New 19" LCD Monitor for Christmas

[Bob D]

Hi,

My wonderful wife got me a Westinghouse 19" LCD flat panel monitor for Christmas. I'm not really up on all my monitor stuff. Their website has the following details...
Introducing the latest addition to the innovative line of Westinghouse Digital Monitors, the L1928NV. This exciting 19” LCD Monitor offers an impressive HD-Gradeâ„¢ resolution 1280x1024, dual PC inputs: VGA and DVI-D, 5 ms response time (gtg) and an ultra wide viewing angle. This efficient monitor is ideal for all of your gaming and productivity needs. It also states it is a 650:1 contrast ratio.

I haven't really heard of Westinghouse being a premiere brand or anything so I thought I'd give a shout out to my friends on muvipix to get their impressions of this monitor. Of course, if you have real life experiences with this that would be great to hear as well. I don't know what price was paid for it, but knowing my wife I am sure it is well below what I see on the internet.

Bob D

[Steve Grisetti]

As far as brands, you'll probably be fine. You're right about Westinghouse not being a major player (I haven't seen a Westinghouse TV in years, let alone computer equipment), but I don't think you have to worry about it bursting into flames or anything like that.

The single most important specs, when it comes to monitors, are resolution and contrast ratio. You've got nice resolution there -- but, generally, I'd recommend, for computer monitors or TVs, a contrast ratio of at least 1000:1.

But, if you're happy with it, there's no reason to die on your sword over a softer picture. It's still much clearer than any CRTs and it's clear enough you're not likely to get eye-strain working on it, right?

[hpharley90]

I haven't seen a Westinghouse TV in years,

I just bought a LCD flat panel Westinghouse TV 3 weeks ago.

[Chuck Engels]

How do you like it Richard?

[hpharley90]

How do you like it Richard?

So far so good.

My Trinatron finally had to go in the shop. Something went. Just a black picture. It was nearly 16 years old. And when it worked I thought it was a great picture. A 27 inch that weighs 110 lbs.

When I bought it, I designed an enternment center around the TV and all the home theater/stereo stuff.
I had it made out of oak.It's a nice piece of furniture.

So when the TV broke I decide to upgrade and just throw this 110 pound monster away.
But Ididn't want to change the furniture so I was limited on the size TV I could buy.

On the Coscto website they had this Westinghouse 27 inch LCD HDTV(LTV-27w7 HD) that would fit in my entertainment center with less than a quarter of an inch to spare. (it only weighs 24 pounds)

I read many reviews on it as I was trying to talk my wife into a new TV.
Many reviews said it sucked and many said it was good.
It is not a high end TV and I know that.

On the Costco site I noticed that they kept droping the price. Then it went below $400. dollars.
I'm a member of Costco and I think they have a great return policy on electronic equipment so when I could have it delivered to my door for less than $400. I went for it.

After playing with the color settings I really wasn't satisfied with the picture.It was OK. I was expecting WOW.
The Trinitron was better.
Now I wanted HD TV to see what that looks like but I wasn't paying the $14.95 extra a month my provider wanted.
So I switched providers and got the high definition and it seemed like it came alive.

I am very satisfied right now and I hope that things stay that way.

[Ken Jarstad]

<Edit>Looks like the topic changed from monitor to TV.

Check the manufacturer label on the back to see if the distributor is Funai Corporation. If so, it is probably a sibling to the Sylvania and Emerson brands - all old American brands. The brands distributed by Funai are lower-cost but still get favorable reviews. Folks who spend 40 to 100 percent more for the same size panel will swear up and down their sets make better pictures but that is debatable. Would you pay 50 percent more for 3 percent better picture quality?

We, too, are still using analog sources - from satellite - for commercial programming and the standard definition pictures will never look as good on the flat panel displays as they did on the analog sets. But, get an upconverting DVD player and hook it up via an HDMI cable and you will swear that many commercial std-def DVDs look like hi-def! Try it and see.

