Monitor Reviews

I bought this TV 1.5 years ago. I thought it was great for the first few months, then I gradually noticed that the picture just didn't seem as clear anymore. Now when I watch my digital cable, I can't even read small text on the screen because it is so blurry. Same thing for DVDs...forget about reading subtitles! It's very annoying and frustrating.
I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with it, but I am certainly NOT happy with my TV now. I contemplated buying the Sony WEGA model, but opted not too because of the price increase. Now I see it probably would have been worth it. No more Phillips products for me.
One other con, the TV is HUGE and HEAVY It's so awkward to carry, I almost killed myself moving it last summer.

I own three TVs in my house, and this is the one I watch shows and movies on the most. It's beautiful. I don't normally review TV's but I felt this one deserves one because of the entertainment it's given me. First of all, it displays a flawless picture, and is completely flat, which is just like a movie theater. Secondly, it's not very spacious. I basically put it in the living room immediately. Visitors compliment me on it's stylish look. Definately the best TV I've ever boughten.

be careful, this is a RPTV (rear projection tv) its not an LCD monitor, it is in the wrong category as of the date of this post.

I recently purchased (not from Amazon.com) a Philips Cineos 55" HDTV. Please be aware of an issue concerning the picture images. After hooking up the set and turning it on for the first time, I discovered the picture quality was very poor. The screen reflected "rainbow-like" images, almost dream-like. I wanted to eliminate that the cable was causing the pronounced picture distortion, so I hooked up a smaller TV and compared pictures through the use of a splitter. The picture on the small TV was fine while the Cineos was not. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. Now for the good news! I contacted Tweeter, with whom I purchased the TV, and the salesman gave me a "Rapid Response Team" number to call. After the call, Tweeter sent a TV technician to my home. He too confirmed the fact that there was a rainbow effect. Tweeter promptly exchange the TV with a new one the very next day!! I'm happy to say the second Cineos delivers the same outstanding picture quality that I saw in the showroom!!!

These satellite speakers look stylish and are small, and the subwoofer has good sound ouput, but that's where it ends. The satellite speakers have a flat, tinny sound. When someone sings an "S" sound, it comes out with a harsh-sounding hiss. Even at reduced price, I don't recommend these. I'm pretty disappointed, because I've had good experiences with Philips products in the past.

The two speakers are small, compact and stylish and have a great loud sound with clarity. The subwoofer is great and maintains a great balance of bass with the two speakers. I love philips products, and at this price for quality, it is a awesome "must buy" deal.

short and sweat review: Nice display when working. The big problem is that there is a bug in the geometry settings. Not only do you have to play with all the setting when switching resolutions, this monitor will reset it's geometry settings on a whim. You never know if your going to boot up to an oval display or not. Proview must of thought we enjoy fooling with their neat on screen controls so much that they gave us a reason to go in to them. Arrrggghhh

I brought the monitor from Future Shop this Boxing Day; the price is in creditable low. This monitor is Awesome! The picture quality is totally clear and vibrant! For this price and quality, I can't say enough about how I feel about my purchase, so enough said, It's great!!

I bought this monitor because it was a top of the line model. Now I need drivers for XP, and the viewsonic website no longer even mentions this monitor. It's as if they want to forget all about it.

ViewSonic Owners of the World Unite!

If you are shopping for a conventional CRT monitor, you should seriously consider the PF795. I have been enjoying this model with my PC for about 2 years and have not had a single hiccup. The screen is definitely perfectly flat (PF) and easy on the eyes.

I recently purchased a Mac G4 which came with a generic 'ADI Microscan' and use both systems side by side. The difference in picture quality is startling.

Yes, there are those 2 very hyper-thin lines that run at the bottom and top of the tube, but you do indeed get used to them quickly (SONY monitors have about 400 black lines running between every scan line).

I use all sorts of applications: from Quake, to Photoshop - Cakewalk - MS Office... this monitor is versatile.

The PF795 comes at a premium price tag for CRT's, but I would like to see an LCD perform like this one for the same price and size.

Five stars: *****

- A satisfied ViewSonic customer.

