Monitor Reviews

I purchased this monitor a few days ago. At first I found the picture quality mediocre but acceptible. However, after using the monitor for a few days I now realize that it is not acceptible and I plan to return the monitor. As I mentioned in a previous review, there are fuzzy halos around type. Also, reds and greens in certain areas are blurry. In general, this display is not nearly as clear and sharp as other LCD displays I've seen, such as the displays of laptops I've owned. I made sure that I had my machine set to 32 bit color. I called Viewsonic tech support, and after confirming that I was running it at the optimal refresh rate (60 hz) and resolution (1280 by 1024), they had no suggestions except to try it on a different computer or return it.

I received this monitor a few days ago. Setting it up was very easy. The software installed fine on my Windows XP machine. There are no dead pixels as of now. On the whole I'm pretty happy with it, however I'm not giving it five stars because the picture quality is only so-so. The colors are bright but there are minor artifacts around the letters in black text against a tan or grey backgroud. They're like the fuzzy blemshes that appear when you apply a sharpening filter in an image editing program such as Photoshop and you set the amount of sharpening too high. There may be a way to improve the image using the monitor's controls. I haven't been able to get a really good setting so far. The controls for adjusting the picture are fairly primitive and the documentation is minimal.

This monitor is OK but if I ever get another flat panel monitor I'll try a different brand.

I have never been disappointed with Viewsonic and continue to buy their high quality products.

This monitor has an exceptional picture and required no setup what so ever. It came with a cdrom to optimize the picture but if it can get any better than straight out of the box, I would not be able to tell the difference.

The picture is so bright and clear and colorful that it can easily be viewed from another room and from an obtuse angle. I can glance over from the living room while my 2 year old is playing Dora, Spongebob, or cruising on NickJr to see if he is stuck and needs help.

Simply plugged it in and it worked. Highly recommended. Very thin front to back and is currently on my toddler's Little Tykes wooden computer desk (also highly recommended). The screen angle is adjustable. The base is slotted to drop the cords through if your desk allows it. Very stable base. I have no concerns that it will fall over on my child.

One key thing to remember about LCD monitors is that they almost all have a natural resolution of 1280x1024 and are viewed optimally at this ratio. Setting to a larger picture ratio like 1024x768 can show some text distortion if you plan on doing a lot of editing in certain fonts due to a stretching effect. However, that will not affect the clarity or color. Analog monitors are completely different and you must manually adjust your screen anytime you change resolution, no so with the LCD, they auto scale if you change resolution.

We purchased this monitor and found out that it had a fault when it arrived, however we checked our video card and the rest of the system first. Because of this we did not return it under warranty until after the 30 day period for returns. So now we have to pay for shipping from east coast to west coast 55lbs. I recieved a very unsympathetic answer from the customer support and will now be consulting a lawyer. The new monitor seems ok now....but I wonder how long before we have to pay out again. If I had paid a little more and got a monitor from the local pc shop, I would have had no problem returning it and no shipping....as I have with other faulty components before. Shouldnt the point of online shopping these hard days for the internet merchants be to assure people that it is better than the local shop? Well, next time I need something I will buy local.

The statistics speak for themselves.18" viewable screen with only about an extra inch for box. Also a small footprint to boot. No pun intended but this is a bargain for anyone that works with graphics & has no time for distractions. Visual comfort with that little extra> good pricing!! Easy to set up, plug n play..If you have an older system, NEC has an easily downloadable driver for this NEC90 monitor. BUY IT NOW!!

Works great. Plug-n-play. No problems. This black monitor has worked perfect for the past 2 months. Dell has free shipping, so it was a great bargain. Text and images are sharp. Great for watching DVD movies on. It's not a flat-screen (slightly curved glass), but that's not really a problem.

Well, I embarked on finding a new set of travel headphones after my last long plane ride. The earbuds just weren't hacking it, even though the pair I have are quite good. The jet engine noise finally got to me.

