Monitor Reviews

service not too great - that's why the low rating. This was our first LCD T.V. purchase. T.V. konked out within 90 day warranty - no picture. E-mailed Funai first (no response). Then I called Funai and actually spoke to someone - because it was brought through Amazon (not a store) - had to use "Authorized Service Center". Authorized Service Center has now had t.v. for 3 weeks, and I'm told they're waiting for power supply. Needless to say, the 3 weeks has now made the unit older than the 90-day warranty, so if something else goes wrong, I'm stuck. I'd recommend another manufacturer.

I am a college student living in the dorms and this t.v. is awesome. It's perfect for my room. It's sleek and saves a lot of space. No worry about a big bulky box that takes up too much space and weighs a ton. It's really easy to use and has great picture quality. I have had it since I've come to college, about two and half months, and no problems yet. It's great!

I found this unit to have better picture quality , than most others in its size and price range.

Ive owned other Funai products and have had no problem with them. I even have a 20" Pure Flat set now for over 15 years , and never once had a problem.

Greatstyle and design.

The Timex Bodylink system includes a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM), GPS receiver (Speed + Distance sensor) and the watch (Performance Monitor), and all necessary batteries. An optional Data Recorder for capturing and downloading HRM and GPS data to a PC is available, but be warned, it does not work! Timex is aware of the issues but as of 3/31/04 has not fixed it.

The Timex watch does a great job of providing HRM and GPS data, and has this really cool function of taking splits at either predetermined times, or at predetermined distances as reported by the GPS. For instance, I have mine set to take splits every 1/2-mile, which it stores for review after a workout - in a similar way to the Ironman chronometer function. Each slit records your speed, your pace (miles per minute, or kilometers per minute), the time taken to cover the distance, and your average heart rate. I love this hands free function! How does it all work? Put on the GPS arm band, place the HRM around your chest, then push a signal acquisition button on the watch, and wait for the data to start displaying - very easy.

GPS - I have the newer style, which takes 2 AA batteries instead of 3. It is made by a New Zealand company, not Garmin as the old style was. Simply turn it on, and wait for a green blinking light, and your ready to go. On a measured course, I have found the GPS to be very accurate. Radio towers can interfere with the signal sent from the GPS unit to the watch when close to radio towers. Over a 14 mile run, I found the device to be off by less than 1/100 of a mile.

HRM - the heart rate monitor is superior to a Polar for only one reason, you can change the battery without sending back to the factory. The downside is I don't think the HRM is very accurate, especially when trying to measure resting heart rate. Values displayed on the watch can vary by 10 beats per minute in less than 10 seconds time. Again, a radio tower I pass along my running route disrupts the signal from the HRM to the watch - very frustrating. Also, unlike Polar, there is not much data other than average HR for each split or the entire workout.

Summary - at the end of a workout, it is great to review the summary function on the watch to see average heart rate, time in selected heart rate zone, average pace, total miles, and the odometer. The odometer can be reset, and it is a nice aid to seeing your cumulative distance over time (for instance if you are trying to run a certain number of miles per week). One great function (others I know hate it) is the watch updates the minute and second time based on GPS time if the GPS is on for more than 15 minutes, so no excuses about being late! So why only 3 stars? Because 1.) the HRM needs accuracy improvement, 2.) for less money a Polar HRM can download the data and give you lots more feed back. 3.) I purchased the optional Data Recorder which comes with limited software and simply does not work when trying to capture both HRM and GPS data. Finally, I got the unit from HDO sports directly because they charged zero shipping, and Amazon refused to budge on shipping cost.

Some users have reported problems with the system. A problem recording data that seems to relate to the GPS unit or the Data Recorder. See the Help Center Product Suport forum for Timex at hdosports online.

I use my Bodylink system for cycling, which I've taken up this year to stay fit. The concept of the Bodylink is vastly superior to anything else I've seen: you get an HRM with a GPS system in one system, and both are wireless. For a newbie at serious cycling, I didn't want to mess with connecting wires and magnets to my new bike, so the wireless GPS method of tracking distance & speed has been a godsend.

