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VP201B thoughts

jyi786

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jun 13, 2002
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Just got my VP201B and am posting this on it.

Firstly, it's a MAJOR improvement over my old P90f, from everything to noise to color and eye relaxment. There is only 1 problem. It has a dead pixel toward the bottom of the screen that is a bit, bit annoying. It only shows on a black screen. There is another dead pixel, but it's small and is not a distraction.

How is Viewsonic's return policy on dead pixel returns, and how can they ensure that you get a new one that does not have any dead pixels?
 
Update:

I tweaked the brightness and contrast, moved the screen back a little, and the dead pixels are almost barely noticeable.

One thing I noticed after about 5 hours of use. The infamous backlighting issue presented itself. It was getting annoying, as the top right hand corner of the screen was brighter than the rest.

I remedied this by futher tweaking the brightness of the LCD. After I did that, the screen's backlight became uniform again. I tested further by playing UT2004 for a few hours, and checked it again, as it seemed to become prevalent as the panel got hotter. Still, it was uniform.

Therefore, I am convinced that a lot of backlighting issues (sans Dell 2001fp/2005fpw) can be remedied by properly adjusting the brightness/contrast. If I had the brightness all the way up, I got the backlighting issue. Backing down to about 80% or so made the backlight uniform.

Also, this "screendoor" effect wasn't like a screendoor to me; it was more like a shimmering. This can also be remedied by sitting further from the screen. If it's up in your face, you'll see it. 1 1/2 to 2 feet away would be perfect.

NO GHOSTING. I mean damn. I was expecting just a little bit. I was prepared to accept that, but there is none to be found!!! I was pwning in UT2004. It was awesome.

When I ran at a lower resolution, I forgot that I wasn't at the native 1600x1200. That's how good the interpolation is on this panel. Almost no bluriness or jaggedness.

Color reproduction blew away my crappy CRT. I mean, photos just came alive, and I see details that I was never able to see before on the CRT (i.e. pinstripes on a black/gray pinstripe suit!).

All in all, I think this one's a keeper. As long as my tweak for the backlight works and stays consistent, I'm a happy camper. Now just have to fire up some other games (i.e. Half Life 2, Far Cry, Thief) and see how it looks.
 
Thanks for the mini-review :)

I agree with most of what you said about the VP201b. It's a great monitor. I can't believe there's people out there who leave the brightness set at 100%. That, to me, is like turning your CRT up to 100% brightness and then complaining about the blacks not being black anymore. It's one of those "duh" things. For me, the best brightness setting is about 50-55%. There's 0 backlight bleed at that setting, and the colors are still a lot brighter than my Sony Trinitron. I also bump the contrast down a bit as well.

I think if I left both set at the default of 100% I'd have retina scaring soon. Then again, that would probably fix the backlight problem since I'd lose my vision anyway. :p

I do notice ghosting though. This was made apparent by the eyestrain and headache I was getting the first few days of playing WoW on it. It's definately not bad ghosting, and it depends on your play style as to how much you see it, but it is noticeable. My eyes got used to it though and it doesn't bother me anymore.

Screendoor isn't an issue for me. I don't understand why someone would buy a 20" monitor and then stick it so close to their face that the screendoor would bother them. When the monitor is at a reasonable distance you don't even see it. Even when I notice it I don't really care about it. It's not like it ruins the picture or anything.
 
One "issue" that I found was that the panel displays images so sharply that it actually makes my whole wallpaper collection look like trash due to low quality JPEGs. :(

Oh well. Off to find new HQ wallpapers now. Any suggestions?
 
From what I remember, this is the same panel as the Dell 2001, so any issues that people had with the Dell could be had by this monitor... however, from what I hear, both monitors are quite good. The 16ms reponse time is sufficient for most games.
 
Mine VP201b has 2 broken red subpixels(black) and screendoor... But it is not so annoying as some colour-working professionals say. I am making promotion matherials(AVerMedia ones) for mass printing and working hardly with colours... So, this screendoor does not affect my sense of colour at all.

Also... Another info, that panels that does not have screendoor are slower. That confirmed by benchmarks on russian iXBT labs of VP201b without screendoor - new monitor, no screendoor, but slow. Compared to fast NEC, that comes with screendoor... Hmm... Strange. Slow VP201 without screendor and fast NEC 2070 with... Manufacturers playing strange games, brothers. Maybe we have 16ms and 25ms(16gtg) in one time...
 
