just scale the 1024 size for you?


OK everyone is Oblivion .
single player or online?
HOW ABOUT some action scenes LOL
looks like rodger rabbits trip to walmart.

sparks
 
DrDoug said:
Well, brown stopped their camel in front of my house and delivered my VX2025wm from Datavision today. ......

Dude, I'm not going to say this to rub it in as I hate getting treated like that from online stores.. But.. I would rather pay a few bucks more with Newegg and KNOW that I will be treated right. Hearing stories like that make me glad I rarely ever stray from using them for my computer needs. Sorry for your trauma and hope the monitor works out for ya at least. :)


Sparks, He says in his post how he got it to work. And it's a single player game only... and a great one at that. ;)
 
Deezus I went right by that...read it twice and missed it both times
"setting it to fixed aspect ratio"

thanks for pointing that out

sparks
 
There's another option in Nvidia control panel called Centered Timing, pry like the same thing borez was talking about a couple posts up...I like the fixed aspect ratio option better, using centered output 1024x768 is much to small for me on centered timing..Here's some pics on Centered timing:

Oblivion @1024x768


@1280x1024


@1600x900
 
That 1600X900 doesn't look to shabby at all. So much extra tweaking I have been wanting to try out, but with school full time, work full time, consulting part time and fitting the family time in there, I hardly ever have free time!.. so I'm glad people like you have tried it out for us all! Thanks.

I want to crank the settings up higher then I can with the res at 1680X1050 with my current hardware and I think that 16X9 might help out alot.

Sparks- No worries, I just didn't want to come across as someone like "RTFM!", when you can just say, look a little closer. :)
 
Hey you can not offend me I am just thankfull that you pointed it out.
Next time take a pic and circle it....I aint to swoft LOL

sparks
 
Nephandus said:
As far as the scaling goes, here is what i am talking about with the nvidia control panel setting it to fixed aspect ratio...

Thanks a lot Nephandus, it was the big negative point which despaired me, and force to prefer the VX922.... :(

Now this issue is gone. :D

For all. What about the size of the text for the web or Word for example... Is it enough big to not be exhaustive??? :confused: .... I now I can enlarge the size, then is it nice as result???

Maybe little VX2025wm....you will be mine !!

Sorry for my english :p
 
Text is pretty damn small at native res..and for me sometimes it can be annoying because there seems to be like a purplish glow around it, especially on white text against black or vice versa..I didn't know you could enlarge the text. could someone share that with me, i am not sure how.

Glad I could help everyone out with those pics
 
Ya know, I haven't used word yet with the WS, I've done some CAD work and that wasen't too bad.. Of course I'm not at home and can't check it out. No guarantees I will remember, but I will try it out when I get home and post what I find out. Someone feel free to do it before me though because I know I will forget. ;)
 
awesome pictures but just a few quick questions

can some with this monitor get all of the dimensions for me, LxWxHxD with the height of the display and also the height from the stand to the top of the display

is there a big difference between DVI-D and VGA, can someone test it out by using VGA then DVI (would be interesting to know)

is there anyway to hookup an xbox360 to this monitor and play in HD? (I have a 7900GT with HD connections, so how would that work, would I plug the xbox 360 into my video card using the HD connections then my video card processes it and plays it on my monitor? all this stuff confuses me)

thanks in advance!
 
KompressorV12 said:
is there anyway to hookup an xbox360 to this monitor and play in HD? (I have a 7900GT with HD connections, so how would that work, would I plug the xbox 360 into my video card using the HD connections then my video card processes it and plays it on my monitor? all this stuff confuses me!)
you can connect your 360 to this monitor using a 360 VGA cable (Microsoft sells one that you can buy just about anywhere -- there are also 3rd party cables available for less money, i've seen them online and in a few B&M stores). as for the vid card thing, that won't work. the 7900GT doesn't have "vivo", so you won't be sending it anything. stick with the 360 cable and you're all set.

regarding VGA vs. DVI, i believe it is generally accepted that DVI displays a more accurate image in most cases, ranging from a little to a lot. i think it's actually been mentioned in this very thread already. keep in mind, people can test them, but if you're wanting pictures, i don't think you'll be able to tell the difference unless you're looking at the monitor in person.
 
