Viewsonic VX2025wm arrived! First impressions and pics

Son said:
I'm tossing up between the Dell 2007WFP and this, but there's one question I have. I think I already know the answer, but I just want to be sure before I gamble with Dell's dead pixel policy.

This is a scaling question. I'm planning to plug my PC to the DVI slot and leave a Dreamcast plugged into the VGA slot. Will the Viewsonic stretch the Dramcast display to fill the 16:10 ratio, or will I somehow be able to configure it to keep the original 4:3 ratio with black bars on the sides?


The Viewsonic will stretch it to fit. There is no aspect control on that monitor.
 
sanitystream said:
I have used both the Viewsonic and Dell. I had the Viewsonic for awhile and returned it and now I have the Dell 2007. My vote is for the Dell because it can do aspect ratio control. Otherwise, both monitors are pretty equal in performance. I will say that text seems to be ever so slightly fuzzier on the Dell via DVI at native res.

I returned the Viewsonic simply because I was trying out different monitors and exchanged it for the Gateway. That didn't impress me, so now I tried the Dell. If the Dell hadn't worked out, I would've gone back to the Viewsonic.

Either monitor is a good one, it mainly depends on whether you want aspect ratio control (Dell) or don't mind non-native resolutions stretched to fit (Viewsonic).

Yes, buying LCDs can make you go insane.


Well for me this monitor will only be used for gaming, nothing else. So personally I'd just leave it on the optimal resolution of 1680x1050. I would figure it's going to be pretty much the only resolution I use.

But I'm not to sure here, but is this size supported well in games? I swear I remember that 1600x1200 to be more typical.

THANKS
 
sanitystream said:
The Viewsonic will stretch it to fit. There is no aspect control on that monitor.
Dang, that's what I thought. Thanks for the reply. :)
 
But I'm going to use this for gaming on a SLI box, ONLY for new-generation games, and many of them out there support WS, or you can hack them to work.

So for me I don't see this as a issue.
 
jddesigned said:
Larger version of the screenie would have helped but I will say I detect minor ripples so to speak.

Those ripples in the background are due to a lower-end video card, that can't renender the picture properly, not the LCD. :)
 
jddesigned said:
I picked this up last Saturday and I've been pleased with it, but I don't think enough to keep it. I have definitely caught the widescreen bug and will never go back. I'm open the hunt for a LCD that I can do my design and web work on(photoshop, flash etc) and play FPS games. I also need something without glass because my office is 50% windows and I can barely see my screen on sunny days.

So the things I like:

- No motion blur in games that I can see. I play a lot of FPS games and on prior tried LCD's the side to side turning would create motion blur that would make me sick to my stomach. This monitor is a real treat to game on.
- Contrast to brightness is more than enough and quite pleasing.
- Did I mention widescreen?
- Once tweaked whites are white and color reproduction is very good with one exception(see dislikes)
- The stand is firm and looks pleasing on the desk too.
- I can do most graphic design and web work and I say most(see dislikes)

and my dislikes:

- Banding in the dark colors(gradients). As reviews state this monitor struggles with blacks and charcoals. Gradients in the deeper ranges suffer not smoothing out until mid tones.
- TEXT. Yes text. I know it looks good most of the time but when it comes down to the fine stuff this ones slacking. Dynamic text and pixel fonts are strong. Small size standard fonts is where this monitor suffers. When using standard fonts in sizes from 6 - roughly 14 the text gives off the appearance of tearing. This I fear could be enough for me to send this back as working in those font ranges is critical to my design work.
- Backlight bleed of course, if I decide to stay with this monitor I will be exchanging it only for this reason.
- * The anti-glare coating. There are times you don't even notice it and there's times when it casts almost a crystallized effect. I don't think this is a deal breaker, pretty sure I'd get used to it, but it can be annoying.

I've previously owned 5 lcd's and returned all do to each having a fault or two that bother me. Unfortunately I need a monitor that can handle gaming and design work while freeing up desk space. I've tried the Samsung 204T and it is by far the best LCD I've personally come across for design work. It was excellent in color repro and gradients, and handled all text sizes with ease. unfortunately it went back because I am one of those people highly sensitive to motion blur with sub 8ms lcd's.

