Monitor Reviews

I needed a PCI video card for my HP, because the original 11 MB video card, which wasn't cutting it, is integrated into the motherboard - a tricky install, from what I've read. Recommendations pointed to Radeon products, but the Radeon 7500 was out of stock at the store, so I spent extra on a PNY GeForce XF 5200, which slowed my entire computer down to a standstill and locked up graphics within five minutes of gameplay. I returned it and held out for the Radeon 7500.

The install was a breeze and it's vastly improved video and game graphics. I'd recommend this product to anyone looking to zip up their graphics without breaking the bank.

This video card is really one of the best. There is nothing wrong about it, everything is perfect. I really recommend it to anybody who is looking to buy a simple video card good priced, with everything in it.

This graphics card is amazing! It goes very fast and delivers exellent picture quality, which is a must. Personally, I think it is better than the Geforce 4 Ti4200. It was extremity easy to install, unlike the Ti4200. With the Ti4200, you have to do all kinds of [stuff]. Trust me on this one! It also comes bundled with a lot of neat software, like DVD programs and multiple desktop software, which lets you hook up your T.V. or another monitor to computer. An exellent way to work with multiple displays. So far, I have experienced no problems, so if you are looking to buy a graphics card, get a Radeon 7500 or something higher. You won't be disappointed!

I paid ... when I bought this monitor last year. But I've been using it for over a year now and it's wonderful. With anti-glare screen, I get excellent pictures everytime. The images are sharp and clear, and with Compaq's Coloreal technology you can enjoy true-to-life images on its 16.0 VIA. For a 2-piece stereo speaker system, the JBL Platinum is excellent, too. You can connect headphones directly to the speakers. The Digital Audio Player port lets you use the speakers as output for your mp3 player without switching on the computer. This is definitely one of the best flat screen monitor around. If you don't want this, get a flat panel display.

Good Monitor, Good Picure. Got it new for a lot lot lot less money at a local place.

Purchased this monitor as part of a bundle with an Emachines system @ Circuit City. The monitor has a great picture and comes with JBL Platinum Speakers and built in microphone. While I'm not a fan of built in mic's this one works OK. The speakers are powered and need to be manually turned on and off via the volume control. They can be hung on the side of the monitor or they also can be put on the desktop with supplied stands. They sound pretty good but sound distorted at higher levels. They are a huge step up from the supplied e-machines speakers that came with the CPU though. Controls are easy to use and all cables and such are provided. ...

this tv has the best picture of any projection tv i have ever seen, and give many a tube tv a run for the show as well. i have seen alot of them, as i deliver for a tv and appliance store. the price i paid for this item is unbelievable as well. so needless to say i am a very happy hatachi watcher. dvd quality is out of this world, i have pioneer 600 watt surround sound w/5 disc changer hooked up through red blue green on both units. just switched from cable (clear picture aint so clear) to direct tv the picture from direct is much much better. when not using the pioneer, the sound still sounds good from the hitachi. even though i got a tremendous deal it is well worth the regular price.

Bought this HDTV in early December 2002. Prices have gone UP since. We are very happy with this unit.

DVD progressive-scan picture quality is flawless. I challenge anyone to see more detail in a film like "The Last of the Blonde Bombshells" (an HBO film shot with HD equipment): I can safely describe every scene as of "photographic quality". "Shrek", "Matrix", "Moulin Rouge", and "Moonstruck" are also fantastic.

Watching satellite from DirecTV is another matter, though. We don't have an HD satellite receiver yet, and the image quality we get varies greatly from channel to channel and from show to show. It can be great (some car and beer commercials are super) or only fair ("re-runs" on West Wing are grainy). With an HD satellite receiver (we witnessed at Circuit City) this unit has nearly perfect picture quality.

Lets face it, if you spend this much on a large screen TV, you will want to fill the screen edge to edge, and the six aspect-ratio settings let you do just that. We choose 16:9 (1.85:1 "widescreen") viewing most of the time. Breathtaking stuff!

When you watch 4:3 images (1.33:1 "full screen") you can expand the image to fill the screen, but the distortion bothers me. So we mostly watch those at the "Zoom1" setting, which provides an edge-to-edge viewing experience with some cropping. I prefer cropping to the grey or black bars that otherwise frame the image.

Compared this 51" to the 57" Hitachi and was surprised that the 57" picture quality was better, considering it uses the same elements. I thought that picture would be grainy or washed out, but it was also superb. However I could not justify the additional cost - and this 51" screen fits our basement viewing area well.