I've owned my Bodylink system now for about 3 months and it's worked like a charm! The watch alone is a beautiful, superior digital timepiece, as far as digital watches go. The display is big and the characters are very easy to read and highly visible when dark, thanks to the Indiglo backlight. The wrist strap is extremely comfortable, and the crystal has been quite strong & scratch resistant (knock on wood!). Honestly, the watch is so comfortable and stylish that I now prefer to wear it rather than my trusty (and expensive) Tag Heuer analog watch.

The watch/HRM/cyclo-running computer has a about a zillion different functions, but thankfully, it picks up the signals from both the GPS and HRM chest transmitters almost instantaneously, and then it's fairly easy to get the data displayed. I have also found both the HRM chest transmitter and the GPS units to be very durable and yet comfortable to wear.

I haven't noticed any problems with the accuracy of either the HRM or the GPS units. I've read posts on cycling forums about interference from other bikers' wireless cycloputers, but that hasn't been a problem with my Bodylink at all. In fact, I can't recall intereference from anything. I've found the watch to be very easy to read while on my bike, thanks to the great display qualities. I originally wanted to mount an HRM/cycloputer on my handlebar, but having to look instead at the watch has worked out fine.

The only fault I can find is with the documentation: the manual is neither as clear nor as detailed as I'd like, and unfortunately, the Timex web site offers nothing more in the way of online tech information. On the other hand, I've been able to figure a lot out about the various computer functions just by taking the time to experiment around with the watch; it's not that hard.

I had an old G771 (17") that had a short in it and I finally needed to replace it. It was a great monitor, so I thought I'd get another Viewsonic graphics monitor. Seemed like a no brainer to me.

The first G90f I received (not from Amazon, by the way) had terribly blurry text. The letters had kind of a white ghosting next to them. No monitor adjustments would solve the problem. This made reading a really fatiqueing experience. I contacted Viewsonic and they had no problem replacing the monitor with another, which was great. (so, kudos for customer service) I have just received the replacement and it's better, but still the text is just not as sharp as I'm used to. Luckily I use this for web design and not reading a lot of text, so it will probably be okay.

On the bright side, the color is bright and nice and the larger monitor (19") with all that extra real estate makes working with graphics programs like Photoshop, really nice.

So, anyway, maybe I just got two bum monitors or maybe I'm too picky. The other people seemed thrilled, but I wanted to let people know about this potential problem.

I just returned my P95FB for a G90FB. What a difference!

I won't comment on the P95FB here - you can see my review of that paperweight on that product's page.

I plugged it in and bingo - "Viewsonic product detected - do you want to register?" popped up. That's the first time I've seen such a thing when you plug in a monitor. The P95FB was listed as "generic monitor". This one is listed as "Plug and Play" monitor.

It automatically changed my resolution from 1024x768 to 1153x864. I changed it back to 1024x768, then to 1280x768. It looks fantastic. No blur, easy on the eyes. Just for fun I changed it to 1600x1200. It is still clear, but text is so small it's not really needed. When you switch resolutions sometimes the picture is shifted to one side.

The geometry looks good. It has been stated elsewhere and is worth repeating here - the glass in front of the screen is flat, but the tube is not. I don't really care - it mostly appears flat and the lines are good.

I paid $249 at ComputerSonics in Tuckwilla. BTW - a good place to shop. They accepted the exchange of the P95FB for the G90FB (which they had to order) without any hassle.