First, I'm assuming my specific ve510+ was defective. Some pixels (little dots) were permanently blue. Other pixels never lit up at all. This problem persisted on two separate computers: one with a Radeon graphics card; the other with an nVidia. Certainly, the image was viewable. Only a few pixels seemed to be affected. Nevertheless, this funkiness bugged me. So, I returned the monitor.

Nevertheless, even ignoring my pixel problems, I am only giving the monitor three stars. Frankly, given the brand (and the price), I expected a higher quality image.

Certainly, the colors were good. However, the overall image did not appear to be a significant improvement over other 15" LCD displays costing considerably less than the ve510+. ...Actually, I thought the picture was a bit grainy -- but then, maybe I was influenced by the odd and/or missing pixels... :-)

Bottom line, the ve510+ appears is an acceptable monitor. If color is your primary criteria, it may be one of the best choices. However, I cannot recommend the overall picture quality. And, for those on a budget, I feel you can purchase a comparable unit at a significantly lower cost.

Hope this helps!

Before I begin my review, I need to explain to readers that I'm new on LCD Viewpanel user. My requirement for LCD Display was my CRT monitor would dying soon and a need of space.

Overall, this LCD is good, It's color is good.

Since I'm in Video Editing fields, the color is really important for me. If you're using it for video / graphics / desktop publishing, I can recommend this one. At first I'm a bit worried on color when using LCD, but, after take a look, the color is great, almost like CRT monitor. The LCD panel had Larger viewing angle (Larger Horizontal and Vertical view)

Other thing which make this product good is so thin (and smaller) compared with other LCDs (including other Viewsonic LCDs). My workspace is very-very limited, but when I remove the CRT monitor and changed to LCD, now I have a lot of space, larger space.

Unfortunately, this is why I only put 4 stars for this product, the built-in speaker is poor, not really good. The quality of the sound is just like hearing radio. I suggest you bought other speakers if audio is an important thing.

Other great things you can have from this, although I'm not using it, you can put this viewpanel on the wall, mounted on the wall. It already had place for screws in the base for attach to optional wall mount adapter.

When buying this unit (or other newer viewsonic monitors), you'll get Viewsonic color Wizard CD-ROM to calibrate your viewpanel. It helps a lot.

Hope this review can help you on making a purchasing decision.

When I first got the unit, I loved it. It appeared accurate, though it took a long time to acquire satellites at times. In fact, many times my Delorme Earthmate would acquire within 15 seconds, and the Meridian would take several minutes (while moving in a car sitting on the dash). The ability to use SD/MMC cards and load maps onto the unit was great for general usage. I used Magellan GPS for everything, from hiking, kayaking, driving, to boating.

HOWEVER, the specs say that the unit is IPX7 compliant, which means accidental submersion underwater for up to 30 minutes in 1 meter of water. I was in a kayak, got hit by a wave with the Meridian in my pocket, and was in less than 1 meter of water for less than 15 seconds, and water made it's way into the unit.

I sent Magellan/Thales navigation an email and gave them a call but was not given much help, even though I own multiple Magellan products (including the GPS companion, etc...). They noted that I could have it serviced for $150, which is what an new unit cost (this was not the platinum edition, but it is the same form factor and same case). All customer service would tell me is that sometimes water may enter through the keypad area. Well, if water enters through the keypad area, how can they advertise that it is IPX7 compliant?

I may be an isolated incident. However, with the customer service I received, I don't think I would ever buy another Magellan product, and will probably get rid of the rest of my Magellan products. I think the product design, features, usability, and intuitiveness is great, just the product does not perform up to expectations or promise. I would also consider customer service as well.

I have used a downloaded mapping GPS since 1998 and use it extensively.

The pluses on the Meridian Color are: SD memory cards - I can finally carry the maps I need, uses only 2 AA batteries, well built and waterproof, searchable addresses, extensive points of interest, maps of Canada and parts of Europe, programmable navigation menus. I use a USB 2.0 SD card reader and a 256MB SD card and can quickly download 64 MB maps. Multiple maps can be stored on the SD card up to your storage limit. Using a card reader the map creation and storage process is done in a couple of minutes.