I have an old pair of Sony MDR-M77 headphones which are quite good, but I wanted something new. So, I studied what was available and settled on the MDR-V500DJ headphones. After purchasing a pair, I regret my choice and I am returning them.

When I got these headphones, I immediately plugged them into my iPod and picked a favorite cut from XTC (Mayor of Simpleton). As I listened to the song, I kept wondering what was wrong, Then, it dawned on me, the treble was entirely muffled. I grabbed the MDR-M77 and did a A-B test with several tracks. Same result. The MDR-V500DJ has little or no high-end. Just as a sanity check, I grabbed my Sony MDR-V6 phones and did the same test. I consider the MDR-V6 one of the best headphones ever made by the way. Yeah, the bass was definitely richer than the MDR-M77, which seem bright in comparison, but both were much closer to what I expected than the MDR-V500DJ.

I thought it might be the iPod, so picked a coupled of CDs (MFSL Dark Side of the Moon & Bernstein in Berlin-Beethoven Symphony no.9) to try in my portable CD player. Same result. While the MDR-M77 was the brighest of the three, the lack of high end on the MDR-V500DJ made neither CD sound good. Once again, the MDR-V6 was the best and most balanced of the three.

Still seeking the perfect lightweight headphones, I went to a local Magnolia Hi-Fi to try a better comparison. I tried both noise cancelling models from Sony, several Sennheiser models, the MDR-V600, MDR-V500DJ, and MDR-V300. First of all, forget the noise cancelling models. None of them sounded as good as MDR-V500DJ. The MDR-V600 was the best of them all and reminded me of the MDR-V6 (which I understand they replaced). The MDR-V300 is definitely better than the MDR-500DJ by a long shot, and I would say the MDR-V300 is comparable to Sennheiser HD-212. I am going to try them side-by-side at home soon.

Although many of the Sennheiser phones sounded good, they seemed over-priced compared to the MDR-V600. The only one that was close in price and quality was the HD-280. By the way, the HD-280 was uncomfortable and put a lot of pressure on my head.

Unless you like listening to bass only, do not buy the MDR-V500DJ headphones.

Let me begin by saying that these headphones are advertised as "for DJs/for studio use." Given this, one would expect Sony to be targeting their DJ audience with these headphones.

Which they most certainly did not!

While the audio quality of these headphones is quite impressive for the price (surpassing the similarly priced v600s, if you ask me), the fact that these are designed for DJ use bothers me because they lack in volume. Even with both headphone & master volume maxed on my mixer (pre-amp), I find myself struggling to hear what's happening on the channel B while channel A is playing over the speakers.

Kick in the extra cash and get the v700s, which outperform these in every way possible and are much better suited for live performance use. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a set of headphones for home use, these are a reasonable consideration.

Good - Loud, Crisp Sound, Fairly Comfortable, Tough Bad - Big, Heavy, Large Heads Only

I bought these as a replacment to the flimsy plastic headphones that came with my Discman. They definintely serve as a good replacement set for desk listening. They are quite bulky and "DJ" feature of the ear pieces makes them awkward to carry around in a bag. They do a great job helping me tune out the world around me. The cushy ear pads fit comfortably around my ears to seal them off from most outside noise. The bass is almost two much for my little brain - caused heavy brain vibration. The heavy duty construction is a strong selling point for these babies. You can break them with normal use and occasional drops. The do fit fairly snug on my bald head. However, even with my fairly large melon, I have to keep them on one of the smaller settings. The above metioned construction makes them heavy and they tend to slip quick. To prevent this slipping you have to have the cross piece rest directly on your head. Those of you with an afro or fluffy hair may want to consider another set of headphones.