This monitor I would highly recommend for those who want to game widescreen and surf the web. Photo editing and most graphic design would be ok, but for fine detail work I would avoid this LCD.

So if anyone else is not experiencing the tearing in text and banding let me know. Maybe I just have a lemon and should try another.

Well little follow up to things. I did exchange my first one and trying another in hopes the first was a lemon. Well nope it wasn't. Text is still as poor as the first one and trust me I tried all the tricks to make it better.

Anyways I'll give a quick review once more for those looking at this one.

Aesthetics - 9/10 - The Black and Silver finish fits in with my office space quite nicely and the stand does look cooler in person. I though from ealry pictures it may be cheesy. It really looks nie on my desk, pity it has to go back.

Anti-Glare Coating - 6.5/10 - So much for anti-glare. My home office is 50% windows and as I speak it's a beautiful sunny day. I'm getting half the glare of a CRT, but no where near the glare reduction of an LCD without this coating. Also think this adds a blur effect to things at times.

Color Repro - 8/10 - Bold strong colors most of the time but can seem washed out as well.

Banding - 7.5/10 - She's not perfect but she tries. Dark colors suffer here, black to white gradients aren't smooth throught the charcoals and dark greys. The only stepping noticable is from black to the first grey it produces after that it's fairly smooth with some minor ripples.

Text - 5/10 - Yes a 5. For web surfing and general desktop use text is fine and I would give it a 8 there. Unfortunately vector fonts suffer severely in sizes sub 18pt. There is noticable bleeding on fonts, almost a ghosted double image. Graphic designers beware.

Gaming/Respnose time - 9.5/10 - I must say once you game widescreen you'll never go back. I suffer for motion blur sickness.. lol yes I do. There were many a night on previously tried LCD's where I had headaches and a blah stomach. If you want to see motion blur from this LCD the you'd you have to go looking for it. I'm shocked at how well this monitor handles the constant turning side to side of FPS games.

Pictures/Photos - 7.5/10 - High res photos are quite fine here, but for images saved at lower quality settings pixelization is present. I mention this fact because if the girlfriend points it out then it's there for sure. I've nit-picked lcd's beacuse of this issue before and she always says oh it's fine, but this time she pointed it out. Almost gives the appearance of a .29 pot pitch LCD rather than .25.

* Just my 2 cents and everyone's got their own thresh hold of what's good and bad, but I hope this helps.

Final Thoughts - I'm comparing this LCD to my personal fav the Samsung 204T. By far the best graphic design LCD for under $700 that I have worked with. The Samsung produces text at CRT quality and colors are hard to beat. Never once did I have a banding issue with the 204T. However the Samsung is not even in the same league as the 2025 when it comes to gaming. I myself will keep looking for a better compromise in an LCD, I'm sure something is right around the corner.

Please feel free to post or PM me if you want me to check anything on this LCD. I'm keeping it for my remaining 13 days of Best Buy return policy just cause gaming is so blood fun!
 
sanitystream said:
Oh stupid me, I posted the wrong link. D'oh!

Can a Viewsonic owner look at this gradient screen and tell me if you see banding?

http://xtknight.atothosting.com/lcdtest/purplegreen2.png


thanks.


You don't need to be a Viewsonic user to have banding, LOL. I take it you are not familar with this. LOOK at this URL at the TOP picture, notice the STRIPES?

http://www.indiboi.com/journal/images/sony_lcd_problem.jpg

That is BANDING my boy :)

You don't seem to have that in the picture you posted. :)

ALOHA

P.S. Another pic with banding ---> http://www.ausmedia.com.au/Panasonic/LM1BANDTEST.gif
 
DasFox - I asked for a Viewsonic owner to look at the link because on my Dell 2007 there is very noticeable banding. I want to know how the Viewsonic does with it.

Do you own a Viewsonic?
 
jddesigned said:
Well little follow up to things. I did exchange my first one and trying another in hopes the first was a lemon. Well nope it wasn't. Text is still as poor as the first one and trust me I tried all the tricks to make it better.

Anyways I'll give a quick review once more for those looking at this one.