I am very happy with this HDTV watching 50/50 DVD and satellite TV, but I am hunting for the best HD receiver to complete our video experience.

For sound, we use an RCA 700W surround system. Despite small satellite speakers, the sound is incredible large, thanks to a large subwoofer. The Hitachi's 40W speakers provide good sound, though, and we usually set the volume at 50% while watching movies. They fill in nicely in the mid to high-range frequencies.

I strongly recommend this set and challenge anyone to find a better quality image for the money.

I am very impressed with this set. In comparing the quality of the picture with other manufacturers the picture far exceeded their capabilities. This set far exceeded my expectations and I am happy I bought it. It is even better than I thought it would be by seeing it in the store.

This is by far the best thing that I have ever purchased. Anyways, it is an outstanding TV, with a great picture, lots of input jacks for stuff, and by far the best price tag for the quality.

I had been looking at projection TVs for 3 years and never saw anything in the showrooms that I couldn't live without - until I wandered into Circuit City at the Holyoke Mall. There I saw the Hitachi 51UWX - the picture was spectacular. CC delivered it to me in Vermont (free delivery - with 3 ft of snow on the ground) and set it up. It's been 'Cinema Nirvana' ever since. The key feature is the ability to manually sharpen the image at 117 points on the screen - the result is a sharper image (from DVDs) than any first-run movie theater can provide. If you're a film afficianado - this is the machine.

This is my first purchase of an Hitachi product and I have to say I am very pleased. Sony was the first HDTV I looked at but two things changed my mind. First the 'flicker' problem associated with Sony projection TV's. Their tube televisions are peerless but over and over I came across comments about the development of flicker and a green cast on the picture after even 3 months of use. Then I saw the TV's side by side at Circuit City. That clinched it. The color and definition of the Hitachi were, to me, superior. One caveat...normal cable looks less than great on this TV. I have digital TV with HDTV channels and it's amazing. I cannot say how a picture from an antenna would look. But before the Cable company hooked up my HDTV box, the pic on the HItachi wasn't as good as the picture on my father's 3 year old Mitsubishi. However, with both tv's attached to HDTV cable, the HItachi is superior.

I already own the NEC 1880SX Flat Panel Monitor, for 1 1/2 years now. It is the best flat panel monitor I have seen-- Brightest Whites, Incredible Clarity & Definition, beautiful slim bezel (only 1/2"). So when I bought my wife a new computer, since she loved my 1880SX, I hooked it to her new Dell 4600C, and ordered a Dell 2001FP for myself. Though I love Dell computers, I was very very disappointed in their flat panel. I tweaked and tweaked it to try to get a picture quality comparable to my NEC 1880SX, now on my wife's computer (so it was easy to compare the two panels). I could not get a quality picture to compare to the NEC. So I contacted Dell to return their 2001FP, and after talking to NEC Tech Support about what I liked in their 1880SX, I told them that I wanted something 19 or 20" with comparable picture quality. They were very helpful and recommended this NEC 1960NX. So I promptly ordered one. I have not been disappointed! The picture quality is almost identical to the 1880SX--brightest whites you will see, great clarity, not quite as thin a bezel as the 1880SX, but still a slim clean profile.

If either of these NEC models are discontinued when you are shopping flat panels, call NEC Tech Support like I did, and ask for a recommendation on a comparable quality picture in the NEC line. Personally, I cannot see myself buying anything but an NEC in a flat panel. I spend too much time looking at my flat panel display to settle for poor quality. (No, I do not work for NEC/Mitsubishi. I am just a self-employed businessman who has benefited from the electronics products online reviews of others, so I wanted to give something back to the online community)

My humble recommendation -- If you value your eyes, and you want superior quality in a flat panel display, take a look at the NEC line before you buy.

Upgrading, as I did, from an 800x640 13in CRT monitor, almost anything would look good in comparison. After doing extensive research, and unable to view the product in a store, I decided to take a chance and purchase it sight unseen. I was not disappointed. Installation was the essence of ease and simplcity. The presentational qualities of this monitor are outstanding, and it saves desktop space to boot. You cannot go wrong, from a quality standpoint, by buying this monitor. I have never had any trouble with any of the NEC units I have owned, and this is the fourth. They have all become obsolete long before they are worn out. In terms of price, there are cheaper units available, and this one has increased $63 since I bought it 10 days ago, but it is a good quality product which should last a long time, and not need repair.