As the specs on this can easily be viewed in the technical data, I thought I would review this moniter from the user perspective. First of all, its really, really BIG. The thing is heavy as well.
So once you get this monster planted and plugged in, the fun begins. A minor peeve of mine is the "19 inch" description of this moniter, however. Its actual viewable area is more like 18", but thats par for the industry - where a "80gig" Hard Drive is really only 74gigs and so on. If you are upgrading from a 15" or a 17" however it will look just gigantic, and that extra inch or so is not going to be missed.
The install disk comes with drivers and a color template for matching with a printer. My moniter came with all needed cords as well, so I did not have to buy anything else.
Now depending on what you like the settings on this moniter are configurable in about a hundred different ways - more actually. It is, of course, expandable up and down, side to side, and in a lot of other ways when you are adjusting the way the window where the software runs on the inside of the screen. It is adjustable up to 1600x1200 at 77hrtz as well, (this means it can get really, really crisp and clear, with *tiny* icons, etc (which you can then enlarge with the OS, of course) or a more reasonable 1024x768 at 90hrtz. This means that the screen has 1024 lines of resolution running horizontally, and 768 vertically, and it is rewritten... often. I understand that you dont want the 'hertz' to be below 60, which can cause eye strain at that low a number. Something about how frequently the picture is re-written (many many times a second - I think 60Hrtz is 60 times a second, but I am not 100% certain). Nevertheless you will not have the issue of eye strain with this thing, it cycles very rapidly, on average my settings on it for gaming or photoshop / digital image adjustment is 1280x1024 at 88hrtz, and for poking around on the internet reading email and browsing I use 1024x768 at 88hrts. The result is incredibly clear fonts, crisp color, clean lines and amazing gaming.
The moniter is a "G90f" the G is for "graphics" it is sold as a pretty high end Viewsonic, and features some built in glare resistance in the glass, and shadowmasking for incredibly clear and distortion free viewing.
I have had a top of the line NEC moniter, 17" which cost over $600 new, and a HP LCD moniter (HP Pavilion F1703) and while the HP is smoking I prefer this Viewsonic for gaming and all around great images. A few bonuses I can think of off the bat are the 3 year warranty on parts and labor (try to get that from Sony) and the glare resistant coating on the glass, which means you dont need to worry about eye strain or buying one of those $50 plastic glare resistant plates to hang in front of the moniter.
I bought mine in summer of 2003 for $399.00 This was a great deal in my opinion. I have seen it here at Amazon for less, and if you are considering buying a 19" Flat Screen CRT Moniter, I honestly do not think you can do any better than this item.
I hope you enjoy it, and that my non-technical description helped.
Jim "Gileas" B.

This filter blocks harmful radiation. Before i used it, i was getting skin burns on my hands and face, and also headaches and eyestrain. After using the filter, i feel fine when using the computer.
Investing a few dollars in your health is worth the money. You need something to block the harmful radiation that comes from any computer monitors including LCD or CRT. This radiation filter does a great job !

This filter is really good, it can bolcks up to 99% ELF/VLF E-Field radiation and it also have the glare reduce, that mean you won't get eyestrain easily and you can working more longer with your computer. Believe me, if you own a computer, then you will need one of this for your eyes protection....

The G772's competitive price is one of the lowest-priced monitor around.The monitor has points for its sharp text on both word processing documents and spreadsheets. Although, it didn't fare as well with graphics. Colors on Web pages looked bland. Acer G773 has excellent controls on vertical and horizontal adjustments which is not common for most 17-inch monitors. An "I-key," one of the G772's special features, resets vertical and horizontal positioning to factory presets but does not change color or contrast settings. Though not the best choice for graphics users, the G772 suits business and home office users who work with text documents and spreadsheets, and those looking for a low-cost display with advanced controls. Acer G772 has a.25mm dot pitch tube, up to 85-Hz refresh rate at 1024 by 768 resolution, Plug and Play ready,3-year warranty, 24-hour toll-free support. It's worth the price for an ordinary consumer.

If you're thinking about buying a Viewsonic or a Sony monitor, save some money and buy this Acer. It has excellent colors, and clarity at .25 dot pitch. Its one of Acer's Graphic Monitor, resulting in above than average depth. Compared to my trinitron monitor, it has near equal color depth at a lesser price. My only complaints was that its max resolution was 1280x1024, wish it could go higher.

Hello I would like to ask "kq6yi". I have baught a NEOVO F-419, it's a tromandus monitor with a very good brightness and contrast, the picture is very fine respond time tends to be good (25ms) though it isn't best, but I have found no 19inch screen with a better respond time, 25ms is the best at present times for 19" TFT screens.
There's just a thing and taht's why I would like to ask "kq6yi", it's that there is a defective (I think) sub-pixel which turns out to be red/blue. BUT on my contract with Neovo there must be at least 4 defective pixels to be considered as defective!! so I think I can't bring it back to the shop and I was wondering how you got a replacment...
Thanks a lot.

In other ways, AG neovo tends out to be VERY food screens with very atracive prices.

This is the second AG Neovo LCD panel that I own. The first, F-17, has been an excellent monitor. This new design, the S-17 has a good picture, and the NeoV fliter is a nice bonus to help keep the screen clean. I would consider purhacing the panel again, as I have not found anything as nice for the price.