Aesthetics - 9/10 - The Black and Silver finish fits in with my office space quite nicely and the stand does look cooler in person. I though from ealry pictures it may be cheesy. It really looks nie on my desk, pity it has to go back.

Anti-Glare Coating - 6.5/10 - So much for anti-glare. My home office is 50% windows and as I speak it's a beautiful sunny day. I'm getting half the glare of a CRT, but no where near the glare reduction of an LCD without this coating. Also think this adds a blur effect to things at times.

Color Repro - 8/10 - Bold strong colors most of the time but can seem washed out as well.

Banding - 7.5/10 - She's not perfect but she tries. Dark colors suffer here, black to white gradients aren't smooth throught the charcoals and dark greys. The only stepping noticable is from black to the first grey it produces after that it's fairly smooth with some minor ripples.

Text - 5/10 - Yes a 5. For web surfing and general desktop use text is fine and I would give it a 8 there. Unfortunately vector fonts suffer severely in sizes sub 18pt. There is noticable bleeding on fonts, almost a ghosted double image. Graphic designers beware.

Gaming/Respnose time - 9.5/10 - I must say once you game widescreen you'll never go back. I suffer for motion blur sickness.. lol yes I do. There were many a night on previously tried LCD's where I had headaches and a blah stomach. If you want to see motion blur from this LCD the you'd you have to go looking for it. I'm shocked at how well this monitor handles the constant turning side to side of FPS games.

Pictures/Photos - 7.5/10 - High res photos are quite fine here, but for images saved at lower quality settings pixelization is present. I mention this fact because if the girlfriend points it out then it's there for sure. I've nit-picked lcd's beacuse of this issue before and she always says oh it's fine, but this time she pointed it out. Almost gives the appearance of a .29 pot pitch LCD rather than .25.

* Just my 2 cents and everyone's got their own thresh hold of what's good and bad, but I hope this helps.

Final Thoughts - I'm comparing this LCD to my personal fav the Samsung 204T. By far the best graphic design LCD for under $700 that I have worked with. The Samsung produces text at CRT quality and colors are hard to beat. Never once did I have a banding issue with the 204T. However the Samsung is not even in the same league as the 2025 when it comes to gaming. I myself will keep looking for a better compromise in an LCD, I'm sure something is right around the corner.

Please feel free to post or PM me if you want me to check anything on this LCD. I'm keeping it for my remaining 13 days of Best Buy return policy just cause gaming is so blood fun!


You never use the worrd cleartype? I using it and my type looks excellent.
Clear Type

Could be a issue with your graphic card settings or somthing of that nature what card you running and also are you using the DVI?
 
sanitystream said:
DasFox - I asked for a Viewsonic owner to look at the link because on my Dell 2007 there is very noticeable banding. I want to know how the Viewsonic does with it.

Do you own a Viewsonic?


Well banding if you know can happen on any LCD. With the Viewsonic yes they strecth, because there is no Aspect Ratio adjustments like the Dell has.

No I don't own a Viewsonic, but I know about the problem. But from your picture you posted there does not seem to appear any banding issue as I said eariler, so what are you worried about now?

You don't have a banding problem, at least none that you can see on that picture. If still worried about banding post a picture with your desktop background in it, and a few other varied images to look at.

Make sure you use the DVI INPUT, not analog for better image quality.

ALOHA
 
DasFox said:
You don't have a banding problem, at least none that you can see on that picture. If still worried about banding post a picture with your desktop background in it, and a few other varied images to look at.


You're misunderstanding this whole thing. That link is not a photo of my monitor. It's a gradient test pattern that should exhibit no signs of banding on a good monitor. On my 2007WFP, when I visit the link I see definite banding. When I look at it with my CRT, I don't. So I'm asking a Viewsonic owner to look at the same link and tell me what they see on their monitor.

Here's the link again if some Viewsonic owner will simply look at it and tell me how the pattern appears on their monitor:

http://xtknight.atothosting.com/lcdtest/purplegreen2.png
 
sanitystream said:
You're misunderstanding this whole thing. That link is not a photo of my monitor. It's a gradient test pattern that should exhibit no signs of banding on a good monitor. On my 2007WFP, when I visit the link I see definite banding. When I look at it with my CRT, I don't. So I'm asking a Viewsonic owner to look at the same link and tell me what they see on their monitor.