I installed the NEC-Mitsubishi 1960NX 19" LCD Monitor on Friday, January 2, 2004. I then restarted my computer and watched while my Windows XP operating system found the new hardware and installed the correct monitor. Without my doing a thing, the monitor then Auto-Adjusted the brightness, contrast and color to produce a bright, clear and beautiful display. The instalation and adjustment took less than 30 minutes and gave me the best display on any monitor I have seen.

I had done some research on the cheaper entry level 17-inch monitors by Samsaung, Hitachi, and Sony. I went to the store with the intention of buying one of the entry-level Samsung monitors, since they had gotten some decent reviews but were still not in the higher price range.

It was a close call, but I made the decision to go with the KDS over the Samsung. They were both the same price, but the KDS monitor seemed to have an advantage with clarity and brightness. It was not far from the entry level Sony 17-inch, and was a lot less money.

The KDS, like the Sony, uses a Trinitron tube, but I would still say that the Sony monitor is better. I'm not sure of the technical differences between the KDS Trinitron and the Sony Trinitron and I'm not going to try to understand. I've worked with computers fo a long time, but when it comes to monitors I think it is important to just buy what looks good to you. The best description I can give is that the KDS was similar to the Sony, but the Sony appeared to have a little better quality - or maybe it was that nice Sony plastic molding...who knows?

I suppose there is always the chance that the differences in picture were due to the messed up settings on the store demos, but after playing with the controls for a while I finally had to make the conlusion that this monitor was brighter and had much better contrast then some of the other models in it's price range. It also seems to have shaper definition than similar priced montiors. The only drawback is that the colors do not seem as vivid on this model, but my judgement is not complete until I spend more time with the color settings.

I am at a loss why this monitor has gotten such bad reviews in a few of the articles I was able to find. I would be the first to agree that there are monitors with better color for the same price as this one, but this model seems to have excellent brightness and sharpness, which can be an advantage if you are planning to work with a lot of text.

There are definetly beter monitors for $100 or so more dollars, but I would suggest this monitor if you are specificly looking for something with a clean and bright picture and you don't want to spend $300 dollars. I may be buying another monitor in the near future and I will definetly look at some of the other brands with better color, but overall I am not disappointed with the KDS.

This is the best monitor I've ever owned. There are two very thin, almost invisible stabilizer threads at the 1/4 and 3/4 vertical points, you don't notice them after a few weeks but at first they may be a bother. What I like most is you get the incredible Sony picture, without the ugly purple Sony casing. The GUI is much simpler to use than most monitors I've played with, and I like the fact that you don't have to wade through three menu levels to degauss - the degauss button is right on the front.

There are three monitors in my house: A Relisys .27 17" monitor, a Dell .26 19" monitor, and this KDS Avitron .24 17" Trinitron monitor. If I had to choose one to live the rest of my life with, it would certainly be this Avitron.

The picture is extraordinarily sharp. I can read the text perfectly from several feet away. The brightness is awesome - when I work on the other computers, their screens look so dim!

Along with every Trinitron monitor comes the two faint horizontal lines across the screen. I became used to these within a week or two. I barely notice them.

The on screen display is great, and presents you with many geometry options. Although I have not been able to get my display area completely square, the picture is great. And, besides the extremely faint blurring in the corners, this is by far the best monitor I've ever used.

I am a computer cosmetic freak - this monitor mixed with a nice video card will convince you that the [price] was worth it.

(ps- YES- the screen is PERFECTLY flat- it looks concave at first. After using this for one day, looking at my Dell monitor reminds me of one of those fish-eye mirrors on a bus.)

I used this driving from Columbus, Oh to Los Angeles, Ca and I was able to see myself navigating on the map, the entire time. I actually purchased the vehicle mounting bracket and it worked great in my Jeep. I recommend this product to anyone who wants to get places they've never been and get home again.

Bought 4 months ago and can not live without, just and amazing device, has 12 channels! There is no way you can not love this GPS, has all the features that others have as "options" huge database built in, iluminated panel for night use, easy and fast responses just superb.

Had the smaller versions from Garmin, but I now know you get what you pay for! Magellan still beats my new Garmin( 2 months old) constantly used while camping it is a must have, I highly recommend if you are going to depend on a GPS get the 410.

( By the way sold my "newer" GPS to my neighbor :) kept the Magellan 410 of course!)

This is the best top-of-the line GPS I've ever used or seen. Very accurate and easy to use. A great value!