I have had trouble with the CBVS input port on this monitor. It seems to only work with later model devices, like my DVD player and my computer's composite output. I also tried two VCRs and a SNES with no luck. AG Neovo technical support informed me that they have some known incompatiblites with many CBVS devices.

Another thing to watch for is stuck pixels. I don't know how much of a problem other manufactures have with this, but it does seem to be an issue with AG Neovo. Both this LCD (S-17) and the first one I own(F-17) developed stuck pixels in quickly. The F-17 was replaced by the retailer as it's problem was discovered in the first 30 days, and the S-17 is awaiting instructions from AG Neovo. The replacement F-17 has no stuck pixel now, and has been used over two years.

If you purchase an AG Neovo LCD panel, I highly recoomend that you search the screen from high to low (using a bright white backgound) looking for stuck pixels. If you find any, get a replacement.

This system has worked great so far (I've only had it 2 weeks). I decided on this model because I knew I was going to hook up an XBOX console to it, so the VBP 3000 would play my VHS movies and the XBOX would play my DVD movies. The two 5" screens that come with this system are seem to be good quality, with no viewing problems from any angle. Each screen has two built-in speakers that pleasantly surprised me, meaning the speakers are really loud and crystal clear. The screens plug right into the back of the VCR (which is powered by the vehicle's cigarette lighter), which in turn powers the screens. Each screen has a set of A/V jacks on it, which is where I plug the XBOX into. I chose to take this system out of the bag and place it under the driver's seat of my 2003 Saturn Vue, it is a perfect fit. My XBOX fits perfectly under the passenger seat, so niether the VCR or the XBOX are visible (hence no bulky, ugly bag dangling between the seats). The only reason this is not getting five stars is because I think Audiovox should have put a set of A/V jacks on the VCR. It's not really a big deal becuse each screen has it's own A/V jacks, but in my opinion a set of jacks on the VCR would eliminate unsightly RCA cables plugged into the side of the screen. I've had absolutely no problems with this unit, although the true test is around the corner when I drive 13 hours to Tennessee for Thanksgiving. As to not mislead anyone, you will need to buy a DC to AC "power inverter" to run any video game systems you want to hook up, but you'll need to do that with any mobile video system you choose to buy.

I have tryed it and it is great. The two screens it comes with are only 5", but it is still good to use

This is a perfect monitor for beginner computer users. It has everything you need for starters. The convenient speakers are there and the screens are adequate. If you want the best of the best monitors, you better have at $600 to spend it on. However this price is perfect. Overall, I'll give this monitor 3.5/5 stars. It's great for beginners, but for enthusiast, better go look at other monitors.

I found this monitor to be top of the line. It's very user friendly. The speakers (JBL) that came will it are outstanding.

The unit is really nice, well constructed and performs very well.
The only problem is when viewing the TV mode, it is true, you cannot correct/lower/adjust the color saturation. You can do this when on the computer (PC mode) and are watching TV through the PIP mode. The sound is good, the connections are good, the clearity is fine, and there is little "poor response" due to the fast processing of information. There is a nice remote, instructions and easy to use buttons on the front of the panel.
The built in swivel base adjusts both side to side and up and down. There is S-Video connections, Composite, DVI inputs as well as PC connection. This is an HD READY system and accepts all other types of inputs such as DVD, VCR, Camcorder.
This product is limited in availability presently but for the money and overall quality, this is a winner.

Very nice new technology. I have only used it as a video monitor so far. Biggest complaint is NO color level adjustment on video!! and the level seems to be too high. Adjusting brightness & contrast somewhat changes the color levels but at the expense of over compensation. Sound is poor.

This is my first LCD monitor, and I'm so picky that I did a lot of research and in-store playing before making my selection.

Comparing models side-by-side in the store, I found that despite the f1903's reported contrast ratio of only 500:1, I found it consistently as bright if not brighter than others with higher reported contrast ratios. (I was sure to check all the brightness/contrast settings.) So I wonder what that number really means. The lesson here is to look at the screen for yourself.

The highest praise goes to the very adjustable base and stand. It will tilt and swivel and even raise up and down to find your comfortable viewing angle. I was surprised to find that the height adjustment actually acts like a spring tensioned to the weight of the monitor, so it only takes a simple lift or press of the frame to raise and lower it.