killedaway said:
you can connect your 360 to this monitor using a 360 VGA cable (Microsoft sells one that you can buy just about anywhere -- there are also 3rd party cables available for less money, i've seen them online and in a few B&M stores). as for the vid card thing, that won't work. the 7900GT doesn't have "vivo", so you won't be sending it anything. stick with the 360 cable and you're all set.

regarding VGA vs. DVI, i believe it is generally accepted that DVI displays a more accurate image in most cases, ranging from a little to a lot. i think it's actually been mentioned in this very thread already. keep in mind, people can test them, but if you're wanting pictures, i don't think you'll be able to tell the difference unless you're looking at the monitor in person.

yup I just read up about the VGA cable and it sucks because I upgraded from a 7800GT to a 7900GT and lost VIVO, but i'm assuming (my assumptions have been dead wrong today) vivo used svideo and video not component connections, you can only output HD signals with these cards, w/e I guess I will be buying a VGA

another quick question, is there a DVI cable for the x360, I know microsoft doesn't make one, maybe a 3rd party?
 
In English:


fontsizing9ju.jpg
 
Mangavin said:
;)


With this pic (all in french)... There is the option to incrase or reduce the font.


how do u make your deskop look like that? and where can i download it?
 
Is the 1:1 Scaling feature only availalbe on Nvidia cards? Is that same feature available on an ATI card, X1900?
 
Try Centered Timing in the ATI panel..I'm pretty sure i saw someone say that was the ATI equivalent
 
I have heard a couple people mention the small text. Can someone post a pic of how small you are talking about? Also does the small text transfer into games?

I am looking into potentiallly buying this monitor so this has me a little curious.
 
KompressorV12 said:
yup I just read up about the VGA cable and it sucks because I upgraded from a 7800GT to a 7900GT and lost VIVO, but i'm assuming (my assumptions have been dead wrong today) vivo used svideo and video not component connections, you can only output HD signals with these cards
well, my 7900GT can definitely output S-video. i hooked it up to my TV that way on the first day i got it, and messed around a little, to see if it worked, and it did.

KompressorV12 said:
another quick question, is there a DVI cable for the x360, I know microsoft doesn't make one, maybe a 3rd party?
i've searched for this but come up empty. seems like something you could "smelt" (silly word usage of the day) yourself if you were to use an adapter of some kind, but i've not investigated this idea much myself.
 
HoodooGuru said:
No. In fact, the text in Oblivion is almost TOO big on my VX2025wm...
agreed. it makes the text seem kinda goony, like playing an old NES game with that standard blocky text.

EDIT: by the way, mine just came in this afternoon and it's absolutely gorgeous. not a dead pixel to be found, and the picture quality is quite high. i'll miss my old 17" CRT, but not for long. i can live with the shortcomings to do away with the weight, size, and hideous power consumption of my old display. not to mention the clarity of text (i was already spoiled by my laptop, but now i can enjoy the same sharpness on my desktop).
 
Ladic said:
how do u make your deskop look like that? and where can i download it?
That bar can be achived by running RK Launcher or Object dock...You could get more info at Aqua-soft. Just google its address. It's a windows macstyle customize site...
 
Just got a Viewsonic VX2025wm from frys electronics. It was $500 with a $100 viewsonic mail in rebate. Works great.

Oblivion at max settings @ 1680x1050 on my evga 7800gt kills my fps a lot. I turned off hdr and AA and I get decent framerates 30+ depending on where I am. Hopefully the evga 7900gtx superclocked i am in the queue for will help some once I get it.

Overall very pleased with this lcd.
 
Hi

I just bought a VX2025 from www.overclockers.co.uk here in the Uk based on the glowing reviews it got here and have to say im mighty impressed. I paid £340 for mine which seems over the odds compared to the USA. Anyways on to the issue; I have tried the centered timings option on my ATi X1800XL but it still seems to stretch the display. Anyone else with an ATi card managed to get this working yet because i recently started playing FFVII again and the resolution doesnt look to good in widescreen at 640x480 lol

Regards, Matt
 
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