Server said:
Also... Another info, that panels that does not have screendoor are slower. That confirmed by benchmarks on russian iXBT labs of VP201b without screendoor - new monitor, no screendoor, but slow. Compared to fast NEC, that comes with screendoor... Hmm... Strange. Slow VP201 without screendor and fast NEC 2070 with... Manufacturers playing strange games, brothers. Maybe we have 16ms and 25ms(16gtg) in one time...


Link? I'm interested in what this article has to say, Russian or not.
 
I just got my VP201b this Wednesday. There is no doubt that its a different critter from a CRT, but I am starting to like it alot. I am a self employed Architect so I CAD, WP and Surf 8 hours a day, then I usally game for another 3 or 4 hours. No problems with heat, little bit of background bleed on programs, but not on DVD's for some reason. Also, guess I got lucky cuz, not a single dead pixels that I can see. As for gaming, no ghosting, (DVI conx via X800 Pro). UT2k4, Riddick, HL2, MoH:pA, Snow Blind, Doom3, Trackmania Sunrise Demo and others all look great. I did have to make a special color profile in ATI panel for Need for Speed Underground 2 (game is too dark otherwise), but that is it. Have not notices screen door effect unless we are talkin 'bout the Anti Glare coating; eitherway, not a problem for me. Enjoy your new monitor.
 
On my 2nd day using it, I have to say my theory was correct: the backlighting issue is when you have the brightness set too high. I've been using it for about 5 hours now, and the backlight is exactly as it was when I first turned it on; it's uniform.
 
Hey guys just picked up my 901b yesterday
first LCD - coming from quality Crt's
would give the monitor high grades except for light bleeding from 4 corners - the worst being top right- seemed to get worse longer monitor on
Is this common - don't think I could live with this problem -
Black level has been calibrated with some calibration software and powerstrip
Brightness well below 1/2 mark and contract slightly lower than defaults.
Games like Farcry are awesome however darker titles and dvds have problems with
bleeding ( like having light on in the corner ) very annoying
Question is : is this normal - I know blacks will never be as dark as CRT however
should i least except uniform black or is that a LCD problem ?
Purchased from Dell so have option of return / exchange
I'm running DVI connection thru ATI 800XL - everthing 1600/1200
 
even with a dead (sub)pixels and a screendoor VP201 is a great monitor.

Dead pixels, especially sub- ones, barely noticeble due to their size...

And screendoor... Yes, it is here... If you don't think about it, you will not notice it.
 
Bleeding IS a fairly normal characteristic of LCDs, HOWEVER that doesn't mean you have to settle for a monitor with bleeding. Contact the place where you got it and tell them you want an exchange, because I own a 2005FPW and let me tell you... the monitor I have with a TINY bit in the top-right is OK, but the first one I got had it from all 4 corners and it went straight back... And Dell damn well took it back, with that much bleed :)
 
what do you call "bleeding"?
In the dark room, on black screen - I can see some purple colour on the edges, when my head positioned in the center of the screen. When I move my head to that corners - purple colour disappears in it. :rolleyes: Some brighter surface here is at one place upper side of the screen, but it is minor one and seen only at the maximum brightness.
 
I think the "purple" blacks are normal on angles for IPS panels, though I'm not sure which panel is inside your monitor. I have a 2005FPW and if I go too far off-centre, blacks turn a kind of peachish-purplish hue. To avoid that, you just have to sit back a little bit or tilt the screen better.

Bleeding is when you see the backlight (a white colour) seeping through, making the black look kind of a milky dark-gray.
 
steviep said:
Bleeding IS a fairly normal characteristic of LCDs, HOWEVER that doesn't mean you have to settle for a monitor with bleeding. Contact the place where you got it and tell them you want an exchange, because I own a 2005FPW and let me tell you... the monitor I have with a TINY bit in the top-right is OK, but the first one I got had it from all 4 corners and it went straight back... And Dell damn well took it back, with that much bleed :)

Dell going to send me new one - ill report how that one compares
 
Looking from distance - when no purple seen... Absolutely dark room, maximum brightness, dark screen. My results:
Slightly(barely visible) unstable place upper side, between center and right corner. Nothing visible in REAL world dark applications, such as DOOM III.

That's excellent, I think. Other things like visible from 50cm screendoor(but only brightness of the pixel changes sligtly, not colour) and 2 broken red pixels is good, but not perferct, for my opinion, in my example. Your opinion?

So, my monitor, 4 out of 5 quality score. I do not think that I can find better example.
 
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