This thing worked flawlessly for about a year. In the beginning, the only thing I didn't like was the sound of the chime (had I written this review then, I would have given it 4 or 5 stars). It would be nice if you could change the chime to a more-plesant doorbell-like tone rather than a warning-like tone. However, the functionality was so good we bought another one for my mother-in-law. After about a year, ours stopped working consistently. It would miss about every third car. I tried moving it, I tried increasing the sensitivity jumper, I replaced the batteries and nothing worked. I was convinced of some kind of "user-error" until my mother-in-law's started to become inconsistent as well. Now hers doesn't even work at all. Ours still misses quite a few cars but it does work on occation.

I'm currently looking for a replacement.

For the price it can't be beat. This unit works as advertised but don't expect more than about 250 foot of range. Keeping the unit on the default detection range I get about 1 year out of the batteries. Just remember to change them in the fall so the batteries are fresh going into the winter months. I had no problems keeping water out of the unit. Anyone who experiences moisture problems can probably put a piece of duct tape over the seam between the two halves. Overall, a good product for the price. P.S. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that a repeater was available to extend the range.

I used these reviews to purchase a monitor for my mother and am glad that I chose to ignore the 'highly educated engineer'. This monitor meets the needs of anyone who has a driveway and needs to be alerted to incoming guests. Perhaps the guy who underrated this product needs to spend big bucks to meet his needs. Well satisifed and thanks for having this site to help me make a decision.

We had previously purchased a cheap $29.95 monitor and it goes without saying 'you get what you pay for'!

The case seems shotty and the ON/OFF button is too touchy... I ran out of batteries on my camping trip to Yellowstone "thanks alot ON/OFF button DO NOT BUY THIS! Spend an extra $50 and get a good one!

The Blazer 12 is a user-friendly and ergonomically efficient tool for basic tracking and location information. The altitude feature is also great if you are calibrating weather equipment. Sure, you can spend $50 more and get more bells and whistles, but this unit offers all the essential information you need for basic urban and rural expeditions. I will have to admit I am fairly good at direction anyway, but this model helps verify where I think I am. Like any other gadget used for the novice explorer, it is complimentary, but shouldn't be used as your last line of defense. If you need a GPS for IFR Flying or deep woods camping, buy one of the really expensive downloadable map GPS'. But if you just want to know where you are and where you are going, and where you have been...this does all that for you.

This item is useful for the novice and expert alike. It allows the user to see his/her location at all times ( in lat/long, or the UTM) and it allows the user to plot courses. What more do you need?

When the blazer 12 is used in conjunction with a map its performance has been flawless for me. However, it can be used without a map if all you are doing is marking and traviling to and from known locations. The accuracy seems to be as close to dead on as a gps can get.

This is a great product for those who want just a basic navigation tool. I just don't have anything bad to say about it. I suppose if you wanted an automapping feature or external int. or pc interface capability this is not the one for you.

We were anxiously awaiting our Action ACN-5510 5". The product appeared to be intact without damage when it arrived. When we connected the screen the picture was not visible. We are returning the item. We should be reimbursed for the cost of return shipping. From now on I'll stick to books on line. I'll get the rest of my stuff from Circuit City.

I got the otherlcd screen from sony which is better because this one is weird looking it is bigger than the other one and it sound system [stinks] it doesn't even get that loud but its an lcd screen so whatever you want.

I purchased this item for my son and he loved it. We all know

how hard it is to please a teenager now a day.

When we saw this TV is a side-by-side test in a showroom, we knew we had to get it. For the money, it has amazing picture clarity. DVDs going through the provided S-video connection are about as good as you're going to find on a non-digital TV.

The BIG drawback is the sound. It's surprisingly bad. If you try to turn the sound up to a decent level (for say, an action film or music video), the sound gets annoyingly distorted. To fix this, we simply hooked the TV up to our decent home stereo system and everyone was happy. If you're planning on doing this, I'd highly recommend this set. If you're planning on relying solely on the onboard sound, I say: look elsewhere.