Here's the link again if some Viewsonic owner will simply look at it and tell me how the pattern appears on their monitor:

http://xtknight.atothosting.com/lcdtest/purplegreen2.png

I just switched between my princeton 17 and my viewsonic and the difference was remarkable. there is NO banding on the viewsonic
 
i've been hearing some realy nightmare stories abt this monitor, it was definately my top choise ut i dunno. i read that one guy's monitor atarted smoking in first two days, and also some other issuse :(
 
Eagle156 said:
Ehhhh are you sure you know what banding is fox?


Yes I do, my bad I wasn't paying attention, hehe, I thought he was taking a screenshot was all, which some people do.

Anyhow, I didn't pay attention, my apologies.

ALOHA
 
sanitystream said:
The Viewsonic will stretch it to fit. There is no aspect control on that monitor.

Do any widescreens scale besides the Dells? Like the NEC or Acer AL2032?
 
Ok, I just picked up one of these babies.

It is looking pretty amazing so far.

Desktop looks good and BF2 looks very nice.

I think it may take some time for my eyes to adjust from CRT at home and work to the new LCD.

I will just have to keep tinkering with the settings and playing other games to see how nice of a monitor I have in my hands.
 
DigitalEdge said:
You never use the worrd cleartype? I using it and my type looks excellent.
Clear Type

Could be a issue with your graphic card settings or somthing of that nature what card you running and also are you using the DVI?

Ya I tried Cleartype, 3 different sets of vid drivers, 2 video cards, and 2 different 2025 's etc. It's just not the monitor for me I guess.......

Right now I'm on my 6800gt and using DVI yes. Running drivers on high quality right now. Just can't figure what could be wrong.
 
jddesigned said:
Ya I tried Cleartype, 3 different sets of vid drivers, 2 video cards, and 2 different 2025 's etc. It's just not the monitor for me I guess.......

Right now I'm on my 6800gt and using DVI yes. Running drivers on high quality right now. Just can't figure what could be wrong.

Is there anyway to show a pic of the issue?
 
Just ordered one of these from Buy.com for $375 shipped... now the waiting begins.
 
Having read through this entire thread (and still unable to decide whether I should get one), I feel I should comment on a few things.

Firstly the aspect ratio. Some people seem to not understand that the screen stretching is only dependent on the resolution. Pictures and images are stretched by software to fit the current resolution, so an 800x600 image or video at fullscreen will actually be 1400x1050 centred on the regular 1680x1050 background (the same aspect ratio, i.e. with black bars on the sides, unless of course the software is specifically set up to not preserve aspect ratio). It has absolutely nothing to do with the monitor.

Games, on the other hand, do have something to do with the monitor since the screen resolution is changed, so a game running at 800x600 is stretched by the monitor to fit the monitors 16:10 aspect ratio.
I am still unclear on whether this can actually be fixed with ATI cards, and it's something I'm very interested in, since the first thing I sacrifice for performance is resolution (I doubt I'll be playing many games at 1680x1050).
I couldn't find any options in the Catalyst Control Centre, but I assume that's because I'm using a 19" 4:3 CRT, and the option probably only appears when a widescreen monitor is attached.
I did however find this in the ATI help file:

* Scale image - maintain aspect ratio turns on Ratiometric Expansion and scales the frame buffer up to the panel size while maintaining the wide-panel aspect ratio.

Note: Scale Image - maintain aspect ratio is only available when using wide-aspect display panels.

* Scale image - full panel size turns on Ratiometric Expansion.

Use centered timings turns off Ratiometric Expansion. If you are using a smaller frame buffer image (800 x 600 resolution) than the native panel resolution, the image is shown centered on the panel with black bars around it.


Though it is under Notebook Panel Properties, so I'm not sure it applies.

I would really appreciate it if someone with this monitor and an ATI card, could confirm (photographically or otherwise) whether or not ATI cards can preserve a 4:3 aspect ratio with this monitor. It's one of the main reasons I haven't decided to get one yet.