The misses: the color screen is not a helpful as I expected, in daytime use the screen is very dark and hard to see even with the backlight on draining the batteries quickly, still needs better waypoint management, the Topo maps are not a useful as I expected.

Good unit, but I would probably have been better off with the Meridian Gold due to the Color unit's hard to see screen.

Excellent GPS. Has no problem finding and maintaining a lock. I tried two other GPS (Garmin and Magellan SporTrak) before buying this unit, and it is by far the best of the three. The color screen is beautiful (although its resolution is not as good as the new SporTrak Color). This unit is also the largest of the ones that I tried, but much of the size is tied to the antenna, and a larger antenna means better performance. One word of caution: don't buy the MapSend Software--the points of interest (restaurants, etc) are significantly off from their actual positions. Magellan is working on a new version of this software, which is supposed to solve the problems encountered here. Also, don't think this unit with the MapSend software will give you directions for how to get to an address; it will pinpoint the location (using Goto), but finding the right roads to get there is up to you. Also, becuase this GPS uses an SD memory card, it is possible to have maps that cover far greater areas than on units with built-in memory.

The color display is nice, but without the backlight it looks like it's black-and-white.

The person who wrote earlier about only being able to have 4 maps on the memory card was WRONG. It's true that the Magellan can only have 4 maps active at once, but the user can switch between map files. (For instance file 1 can have maps of Georgia, Alabama/Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana; file 2 can have maps of DC/Maryland, Pennsylvania; etc.)

Overall a very good unit. Takes a little bit of time to understand how to use it, but it is worth it.

1. The sound quality is great for digital, and I've had the machine for a couple of years now. It is still going strong.

2. It lets you screen your calls, but there is no way to completely silence the machine (for instance, when you're sleeping). It'll silence your announcement, but not the caller's message.

3. There is no "announcement only" mode, which would be a nice feature if you don't want callers to leave a message. That would be no biggie if #2 didn't apply.

4. If you would want to change the "screening" feature from "on" to "off," you have to go through the entire menu -- and you can't skip through any of it. If anyone is in the room, they can hear what your security code is, plain and clear.

5. Nearly all of these problems would be solved if there was a "0" (completely silent) level for the volume.

6. All in all, it is a good answering machine for the price. It does do well with cutting off most of the hang-ups, and I like that if the power goes out, you don't lose your messages.

I've had this machine for almost a year now and have been very satisfied. Although digital, the sound quality is almost as good as a tape, though it does sound a bit tinny at times.

The 2 digital answering machines I've had before this (one Bell South, the other GE) both gave me the problem of hanging up on people in the middle of their messages. It seemed like half my messages were people saying, "Hi Ben, I'm calling back because your machine cut me off...". I've never had that problem with this AT&T, it's very reliable.

It also does a good job of cutting out messages that are nothing but dialtones (although one does slip in there every now and then) while also giving you time to screen the call. It's a nice gadget, very compact, and well worth the price.

Great machine!! Easy to learn to use. Easy to set up. Would definitley buy again!!

I first purchased a sharp 19 inch flat screen monitor, but returned it since it had a dead pixel. I decided to try the sony 19 inch model instead. The sony model also had a dead pixel, I think this is the biggest problems with flat screen monitors. But I also returned it and was able to get one without any dead pixels. I had the monitor for about a month and haven't had any problem like the other reviewers. The monitor is expensive, but so far I happy with it. Also, it does save a lot of space on your desk and is very lite.
One disadvantage is it only has one analog input. The sharp monitor had two analog inputs and one digital inputs. With the sharp monitor I can hook up 3 computers to the same monitor. I have two computers and ended up buying a kvm so both computers can use the same sony monitor. The kvm will cost you about 40 dollars.

Check it out, Sony is not the only company that has the 8 dead pixels return policy. Most if not all manufactures have this policy. The other individuals that complained about dead pixels on there monitors got unlucky. This is the risk you take with ANY LCD monitor, not just sony ones.

I can say that I have NO dead pixels, woohoo! If you do any research on LCD's you will see that this is an issue for all LCD's from all manufactures.