It ships with the brightness set to 100% and the contrast at only 50%, but actually that looks perfect for a dim environment. Raising the contrast to 75% will sufficiently blast your retinas, but beyond that I notice some color distortions at the bright end.

It also ships set to a color temperature of 6500K (warm/yellow), and also offers 9300K (cool/blue), but I found that a custom setting of RGB(50,50,55) looks best to me.

The on-screen control interface is very attractive, but still functional. Unlike some other models I tried, it doesn't take 2 minutes to adjust a value from 0 to 100%. It could benefit from some presets or memory settings though, so one could quickly adjust for viewing in bright areas, dark areas, movie viewing, etc. It offers a slick opacity setting that you can adjust to your liking, and you can also move the control area around the screen. I moved mine to the lower right corner so it's above the buttons on the bezel, which makes sense to me.

My model shows one stuck pixel that comes and goes. Not bad when the HP specs allow for up to 7 flaws. And this one's not even noticable except on a black screen.

The viewing angle is reported at 170 degrees horizontal, but that's hardly an exact property to be measured. I actually find that when I move more than 30 degrees off center, the image turns slightly yellow like an old newspaper and gets dimmer as the angle increases. I don't see any sort of cut-off around 170 degrees though.

Pixel response would have to be my biggest disappointment, but I should point out that I'm picky. When scrolling black text in a browser, it can turn slightly purple or blue. Certain color combinations are particular bad though, and I discovered this while playing Yahoo! Pool. A red or pink ball moving across a green background leaves a very noticeable trail. Upon seeing this, I tried viewing a DVD, and found that certain high-speed action such as the running of a horse's legs will get blurred and possibly change color. But I realize that LCD technology has yet to match the performance of a traditional CRT, and given that, this monitor doesn't do bad at all. I've seen much worse on laptop screens.

I also noticed that this particular LCD acts a little different than most when touched. Specifically, it leaves not just a dot where my finger pressed, but a dot with an X through it. This is neither good nor bad, but I just found it interesting. I'm curious what technology is at work behind that behavior.

I should note that I'm using the DVI connection and supplied DVI-D cable. (The box doesn't indicate that any DVI cable is included, but mine had one, so don't do like I did and buy one extra then have to return it.) However for analog connections, there are some very simple calibration tools to give you the best possible picture. And the "auto" button on the bezel is only for analog connections. (I tried to use the calibration and the auto button before I realized it wasn't necessary for digital connections.)

Overall I'm very satisfied, but it loses a star for the viewing angle and pixel response.

A 19 inch monitor is pretty big these days for a PC. Apple with their new 30 widescreen is in a different league (more like furniture), but for normal people this monitor will suffice. It makes my old 17 inch LCD feel small and is probably as big as my 20 inch TV.

For the price (get it at discount), you can't beat this HP F1903. Not only does it look good, it is sharp, relatively bright, just large enough to wow you and its stand will elevate off your desk almost 8 inches. Why does this matter? You will no longer scrunch your back while you potatosurf the internet.

The default settings were already at 100% brightness, but the contrast seemed low. Boosting contrast slightly made reading a lot easier and increased sharpness slightly. If you increase contrast too much, the colors change (like from grey to yellowgrey).

I have a TV tuner card in my desktop and having a 19 inch TV on your desktop will instantly save you couch time for that casual channel surfing when you're bored.

The colors are not as saturated as the Samsung 19 inch that my friend has, but are more realistic. Skin does look smooth on this monitor, not red or orange. Which brings me to this: Download the most current drivers on the HP website for an accurate color profile.

The package weighs 26 pounds and this is mostly due to the heavy base. All is forgiven when you slide this monitor up higher off your desk. Your posture will thank you for sure.

I paid slightly more than a 17 inch monitor and got a great 19 inch LCD which looks modern and gives me larger viewing (at 1280x1024, everything looks better bigger vs. a 17inch monitor). The silver bezel looks nice against a light colored wall- it is not as imposing as an all black monitor. HP has some high quality touches like a backlit power button, a very good antiglare coating, and a very solid (almost heavy) base. It comes fully assembled and with a pair of basic Harmon Kardon speakers (I have not used yet).