Secondly, I feel I should comment on the 'supposed' backlight bleeding problem.
I noticed that people have said that the bleeding problem seems to go away when the monitor is viewed more from the left or right.
I also noticed that various people have said that the monitor appears slightly washed out at different viewing angles.
Therefore, is it not completely possible that the 'bleeding' you speak of is simply the monitor becoming slightly washed out as it's viewed from a steeper angle? (The sides of the screen are at a different angle to the centre when viewed straight on, unless the screen is concave.)
Also notice that in the photos posted of this issue on the second page, the 'bleeding' issue also appears in the centre of the monitor when viewed at the sides (because now the centre is at a steeper angle).
I would assume that the problem can be almost completely solved by simply sitting further away from the screen (though it's still an issue because I like to be close to my monitor :eek: ).

At the moment I'm tossing up on whether to get a VX2025WM or a VX922, I'm not sure that widescreen (especially if it stretches games) is worth the drop in latency (though from comments here it seem latency is not an issue, but I'd still like some difinitive proof [hurry up and review this Toms Hardware!]). Or whether the washed out viewing angles (or 'bleeding') is better than having dark edges, but less than perfect colour and uniformity of the 922 (especially considering I will be looking at black most of the time). Not to mention the 30% price difference.

Finally, I should mention this website: go here, which has a very large list of LCDs with various comparison images that may just help people decide. It is in french, but just run it through babelfish and you should be fine.
 
I just bit the bullet today after doing way to much reading on this monitor and it's competitors, looks like for the price and intended use (gaming & general web browsing) this one should fit my needs & budget the best.

Got a not too shabby deal from a local store on it at €519, a tad more expensive then were I to order it online, but I like the extra security of a shop I have experience with should something be wrong with the display.

Anyway, I was told I could expect a call from them this week and I'll be able to assign my Hyundai Q17 to backup screen duty :)

The Hyundai has served me well since my old 19" Viewsonic CRT started to show signs of wear and I never had any real issue with it, but it's lack of configuration options (no noticable brightness adjustments when on DVI, no color temperature settings etc) has annoyed me from the moment I got it.
I'll be glad to have my 9300k setting back :)
 
Hedgepig said:
I am still unclear on whether this can actually be fixed with ATI cards, and it's something I'm very interested in, since the first thing I sacrifice for performance is resolution (I doubt I'll be playing many games at 1680x1050).
I couldn't find any options in the Catalyst Control Centre, but I assume that's because I'm using a 19" 4:3 CRT, and the option probably only appears when a widescreen monitor is attached.

Hedge, you are correct in your assumption. I went from a 19" CRT to a VX2025WM. As soon as I switched over to the DVI input of the 2025, the "Centered Timings" option in Catalyst Control Center became available. I looked for it before the switch and it was not there.

Hope this answers your question.
 
tankkid said:
hey, this is now my second VX2025wm. I really like the monitor but ive been haveing a problem with it. I started using this monitor on my old pc for about a week and then i upgraded my pc i noticed that on the left side of the monitor i had about a 1 inch stripe blue going down the monitor. I got a new and it worked good. now about a week or two later this monitor started doing it. I first noticed it starting as a very light red and then got darker and bluer. It only occurs on a white or very light backround, not dark ones. Here are some pictures:
DSCN1073.jpg

DSCN1076.jpg

Any ideas?
 
oh my i had the same problem with my LG monitor the

blue strip going down the middle!!
 
registered to get to the bottom of the 2007 issue. heres a post from anadtech, i think people with the 2007fpw should do the test and report.

spronkey (from anandtech) http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1842727&frmKeyword=&STARTPAGE=8&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear said:
I'm waiting for two of these (2007wfp) to arrive, after having sent back the one 2005fpw i had (starting to regret that - i wanted two of them, but dell didn't have any left ), and I have a number of questions for 2007wfp owners.

Firstly, I've created a test image in PNG and TIFF forms (to ensure that PNG and it's own colour profiles aren't the problem, make sure they both display the same). The URLs:
TIF: http://www.spronkware.com/spronkey/sdc-testchart-gradientbandi.tif
PNG: http://www.spronkware.com/spronkey/sdc-testchart-gradientbandi.png

Secondly, could you please put your monitors into DESKTOP mode.