Okay so with that said let me tell you how great this monitor is. I upgraded from a 17" CRT (big and bulky) monitor to this 19" LCD. While it wasn't very cheap i'd have to say it was one of the first purchases I have made without feeling guilty afterwards, the common feeling from impulse buying.

The Sony rep knew less about the monitor than I did so he was of no help at the time. For all you gamers (like me) you will be pleased with the low refresh rate (25ms). Okay so it could be lower but it's a 19" and I hardly notice any ghosting effects. If you guys don't know what refresh rate means let me put it like this. The higher the number (ie 25, 30, 35...) the slower your monitor reacts to fast moving images on the screen. So you get what is called a "ghosting effect" where transitions on the screen seem to blur across the screen. I've seen refresh rates as low as 15ms (milli-seconds) and I bet that is the best bet for gamers. But for me playing most First preson shooters and race car games it is hardly noticeable. And i'm picky too!

The monitor is very light and comes with a very sturdy stand. I am confident in an earthquake it will stay put. The back of the monitor has a black piece of plastic that covers the cords coming out of the back giving it a sleek look. Probably the coolest thing about this monitor is the fact it doesn't heat up my bedroom like my old monitor. This puppy stays cool to the touch unlike most of the other monitors on the market. No frying eggs on this bad boy.

Finally, the software that comes with it is pretty cheasy. It lets you fine tune your monitor for optimal display but mine came without any adjustments needed like yours probably will. I have this monitor in front of a glass door with the sun coming from behind the monitor but this monitor is so bright and vivid i can clearly see every detail. This monitor matches my Microsoft Wireless desktop keyboard and mouse so that is another plus. My desk is no longer cluttered by wires and a giant monitor (my old 17").

You all shouldn't be dissapointed with this purchase. Like i said, it's the first purchase i've made and didn't feel guilty afterwards. I love watching DVD's on it because it's almost like having a T.V. Keep in mind it doesn't have built in speakers so if that's what you are looking for you wont find it here. Oh last thing, this monitor comes with a 3 year warranty. When was the last time you bought something with a 3 year warranty? I can't remember either! Installation couldn't be easier! Get this one :)

I've almost never written a review, so in other words, I'm excited about this monitor. I admit I was drawn first by the styling, but am still delighted with the gorgeous picture quality, whenever I use the HS93. I'm very fussy, a heavy graphics/multimedia user, and am really glad I found this one.

From what I'd read, dead pixels are pretty common in LCDs, especially as they get bigger, so maybe some of us are lucky there (I almost expected some). Apparently it's not considered a big deal, but of course once you spot it, you'll never not see it again kinda thing. It's also a good idea to adjust brightness down, and your icons and font sizes up, because they get so small at this res. I'm impressed with how easy/intuitive it is to do everything too. Some people might want to try contrast (lowering, probably) and use the different options available *fun, after a CRT!*

And the viewability angle is excellent (as far as I know that's the only reason to care about flatness). I need a new tv soon, maybe it's time to try a Sony...

LCD lasted 4 months. When it worked it was great but reliability is zero. Thank god for extended warranty from Circuit City, back it goes tomorrow for repair

We purchased the Audiovox under the cabinet TV/DVD unit. The volume button on the remote control did not work. We returned it for another. The second one did not work either. The DVD player on the unit did not work. We returned the unit to the store where we purchased it for our money back. Don't waste your money on this item.

This item was delivered this past Thursday and took only minutes to install under my kitchen cabinet. My husband installed it himself before I arrived home. The picture clarity is amazing and being able to view DVD's while working in the kitchen is just fantastic. The remote control is easy to use and programing the unit is so simple. We purchased this unit to replace a "space saver" tv that we had for 10 years. This set with the built-in DVD player, flip up tv screen, radio and telephone is so compact, it's unbelievable. It has such a neat clean appearance that would fit in any decor. And you can't beat the price. We shopped around a great deal prior to purchasing this set and Amazon had the best price, fast shipping and a reputation for customer satisfaction, so we knew it was the only way to go!