I have used this set over a month and wish to update my earlier review. Let me start with the positives:1. The variable audio outputs are very useful. These allow controlling volume of the home theatre system using the TV remote control. If you have an older amp without a remote, you would find this feature even more useful.2. The remote control is very well designed and easy to use. It will control not only a VCR and DVD player but also (to some degree) a Satellite tuner! By inputing these devices to the TV you also have volume control of them all using the TV remote. 3. Using the s-video connection from my Webtv unit (which is integrated with my Dishtv receiver) has made the text images on the Web much more readable. And the RCA cable hookup has improved the picture from my VCR. 4. Video shielding is good. I have my upper speakers about 8" from the set without interference. Now for the Negatives:1. The level of 'hum' is noticeable. This noise comes from rear of the set, not the speakers. Perhaps this is typical of other brands as well, but I would advise other buyers to pay attention to this when comparing sets.2. The sound system is mediocre. Also, the internal speakers generate some hum when used. Since this set is easy to connect to an external AMP, I did not find this to be a major problem. 3. Default Picture Settings were too dark for my taste. I reduced the 'picture' setting and increased the 'bright' setting. Once adjusted, the picture was good. 4. There is some distortion of the upper corners of menu images like program guides as well as the Webtv screen. This is a minor annoyance. The normal programming display is fine. 5. Since I have both a DVD player and VCR hooked up, I must use the front A/V inputs for the VCR. This is somewhat unsightly. An improved design would place the inputs in one of the lower corners of the front (or perhaps the sides) to be less obtrusive. I experimented with the BBE sound enhancement system which JVC touts. I switched back and forth between routing my VCR audio output cables through the TV and connecting them straight to the system AMP. My subjective results follow. The sound routed through the TV (which is of course ultimately connected to the AMP also) with BBE on was essentially equivalent to the sound obtained by connecting directly to the AMP. However, turning BBE off results in a decidedly inferior sound. So what BBE achieved was to get me back to the sound quality I had in the first place with my non-BBE enabled AMP. I don't really consider that an 'enhancement.' The real question for JVC is "why is this an ON/OFF option?" Who would turn BBE off? Presumably someone whose listening preference is inferior truncated sound. I find this to be a good product and a good value with some tolerable flaws. Though frankly, if I had it to do over, I would order a toshiba 27a41.

This is a solid value TV with good features and connections/inputs for the price. Picture quality and sound are quite good. It does lack PIP. Also note that this model is wider than most 27" models.

The more important problem:
I purchased this monitor for (..) . A few months later, I purchased a 17" Dell LCD Monitor for (...) and the quality of the picture is 10 times better. The Dell monitor has rich, vibrant colors - whites are white, darks are dark, picture is sharp and colors are great! The quality of images on the Samsung monitor are considerably duller and greyer. After tweaking the Samsung monitor settings for a while, I could not get the same quality picture as I do with the Dell monitor.

Other problem I had:
There was a degredation in the screen starting in the upper left hand corner. As soon as it started to spread, I sent the monitor in to the Samsung Service Center for repairs. Service was efficient and they replaced the LCD no questions asked. However, the quality of the overall screen still does not compare to a cheaper Dell monitor of the same size.

Bottomline - I would not recommend this monitor, or any other monitor by Samsung if you are picky about screen quality. (...).

In addition, the LCD on my Toshiba Laptop from 1999 still looks better than the Samsung monitor.

I bought a 171v at [a local store] for [$$$], with a...rebate. Installation and setup was mindlessly simple. I found the Natural Color SW to be useless. After a week I exchanged the unit for another 171v, as there was a noticable color/contrast gradient from top to bottom. The replacement unit had the same color/contrast gradient from top to bottom, although less pronounced. I am not sure I will keep the unit or get a refund and buy an LCD monitor with a digital input.