[Bob D]

Thanks All. I unpacked the unit yesterday and hooked it up. So far it is fine. It has a DVI hook up, but I don't have a DVI cable so I just hooked it up as VGA. Everything seems fine. It is much brighter than my 2nd monitor, which interestingly enough was much brighter than the one this Westinghouse replaced (and yes I have the brightness control all the way up).

Does hooking it up with VGA vs DVI make much of a difference?

Bob D

[Paul LS]

I have a monitor hooked up to two computers... one via DVI and the other via VGA. It is a 22inch widescreen monitor and I can not see any difference on 1650x1050 resolution.

[Bob D]

Ok thanks. I have one more question.

I have a two monitor set up. Both are 19" monitors, one being a CRT and the other being the new Westinghouse LCD. The new LCD is advertised as 1280 X 1024. If I set the monitor settings to that it looks good, albeit the icons and type appears somewhat smaller. But what happens is that my second monitor then doesn't look right. The desktop picture shows up too big to fit on the screen, for one. If I set the screen settings back to 1024 X 768, things look fine on both monitors. I guess my question is if it is possible to set each monitor separately? From what I can tell, even though I select just one monitor in the properties selection, the change is applied to both.

Bob D

[Paul LS]

I set up my two monitors to two very different resolutions... one is a 22inch widescreen and the other a 19inch standard "square" screen, so they have to be different. Cant remember now if I did this under Windows or the ATI application that came with the graphics card.

[hpharley90]

I use an ATI video card and use that control center to set up both monitors to their own resolution.
I have a 22.5 wide screen set at 1680 x 1050 and my 17 inch is 1280 x 1024

[Paul LS]

Same set up as me Richard.

[Bob D]

Thanks. I played around a bit more and went through the control panel and was able to accomplish what I wanted.

Thanks again,

Bob D

[Ken Jarstad]

I have a new 22 inch panel - Acer X223w - and man, I didn't know what I was missing! I love this thing! I experimented, since my nVidia has one VGA and one DVI, to see which worked best. I thought I might have to replace the card with a dual DVI. But the Acer has an auto-calibrate function which make the image "shimmy" a bit a then reposition itself. Prior to doing that some characters on the display were not fully formed and difficult to read. After auto-calibration that problem went away. So the VGA connection looks just as good to me as the DVI connection. I don't use the secondary DVI connection for my primary display because it is shared with the HDTV output and I have a small HDTV connected to that. Perhaps I will write a seperate topic on what I found works with this setup.

[bgsnmky]

I have a new 22 inch panel - Acer X223w - and man, I didn't know what I was missing! I love this thing! I experimented, since my nVidia has one VGA and one DVI, to see which worked best. I thought I might have to replace the card with a dual DVI. But the Acer has an auto-calibrate function which make the image "shimmy" a bit a then reposition itself. Prior to doing that some characters on the display were not fully formed and difficult to read. After auto-calibration that problem went away. So the VGA connection looks just as good to me as the DVI connection. I don't use the secondary DVI connection for my primary display because it is shared with the HDTV output and I have a small HDTV connected to that. Perhaps I will write a seperate topic on what I found works with this setup.

I have this same problem with my monitor. I have had it a couple of years..but ever since I first got it...

It is a Samsung Syncmaster 910V. 19". Never seems to be as clear on the words like in outlook etc as my 17". And I use it as a TV too (VERY rarely - but I can) and it isn't perfect. I guess I am reallypicky, and it is grainy and has lines. I have had computer people look at it as well as the tv satelite people look at it.


What is the difference between the VGA and DVI connections. Could that make a difference.

Here are specs from a site I found:
The Samsung SyncMaster 910v is a 19-inch TFT-LCD monitor delivering a 800:1 contrast ratio, 0.294mm pixel pitch, 1280 x 1024 maximum resolution, scanning frequency of 30-81 kHz horizontal and 56-75 Hz vertical, and horizontal/vertical viewing angle of 170/170 degrees. It features a slim design with built-in Power Brick.
Features
Viewable Image Size: 19" Diagonal
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 Native
Contrast Ratio: 800:1
Brightness (Typical): 260 cd/m2
Viewing Angle (H/V): 170/170 (degrees)
Connectivity: Analog