Thirdly, could you ensure that NO OTHER INPUTS are connected to your LCD at the time of testing.

(this is my attempt at a controlled experiment)

Could a few please post some photos of their 2007wfp's displaying this test image in the following configurations (all in desktop mode):

- VGA mode, Default colour settings, Default contrast/brightness
- VGA mode, Lowered colour settings (30, 30, 30), Default contrast/brightness
- VGA mode, Lowered colour settings, Lowered contrast/brightness (30, 30)
- VGA mode, Lowered colour settings, Lowered contrast/brightness (30, 30)

- DVI mode, Default colour settings, Default brightness
- DVI mode, Lowered colour settings (30, 30, 30), Default brightness
- DVI mode, Lowered colour settings (30, 30, 30), Lowered brightness (30)
- DVI mode, Default colour settings, Lowered brightness (30)

With the test images above, you should see smooth gradients with dither on both horizontal and vertical, followed by smooth gradients (which are mapped at one 1px line per colour, unlike some of the test gradients around). The lower saturation gradients should also be smooth with no banding.

The six diagonal gradient squares should be smooth, the top 3 use dithering, the bottom three use flat lines.

The RGB squares should also be smooth.

Hopefully the following tests above will provide some sort of insight into where the problem lies. I'm thinking the digital logic chips inside the monitor might be clipping certain signals because they are slightly too strong, or some other strange phenomenon.

Anyhow, photos of these test images in the 8 above modes would be appreciated, and hopefully should prove helpful.

i personally have the 2005fpw and have no banding problems
 
Hey guys, this goes to anyone whos bought it from newegg....

How do they pack this one ? Is it reliable ? If I make an order of several items would it come in box with the rest of the stuff ?


:p
 
newegg nice store to buy from except for monitors, beware newegg has 8 dead pixel and viewsonic has 10 dead pixel policy. so anything up to 7 dead pixels and you are stuck with it.
 
sanitystream said:
You're misunderstanding this whole thing. That link is not a photo of my monitor. It's a gradient test pattern that should exhibit no signs of banding on a good monitor. On my 2007WFP, when I visit the link I see definite banding. When I look at it with my CRT, I don't. So I'm asking a Viewsonic owner to look at the same link and tell me what they see on their monitor.

Here's the link again if some Viewsonic owner will simply look at it and tell me how the pattern appears on their monitor:

http://xtknight.atothosting.com/lcdtest/purplegreen2.png

It looks perfectly fine to me on my 2025. Good luck with your Dell.
 
Lawdog said:
Hedge, you are correct in your assumption. I went from a 19" CRT to a VX2025WM. As soon as I switched over to the DVI input of the 2025, the "Centered Timings" option in Catalyst Control Center became available. I looked for it before the switch and it was not there.

Hope this answers your question.

Thanks.
So you're saying that when 'centered timings' is enabled on ATI cards it will keep the 4:3 aspect ratio of lower resolutions? Have you tested it? How does it look?
 
jddesigned said:
OK, so going through your posts as a trouble shooting list here.

1. Yes, I'm running at native resolution and running in anything not native looks just plain bad to me.
2. I've, play with my vid car settings over and over.
3. Running in DVI since day 1.

We may never no what the problem is and I gotta return it tomorrow or I'll miss my Best Buy 14 day return period. If my 14 day return policy resets with an exchange I'll try another, hopefully I have a lemon. Kinda strange I'm the only one who finds text poor. I'm not talking desktop text here either. My Icons and forum text is perfect, it's just vector fonts that are the problem. I work with 3 different LCD's on my desk at work and have had 6 different ones at home, and I haven't seen text tis poor since I had a Hyundai L90D+. So no one else see's a slight bleeding effect?

Anyways I'll keep you all updated. Never know what will become of this.

Could it be that VECTOR fonts and the software that drives them (adobe?) have a problem rendering to a widescreen format? Maybe it doesn't really know what to do with the font once it sees what resolution your system is running at.

You may want to try a 4:3 ratio resolution, run an auto-image adjust on the viewsonic and make sure your desktop fonts look as normal as they can for a 4:3 image on a 16:10 monitor and then try your Vector fonts.
 
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