Ok, so let me say first, I play games, and that is the main use of my computer. So I am probably expecting better results than most people would ever need with an LCD. Set up was fairly simple, but you absolutely need the drivers supplied installed or everything looks way too bright (I had default brightness on my gf4 4400). After that things looked much better, but still not yet right. Once I launched Counter-strike I knew right away I needed vid card tweaks, because everything in game was way too bright. It's tough to figure out the right balance since there are differeent contrast, brightness, gamma etc. settings on the monitor itself, the vid card, and in game. I finally found some settings that look decent but now from map to map I sometimes need to adjust the brightness because there is a larger cariation of brightness from my crt, which could be better all in all, I'm not sure yet. As for the performance of the monitor in game, things went well. Obviously crt's are still the best choice, but I lan often and needed a more portable monitor. From far distances, moving objects stayed sharper than on my old monitor, but close up there is bluring. It's not like you see trails, so you will still be aiming at the right spot, it's just that the skin textures tend to blend together. I tried everything out later on in UT2K3 as well, which is a very fast game, and again, other than blurring on close up objects, the image stayed sharp and there was no ghosting.

I am still having difficulties with the brightness in general though, I'm sure eventually I'll be able to tweak it somehow. I basically need to lower the brightness of the white, but not any other colours.

If I wasn't using this monitor for gaming, or at least fast paced games, I would most likely give it a 5. The sharpness of the picture is incredible, and the colours are vibrant. I wouldn't hesitate buying this at all for business applications.

Also, though it really has nothing to do with the monitor itself, but the resolution, there is a setting in the control panels to make text larger so that you can offset the effect of the high resolution. (cause the native res is 1280*1024 on this one)

So, time to wrap this review up. I'm happy with my new monitor, it's drawbacks don't affect gameplay all that much, and if you aren't even going to play games, then it doesn't get much better. I would recommend this as an excellent business monitor, and a great lan monny as well.
Thx for reading

I purchased this monitor from Comp-USA. It failed after 10 months. I took a month to straighten out the paperwork, Comp-USA had the wrong serial number on my invoice. The Refurbished unit arrived and died after 4 months. Not a very good track record for Sony! They would not replace this unit. They said my experiance was atypical. Probably not, based on other reviews I've seen.

The HMD-A200 was the first name brand monitor we purchased after owning an "off brand" 15" for several years with no problems. The Sony gave out 1 month and 24 days after the warranty ran out. The Sony was certainly not inexpensive, much more so in fact than many of the other brands. It did look great--right up till the screen went black. Your money is best spent on another product.

I must have spent two weeks straight researching monitors on the internet, reading reviews and looking over their specs. Then, I'd go to Best Buy, Circuit City, and other places to actually see the quality of the picture. This one really caught my eye. Besides being a great looking monitor, it has a beautiful picture and a good on-screen menu. The best part about it, for me anyway, is that it's a Sony. I've always had excellent quality from all their products, and there isn't a brand name that I trust more.
If you've been spending a number of days looking over a bunch of monitors like I did, you'll notice that you may never find one that has all good reviews. There are always people who think something else is better, but so far, I have yet to find one that exceeds this. Well, I hope this helps you in trying to find the "perfect monitor." Best of luck!

Many aspects of the unit seemed good but I returned the one I ordered because in some locations in my apartment the radio received some type of commercial radio or TV signal. The audio coming from the radio was clearly not from a weather radio station. My older Radio Shack weather radio does not have this problem.

This is a wonderful radio. Most of the problems discussed by prior people are not problems at all. Just read the directions carefully and you will have a great experience with this radio.

The only downside is that this radio does not allow you to adjust the backlight length. The four seconds or so that it stays lit is not enough sometimes.

Overall, this is the best weather radio I have ever owned.

After reading the previous reviews for this product, I was a bit weary. However, after the purchase, I was quite impressed. The controls work fine, even in "silent" mode. No faint broadcasts. I wonder if that person was too close to the transmitter?? Radio controls are nice and easy to program. Reception is very good with minimal distortion on all bands. The couple of things I did notice that I would prefer would be that the backlight stay on just a bit longer, 4 seconds on mine. The other would be to display the alert's effective time. That time is not displayed, but the alert light stays lit for the effective time. All in all, a very good price to pay for safety!