This is the first GPS I have bought. What a steal at $229.00 on amazon.com. It was very easy to use once you are familiar with the interface. I didn't really need the handbook to figure most things out. I highly recommend it.

I needed to find an address to a birthday party in a city that I wasn't familiar with. I typed in the street name via "gaming genre" A-Z list. The 1st street on the list of many streets in many different cities was the one I was looking for. Listed by closest destination, I guess. Anyway I pushed enter & it drew a route for me. I also entered the address. I decided to take a different (freeway) route which is longer than the suggested route. Since I disregarded the 1st turn, the turn instruction display stayed there throughout the entire trip until I reached the target street. At which point it guided me to the right address on the street with the highlighted route line. Anyhoo, I did not need directions to get to the general area of this city. I just needed details, which the unit provided perfectly.

The cursor moves diagonally too, though not marked.

I have no experience with any other GPS systems. I can only say, as a novice, that I love Sportrak Color!

$229 is a steal. Get one!

I purchased the Sportrak Color from Amazon for $229. My local retail stores listed it at $349-$499. The reviewer that stated that the this unit is hard to use and is non-intuitive gave me great pause before purchasing it. With such a great price vs. all other listings, I went for it anyway. I'm very pleased with the system. As a complete GPS novice and as a test of the systems ease of use, I did not read the instruction manual. I only turned to the page that identified the functionality of each button. Anyone who has ever used a computer or played a video game can operate this unit intuitively.

I also purchased the MapSend Direct route software. I uploaded most of Michigan on it and started browsing streets in my general area that would require several turns to reach. I put the cursor on a street and pushed the GOTO button. It instantly asked me if I would like to go there. Neat, huh? I used the unit in my vehicle, laying it down in the center console. It guided me to the street with audible prompts, visual direction arrows, and street names to turn at.

I don't claim to know anything about GPS, but I love it.

I intend to use it for street directions and fishing spots.

It has a compass, barometer, altimeter, Color disply, and is VERY easy to use.

Got this to replace a 17" Apple LCD Studio Display and it is nice. I somewhat prefer the look of the apple display, but this thing has dual inputs. So I can hook two computers up at the same time and switch between them with the click of a button. This feature alone would have cost me a ton with the apple monitor to get a DVI switch.

Very nice picture, great auto adjustment features, and the ability to wall mount it is just plain cool.

Would have given it 5 out of 5 except for my one dead pixel. In defense the apple monitor had a dead line, was returned, and the replacement also had one dead pixel. It is very annoying, but something you have to live with in the lcd world.

Great great great monitor. My only complaint is that portrait mode is software driven. I have a 1Ghz PC and it can't keep up with portrait mode, things are slow to refresh. In landscape mode this monitor is amazing. I still can't believe how happy I am with it day after day and this is after owning it for 9 months.

I've worked with this monitor at work to view Digital X-rays, and it's GREAT! I know it's apples and oranges when comparing HI-RES Digital X-Ray monitors ($20K each) to LCD's, but I think that they did an AWESOME job with this monitor. I'm gonna pick one up this week!

The monitor is dazzling. It has near perfect text focus and convergence in all corners even when stretched to the max. Unlike the sony cpd e540, it actually has sharp text at its recommended rez (1600x1200), though it's sharper at 75hz than at 85hz.

UNIFORMITY
It's purity is nearyly perfect, even though I have a huge non-shielded subwoofer about 2 feet from it. It's geometry was near perfect out of the box and is correctlable, if needed, with the multitudinous adjustments. It's text is clear everywhere. Moire is present only in very fine stripe patterns (like those in calibration screens). I don't adjust this unless I have to since text will get very slighlty fuzzy.

COLOR/BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST
Very good, though very slightly washed (especially blacks) out compared to sony at 1600X1200. At lower rez, it looks much brighter. The contrast/brightness can be increased by increasing the RGB colors (together will result in more white), though increasing it too much (~90) will result in color bleeding.

FLATNESS
Not as flat as sony, but not curved by any means, hence NF (natural flat).

STABILITY
Image stability is great. I've notice that with ANY aperature grill, when looking very close to the screen, a flicker or a moving moire like effect occurs. Shadow mask don't display this. This is just a general note about AG, not the dp2060u. Also, larger monitors show this more than smaller monitors. Perhaps, the filaments quiver ever so slightly. No dancing pixels are noticed at all.

CONTROL EASE
Too many buttons to navigate...but who cares? The image is everthing!

BOTTOM LINE
The best monitor I have owned. My only wish is an absolute flat screen, but no one notices but me. It's rated by displaymate as second only to the sony gdm f520 which costs twice as much!

BTW, I coating is the same type as sony's. If you touch it, it will show irridescent streaks.

I am extremely picky about my monitors. I looked at the fastest LCDs I could find (17 ns) before this screen, but with the dead pixels and lack of color accuracy, I was turned off. I found that LCDs always have a lot of color "pop" to their displays--sometimes so much that you have to squint to look at them--but with the current technology, they also have muddy dark tones which obscure the detail in the shadows of pictures.

When I fired up the Diamond Pro 2060u, I was not particularly impressed with the screen brilliance. Yes, the screen was color accurate and sharp throughout, but there was very little intensity. I had the contrast at 100%, the brightness at 35%, and the color temperature at 9300K. I could turn up the brightness and the light areas of the screen did become brighter, but the black level was then destroyed and blacks became dark greys. I was so upset that I nearly gave up.

I then stumbled on the RGB color controls that allow one to dramatically intensify the beams. Where the 9300K setting would set the RGB color sliders to around the 50% levels, I cranked them up to 90%. Suddenly, the monitor became a brilliant, beautiful display! It is PERFECT! It is brilliant, color-accurate, and extremely sharp with a perfect black level. Once adjusted, the convergence is perfect throughout and there are no noticeable moire patterns even given the worse dithering. Of the dozens of monitors I've looked at under 1K, this is by FAR the best.

There are two tiny flaws to the screen, both are side effects of the aperture grill and evident on all monitors using that type of mask: one is that there are two very faint horizontal gray lines crossing the screen at the 1/3rd and 2/3rd distance from the top/bottom edge. These are horizontal dampeners that stabilize the aperture grill's vertical elements. These faint lines don't bother me, and compared to LCD dead pixels, they are no big deal for certain. The second imperfection is a barely perceptible pixel shimmer throughout the screen. This is heat-of-expansion-derived kinetic energy transfered to the aperture grill via the electron beam as it passes by (most of the kinetic energy is eliminated by the dampeners already mentioned). The shimmering effect is extremely subtle and is actually difficult to see much less notice during regular use. I don't think anyone would find it distracting.

This is an awesome monitor! It's exquisite! Before I got it I bought the NEC FP1370. It was terrible (see my review on it). This monitor, although from the same company (NEC Mitsubishi), uses a different technology, DiamondTron, and in fact, the picture is diamond!

Text & Graphics:
I did some research before getting it because it seems that most 21"+ monitors have focus and geometry problems. I am very picky because I need lively graphics colors, correct geometry, and at the same time crisp text. Some people don't care about text because their main purpose is graphics design or playing games. I do that in addition to writing code and reading a lot. Most monitors in this class have some convergence problems, where text looks crisp in some parts and blurry in others, even if the dot pitch is uniform across the grill.

This monitor is ace both at text and graphics. It even has an option where you can optimize it for Text, Normal, or Graphics mode. Text is crystal clear in all areas of the screen, even at very high resolutions.

Configuration & Geometry:
This monitor has more configuration options than any nag-ass might ever want. You can get the geometry almost perfect. The geometry out of the box wasn't correct. The easiest way to fix it is to choose your ideal resolution and refresh rate, apply the auto-correct mode, and start adjusting from there. The screen surface is 100% flat; Mitsubishi calls it Natural Flat (NF), which means the optical image beam is corrected before it hits the screen surface.

Other nice features:
I was impressed with the screen coating. Other monitors, especially Sony, have a smudgy coating. This monitor has a "dry" coating, where you can clean the screen without creating "rainbow smears." It also has a built-in USB hub, and you connect the data cable vertically, so that you can flush the monitor to the wall. The monitor is also remarkably light and has a small footprint. It has almost the same weight as my old 19" Sony monitor. The visual area of the screen is 20", bigger than that of most other 22" or 21" monitors, which is 19.8".

Cons:
The On Screen Menu (OSD) controls are a bit more awkward than other monitors. It also doesn't have BNC connectors, which is a bummer for a monitor of this quality. But the data cable that comes with it is sturdy and isolates EM interference very well.

Conclusion:
If you're looking for a 21" or 22" monitor, with a perfectly flat screen, with a uniform .24mm dot pitch grill, with excellent text, graphics, and geometry, then you should seriously consider this monitor.